13th & 14th SETI Articles

"The Hunt For Aliens" by Seth Shostak discussing the progress that has been made to find aliens. Today, SETI is taken more seriously than it has in the past. Back when it was first established, not many people viewed SETI as a legitimate science. SETI scientists had to work very hard to use telescopes and other important instruments used to attempt to communicate with extraterrestrial life. Now, there is a specialized optical telescope at Harvard that searches for laser pluses from space. There is also the Allen Telescope Array at Berkeley to pick up radio waves. A lot more is being done to communicate with other intelligence. 

The article "Alien Sociology" by Seth Shostak talks about if we did come in contact with aliens, what would they do? All movies about martians typically deals with harvesting various minerals on our planets or breeding experiments. Shostak argues that breeding experiments would not be a possibility because humans don't breed with animals. Just as human have different DNA than animals, extraterrestrials will have different DNA (if any at all) than humans as well. Also, aliens will not harvest Earth. If there are nearby extraterrestrials, that means Earth's precious minerals are not rare. Their planet as well as other planets are made up of the same things and there is no need for them to take from Earth. Shostak believes aliens will simply come here to learn more about humans, just as humans are doing to them.