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Science – Fiction?

April 21, 2022   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Like a prayer going out into the universe, a group of scientists are plotting a path to the outer reaches of our galaxy – the Milky Way – to lay down a means for communication with other life in the great beyond. A so-called “friendly” message of hello.

Their message is scripted in science-speak of formulae and physics combinations – math – as the language most likely to have any chance of being understood as coming from an intelligent (urk?), advanced (please) and benevolent (no) species. The communication comes with chapter and verse as to where exactly is this planet of jolly, clever and pleasant beings.

Of course, as we only see others through our own standards (the basic problem among us), there are plenty of equally well-qualified folk cautioning against this enterprise for fear that other sapient beings will share our own inclination for conquest and colonization – wouldn’t that would put a new spin on our history!

In truth, I believe the scientists involved and wanting this are looking more for rescue than anything else; this is a message of “Is anyone out there? Come and get us out of here, for goodness’ sake!”

Well, well. We science fiction writers, those fantasy writers, comic books creators, sci-fi movie script writers – not only them but also the purveyors of mythology, those who declare deities back to our earliest days – have all produced a long line of very varied imagined creatures who are not of this earth. Many have been worshipped, feared, admired, loved. Perhaps some of this scientific team who are seriously reaching out secretly hope that God is out there and will finally hear a plea written in math.

There is no need on this page to outline (again) the many reasons why one might call for rescue. Surely this is the ultimate, the grand finale of moments when we are at our absolutely most insane. When the ways out of the craziness of the world’s problems feel as though they are insurmountable – but why? There are always possibilities, as Spock used to say and I believe that too but we have to see them and want them and do something about them, not just carry on as usual, as unusual, as so extreme. For the scientists scribbling like mad to anyone anywhere, this is sort-of a positive measure, right on key for crazy – quite in line with current affairs.

There is lots of completely reliable evidence to confirm that we are already being watched. Odd lights and “air bourn ships” have been recorded and documented by impartial and professional pilots of military objectivity, both men and women witnessing the objects while flying their own jets. The “alien” travellers have been seen on radar and have exhibited flight paths impossible for our own pilots and equipment to imitate.

Thus, for many decades there has been no real question whether there is other life besides us here on earth. Who they are and how to have actual, meaningful contact with them are the questions.

In further space news, the James Webb Telescope, a very big Humans-in-Space deal was launched four and a half months ago and has arrived to its designated location of a million kilometres from earth for a series of adjustments for its 18 mirrors to be perfectly aligned. The largest telescope ever to be made and launched, the James Webb telescope is a collaboration of Nasa, European and Canadian scientists and experts. The crafting of the mirrors is in fact the 18 small telescopes that make up the 6.5 metre gold mirror of the telescope, were it to be a whole piece. Cutting and crafting these mirrors took time and skill that produced mirrors so fine as to be at the limit of ingenuity.

The telescope could not have been launched with that mirror at full size. Consequently carved into those 18 segments, they must be aligned to act as one. This was completed in mid-March.

The job of the Webb Telescope is to peer into the Universe where no human eyes have peered before and this is very exciting. Scientists expect to experience revelations about the history of the universe by viewing stars that are millions, billions of years old learning truly how the whole thing began. Big bang or no.

The yearning to know what is beyond our own gravity is money much better spent in this manner than on space crafts. This is not the right time to waste our energy and bucks on sending the brave on trips from which they will not return. All that energy should be directed back to our home planet to cool and control the craziness.

Fascinated as I am by space exploration and discovery, I do harbour the wish that the Webb Telescope will happen upon a mystery: a clouded field in space with boundaries far beyond the scope of the Telescope wherein, in spite of the finest adjustments to the 18 little gold mirrors, they cannot penetrate that cloud to truly define the hint of figures and strange lights tempting them to see better.

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