Alien TV

I am not an expert on astronomy or electromagnetic wavelengths and all that, but here’s how I think it’s going to go down.  People with  more advanced knowledge of how things actually work may feel free to correct me. 

As scientists discover more and more exoplanets, it seems they are also getting better at discovering Earth sized planets, within the Goldilocks Zone,  that have water.  We are just zipping through the old Drake equation.  Now that we know that such planets exist, it’s reasonable to assume there are billions throughout the galaxy, trillions throughout the universe.

The next step on that equation is the very abstract “on how  many planets that have water will life actually emerge?”  Like is it a fluke thing that just happened to happen on Earth but really is a wild card, a one in a billion shot, or is it something that happens pretty much every time there is water and the temperature is right?

Then, there is the question “out of all planets where life evolves, how many develop technological civilizations?” It’s a reasonable question.  If that meteorite hadn’t wacked the dinosaurs, we would never have evolved.  So, chance plays a role.  But, given enough time, chances become inevitabilities. 

So, I’m pretty convinced intelligent life is out there.

And, given the fact that out own civilization is maybe a couple hundred thousand years old, and discovered TV less than a hundred years ago, and the fact that a technological civilization, once evolved, could last millions or even billions of years, it’s quite likely that any of these planets with intelligent life have been broadcasting for a long, long time.

Even our own TV broadcasts (starting with the 1936 Olympics) may have been received by  some nearby solar systems.  If we focus on a planet we think might have intelligent life, even if they are 900 light years away, shouldn’t we be able to pick up their TV programs?  900 year old programs, to be sure, but still.  It would be very entertaining.

I think it was Carl Sagan who said it was likely that the first extraterrestrial life we would find would be a bacteria of some sort.  I disagree.  I think our first proof of extraterrestrial life will be when we pick up their TV programs.