Be Smart: Should We Message Extraterrestrials? A PBS Be Smart Exploration of Contact, Risk, and Cosmic Perspective

Short Summary

Be Smart investigates the provocative question of whether humanity should try to contact extraterrestrial civilizations. It opens with a cosmic scale argument, noting hundreds of billions of planets and the possibility that life could arise on many of them, making Earth not unique. The video walks through historical and hypothetical signaling strategies from the iconic Arecibo binary message to modern multi modality efforts, and it confronts the risks and philosophical questions raised by contact, including the dark forest idea that civilizations might hide rather than reveal themselves. Across lighthearted moments and serious science, the episode reframes contact as a reflection of the kind of civilization we want to be as we look outward into the galaxy.

Introduction

Be Smart begins by inviting viewers to imagine a person in a remote forest at night, drawing a parallel to how Earth might feel when looking up at the stars. It presents a startling scale: hundreds of billions of planets in our galaxy and scientists who think hundreds of millions could hold life supporting conditions. The central question emerges clearly: are we alone, and should we try to reach out to any potential intelligent life beyond Earth?

What Would Contact Look Like

The video surveys the challenges of communicating with alien minds that may be fundamentally different from ours. It weighs the idea of sending signals against the fear that such signals could expose Earth to danger or exploitation. A provocative Columbus analogy is used to illustrate how contact might not go well for Indigenous peoples if others arrive uninvited, underscoring ethical considerations and potential consequences for humanity.

Assumptions About Extraterrestrials

Discussion covers how aliens might be old and wise, or how they could be unlike anything we know. The show questions the notion that a civilization capable of interstellar travel would automatically be malevolent, and it emphasizes that human rights to decide whether to reach out are not straightforward when considering the collective fate of the planet.

Universal Language and the Limits

The episode entertains the idea that mathematics and physics could offer a universal language for first contact, while acknowledging that sensory modalities differ across life forms. It considers whether a purely mathematical signal could be decoded, or if other senses would be needed to bridge wholly different kinds of perception.

Signal Strategies: Binary, Visual and Audio

Historical and modern signaling methods are explored in depth. The Arecibo message of 1974 is explained as a binary grid of 1679 digits that would require aliens to arrange the data into a grid, revealing encoded information about DNA, life chemistry, a human figure, and our solar system. A subsequent 2003 effort used a much longer, multi expression binary encoding to convey mathematical expressions, geometry, biology, and planetary maps. The discussion emphasizes that these are not straightforward universal languages but clever, structured attempts at cross species communication.

Considerations for Decoding and Sensing

Be Smart notes that some aliens could perceive the world differently, such as through auditory or non visual senses. It highlights that multiple modalities, including sound based messages as used with the Voyager golden records and later projects, might increase the chances aliens receive and interpret something meaningful.

Search for Life and Why We Have Not Heard Back

The program frames the SETI question with caveats about the vastness of space and the tiny fraction of signals we have surveyed. It cites SETI researchers like Jill Tarter, who compare our search to looking through only a bathtub of the oceans. The key takeaway is that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, and the search may simply require more time and different methods.

What If We Fail, What If We Succeed

The host contemplates fear and hope: if we listen and hear nothing, we might still gain something existential by becoming a long lasting, communicative civilization that can teach and learn. The conversation reframes our mission as a milestone of human resilience, curiosity and the perseverance of generations of scientists and enthusiasts alike, ultimately describing the act of seeking as an achievement in its own right.

Conclusion

In closing, the video invites curiosity and urges viewers to stay engaged with science while recognizing the gravity of the decisions involved in messaging extraterrestrial life. The host underscores the idea that humanity, through this project, has become a long lived civilization in the cosmos even before any discovery of alien life is made.