Turing and technology. Vitalists and viruses. Biology and bio-robotics. Evolution and teleology. Indicators of life and the Fermi paradox. The definition of life – is it alive, and if so, do you feel bad if you kill it? Science or science-fiction? Stopping short of discussing a government conspiracy worthy of Fox Mulder's corkboard, people of all ages and backgrounds gathered at the Queensland Museum for a fascinating talk about what alien life could look like.
As part of the inaugural World Science Festival in Brisbane, the "Intelligent Alien Life: Little Green Men or machine?" talk gathered physicist Richard Easther, astrophysicist Charles Lineweaver, human-robot interaction expert Matthias Scheutz, philosopher Rob Sparrow and bio-robotic interaction researcher Janet Wiles.
Their prompt was inspired by Kepler Space Telescope observations of star KIC 8462852 reported last year. Kepler is designed to find planets by studying the dimming of a star’s light – a method that indirectly confirms the presence of orbiting planets that are too distant to be imaged directly. In the case of KIC 8462852, scientists’ interests peaked after they noticed unusual and inconsistent dips, significant enough at times that the objects passing through had to be as large as half the diameter of the star. The star is 1.5 times bigger than our own.
"I think part of that (discovery) was, it's kind of cool to say 'alien megastructure’ if you’re an astronomer… It’s almost impossible to say those words without smiling."
Physicist Richard Easther
The Kepler Space telescope being prepped for launch.
Source: NASA
The longshot of the observation is, whatever life form is in orbit around that star may have created structures to harness the energy of it. But would the life form orbiting that star be organic, robotic or otherwise? As bio-robotics expert Janet Wiles pointed out, the laws of mathematics and laws of computing dictate certain rules around algorithms – if a mind or a machine can do computations, then these rules apply.
Sometimes this kind of abstract discussion had audience members nodding in approval, or looking sideways inquisitively, waiting for more. Even the definition of life itself, as astrophysicist Charles Lineweaver mused, constantly changes through the context of what we recognise as life. He suspects in the future the distinction between "wet and slimy, organic life" and the “cold metallic life” of technology will disappear, and some type of blend will emerge. In essence, an alien-human hybrid – if you can subscribe to the idea of a living machine.
"You can't write a program that will prove-ably know if another program will stop or not."
Professor Janet Wiles
"If we're concerned about our own survival, (space travel) is what we have to do… I think our destiny is in the stars."
Astrophysicist Charles Lineweaver
The incredible skys of the Atacama Desert.
Source: José Francisco Salgado/European Southern Observatory
The ways life, religion, morality and culture seem to intertwine within the rigid rules of science influenced much of the discussion. Nobody on the panel could deny the obvious drawbacks of organic life – an eventual, programmed death. But philosopher Rob Sparrow says what we see as evolution is simply change. He believes there is no overall purpose to it – "it is not designed to produce anything". He explains that whatever survived - from a random sample of any period of time - is seen to have 'evolved' when infact all it did was change.
As you can imagine, this viewpoint was strongly debated.
"This conversation is really about us… how human beings imagine themselves, what they think is important, how we understand our relationship to our artifacts.
We should be thinking about the kind of world we want to make."
Professor Rob Sparrow
Two men take some time-out on the shores of a smoggy waterway in Mumbai, India. (2013)
Source: Sam Mortimer
Artificial intelligence (AI) on the other hand, is evolving quickly. Last week a Google supercomputer beat a South Korean grandmaster of the ancient board game Go - not once, but three times. "If (aliens) play on a 19 by 19 board, they're our peers… but if they play on a 21 by 21 board, we're in trouble!" Professor Janet Wiles says of Go, "the perfect game".
Fielding an audience question about the dangers of emerging AI, Matthias Scheutz says there are worries about the direction AI development is headed in. He says “unrestricted machine learning techniques” – scenarios where a machine can learn something, without us knowing how or what it has learnt – are frightening, and the ethics are only just now being discussed.
"In the beginning, evolution discovered self-replicating structures. Eventually we'll go through all the biological processes up to creatures that are smart enough, that they realise they can evolve their intelligence faster… by way of (sharing) culture."
Professor Matthias Scheutz
Source: World Science Festival New York
Believer or sceptic? Regardless, the difference of disciplines between the scientists here certainly lead to a fascinating discussion of the unknown, stoking the thoughts of a tickled audience of all ages and interests. And that's what the World Science Festival Brisbane has been all about – igniting a passion for science and urging people to think outside the box. While first contact with the festival is over for now, it will be back for at least the next five years.
As for any signs of alien life? The truth is still out there.
