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Historiography of the Belief of the Possible Existence of Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life

With Excerpts from Dr. Michio Kaku's Hyperspace

By Aaron LoftinPublished 7 years ago 11 min read
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The purpose of this article is to gain a holistic and semi-comprehensive understanding of the history of the belief that there is intelligent life on planets other than Earth. The literature that covers this subject will include civilian, governmental, scientific, and media presentations of advanced extraterrestrials and their technologies such as Unidentified Flying Objects or Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon. It will also include parts of the Ancient Astronaut Theory as points of discussion, agreement, and disagreement. This paper will not confirm or deny the possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial life, it will only look at the evidence and the reader may draw his or her own conclusion.

Introduction

During the 1960s the equation was developed by Dr. Frank Drake to discover the probability of making contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life (SETI Institute, 2016, np). The equation as presented in its mathematical form is “N = R* * Fp * Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L” where:

N = the number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable,

R* = the rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life, Fp = the fraction of those stars with planetary systems,

Ne = the number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life,

Fl = the fraction of suitable planets where life actually appears,

Fi= the fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges,

Fc= the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space,

L= the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space (SETI Institute, 2016, np).

Since there are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy this number allows me to place a value on each variable (NASA, 2014, July 01, NP, See Appendix A).

So, who, in recorded history, stated the idea that there could be intelligent life on other planets and what implications does this have for the human race? Do we trust the historical documents, governmental archives, or civilian accounts? Since the government goes to great lengths to silence or discredit people who claim they have seen extraterrestrial crafts or beings, it is easy to say that the government may not be being as honest as they could be.

Methods

The methods of data gathering will include several facets. Research in the areas of mathematical probability, theoretical astrophysics, historical archives, governmental archives, and oral histories of non-governmental persons (civilians) who claim that we have already been visited by advanced extraterrestrials will be the areas of interest for this project. In the first half of this article, an exploration of the history of the belief in advanced extraterrestrial life will be presented. I will also use the Drake Equation to show the probability of the existence of advanced extraterrestrial life. As governmental archives and civilian oral histories don’t always collaborate, cross-referencing will the predominant procedure in the second half of the research.

To narrow the field of the governmental archives and oral histories of extraterrestrial visitations the focus will be on the oral histories and government publishments on the incidents at Roswell and the Japan Air Lines Flight 1628 as well as looking at what world leaders have stated about this topic. In narrowing the field research, selected book releases and interviews with astrophysicists Stephen Hawkins and Dr. Michio Kaku. The research in NASA’s programs will include the most current results of the Kepler space program. Finally, I will examine documents of world leaders who have claimed to see extraterrestrial technologies or vehicles.

Literature Review

In my own work, I am looking at the history of the belief in extraterrestrials. I am not looking to prove if they are real or not, nor am I looking to support the Ancient Astronaut Theory nor am I looking into conspiracies of that sort. I am looking to do a history of the sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects, the people who believe in extraterrestrials including the Ancient Astronaut theorists, and what popular culture, news media, historical figures, and governmental figures have to say about the stated areas of interest. This is a very new way of looking at the subject matter as a way of cataloging oral histories, philosophies, and works done by component persons in the fields of history, science, philosophy, mathematics, and other scholars have to say about the subject at hand. This will require the triangulation of all sources into one paper that will be an objective statement of the truth of the matter.

In his multitude of works, Dr. Erich von Daniken has established notoriety in the history of extraterrestrial visitation. His works fit within my own because I am researching the belief in extraterrestrial visitations. Dr. Daniken believes that in ancient history when ancient man wrote about what they saw in the night sky, they mistook the extraterrestrials for gods and their messengers thus he deemed his theory the Ancient Astronaut Theory. (Daniken, chapter 10, 1993) He has written several books such as Chariots of the Gods.

In his book Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and 10th Dimension, Dr. Michio Kaku gives an entire section of his thirteenth chapter to discussing the possibility of finding advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Within this he writes, “perhaps one day we will meet an extraterrestrial civilization.” (Michio Kaku, 1994, 28) He goes on to explain how the Drake Equation applies to our galaxy. Dr. Kaku states, in chapter 13 of Hyperspace, that:

[t]he puzzle deepens when we realize that the probability of intelligent life emerging within our galaxy is surprisingly large. Drake even derived a simple equation to calculate the number of planets with intelligent life forms in the galaxy. Our galaxy, for example, contains about 200 billion stars. To get a ballpark figure for the number of stars with intelligent life forms, we can make the following very crude estimate. We can be conservative and say that 10% of these stars are yellow stars much like the sun, that 10% of those have planets orbiting them, that 10% of those have earthlike planets, that 10% of those have earthlike planets with atmospheres compatible with life, that 10% have earthlike atmospheres with life forms growing in them, and that 10% of those have some form of intelligent life .This means that one-millionth of the 200 billion stars in the galaxy will probably have some intelligent life form. This implies that a staggering 200,000 stars will have planets harboring some form of intelligent life. A slightly more optimistic set of values for Drake's equation shows that intelligent life might be, on the average, as close as 15 light-years from our sun. (Michio Kaku, 1994, 28)

In my own research, I have confirmed slightly smaller results using this same equation by estimating that our galaxy is half the size of what Dr. Michio Kaku and NASA says is true. (see Appendix 1) However, I divided the calculation of the number of stars in the galaxy by two to see if the equation would work properly. Granted the equation has its own weaknesses because it does not account for the number of stars that have died and destroyed its solar systems with it.

On March 6, 2009, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the deep space program, Kepler. The purpose of Kepler is to

[revolutionize] our understanding of exoplanets, including among its many highlights the discovery of three terrestrial exoplanets orbiting the M dwarf Kepler object of interest (KOI) 961, and a 2:4 R⊕ exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star. (Plavchan, 2016 January, 34)

First of all, the phrase “exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star” (Plavchan, 2016 January, 34) means that the government is either looking to colonize the exoplanets or is looking for planets that could bear life whether it is intelligent or not. If life on other planets is so important to the government, then why does it move to silence anyone who tries to publish material on intelligent extraterrestrials? Furthermore, why does the government send its agents to brutalize people who have "evidence" on the existence of extraterrestrial visitations and technologies when all the government has to state as to whether they exist or not?

While most stories of advanced alien races and their attributed technologies are normally regarded as nonsense, there are viable sources that have been published by "no nonsense papers." According to the Huffington Post, the popular science-fiction movie series Men In Black was based on real life interactions with civilian personnel and the extra-governmental forces. (Speigel, 2012, np) Mr. Speigel reports:

When Men in Black opens everywhere over Memorial Day weekend, most moviegoers will just be hoping this sequel matches the original for popcorn-munching fun. But there are many people who say they’ve been victimized by and live in fear of real MIB’s. And those stories told for decades, are just as terrifying as they are detailed. (Speigel, 2012, np)

Mr. Speigel continued to say that these reports have been coming in “ever since the early 1950s, long before the first Men in Black movie hit the silver screen in 1997.” (Speigel, 2012, np) There is also a video link in the article about “Dan Aykroyd’s personal account of a possible MIB encounter” and the strange sequence of events that lead to the cancellation of his show Out There where he sought to talk to anyone who had been doing research on Unidentified Flying Objects, their origins, or the possibility of there being extraterrestrial life. (Speigel, 2013, np) The pattern that the research has indicated is that these events only happen when civilians go public with their findings.

Results

In the vast world of the history of the belief that there are extraterrestrials anywhere, there are two main theories. The first is proposed by Aristotle and is called the Rare Earth Theory; an early challenge to this theory is Giordano Bruno who put forth the Countless Earth’s Theory. (Magnus, 2012, np) In order to narrow these topics, it will be assumed that Giordano Bruno’s Countless Earths Theory is correct. (Magnus, 2012, np)

The first recording of someone directly saying that life could exist on planets other than Earth was Italian born Giordano Bruno. He was the first that developed what would be soon called the Many Earths Theory which states:

There are countless suns and countless Earths all rotating around their suns in exactly the same way as the seven planets of our system. We see only the suns because they are the largest bodies and are luminous, but their planets remain invisible to us because they are smaller and non-luminous. The countless worlds are no worse and no less inhabited than our Earth. (Magnus, 2012, np)

Although this was not the western world’s adopted belief system at the time, Bruno’s ideology was five hundred years ahead of what the Catholic Church thought it knew. For this “heresy Bruno was Burned at the stake” for asserting his opinion, which was also backed up by Copernicus’s Heliocentric Theory, and Galileo’s observations of the universe. (Magnus, 2012, np)

As a more modern example of the belief of these beings, world leaders along with civilian and military personnel have said that they have seen objects and beings that are too advanced to come from earth. Today efforts made by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI Institute) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have been fruitful in developing a means in locating other planets that could support life and a means of deliberate communication with the technologically advanced species of the extraterrestrials. (Bada, 2001, np) NASA’s efforts in Kepler project was set up for the primary purpose of looking for planets that are capable of bearing life for the possible eventual colonization of these planets and for the search of any type of extraterrestrial life. (Bada, 2001, np)

Discussion

Given that several people have seen a number of strange and unidentified crafts and beings, that researchers and world renown scientists and mathematicians of concrete and theoretical backgrounds, and that when cross-referenced the government’s and the people’s accounts of said strange crafts and beings do not match, it is safe to say someone somewhere is or has been lying. The astronomical results of the most modest numbers, when placed in Dr. Drake’s equation, yield a seventy-five percent chance of making contact with advanced extraterrestrial life if they do in fact exist. (See Appendix A)

Due to the fact that the common people and people of note have seen things resembling extraterrestrials and or extraterrestrial technologies, the governments hard work to cover stories up, and that experts on theoretical and concrete space travel and space going technologies have said it is possible, it is plausible that the world governments have already made first contact and these governments do not want the common people to know about it.

References

Bada, J. (2001). State-of-the-Art Instruments for Detecting Extraterrestrial Life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98(3), 797-800. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3054774

Crowe, M. (2001). Astronomy and Religion (1780-1915): Four Case Studies Involving Ideas of Extraterrestrial Life. Osiris, 16, 209-226. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/301986

Drake, F. (2011). The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence. Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 369 (1936), 633-643. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41061683

Kaku, M. (1994). Hyperspace: A scientific odyssey through parallel universes, time warps, and the tenth dimension. New York: Oxford University Press.

Magnus, R. (2012 December 14). Giordano Bruno: Heretic of the Infinate (Totally Awesome History) Robertus Magnus. Robertus Magnus. Retrieved 2016 November 5, from youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2NKHgZrGo

NASA. How Many Stars in the Milky Way? (2014, July 01). Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/07/22/how-many-stars-in-the-milky-way/

SETI Institute. The Drake Equation. Retrieved November 04, 2016, from http:/www.seti.org/drakeequation.

Speigel, L. (2012, May 23). 'Men In Black' Inspired By Scary Stories Of People Who've Seen UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTSs. Retrieved November 12, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/23/men-in-black-inspired-Unidentified Flying Objects-government-agents_n_1536996.html.

Appendix A

Dr. Frank Drake’s Equation

N = R* * Fp* Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L

How to use it:

N = the number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable,

R* = the rate of formation of stars suitable for the development of intelligent life, Fp = the fraction of those stars with planetary systems,

Ne = the number of planets, per solar system, with an environment suitable for life,

Fl = the fraction of suitable planets where life actually appears,

Fi= the fraction of life bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges,

Fc= the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space,

L= the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space (SETI Institute, 2016, np).

R = 100,000,000,000/2 = 50,000,000,000

Fp = 1/10

Ne = 3 (I used 3 as a variable because scientists theorize that Mars, Earth, and Venus could have had life at one point and time).

Fl = 1/3 (Based on our solar system)

Fi = 1/3(Based on our solar system)

Fc = 1/3(Based on our solar system)

L = 120 (The approximate time people on Earth have been using such technology).

Answer: 66,666,666,666.7

Interpretation: assuming we are 1 in 50 billion advanced civilizations we have a 75% chance of encountering intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Proof: 50,000,000,000/ 66,666,666,666.7= 0.75= 75% chance.

extraterrestrialspace
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About the Creator

Aaron Loftin

Hi,

My name is Aaron Loftin and I just married the love of my life. I am graduating from Augusta University on August 8, 2017 with a BA in history and a minor in professional writing. In 2021 I reached my goal becoming a history teacher.

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