I Hope Aliens Don't Exist... (The Wow! Signal)

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[00:00:02.620] - Oliver (Host)

I'm sure you must have looked up at the night sky and wondered: are we alone? Billions of stars, billions of planets, endless infinite space. And maybe, just maybe, somewhere out there, another civilisation is asking the same question about us. Maybe there's a podcaster for the intermediate level of God knows what language, posing the same question to his listeners. So what evidence is there for such a belief that aliens are, in fact, out there? Well, so far, not much. But in 1977, astronomers picked up something strange, a radio signal coming from deep space that lasted for just 72 seconds. It was so unusual that the scientist who saw it wrote one word on the paper printout of his data. Wow! Today, we therefore call it the Wow! Signal. And still, almost 50 years later, no one really knows what it was. Welcome back to English and Beyond Intermediate English podcast. I'm Oliver, an English, Latin, and Spanish teacher. And in today's episode, we're exploring one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy, the Wow! Signal, and asking a very human question, are we alone in the universe? As always, you can find the free transcript and vocabulary flashcards at morethanalanguage.com.

[00:01:40.800] - Oliver (Host)

Now, let's start with the story itself. We have to go back to the summer of 1977. A group of scientists were scanning the sky with a radio telescope in Ohio in the United States. What were they looking for? Well, they were part of a project called SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In simple terms, they were listening for signals from space, not from stars or planets, but possibly from aliens. And then something happened. One night, the telescope detected a very strong signal, a burst of radio waves, much stronger than normal background noise. It lasted exactly 72 seconds, and then, silence. Jerry Ehman, one of the scientists, was so shocked that he circled the data and wrote the word 'wow' in a red pen. That's why we still call it the 'wow' signal today. But here's the strange part: no one has ever detected that signal again. It didn't repeat. It hasn't returned. Scientists have tried for decades to explain it. Maybe it was a satellite, maybe space debris, maybe a natural phenomenon we still don't understand. Or maybe it really was a message from another civilisation. We don't know. And that mystery is what makes the wow signal so famous.

[00:03:11.960] - Oliver (Host)

Now, here I'm going to get into the real meat of the episode with my own opinion. I personally think we are almost certainly not alone. Why? Well, because the universe is just too big. Astronomers estimate that there are more than 2 trillion galaxies, and in each galaxy, galaxy, billions of stars with planets orbiting around them. It seems almost impossible that life only developed here on Earth and nowhere else. Even if intelligent life is rare, the numbers are so enormous that it seems impossible to me that it doesn't exist somewhere else in the universe. So yes, I believe there are other forms of life out there somewhere. But, and this is important, that doesn't mean that we have met them or that we ever will meet them. The distances between stars are unimaginably huge. And even if another civilisation existed, they might be very far away, or they might even have disappeared millions of years ago. Still, the idea that we are not alone does not give me any comfort. So far, I've said that I believe that we are probably not alone. But here's the uncomfortable truth. We should probably hope that we are. Why? Well, because human history gives us some warnings.

[00:04:38.020] - Oliver (Host)

When two civilisations meet here on Earth with one more technologically advanced than the other, it rarely ends well for the weaker side. Think about European expansion into the Americas or Africa, for example. The more technologically advanced society, at least to some extent, has often dominated, exploited, or even sometimes destroyed the other. And that was between human beings, between members of the same species. Now, imagine aliens with technology advanced enough to cross the stars and find us. To them, we would look primitive, weak, vulnerable. These things would be true relative to them. I want to be careful here because films often give us simplistic messages when it comes to outer space. Aliens arrive, and it's either peace and friendship spaceship or invasion and war. The reality could be something much stranger and harder to predict. Maybe they would see us as interesting, like an experiment. Maybe we would be potentially dangerous, like a virus. Or maybe they simply wouldn't care at all. It would possibly all depend on whether there was something desirable on our planet, something that they needed. These technologically powerful aliens wouldn't even need to destroy us with weapons. They could simply ignore us, take whatever they wanted, and treat us as irrelevant.

[00:06:05.800] - Oliver (Host)

But none of those possibilities sounds good for us. Whether they ignored us, used us, or tried to control us, we would possibly have little power to resist. So yes, mathematically, it's almost certain there is other life in the universe. But emotionally, I don't think we should want contact. For our own safety, it might be better if the universe stays silent. And that brings us to something that, honestly, I find a little naive and a little reckless. For years, projects like SETI haven't only listened for alien signals. They've also sent out our own messages. They've sent broadcasts with music, images, even information about who we are, including our physical characteristics and our DNA structure. It sounds about perfect for something planning to attack us. I mean, look, the idea is romantic, I get that. Hello, universe. This is an introduction to our beautiful planet Earth. But to me, it feels really reckless, like shouting in the middle of a dark forest without knowing who or what is listening. From this idea, we get the dark forest theory, which says that the universe may be full of extraterrestrial life, but life sensible enough to keep itself hidden.

[00:07:29.100] - Oliver (Host)

After all, if you were in a dangerous place at night, would you start screaming to attract attention? Certainly not. You'd stay quiet, you'd listen, you'd observe, you'd wait to see if anyone or anything else was there. Yet, as a species, we keep sending signals, advertising ourselves to the universe. And if someone is listening, we have no idea whether they'll be friendly or hostile. But for the reasons I have already described, I worry that it would be more likely the latter, the second option. And here's the really worrying part. It might already be too late. We've been sending radio and television signals into space for over 100 years. Just think about every broadcast, every transmission, every radar pulse that has already left Earth and is travelling outward at the speed of light. We can't call them back, we can't delete them. They're already on their way, like postcards we posted decades ago and forgot about. So if there is an advanced civilisation within 100 light years of us, they may already know we exist. They may already be watching us, not because we consciously invited them, but because we've been accidentally broadcasting our presence for generations. That's why I think sending intentional messages today is not just unnecessary, but dangerous.

[00:09:01.460] - Oliver (Host)

From my point of view, we've already said more than enough. The question now isn't whether we should reveal ourselves, but whether someone has already heard us. So, going back to the beginning of the episode, the Wow! Signal. In the end, it might not have been aliens at all. It may have just been a technical error or a strange natural event we still don't understand. But the reason it fascinates us is because it touches something deeper our imagination, our hope, and at least my fear. For me, the wild signal is a reminder of both sides of the question. In a way, I do hope that it was a mistake, an error, rather than the first contact from an alien species. On one hand, the universe is too big for us to be alone, I think. On the other, first contact with another life, which the wild signal could be, might be something we eventually don't survive. So maybe the real lesson is this: it's good to wonder, to explore, and to keep listening. But we should also be careful about what we're shouting into the dark.

[00:10:14.580] - Oliver (Host)

So what do you think? Was the wow signal really a message from aliens or just space noise? And if aliens do exist, would you want them to find us? I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can email me at oliver@morethanalanguage.com, or you can connect with me on YouTube or Spotify. And as I said before, remember, you'll find the free transcripts and flashcards for this episode at morethanalanguage.com. Thank you for listening. I will see you next time.