Gazing into space and wondering what is up there is something humankind has done since the begginings of time. The first stargazers distinguished the movement of planets from the stars; as the telescope appeared a whole new horizon was upon us to explore. We we able to find out that we do not have the only star that has planets revolving around.
There's a lonely feeling when we look up, that compels us to scream out, wanting to find out that we are not alone. we scream, hoping that in the future, another civilization may scream back.
The first radio message aimed towards potential extraterrestrial civilizations was sent by Soviets in 1962, aimed to Venus with the words: "MIR" ("peace" or "world"), "LENIN" and "SSSR", in Morse Code. The political content should not surprise us, considering that at that time the Cold War was an everyday fact. The space race, was just another of the fields of battle.
This message, is still in its way to the star HD131336 in the Libra constellation.
Lets introduce ourselves.
The messages focus changed over time. No random signals were sent anymore, we started designing messages that delivered information about us. In 1974 the first signal of this kind was sent from our planet: The Arecibo Message. Written by Frank Drake & Carl Sagan. In November 16th, 1974: from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, aimed to the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules (M13), in the Hercules Constellation. It'll get there... in 25000 years.
Radio signals were not the only way we attempted to communicate outside of our planet. Pioneer 10 & 11, carry an gold-anodized aluminum plaque, that have inscribed representations of humankind and our advances. It is estimated that both probes are around 100 AU (or 9.300.000.000 miles/15.000.000.000 Km, if you prefer the "pleb" measurements for distances).
The space probes Voyager 1 & 2 were designed to leave our Solar System, and also have information about us with them. Launched in 1977, both have golden discs with graphic information similar to the Pioneers' AND a collection of sounds and images from our planet. Steps, laughs, thunderstorms, crickets, music, greetings in different languages.
Voyager 1 is the human made object that is further away from Earth 141 AU. We expect to lose contact by 2025 then it will continue its trip until it reaches the Oort Cloud (the theoretical limit of our Solar System) for 300 more years. It is not aimed to any particular star, but in 40000 years it'll pass by -1.6 light years- the star Gliese 445. These probes are, messages in a bottle thrown into the space ocean.
I see a LOT of messages sent out, but... What will we do when we get a response?
The problem is free choice.
If we, the human race, decide that aliens aren't real, they aren't. We will never interact with them.
However, it looks like we have decided to enter the galactic stage, and so, expect actual alien contact soon. Within the next decade.
Aliens have already made contact in many, many ways.
And, it is in my estimation, that sending out radio waves is just something to appease the masses.
Govern-cements already know about aliens flying about. Radar stations pick them up all the time. If you get a pair of (correct type) night vision goggles, you can watch them flying about. If you live high in the Andes, you can watch them with your naked eyes every clear night. So, i am pretty sure, that they know that they don't use radio waves to communicate.
What we, as a race need to do is get over our warring tendencies. We have to learn, then make one in ourselves, that war is never the answer.
The idea of an alien race coming to conquer another planet is ludicrous. Just this idea means they we don't know what life is. That we don't know what a planet is.
As an example, people do not lose bone / muscle mass due to lack of gravity in orbit. They are lost because they are not in the earth's magnetic field. So, we do not survive for long on other planets. Conquering is stupid, idiotic, doesn't gain anything, and life is too precious to be going around doing something so stupid.
However, this is not to say that all alien races are nice.
True, whenever we speak about future under these terms, we do so under the limitations of our current technology and physics¡ knowledge. Lightspeed is our limit (as far as we know), and we haven't been able to even reach that.
The rest, is suppositions fed by people spreading "news" that have no real hard evidence behind.
Your reference to ball lightning (how casual, I lived in the Andes for several years) being confused as "alien vehicles" is a common misconception. Some believe they are "la luz mala" https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luz_mala
Others, aliens.
It is just lightning, until proven differently.
It is also true that we are a bellicose civilization, and that we've no way of knowing if any "visitors" didn't actually evolve over a warfare-based culture and expansion. I always considered that we need to be very cautious whenever we "call to the stars"... We never know what we could we be inviting into our primitive civilization.
In case we contact a Civ that is rather equal in technology to us we've nothing to worry about. But, if they're more advanced... we may be fucked!
This is why i started off with saying, its free choice.
Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing.
There are so many alien encounter / sighting stories that to believe it is all fake is really large leap.
Further, there is intelligent life on earth that we haven't made contact with.
Run that through your mind.
Entire races living in parallel with us.
It will be a very interesting future now that we have decided to open up to contact.
Going forward, the tide will turn from mostly doubters, to few doubters.
Too esoteric for my taste.
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