The SETI Earth Speaks Research Project

SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is posing an interesting question to the general public. If SETI finds evidence of intelligent life in space as it has set out to do, what should we say to them? The Earth Speaks website (at http://earthspeaks.seti.org/) is currently collecting answers.

While most of the Earth Speaks participants so far have chimed in from Europe and North America, the research project aims to collect greetings from literally every culture on earth to get a broad sample of how we should (if at all) present ourselves to alien civilizations.

Before you get all excited about your personal message being broadcast into space, keep in mind that SETI's Earth Speaks is only a research project at this point. Although it's incredibly fun and interesting to challenge yourself to answer, Earth Speaks is still collecting and assessing data while SETI continues to search for alien life to communicate with.

The goal of the SETI Earth Speaks research project is to find patterns and commonalities in the messages people wish to project. If SETI does find intelligent life in space, each individual message will be categorized by theme and by responder. For example, it stands to reason that young Ethiopian men might express the desire to communicate different themes than Danish teenagers. Earth Speaks will group the individual messages to come up with a number of generalized messages for alien life that should, in theory, represent the many civilizations living on earth.

So far, messages posted to the SETI Earth Speaks website have ranged from funny to depressing. Many people seem to be using this as an opportunity to show off their wit, making puns on phrases like "alien probe." Other messages ask for help or advice in overcoming war or pollution. Interestingly, many of the messages posted on Earth Speaks contradict each other. Some folks want to warn alien species to stay far away from earth, because humans are violent and unable to tolerate differences in others. Other people seem to want to reassure aliens that we will welcome them, and not to be afraid of our weapons or violent tendencies.

If you would like to contribute to the SETI Earth Speaks research project, visit the website to register for an account. From there, you can submit a text greeting, or you can upload pictures or sound. Keep in mind that your message will be displayed on the Earth Speaks website for anyone to see. When you register for an account, you can also vote on whether or not messages are appropriate for transmission to alien civilizations. After all, you wouldn't want aliens to have to decipher, "Wat u lookin at?"