Machines Meeting Machines

Most science fiction stories that feature alien encounters or visitations show biological creatures that have traveled vast distances. The more I think about it, and the more I read about it, the more I am convinced that this is unlikely to be the way we will eventually meet an extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Our first encounter with such an intelligence will almost certainly be with a machine.

Most people expect that the first encounter with an extra-terrestrial intelligence will be with a biological being, but this is highly unlikely

But why will that be?

Interstellar travel by biological creatures such as ourselves is difficult, costly, and fraught with danger. The food, water and air that's needed for such a journey has to be provided by the star-ship itself. This requires an incredibly complex and almost perfectly tuned biosphere which will need to function for at least a few centuries, and probably far longer. And the ship will need to be huge if it's to accommodate a large enough population to maintain genetic health and diversity.

Building such a star-ship is not impossible. The technical challenges are in no way insurmountable. But the political, emotional, and even ethical obstacles probably are. The world's governments would have to come together and cooperate to get such a project even started. All the military and economic conflicts would need to be resolved, and all the hate and suspicion of our cultural and religious differences transmuted into something positive, respectful and cooperative. And, of course, the general population (whose taxes would fund the venture) would need a lot of convincing as they and their descendants would not see any personal benefit from it.

It does not take much thought to realise that such cooperation goes against the most basic but intensely powerful instinct of any biological life-form: that of self-preservation. Such an instinct is generally beneficial,  but for an advanced civilisation such as ours it could, on a national scale, easily result in an endless series of territorial and ideological conflicts that consume our time and energy. One day the result of such squabbling is likely to result in another global war that could wipe out our species. It's ironic that the survival instinct that has served us well throughout our primitive history, allowing us to evolve into a creature of such high intelligence, could well end up destroying us completely.

Large interstellar spacecraft capable of supporting humans for generations are unlikely to be built until our territorial, political and religious differences on Earth are resolved

That survival instinct is not going to change. Cooperation between governments is not going to reach anywhere near the levels required to build human-crewed star-ships. But the development of crewless interstellar spacecraft requires no such cooperation. And neither does the development of the advanced artificial intelligence to run it. Individual nations, and even individual corporations, can certainly do that.

Because of this our interstellar exploration will almost certainly be conducted by machines. And those machines will contain within them a sophisticated artificial intelligence; one that is able to function autonomously for centuries. And it will be designed to be our ambassador should an advanced alien civilisation be encountered .

Our first encounter with extra-terrestrial intelligence will be with something artificial , rather than a biological life-form. 

And that will be the same for all intelligent extra-terrestrial civilisations. Highly intelligent machines will do the exploration. And due to the communication problems across the vast distances between star-systems those machines will be designed to deal with first contact situations. They will also be able to utilise the resources in the star-systems they visit, replacing and repairing themselves, and even improving their own design. My earlier article, 'Intelligent Machines Are Watching Earth', discusses the possibility that such machines are observing our planet right now.

Its not hard to imagine them setting up machine colonies and constructing more of their kind that will head off in new directions, greatly speeding up their exploration. New machine civilisations will be created. Entire planets could be engineered to be the new home worlds for such artificial creatures.

The home planet for an intelligent artificial species. Over millennia the entire planet has been engineered to accomodate such a species. It will be a highly efficient and sustainable machine civilisation.

It does seem to me that due to the relative ease of manufacturing and distributing intelligent machines across interstellar space, the most abundant form of intelligent life in the universe (if it can be called life) is artificial.

There will, of course, be some biological beings exploring interstellar space, probably on 'world ships': huge vessels, tens or even hundreds of kilometres in length. But they will be exceptionally rare. Due to basic and irrepressible instincts, almost all advanced biological civilisations will render themselves extinct within a few centuries of developing high technology. But many will have survived long enough to initiate interstellar exploration using intelligent machines. Some of those machines - those that are designed to manufacture copies of themselves and make improvements - will go on to establish themselves in other star-systems. Eons after the biological civilisations that first created them have died out, the machine civilisations will continue to thrive and explore.

One day one of our machines will meet one of those machines.

I hope our biological civilisation is still around to appreciate that moment.

Saturn's Unnatural History

Saturn and it magnificent system of rings and moons is one of the most fascinating regions of the Solar-System. And it's fascinating not only because of its natural history, but because of its likely unnatural history, too.

In a previous article I wrote about the strong possibility that Saturn's two small and unusual moons, Atlas and Pan, could well be abandoned interstellar starships.

The most recent images of Pan, one of Saturn's unusual, and possibly artificial, moons

But there are two other objects in the ringed planet's system that are of extreme interest: the large Moon, Iapetus, and the tiny moon, Daphnis.

Iapetus

Iapetus is the third largest moon of Saturn.  There is much about the moon that is intriguing, but the most intriguing to me is the massive equatorial ridge that runs almost completely around its circumference. At around 20 kilometres wide and 13 high it is a truly monumental feature, especially for a moon only 1,492 kilometres in diameter.

Iapetus - the third largest moon of Saturn

Why is such a feature present, and how can it be exactly on the moon's equator?

The only plausible natural explanation given so far is that Iapetus once had its own ring system similar to its parent world. The rings, formed from the debris of a colliding smaller object, or from the breakup of Iapetus's own moon, rained down onto Iapetus's equator, eventually forming the ridge.

That is an interesting theory, but it does not explain why the ridge is not evenly distributed across the entire equator. Almost a quarter of the equator does not have the ridge. Falling ring debris would have been distributed over a long period of time, and very evenly.

The ridge (centre) that runs three quarters of the entire length of Iapetus' equator

The most likely unnatural possibility is that the ridge is actually a collapsed orbital ring. Tethered to the moon, such a structure would provide easy access to and from the surface, and would be quite an obvious facility for an advanced space-faring civilisation to construct.

An orbital ring, such as this one seen here around Earth, could have collapsed onto Iapetus creating the ridge

Abandoned for thousands of milennia, the structure would eventually decay and collapse, crashing to the surface along the equator of Iapetus. Once the collapse had begun it would progress rapidly, which would explain the unevenness of the ridge, both in its height and its distribution. A gap in the ridge, which we can clearly see, would be highly likely in this scenario.

If this happened it must have been a billion or more years ago as subsequent comet impacts have covered the remains of the ring in ice and debris hundreds of metres thick.

If evidence of a collapsed orbital ring is found beneath the ridge's ice it would provide strong support for the other potential evidence of ancient extra-terrestrial activity in Saturn's vicinity.

A mission to Iapetus is required, which must include an orbiter with ground-penetrating radar to map the remains of the orbital ring, and whatever else may be hidden beneath the equatorial ridge. And if the presence of the orbital ring is confirmed, a manned mission should be launched as soon as possible with the aim of setting up a long term colony on the ridge. Despite the long period of time that has passed since the ring collapsed there would still be plenty of artifacts present that could teach us a lot about the advanced culture that once thrived in the Saturnian system. And there may be clues as to the reason for their demise or departure.

A large human colony on the ridge, established after the collapsed orbital ring theory was proven correct.

Daphnis

Daphnis is one of Saturn's small inner moons with a diameter of just 8.6 kilometres. It orbits within a gap in Saturn's A ring, known as the Keeler gap. In fact, the main reason the gap remains clear of debris is largely because of this moon.

The best current image of Daphnis taken by NASA's Cassini orbiter

One thing Daphnis has in common with the other moons of interest, Atlas, Pan and Iapetus, is that it has an equatorial ridge. This ridge could well be the result of particles falling to the surface from the surrounding ring debris, but the fact that it is on the equator once again makes this highly unlikely. It is more likely to be dust gathering on the shape of the moon's structure, as in the case of Atlas and Pan. And just like Atlas and Pan, the shape of Daphnis suggests it is unnatural in origin.

Saturn's moon, Daphnis, nestled in the Keeler gap within the planet's A ring

The apparent abandonment of so much technology in Saturn's system suggests that the civilisation that developed it had to make a rapid exit (or suffered a catastrophic disaster). They did, however, have the time to place at least three of their vast spacecraft within or very near to Saturn's huge ring structure. Such a move would conceal them from discovery from anything observing from afar. The build up of dust and debris on their hulls has disguised their presence even further.

Daphnis deserves significant study.

The incredible Cassini mission will come to a spectacular finale towards the end of 2017. A new and even more ambitious mission to Saturn is now required. As I mentioned before it must include an Iapetus orbiter with radar capable of mapping objects beneath the icy surface, but it must also include rover missions with deep drilling capability.  There must also be probes to explore the moons within the ring system, with Atlas, Pan and Daphnis the priority. We need to know whether or not a manned archaeological expedition is required to study and exploit the ancient technology that may be present.

The exploration of any signs of extra-terrestrial technology within our Solar-System should be one of the top priorities of Earth's space agencies. Such exploration could result in the knowledge we require to preserve our species beyond the Earth's demise.

When you think about that, any concerns about the cost of such an undertaking pale into insignificance.

Modifying Humans For Life in Space

Does life need an atmosphere like Earth's?

Not always, it seems. Simple life can survive in the harshest of conditions. Can humans be engineered to survive in such conditions too? To find out we need to understand how simple life-forms manage it, and consider any existing evidence of life surviving in space.

Panspermia is the theory that life is spread through the universe by debris thrown into space by violent impacts. Some of that debris, containing hardy microbes similar perhaps to Earth's extremophiles, eventually lands on a suitable planet, and evolution begins. This theory becomes highly plausible when we consider that there are some Earth microbes that can indeed survive in the harsh environment of space. It seems that life that can survive a long exposure to deep space may well be extremely common.

Chroococcidiopsis: an extremophile with the potential to help terraform Mars

But could complex, and even intelligent, life be engineered to survive in the extreme conditions of space?

It certainly seems possible, and there is a complex creature on Earth that can survive in space, at least for while: Tardigrades. These tiny animals are found everywhere, from mountain tops to the depths of the oceans, and from the tropics to the Antarctic, and are the toughest multicellular organisms known. They have remarkable survival abilities. The can withstand temperatures from -272 Celsius to 150 Celsius, pressure up to six times that of the deepest oceans, exposure to radiation hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for humans, and they can be frozen for decades and still live on and reproduce after thawing.

And they can survive in the vacuum of space, the only know animal with that ability.

A Tardigrade, the toughest known animal. It is almost impossible to kill.

Why did such a resilient creature evolve on our planet? Could it be used to engineer a more complex and possibly intelligent lifeform, or even to modify humans, to live in extreme environments?

I think so.

Alongside all the usual research that will enable humans to embark on interstellar colonisation (new propulsion systems, generation ship design, closed life support mechanisms etc.) research into how humans could be re-engineered to survive in harsher environments is also essential.

Perhaps on a generation ship there could be a genetically modified element to the crew that could look after the 'standard' humans that are forced to remain in their rotating Earth-like bubble at the centre of the ship. The modified crew would be able to survive for long periods in minimal gravity, and with a limited atmosphere. They would look after the ship and ensure that the standard humans are in good shape to land at the destination world. They would breed as the standard humans would, replenishing their numbers as the centuries of the voyage rolled by.

The genetic engineering could even extend beyond just the physical and tune psychology and intelligence to match the intended function of the modified human, rendering them almost perfectly adapted to their roles.

All of this would ideally be monitored and controlled by an immortal crew, another set of engineered humans that would oversee the whole voyage, and ensure the continuation of the thought and culture of the standard humans whose descendants would one day colonise the destination planet (see my earlier article 'Immortal Travellers').

As well as the scientific challenges to modifying humans in such a way, there are ethical challenges too. And the ethical challenges may end up becoming the hardest to overcome. But such challenges must be faced and surmounted if we are to have the greatest chance of surviving long enough to spread our species out amongst the stars.

Experimenting on human embryos and allowing them to grow to maturity to see the effects of genetic modification would be unacceptable, and also very time-consuming. Instead, sophisticated computer simulations need to be developed to give genetic scientists the ability to design such humans, and test them in virtual environments. Only when we are sure we have developed a new breed of human perfectly adapted, both physically and mentally, to the desired environment, should actual living versions be grown.

Computer programming languages already exist that can be used to add new 'features' to DNA. Such languages are in the early stages of development and use, but in the near future, when such languages are used in conjuction with a virtual simulations of the results, we will have the ability to design a perfectly adapted crew for deep space travel. With the constant improvements in computing power the systems required for this, and the software to run on them, such facilities may well be available in just a few decades.

A neanderthal family

Forty-thousand years ago there were four species of humans on Earth. For almost the Last 20,000 years our species, homo sapiens, has been the only one.

Perhaps that is about to change?