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WE DON’T want to hear from ET. So said Stephen Hawking this week, who is worried that aliens will plunder our resources. Is there a better way to judge the risk?
A measure called the is used to gauge the risk of broadcasting messages. Developed by of the Konkoly Observatory in Budapest, Hungary, it was adopted by the International Academy of Astronautics in 2007.
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The index runs from 1 for an insignificant potential risk to 10 for an extraordinary risk. The number is based on intensity of the signal, its duration and information content. For example, the Arecibo radio telescope message broadcast in 1974 included depictions of a man and woman and DNA’s double helix encoded in binary and would score an 8.
“The Arecibo message would score 8 on a scale of 1 to 10 of the risk of attracting alien attention”
Almár, for one, plays down Hawking’s fears. He points out that Hawking is a physicist, not a SETI specialist.