In 2016, Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, said that humans would either discover extraterrestrial life or Shostak would “bet everybody a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee that we find ET by 2025”. Shostak has also said that Earth-like planets that are habitable might not be rare, and that the Square Kilometre Array, a radio telescope that will span two continents, could help find intelligent alien civilizations within our lifetimes

The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit research organization that explores, understands, and explains the origin and nature of life in the universe. The institute has three primary centers: The Carl Sagan Center, the Center for Education, and the Center for Public Outreach

Scientists are likely to discover intelligent alien life by 2025, according to a book published this month.

In Cosmic Company, Professor Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer at the SETI institute, and Alex Barnett, chief executive office of the Chabot Space Centre, both based in California, argue that contact with aliens is only a matter of time – and it is all down to getting the figures right

It is simply a matter of statistics,” said Mrs Barnett. “There are two figures you need to know. One is what our estimate of how many civilisations there are in the universe that are sending out signals into space [about 10,000] and the second is how long will it take to search through enough stars in the universe to statistically have a chance of picking up those signals.” Put these numbers together, she claims, and we will encounter aliens by 2025

The pair also speculate on how the aliens might look and have developed a character called Jo Alien using simple biology and physics.

Their calculations are based on widely accepted Moore’s Law, the prediction that computing power doubles every 18 months, and the more controversial Drake Equation, which predicts the number of civilisations in the galaxy capable of communicating

In the next decade, one of two things will happen — either humans will discover extraterrestrial life or Seth Shostak will be buying a lot of coffee.

“I’ll bet everybody a cup of Tim Horton’s coffee that we find ET by 2025,” said Shostak, senior astronomer at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute, a California-based organization dedicated to finding intelligent life in outer space

Interest in extraterrestrial life has seen peaks and valleys as pop culture and scientific advancements have taken turns to inspire new generations of armchair astronomers. Shostak said space exploration became the purview of governments for the first time after the Second World War

Synthetic intelligence, unlike human intelligence, can improve itself very quickly. So probably the dominant intelligence in the cosmos is not biology at all. So the idea that you’re going to find radio transmitters coming from another world that’s like yours might be somewhat naive,” he said

Even a signal from some non-biological entity would be significant.

“It would answer a very, very profound question,” Shostak said. “This is a question that everybody has asked, everybody that walks outside at night. You look up at the sky and you kind of wonder is there anybody up there looking this way?

How will we react to aliens

How will we react to the discovery of alien life? In 1953, the Robertson Panel warned of the danger of mass hysteria (Durant, 1953), and a recent national poll found that 25% of American respondents anticipated people would panic (Harrison, 2011). Depictions of contact with extraterrestrial life in fiction for over a century have highlighted potential downsides of alien contact, from H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” (Wells, 1898/2003), to the television series “The X-Files” (Carter, 1993–2002), and films such as “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (Blaustein and Wise, 1951), “Independence Day” (Devlin and Emmerich, 1996), and “Edge of Tomorrow” (Hoffs et al., 2014). However, most speculations regarding humanity’s reactions to extraterrestrial life, both in fiction and otherwise, have focused on discovering evidence of intelligent life from elsewhere, while less consideration has been given to how we may react to the discovery of extraterrestrial life that is not intelligent, even though we are more likely to encounter microbial life in our solar system (Race and Randolph, 2002; Race, 2008; Gronstal, 2013). Some scientists, including Ramin Skibba, have suggested that the discovery of any extraterrestrial life, even in microbial forms, may be “earth-shattering” (Skibba, 2017). Other experts, including scientists such as Christof Koch, Guy Consolmagno, and Aaron Gronstal, have suggested that the discovery of extraterrestrial microbial life will have little in the way of societal or psychological impact (Gronstal, 2013; Levine, 2016). To date, though, the only empirical work of which we are aware that assessed potential psychological reactions to extraterrestrial life has done so by positing hypothetical contact with an intelligent extraterrestrial species (Vakoch and Lee, 2000).

The announcement that we have discovered alien life, if indeed it ever comes, would be one of the biggest moments in human history. And the ripple effects would be huge as well

The cultural impact of extraterrestrial contact is the corpus of changes to terrestrial science, technology, religion, politics, and ecosystems resulting from contact with an extraterrestrialcivilization. This concept is closely related to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), which attempts to locate intelligent life as opposed to analyzing the implications of contact with that life.

The potential changes from extraterrestrial contact could vary greatly in magnitude and type, based on the extraterrestrial civilization’s level of technological advancement, degree of benevolence or malevolence, and level of mutual comprehension between itself and humanity.^[1] The medium through which humanity is contacted, be it electromagnetic radiation, direct physical interaction, extraterrestrial artifact, or otherwise, may also influence the results of contact. Incorporating these factors, various systems have been created to assess the implications of extraterrestrial contact

The confirmation of extraterrestrial intelligence could have a profound impact on religious doctrines, potentially causing theologians to reinterpret scriptures to accommodate the new discoveries. However, a survey of people with many different religious beliefs indicated that their faith would not be affected by the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence, and another study, conducted by Ted Peters of the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, shows that most people would not consider their religious beliefs superseded by it. Surveys of religious leaders indicate that only a small percentage are concerned that the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence might fundamentally contradict the views of the adherents of their religion.^[86] Gabriel Funes, the chief astronomer of the Vatican Observatory and a papal adviser on science, has stated that the Catholic Church would be likely to welcome extraterrestrial visitors warmly.

Funes speculates that a decipherable message from extraterrestrial intelligence could initiate an interstellar exchange of knowledge in various disciplines, including whatever religions an extraterrestrial civilization may host. Billingham further suggests that an extremely advanced and friendly extraterrestrial civilization might put an end to present-day religious conflicts and lead to greater religious toleration worldwide. On the other hand, Jill Tarter puts forward the view that contact with extraterrestrial intelligence might eliminate religion as we know it and introduce humanity to an all-encompassing faith. Vakoch doubts that humans would be inclined to adopt extraterrestrial religions, telling ABC News “I think religion meets very human needs, and unless extraterrestrials can provide a replacement for it, I don’t think religion is going to go away,” and adding, “if there are incredibly advanced civilizations with a belief in God, I don’t think Richard Dawkins will start believing

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