Scientists had a 20-minute discussion with a humpback whale in her own language. They say it could help humans chat with aliens one day. While chatting with creatures that share our planet is laudable, even cool, I cannot recall an instance when aliens showed up and it was good for the indigenous life forms, especially humans. Arguably, the humpback, Twain, must have has some familiarity with humans—she’s got a name. Might extraterrestrials also show up with some familiarity? If they can travel the galaxy, they can probably pick up a thing or three about us, enough to put us at ease, enough to converse in multiple languages, maybe even telepathically so that we can all understand in our own language. For years, the Environmental PR Group participated in the SETI program (the search for extraterrestrials). We’d leave our computers on at night and let the program “borrow” our computing power for their work. That was many years ago. Today, I wouldn’t leave the computers on overnight and I might re-think how wise it might be to call unknown life forms to our planet. Kinda like why I don’t pray. No need to call undo attention to myself.
