Posthuman Blues

Getting the intergalactic message across is easier said than done

"If humanity wants to correspond with the cosmos, Wright and Rose write, it should send bulk mail: Messages inscribed onto physical matter and then launched toward planets or other celestial bodies deemed most likely to harbor responsive life."

Extraterrestrial artifacts? Uh-oh. Dangerous territory. Because if we're dealing with a highly advanced extraterrestrial intelligence -- equipped with an appropriately advanced technology -- then it's probable interstellar communiques will be rather more interesting than simple "messages inscribed onto physical matter." For example, they could be artificially intelligent, able to respond to their environment and even home in on habitable worlds -- a trait that sounds tantalizingly organic.

Already, machines on Earth are becoming more and more like living things. And experts such as Ray Kurzweil and Hans Moravec insist this trend will continue. So maybe we shouldn't be terribly surprised if our first message from space takes the form of a sophisticated intelligence of some sort, infinitely richer in information than any plaque or gold-plated record.

Hey, Shostak! You listening?