Life beyond Earth

Is there any life beyond earth? It seems to be an unending debate. Beliefs and claims have to be proved scientifically. But, undeniably, the number of scientists, who openly give vent to the view that there is a possibility of life in the outer space is growing. The earlier skepticism and doubt attached to such beliefs by the scientific community seem to be waning. I am told that there are record increases in the hits on sites that are devoted to exposes of UFOs. Interestingly, there are a few Indian sites that collate experiences of people who claim to have seen aliens or unnatural flying objects.

Interestingly, newspaper reports relating to UFOs are increasing. Recently, the Brunch, the Sunday edition of The Hindustan Times, carried a feature on UFOs, collating views and experiences of scientists involved in research projects on outer space – and a few among them were from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. No one seems to have debunked the sightings of UFOs or life beyond earth as crazy hallucinations. Their measured caution in responding to alien life seems to be a pointer that such claims cannot be wished away. Yet, there is no scientific proof to legitimize such assertions. There are also groups of people, who are ranged against the governments’ inept handling of such issues by categorizing thumping evidences as classified information. Grapevine had it that there are thousands of files in the US and the UK that are kept away from the scrutiny of the general public, assertions regarding UFOs and alien life.  Some of them are hopeful that the powerful antennas or earth stations installed in different parts of the world might pick up intelligible signals beamed from outer space.

Are we inching towards confirmation on the life beyond earth? Here again, opinions differ. Some hold the view that due to some curious reasons, the governments are not willing to invest in such projects. Some of the projects on UFOs were allowed to die down in the US. But there are other views also. In the Cold War days, the US and the erstwhile USSR had the resources to invest in such projects, which are fund guzzlers but laggards in giving quick returns either in the form of scientific enrichment or value adding to the existing knowledge base. Gigantic projects involving active involvement of thousands of scientists and huge reservoir of funds may not be feasible for a government in a competitive world. But the random scientific findings tend to give credence to the possibility of extraterrestrial life. The Indian scientists involved in the moon project Chandrayan gave solid proof of existence of water on the moon, a pre-condition for existence of life. 

Can humanity’s obsession with the outer space and inquisitiveness to unravel the mystery be turned into money spinners? A few centuries ago, the French science fiction writer Jules Gabriel Verne enthralled humanity with his imaginations about moon. But the greatest commercial use of outer space was yet to come. I think Hollywood identified human weakness for mysticism and fantasy much before anyone else. But it is also equally true that fiction is always a precursor to scientific learning and unlearning. That is why fiction writers like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells live through centuries. Their fertile minds transcend time horizons and perhaps set landmarks to scientific community to explore and innovate. 

Does it mean that most valuable scientific breakthroughs are fictionalized much before their advent? I am neither a science historian nor do I know whether anone has written monographs on history of entertainment industry, which is believed to be the largest money spinner ahead of IT and similar sectors. If anyone has traced the history of this sizzling industry, he or she would have chronicled how the Neanderthal or Homosapiens spent their leisure or lazy times. It cannot be on hunting since that was their source of livelihood. But we know how the Romans and Greeks entertained themselves. The Colloseum in Rome witnessed many bloody fights, which must have heightened the atavistic instincts of ruling class, patricians and plebeians alike, who must have cheered on the gladiators of their choice like what we do for the IPL team of our liking. Perhaps, the Greeks would have a different concept of entertainment. The tragic classics, which were recited or enacted, would have cooled their tempers. The Orientals had a different stroke when it came to entertainment. They must have preferred their harems for outings and occasional hunting to satisfy their urge to entertain themselves. Again, there are newer interpretations about the conduct of harems. There are some historians who refute that such institutions were the exclusive edifice of carnal pleasures. These were also the places where the rulers met their siblings, inquired about their well being, received advice from their mothers, beloveds and others about the governance. For every successful man, there will be a woman behind him. But if there are several women behind a man, could he be successful?    

Entertainment industry is always on a roll. It got transformed from a primordial structure to an organized one. The scope and range of entertainment had undergone change in style and substance. In the present-day world, entertainment is synonymous with the application of information technology. Even a toddler fiddles with his gizmos and toys, all computer programmed. The satellites that beam pictures into your drawing rooms are software driven. That is true for your refrigerator, air-conditioner, camera, iPod, etc., which are perceived to be the modern gadgets for entertainment.

One need not be an IT expert to discern application of digital platform for perfecting the facets of filmmaking. Let me take an example. There are many popular perceptions about the looks and countenance of an alien. There are freaks who hold that they are men and women, who are sensuous, attractive to look at, having well-defined physique and attributes. There are still others who believe that they are emaciated and pale-looking creatures. Every new film on this theme should have unique characters. That means more research, value-added animation, script writing, settings, sound effects, excellence in costume design, etc. That will open up enormous opportunities for the IT fraternity.

I have only treated the packaging of films on aliens and alien culture. Look at the swelling numbers of people who volunteer themselves to travel to the outer space. There are reports that world’s biggies in spacecraft are investing billions of dollars in designing a space craft that will combine adventure with leisure and comfort to shuttle between the planets. They cannot be created in a vacuum. It entails huge investment in men and materials, where the role of IT is a shade higher than any other discipline. As imagination goes free, we can map the deployment of IT experts and applications in making the landing stations, creating living habitats in the outer space, exploration for rare earths and fossils, etc.

Now, let us take our attention off the entertainment and assume for a while that somewhere down the ages our imagination of an alien comes true. Some of the experiences that are quoted abundantly in the UFO sites would corroborate that they will have a knowledge and technical base much higher than that of ours. Many persons, who have sighted aliens and UFOs claim that the flying objects were spherical in size and change their size and hue within a fraction of a second. That would mean that our civilization has to learn a lot from the aliens to match up to their vast reservoir of knowledge and technical expertise. In case the civilization which we face upfront is lesser in their knowledge base, we may have imparted a lot of skill sets to them to make them adaptable to our culture. In both cases, there are enormous business opportunities and challenges for the IT industry.

Coming back to life beyond earth, we come to recognize the great value of im agination which drives us real hard to put our efforts, creativity, technology all into the task of lending credibility to ideas which may or may not be tenable. This points to a borderland where arts and sciences meet and play together. And teach mankind to question more.