Alien Intelligence Workshop Will Study Evolution And Behavior Of Extraterrestrial Life

Which are the most effective ways of contacting and communicating with alien civilisations?

Scientists gathered in Puerto Rico Wednesday to brainstorm on potential forms of alien intelligence through a workshop called "The Intelligence of SETI: Cognition and Communication in Extraterrestrial Intelligence." It was attended by astronomers, biologists and researchers from various fields.

"Philosophical questions aside, from a pragmatic perspective, if we are to send a message, we must design it in a way that it can be understood and used by the broadest range of forms that intelligent life could take," said Dominic Sivitilli and David Gire, biologists from the University of Washington. "We can make substantial progress toward this goal by understanding the diversity of forms that intelligent life has taken on this planet."

Experts discussed how to gain a better understanding means of potential alien life, which included what they looked like, how they evolved and communicated.

Anna Dornhaus, a biologist from the University of Arizona, studied the possibility of sexual selection pushing the evolution of traits linked to attracting potential mates. She feels that it has played a larger role than standard natural selection in developing human intelligence. If so, our level of cognition might be "rare."

"If this is true, then we should expect cognitive ability - i.e., learning, memory, abstraction and many other elements of intelligence - to be commonplace in the galaxy as they are among organisms on Earth," she said. "But 'exaggerated' intelligence, as in humans, may be a rare accident of chance, as rare as a peacock's tail."

The alien intelligence workshop is part of the National Space Society's International Space Development Conference (ISDC), that will take place from May 18 to May 22 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

"By launching ISDC 2016 with a daylong meeting on the nature of intelligence in the universe, we set the stage for an engaging conference that includes sessions on the habitability of other worlds, the latest research from Arecibo Observatory and updates on cutting-edge space missions like Breakthrough Starshot to Alpha Centauri (Pete Worden) and New Horizons to Pluto (Alan Stern)," said Dave Dressler, the ISDC's 2016 program chairman.