2. Aliens will be peaceful.

First, our modern science and technology are only a century old. The basic principles of Quantum Mechanics, which establish the foundation for our electronic devices, computer technology, and artificial intelligence (AI), were discovered merely a century ago. This period represents merely one part in a hundred million of the typical age of habitable exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy.

Other civilizations are unlikely to be synchronized to the precision of a century with our phase of technological development because their stars formed billions of years before the Sun. If they were seeking terrestrial resources, they would have reached Earth long before we developed our modern science. Moreover, we did not reach them as of yet, and so by reaching us first – they would demonstrate that they are farther along in their technological progress. From a cosmic perspective, they are likely to have benefitted from thousands, millions or even billions of years of scientific progress. The slow spacecraft that they launched early on were overtaken and outnumbered by advanced probes that they manufactured subsequently.

Given these cosmic circumstances, advanced extraterrestrials would not be threatened by our current scientific knowledge. Our species would look as insignificant as an ant colony in the crack of a pavement appearing to the eyes of a fast biker.

Since extraterrestrial technologies will likely be far more advanced, we can benefit greatly from encountering them. For that reason, we must proactively search for technological probes near Earth as a learning opportunity about our cosmic neighbors. This is the rationale behind the Galileo Project that I lead. The Project’s team assembled a new observatory on Harvard University property, which is already providing fresh data that AI software is analyzing in search of extraterrestrial technological objects near Earth. We also plan an expedition to study the composition of the fragments left over from the first interstellar meteor, IM1, which was tougher than all other meteors in the CNEOS catalog of NASA, including those made of iron.

An encounter with a superior form of extraterrestrial technology would offer humanity the opportunity to acquire new scientific knowledge that goes beyond what we had learned over the past century. It would also provide us with a glimpse at our own technological future, offering a quantum leap if we will be wise enough to import its innovative content into our terrestrial life. By using our own AI systems to interpret extraterrestrial AI probes, entrepreneurs could manufacture new products in our future economy. At the very least, our own AI systems may learn how to imitate extraterrestrial AI astronauts, giving the traditional “imitation game” of Alan Turing a new meaning. The discovery of interstellar visitors may also inspire new aspirations of humans for interstellar space travel.

Second, my take on `survival of the fittest’ in interstellar space favors a wise, peace-seeking, space-exploring species, because aggressive or militaristic versions are likely to get bruised by conflicts and therefore have a shorter lifespan.