Maybe an advanced alien culture could remain at home while monitoring developments in our world. A charged particle beam could be accelerated close to the speed of light fairly easily and sent on its way while the aliens stay in the comfort of their base of operations. They might still have to wait considerable periods of time for the beam to reach its intended destination, because even at velocities close to the speed light the trip could take many years, but once the destination was reached they would get instant results back home.

Active and Passive Sensing Systems

The human eye is an example of a passive sensing system. It gathers ambient light and transmits it as data to the brain. Hearing is also a passive sensing system. Radar and sonar are examples of active sensing systems. A signal is sent out and that portion that bounces back to the receiver is sensed. Almost all astronomy conducted by humans has been passive. What I am suggesting is that alien beings on distant worlds, with sufficiently advanced technology, might use an active sensing system to do astronomy. We know how to do this on a small scale. An electron microscope is an example of an active sensing system using a beam of electrons to obtain resolutions much finer than can be achieved with light. The disadvantage of an active sensing system for great distances, as in astronomy, is the signal must make a round trip. However, by utilizing the instantaneous communication of entangled particles the aliens could get around this problem. Even if an alien civilization had established a physical presence somewhere in our solar system they still might prefer the use of such a remote sensing device to actual physical exploration.

Click on the 'NEXT' arrow for page 4

Share this article with: