(ORDO NEWS) — The discovery of extraterrestrial signals has been dreamed of for decades. But a scientist at the University of Cadiz in Spain says we shouldn’t be looking because we are not ready to meet aliens.
Gabriel De la Torre recounted how his survey of students showed that the general level of ignorance and the influence of religion will shock people if we make first contact with aliens.
Since 1984, the Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Networks) has been looking for signs of intelligent life in other parts of the universe.
But De la Torre, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cadiz and a member of science projects such as Mars 500 (a simulated mission of Esa to Mars on Earth), has done research that he claims indicates we’re not ready. to set up a contact.
In the course of the study, he sent out questionnaires to 116 students in Spain, the United States and Italy. De la Torre says he used students because they “will be future politicians, scientists, responsible people, so I wanted to know what their knowledge was.”
The questions were divided into five sections: religious beliefs, environment, cosmic knowledge, their daily activities and their opinions on life issues.
For each section, he prepared a number of sub-questions. This included questions such as, in their opinion, the likelihood of the existence of life on other planets, in what year a person first set foot on the moon and which planet is the largest in the solar system.
The results were somewhat discouraging for De la Torre. For example, only 82 percent of students knew that the first moon landing took place in 1969.
It was concluded that scientific knowledge, especially knowledge related to space, among college students is not very good, he continues.
“Therefore, I believe that space agencies should step up their efforts in education.”
De la Torre’s other conclusion was that religious beliefs in general were very strong. While not necessarily a problem, he says it can influence the opinions of people facing important events in the future, such as first contact.
But ultimately, it’s a lack of appreciation for our own planet and our place in the universe that would be our downfall, he says.
“We are not ready to talk to aliens, because the population has insufficiently developed global consciousness,” he concludes.
People have day-to-day life problems and the government is oblivious to global issues such as the planet and the environment.
This makes us look too focused on everyday life problems, we are not aware of our surroundings.
If we have a more global understanding of our situation on the planet, how fragile it is, perhaps this will be a step in the evolution of our consciousness as a species.
There may be other intelligent life in space, and it may indeed be different from us physically, mentally, socially, and even morally.
They may not even be biological, they may be robots.
Now I do not think that as a species we are ready for contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. Of course, some people are ready, but as a species I think it will be a huge shock for the world‘s population, the professor concludes.
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