Uhhh, excuse me ... Shouldn't we talk about this first?
I'm talking to you, Mr. Stephen Hawking, genius. And you, too, Mr. Yuri Milner, billionaire investor.
Let me just say this upfront: Be careful what you ask for.
Now, I admit there's a little "Star Trek" in me. Exploring new worlds, stuff like that.
And I remember how historic and impressive it was when we put moon dust on our boots.
And what you two guys are planning sounds big, too … combining efforts to search for life in outer space.
I admit I only know what I've read … that Milner is partnering with Hawking and putting $100 million into a project called "Breakthrough Initiative," which will be another one of those massive listening efforts, sort of stalking the universe to see if we hear anything curious.
This time they are intensifying the use of computer technology and powerful telescopes and will be collecting in one day the amount of data that would have taken a year to gather before.
I know, I know. We have to find out, explore, discover. But I'm telling you now … we should be ready for what we find.
It won't be ET, that cute little thing. And I certainly hope we don't encounter anything like those bubble heads in the movie "Mars Attacks!" Let's just hope life out there does not have Netflix.
And you know the first thing were going to do if we do find signs of life: Before long we'll be waving and shouting, "Hellllll-ooooo, we're over here."
But I assume they will be as intelligent as we are. As peace-loving, as generous and as forgiving as we are ... some of the time.
Which brings me back to my initial thought … let's be careful what we ask for.
I'm Lonny Cain, and that's my Perspective
