Meet the optimistic scientist who thinks humanity's first E.T. contact won't end in extinction
Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Mike Garrett, thinks we can plan for that kind of thing. Good for him.
Aliens—unlike ghosts—are totally real and hanging around Earth. Hell, even Obama said as much recently (okay, not exactly, but he obviously intended for us to read between his lines). But rather than constructing, like, some contingency plan involving a mobilized human-robot hybrid army, or a ragtag insurgency team serving as our species’ last hope, many experts are favoring the ponderous, poignant route by figuring out the best way to essentially shake hands and/or tentacles with our extraterrestrial neighbors.
Obviously this is a terrible idea, but scientists at the top are nonetheless still pressing forward with the latter option, as a recent Vice interview with Mike Garrett details. Garrett—who serves as both the University of Manchester’s inaugural Sir Bernard Lovell chair of astrophysics and as director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics—has long been hard at work establishing the proper protocols for vetting, announcing, and subsequently dealing any potential first contact scenarios.