Alien video: Puppet or real E.T.?

(Denver, CO) - A few minutes of grainy, black and white video show a shadowy creature with big eyes peeping over a windowsill. But does it show a puppet or an alien from outer space?

The video, purportedly capturing proof of alien life, was released this morning during a press conference at the Tivoli Student Union on the Auraria campus in downtown Denver.

Over the course of three minutes or so, the footage shows a white creature with a balloon-shaped head that keeps popping up and down in a windowsill that was 8 feet above ground. The face was white, with large black eyes that seemed to blink.

The creature would slowly pop its head up and peer through the window then drop suddenly down, apparently trying to avoid detection. It raised its head up about a half dozen times. The alien's other body parts were not visible.


It was unclear whether the creature was taller than 8 feet and was crouching to avoid detection or whether it was standing on something. It also was difficult, because of the faintness of the object, to tell whether it was three dimensional.
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A SETI Taxonomy?

If our galaxy is home to advanced ET civilizations, it would be helpful if we knew what we were looking for. For instance, how do we define "advanced"--and might a civilization's level of development make it easier (or harder) to detect?

In 1964, astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed that ET societies fall into three fundamental categories, each based on environmental resourcefulness. A hypothetical "Type I" civilization, for example, effectively conquers all available resources on its home planet (and, just as importantly, fails to destroy itself in the process). A "Type II" civilization is more robust, utilizing the resources of its solar system. Even more daunting, a "Type III" civilization is characterized by its ability to harvest energy on a galactic scale.

If a Type I or Type II civilization seems godlike to our own relatively primitive "Type O" civilization, it's worth remembering that even a solar system-spanning intelligence is far from immortal. But destroying a Type III civilization would prove considerably more difficult. Having inundated space and assumed control of millions of stars, a Type III civilization would be able to anticipate celestial mishaps and perhaps even prevent them.

The "Kardashev Scale" has become a mainstay among futurists seeking to plot humanity's own future. But while not without its usefulness, Kardashev's model remains speculative. There's no guarantee that a high-technology ET civilization will abide by his template, however sensible it might seem. The Kardashev Scale assumes, for instance, that aliens will share our own imperialistic sensibility. In truth, they might be far less aggressive, requiring less energy than we might expect; there's no readily apparent reason why even the most resplendent of civilizations would require the resources of an entire galaxy.

One can think of any number of activities that might engage ET societies; our evident failure to observe Type III civilizations is hardly proof that ETs don't exist. Ultimately, the Kardashev Scale serves as an engaging speculative exercise. Unfortunately, like the Fermi Paradox, it's evolved into a sort of cosmic doctrine, eagerly defended by pundits who seem genuinely incapable of realizing its anthropocentric limitations.

Mac Tonnies

ET Likely Doesn't Exist, Finds Math Model

April 21, 2008 -- Earth-like planets have relatively short windows of opportunity for life to evolve, making it highly doubtful intelligent beings exist elsewhere in the universe, according to newly published research based on a mathematical probability model.