Prof Lord Rees has urged "cranks" to stop writing to him with claims of extraterrestrial encounters. Photo / 123RF
Prof Lord Rees has urged "cranks" to stop writing to him with claims of extraterrestrial encounters. Photo / 123RF
If you have been abducted by aliens, the Astronomer Royal would not like to hear about it.
Professor Lord Rees has urged "cranks" to stop writing to him with claims of extraterrestrial encounters.
"I get letters from people who say they have been abducted by aliens, they have met them, etc. I respond with cynicism to such letters by saying, 'Is it really likely that if the aliens had made a huge effort to get here, would they just have met one or two well-known cranks and gone away again?' It seems unlikely.
"So I tell these people to write to each other and not to me," he said.
If extraterrestrial life does exist, Rees said, it is not likely to be in the form of little green men.
"If we do detect something it is not likely to be flesh and blood. It is far more likely to be an electronic entity. It is unlikely to be synchronised with us - it could be a million years ahead of us," he told an audience at the Hay Festival.
And if we do make contact with aliens in a distant galaxy, conversation will be impossible because they will be light years between us. "There is no scope for rapid repartee," Rees said.
Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, British cosmologist and astrophysicist. Photo / Getty
Human settlers on Mars will 'become race of cyborgs'
Rees also predicted that humans who settle on Mars, as Elon Musk plans to do, will become a race of cyborgs within a couple of generations.
He said: "Let's imagine by the end of the century there are little communities away from the Earth. By that time, genetic modification and cyber techniques will be far more advanced than today. One hopes they will be regulated here on Earth but these intrepid explorers on Mars will have every incentive to modify themselves.
"They will use all these techniques to adapt themselves and within a generation or two they may become a different species, a mix of flesh and blood and robot.
"So a scenario for the next millennium could be that some of the progeny of the pioneer Martian explorers will become cyborgs."
The idea of a non-human race is not at all far-fetched, Rees said: "Most of us, unless we live in Kentucky or somewhere, know we are the outcome of four billion years of evolution."
Rees said Musk's vision of mass emigration to Mars was a "dangerous delusion".
"It is a doddle dealing with climate change compared to terra-firming Mars.
"The phrase 'space tourism' should never be used because it will never be risk-free. It should be called 'space adventure' for people who like high risks, people who like hang gliding."
Wonder of moon landings lost on younger generation
The 79-year-old also told the audience that the wonder of the moon landings is lost on the younger generation today.
"I have been fascinated by space since childhood and I am old enough to remember Neil Armstrong's 'one small step for man' in 1969," he said.
"For my students, the idea of men on the moon - so futuristic to my generation - is ancient history. They know the US sent men to the moon, they know the Egyptians built the Pyramids. But those seem like arcane national goals."
Astronauts these days mostly go to the International Space Station, which "rather unglamorously" orbits the Earth, Rees said.
"There is not much excitement unless the toilets go wrong or the Canadian astronaut David Hadfield is playing his guitar and singing David Bowie songs."
