A NASA scientist has claimed that aliens could have already visited Earth but are too small for us to see.
Dr Silvano P. Colombano believes visitors could have been “extremely tiny super-intelligent” entities and that the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence has “ignored the potential relevance” of UFOs.
The professor, who works for the space agency’s Intelligent Systems Division, made the claims in a paper entitled New Assumptions to Guide SETI Research.
He wrote: “Given the fairly common presence of elements that might be involved in the origin of life throughout the universe, it is a reasonable assumption that life 'as we know it' was at least a common starting point, but our form of life and intelligence, may just be a tiny first step in a continuing evolution that may well produce forms of intelligence that are far superior to ours and no longer based on carbon 'machinery'.
“After a mere 50 years of computer evolution we are already talking about 'super-intelligence' and we are quickly becoming symbiotic with computer power.
“I don’t want to address here the issue of the survival of our species, or its future 'role' within a continuing evolution of millions of years.
“I simply want to point out the fact that the intelligence we might find and that might choose to find us (if it hasn’t already) might not be at all be produced by carbon based organisms like us.”
Dr Colombano believes scientists are too focused on pursuing signs of modern human technology on other planets, and that this could mean missing signals of a civilisation inhabiting a planet far older than Earth.
He suggests that physicists engage in “speculative physics” and “stretch possibilities as to the nature of space-time and energy”, as well as exploring how technology might evolve.
Further recommendations include investigating “what kind of societies we might expect”, “whether and how they might choose to communicate”, and considering the UFO phenomenon “worthy of study.”
His paper was first presented at Califoria's SETI-backed Decoding Alien Intelligence Workshop in March.
