“WHAT is the biggest question in science? The origin of consciousness? How to combine quantum mechanics with general relativity? These are big, but arguably there’s a bigger one: is there anyone out there?”

So opens Michael Hanlon’s opinion piece at the NewScientist.  He argues that science, particularly government institutions like NASA and the European Space Agency, needs to “shed its ET hang-up” and refocus their programs on searching for life outside of our planet.

While not changing NASA’s priorities, the TED community has an amazing opportunity to help answer this big question.  Jill’s wish encourages each of us to become active participants in the search.  The wish will tap into the power of open-source initiatives to globalize the search for extra-terrestial intelligence and empower a new generation of SETI enthusiasts.   As Hanlon says the hunt is too exciting to ignore.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 at 5:46 pm and is filed under Jill Tarter's Wish Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.