Technosignatures: The Search For Alien Technologies - 1

Introduction

Since the earliest epoch of human society, people have been concerned with the existence of intelligent alien beings. For some of history’s most fascinating civilisations, including the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians, it was understood that alien minds constantly interacted with humanity. These ethereal entities were variously categorised as gods, spirits or star beings. Indeed, much of the earliest artwork yet discovered indicates that even long before complex civilisation emerged, our distant ancestors had alien beings on their minds.

In 2019, on the island of Sulawesi, an archaeologist, Hamrullah, discovered a new shaft above his head whilst navigating a cave system. Fortunately, Hamrullah was an able spelunker and successfully clambered up the passageway into a chamber of wonders. Before his stunned eyes was a red pigment-painted scene of wild pigs, dwarf buffaloes and humanoid aliens.

Technically, the eight humanoid figures portrayed in the hunting scene are therianthropes, having a mixture of human and animal features. Notably, one of the beings sketched on the cave wall exhibits a bird beak, and another figure sports a tail. Therefore, we can be confident they are not Homo sapiens. Unfortunately, we will never know if these chimeric figures represented sky gods, shamanic totem spirits or intergalactic visitors. Nevertheless, we can say that even as far back as 43,900 years ago, the dating for the artwork on Sulawesi, human beings were concerning themselves with intelligent aliens.

Intriguingly, at the famous Lascaux cave site in Southwest France, the lone humanoid figure among hundreds of images is a therianthropic birdman. The 17,000-year-old beaked figure faces a bison; behind it is depicted what appears to be a tiny bird sitting atop a pole. Thousand of years later, several Mesopotamian cultures engraved winged humanoid entities with beaked heads, known to the Akkadians as Apkallu. In ancient Egypt, several deities were represented as human-bird hybrids, most notably Horus, commonly depicted with a falcon’s head.

I find bird-headed therianthropes incredibly fascinating, partly because of the extreme depth of their portrayal in human art. We even have compelling evidence for our relatives, the Neanderthals, gathering the wing feathers of specific bird species solely for adornment or ritual. So why is there this strange fascination with merging aspects of birds with the human form? Were these bird people common characters in psychedelic visions? Did some poor archaic hominin bump into a birdman exiting its flying saucer?

It is not my intention here to drag us all down the rabbit hole of the strange story of ancient birdmen. Avian therianthropes are a vast subject in and of themselves and merit an entire book to be written. Still, this brief mention highlights how entangled our species is with weird alien beings. More on the same theme can be read in John Keel’s brilliant collection of essays, I Never Would Have Slept With You If I Had Known You Were a Giant Birdman From Outer Space: Ancient Aliens and Other Mysteries of the Modern Mind.

There is, in fact, a near-endless carnival procession of strange beings depicted in ancient artwork and described amongst the deep oral traditions of various indigenous cultures. For millions of people living across thousands of years, there was no question about whether we were alone. Weird aliens were ever-watching us from just beyond the hazy edges of our visual field. One common theme is that these other-worldly folk are interested in human progression, gaining something from their eccentric modes of interaction with members of our race. Suppose all these characters are purely inventions of the mind. In that case, we must conclude that humans are, for some unknown reason, insanely obsessed with conjuring up or perhaps even hallucinating strange alien companions. That scenario should leave us all deeply concerned.

Flash forwards to the present day, and we find that humans remain resolutely fascinated with aliens. Millions of people are still convinced that they have directly interacted with non-human intelligent beings, whether called nature spirits, gods, or extraterrestrials. Millions more people believe that these classes of non-human entities exist, even if they don’t have compelling evidence backing up their positions. In most cases where individuals claim to have interacted with alien entities, their supporting evidence is limited to highly subjective personal accounts of unusual experiences. I can relate, having had a few bizarre experiences myself.

Unlike thousands of years ago, today, millions of people are not convinced that non-human, intelligent crypto-terrestrials, physical or ethereal, are living alongside us. There are also millions of people who are highly sceptical about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial beings, whether in our solar system or hundreds of light years away. Indeed, most of the scientific community is asking the sincere question, are we alone?

I think most people would agree that objective scientific evidence of aliens is thin on the ground. When I ask people for the most compelling evidence for aliens on earth (whether from outer space, higher dimensions, or another timeline), the results are almost always rather disappointing. Most of the evidence commonly offered is in the form of personal anecdotes; in a few cases, there are at least limited physical elements supporting the claims. Overall, there is not much out there which can be considered sufficient to convince an honest sceptic.

There are, of course, people on both sides of the public debate with little genuine interest in evidence of aliens, having already made up their minds. Saint Thomas Aquinas once said about evidence for God, “For those with faith, no evidence is necessary; for those without it, no evidence will suffice.” The situation with religion is somewhat similar to popular belief in aliens.

I find both the faith-filled believers and the biased pseudo-sceptics to be a waste of time engaging. None are so blind as those who choose not to see; this fits the members of both camps. Neither party is interested in critically examining the available evidence before firming up their conclusions. Sadly, there are many scientists in the latter camp, individuals ideologically married to the expression, “it’s never aliens”. My response would be that it’s never aliens until it is. Consider the wide range of phenomena once considered impossible or absurd, from meteorites, germs, or panda bears to black holes, pulsars, and DNA.

It is not the job of scientists to arbitrate what is possible in the universe, only to understand better any phenomena that are either directly observed or strongly indicated to exist. An academic’s laughter or tears tell us nothing more about the universe; they only inform us about the kind of person we are dealing with.

I will assume that anyone reading this is genuinely curious about the possibility the existence of aliens can be convincingly established through the presentation of objective scientific evidence.

While I feel confident that the evidence I will offer makes for a compelling case, I do not consider it proof of concept. I will not be proving aliens have interacted with earth or humanity. Science is not binary. Even the best data does not absolutely verify the existence of nor entirely discount a highlighted phenomenon.

“Proofs exist only in mathematics and logic, not in science. Mathematics and logic are both closed, self-contained systems of propositions, whereas science is empirical and deals with nature as it exists. The primary criterion and standard of evaluation of scientific theory is evidence, not proof. All else equal (such as internal logical consistency and parsimony), scientists prefer theories for which there is more and better evidence to theories for which there is less and worse evidence. Proofs are not the currency of science.” - Satoshi Kanazawa, Evolutionary Psychologist.

There are two main divisions of technosignature research that we will explore, these being SETI through geology and also genomics. My geological SETI work tackles physical material evidence in the geological record indicative of alien technology. My genomic SETI research introduces genetic anomalies consistent with artificial intervention in evolutionary processes. Of course, neither will prove that a non-human intelligence is at work here. Still, I will argue that alien activities are the most parsimonious explanation for the observed anomalies. I think you will come away with a new perspective on these topics. Still, then again, perhaps that’s just what the hallucinatory alien birdmen told me to say…

Note: Technosignatures are signatures of alien technology. SETI is the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Part 2