Alien Contact: How SETI Plans To Use Mixtapes To Find Extraterrestrials

The SETI Institute has announced its Earthling Project that is focused on creating a mixtape of global musical composition to send to aliens.

Scientists realize that it would take more creativity and an expanded view to find life in other worlds. At SETI, searching for life outside Earth and uniting humans may require the use of music. Composer and SETI artist-in-residence Felipe Perez Santiago, along with musician and software architect Rob Baker, an entrepreneur and Singularity University faculty fellow Ola Kowalewski, discussed the details of the Earthling Project during the “SETI, EARTHLING, and the Collective Musical Voice" panel.

According to Baker, it would be highly symbolic to send the final composition outside of Earth. He said that humans created art for deities and other humans, but it is unique to create one for an unknown party. This unites humans into a single unit talking to another party. The project hopes to show the best side of humanity as a species.

To realize their goal, Santiago will invite non-professional and professional musicians to compose and also use samples from the open platform. They hope that the artists will engage in collaborative compositions without genre labels despite being from different regions and cultures.

The project will have four phases. The first phase involves launching a web-based platform called the Earthling Audio Database. The database will collect human voice samples across the globe. The second phase is about creating the Earthling Symphony, which is a seven-part series collage that will combine sounds from outer space, the database voice samples, a live ensemble and the electronic synth. The third phase is making the collaborative compositions. The last phase is the development of a music-making app. The final composition will then be sent to outer space.

Other scientists like Dr. Edward Schwieterman and team have also started looking into different ways to find life on other worlds. According to Dr. Schwieterman, lead author of a new study and a fellow at NASA, they have to consider all possibilities when looking for alien life or else it would be a shame if they passed up on an inhabited world due to limited view.

Some scientists have also started looking into the possibility that living things outside Earth may have a different molecular composition. Through research, they discovered that a new molecular system could exist and function as DNA.