Humans have long been fascinated by extraterrestrial life and particularly intrigued by how aliens might communicate.
It’s the central plot of blockbuster science fiction films like Arrival, Contact and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Yet this question is not just for sci-fi movie fans. Xenolinguistics is the study of languages that may be spoken by intelligent life forms, and a team of experts is giving this some serious thought.
In 2022, the Cambridge Institute of Exo-Language at Cambridge University (CIEL) dedicated to understanding potential extraterrestrial languages, was established in preparation for making contact with intelligent life that may exist beyond our galaxy.
Indeed, the criteria for extraterrestrial life to be considered “intelligent” is the ability to develop a technological civilisation.
Ian Roberts, professor of linguistics at the University of Cambridge, helped to establish CIEL.
He told ABC RN’s Future Tense he’s confident intelligent extraterrestrial civilisations exist and that these civilisations also have a common language.
“Any species which, like us, develops some kind of technological civilisation will have language,” Professor Roberts says.
Why now?
CIEL is adding to the work of METI International, a US-based not-for-profit organisation founded in 2015, which attempts to communicate with extraterrestrial beings.
METI International’s founder and president Douglas Vakoch says it’s imperative that serious research is undertaken into the principles of language and communication in preparation for this type of potential contact.
“We might be faced with decrypting a message from an unknown civilisation, and linguists could provide the key to cracking the code,” Mr Vakoch says.
Like Professor Roberts, Mr Vakoch believes in the existence of intelligent life beyond earth.
“We know the basic chemical building blocks are strewn throughout space, so there is a lot of real estate where life could exist, as well as the chemical ingredients for life.
“It would be a miracle if there were no intelligent life anywhere, and I don’t believe in miracles,” he says.
The aim of CIEL could be considered slightly premature, given that we aren’t yet aware of the existence of intelligent extraterrestrials.
But Professor Roberts says the logistics of contacting a solar system or exoplanet (a planet outside of our solar system) will be no easy feat.
The initial hurdle would be establishing the form of message to be sent. Then, given the closest exoplanets are about four light years away, it could mean a minimum eight-year wait to send and then potentially receive a response. So scientists are really in this for the long haul.
How exactly would we communicate with aliens?
Critics have often compared any efforts to communicate with extraterrestrial beings with humans’ inability to communicate with animals on earth.
And clearly, while hand gestures and instructions are understood by dogs and some primates, for example, humans are yet to have deep conversations with another animal species.
