Stephen Hawking to Collaborate in Private Funded Search for Extraterrestrial Life

[Pericles21 submitted this piece in response to a request for comment at 'quora.com', July 22, 2015]

First, I feel it is good that Private Money will back the project because I expect Private Money will (potentially?) protect the project from non-scientific interference (belief orthodoxy and political pressures). Second, I feel there isn't a better project principal (designer/partner/adviser) than Stephen Hawking. His overall contributions can be 'earth changing'. should he let loose all his inner genius, i.e., the knowledge and intuition that lies within himself still unformed, unuttered. I hope to see exotic new concepts in astrophysics and astrobiology from Hawking, especially in the development and application of new mathematics formalisms and applications.

However, I am not wholly confident that Hawking personally is free from bias, i.e., I am made less confident of his objectivity by his openly (and frequently) stated warnings against naively reaching out and making contact with superior Aliens whose motives or psychology, in his words, 'might be harmful to humanity'.

(I don't fully share Hawking's apparent paranoia here.)

On the other hand, I hope the project will employ only passive detection methods and instruments, guided (and controlled) by a truly innovative search protocol with new design features for enhanced-performance detection instruments. In this context, I have full faith that Hawking's contribution to the project will be startling for the resulting protocol, improved instrumentation (in components and concept, i.e, #nano-scale-photometry) and results.

I pose the following topics for Mr Hawking to think on and develop or rule out:
- What kind of galaxy might have the greatest stability?
- How close to a central (massive) Black Hole might lie stable sol systems, dwarf galaxies and other space groups and bodies? How plentiful are Rogue Planets and rogue sol systems?
- What form(s) of energy (not currently conceived of on earth) might be used
by an advanced civilization? What might be the 'leakage' factor (radiation to space) for each? Would't an advanced civ develop 'non-leaking' energy?
- What other forms of detectable markers might there be other than energy and atmosphere? What markers miht not be detectable by current methods?
- Wouldn't a developed Alien disguise their civilization's location and state of advancement? How? Still, what markers might be leaked, detected and and deciphered?
- Wouldn't an advanced civ leave markers throughout it's home galaxy? What kind?
- What kind of 'code' might Aliens employ in their signals to 'externals'?
- Can 'entangled' communication be detected/hacked?
- What markers might hint at Alien tinkering with a Black Hole for energy tapping or signal modulation?
- Is it possible to develop (if not already) an advanced algorithm that might generate a matrix of possibilities, based on home planet astro-biological factors, for Alien features - language (yes!), mathematics, behavioral modes, ethics, cross-species prejudice and aggression, physical morphology, technology type...?
- What kinds of statistics might apply to this search? What new statistical tools or uses might be required?
- What kind of 'weaponry' might an Alien have? Personal? 'Battle craft'? Interstellar? Kinetic and/or energy?
- What form of energy intake might an advanced Alien require? Physical food? Abstracted energy (tablets, fluids devoid of origin identification)? Radiation?
- what morphology (or mix) might an Alien have? Physical? 'Gone cyber'?
- What might be Alien psychology types? What might be their significance to human safety?
- Overall, considering what we so far know about the distribution of 'habitable' planets, what radius segments might be best to search? I don't mean to seem uneducated about 'Habitable Zones' but what about non-water based life? Non-liquid based life (solid, gaseous, plasma, other states?)
- What innovative detection instruments might be developed? New wavelengths? New electronics? New modulation detection schemas - i.e., Alien Fourier signals, new algorithmic mixes, innovative exo-math series groupings, etc?
- How far might Alien employment of math series go? 5th or 6th order? 10th or above? What other radiative/dimensional relationships (ala Maxwell-Gauss) might Aliens have?
- How valid might be earth-based manifold theory applied to Alien technology? How might maths for 'extra-earth level' manifolds be formatted, codified and utilized?
- When in advanced tech might an Alien develop extra-Newtonian space propulsion? Beyond plasma? Space warping? Black Hole hopping? What signs might there be of Black Hole manipulation/control for inter-galaxy travel?

These are just some ideas.