5 Ways To Respond to an Intergalactic Distress Call

As cell phone technology continues to improve, so does the likelihood of intercepting intergalactic distress calls from outer space.

Would we even know if an alien race tried to contact us on Earth?

It is quite understandable that the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (S.E.T.I.) program is doing its job, but one guy staring at a computer screen is just not enough manpower to monitor the whole galaxy.

The number one reason that people fail to respond during disasters is simply because they aren't prepared to respond in emergency situations.

Don't be the person that says: "It'll never happen to me."

Instead, prepare yourself and stay alert so you can respond accordingly to distress calls, both local and intergalactic, in the rare case that the S.E.T.I. scientist has fallen asleep on his keyboard.

Decoding intergalactic space messages should be taken seriously.

What if an alien race needs our help?

In the unfortunate circumstance that your cell phone intercepts an intergalactic distress call, the most important thing is to remain calm.

Chances are, it would not come through via a cell phone, but through some sort of radio waves. Satellites pointed at the sky would pick them up and record the telemetry onto a computer hard drive.

This data would need to be processed to separate natural space interference from intelligible signals in outer space.

Be prepared to respond with one of the five options:

1. Reply that you really want to help, but you really don't have the gas money.
2. Simply ignore the message in hopes that the "lone ranger" at S.E.T.I. has not fallen asleep.
3. Turn the message over to the Men in Black. That is assuming that you can find the Men in Black's hidden headquarters in Washington, D.C.
4. Re-post the message on Twitter, limiting it to 140 characters. Words like 'intergalactic' must be shortened to 'intrglctc' and 'home-world destroyed' would be 'hm-wrld=dstryd.'
5. Track down your old buddy Luke and find out if he ever found his sister. Trust me, it is very relevant to the nature of the distress call.

To decode encrypted and complex alien distress calls, we would need supercomputers working around the clock to extrapolate the intergalactic data. We are reliant on cutting-edge technology to interpret the data for us, and provide answers.

Is there intelligent life out there trying to communicate with us?

If so, we better be able to find solutions to translating their language into something we can understand. Again, this would require the best computer system in the world.

In the Doctor Who clip, the Doctor receives a distress call from an alien race, but he must decode who it is from in order to help them.

This is very similar to what our process.

1. Receive distress call.
2. Interpret the data (who exactly is communicating with us)
3. Send help.

While the concept is seen in a popular television show, it is very similar to what we would have to do.

Should we be concerned about who is monitoring the galaxy?

Is it something we should worry about, now that the U.S. Space Program has been set back 20 years, from funding cuts by the current administration?

If we did receive an intergalactic distress call from outer space, it is very unlikely that we would be able to do anything about it.

Even worse, by the time we decipher the complex message, it could be too late. The distress call could have been sent out years earlier. By the time we send out help, w could be 50 years too late.

Bummer!

Such a message would excite the people that are looking for life elsewhere in the galaxy, but ultimately is not something that you or I have to worry about, unless you are the person sitting at the S.E.T.I. facility monitoring the skies.

The important thing is that someone is watching the skies.