METI (Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence)


METI International, simply known as METI, is a non-profit research organization that creates and transmits interstellar messages to search for extraterrestrial civilizations. In July 2015, the papers to form METI were filed by its founder and president, Douglas Vakoch. METI is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Overview

METI targets nearby stars and also rethinks the nature of the messages to send. On October 16, 17, and 18, 2017, METI sent a message consisting of a scientific and mathematical tutorial to the red dwarf Luyten's Star, located just over 12 light years from Earth. This message was transmitted from a radio transmitter at the EISCAT research facility in Tromsø, Norway. One of the goals of METI is to examine people's views of transmitting messages.
METI builds an interdisciplinary community to design interstellar messages, within the context of the evolution of intelligence and language. In May 2016, METI convened the meeting “The Intelligence Of SETI: Cognition And Communication In Extraterrestrial Intelligence” in Puerto Rico. Two years later, in May 2018, METI held the meeting “Language in the Cosmos” in conjunction with the International Space Development Conference. This meeting was held in Los Angeles and examined the connection between astrobiology and linguistics. On March 22, 2017, METI held a workshop in Paris to examine the question "What is life?" from an extraterrestrial perspective.
METI also searches for life beyond Earth. Specifically, METI conducts an optical Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. METI's optical SETI observatory in Panama looks for laser pulses from advanced civilizations, and it has examined anomalous stars like the nearby red dwarf star Ross 128, as well as HD 164595, 94 light years from Earth. None of these searches has yielded evidence of artificial signals from extraterrestrial intelligence.

Criticism

David Brin wrote, "whether small groups of zealots should bypass all institutions, peer critique, risk appraisal or public opinion, to shout ‘yoohoo’ into a potentially hazardous cosmos. Ćirković’s book offers plenty of grist for discussion and consensus-seeking, before rushing to force a fait accompli on our children."

Notable members

Notable members of METI's and include: