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The foundational theory behind past alien visitations, that at least some of the gods of the ancients might have been extraterrestrials, has been around much longer than SETI has been in existence.
XSETI has nothing new or innovative to offer except the empirical evidence that scientifically validates the work of SETI theorists like Carl Sagan who have dared to espouse this controversial point of view.
The response of skeptics of past alien visitations has always been the same: show us the evidence. Until now, the absence of any direct evidence that aliens have been to our planet has effectively diminished the theory. Now that a very large body of previously undetected symmetry in the Bible has been linked to alien intervention, it justifies SETI experts taking another look. It is worth noting that in recent years the visiting alien theory has been revived, and renewed efforts have been made to locate alien artifacts here on Earth, a strategy largely inspired by SETI’s failure to intercept an electronic signal from space.
Dish SETI vrs. Book SETI
Since 1960, SETI has been using radio telescopes, commonly called “dishes” because of their appearance, to listen for alien signals from deep space. At about that same time a few SETI explorers, including Carl Sagan, began examining ancient manuscripts looking for evidence that aliens have been to Earth. I call the electronic approach Dish SETI and the literary strategy Book SETI.
Though neither methodology was successful in capturing an alien signal early on, Dish SETI continued to evolve, while Book SETI was largely abandoned. But that didn’t mean that ancient manuscripts weren’t being studied. Every day, in the routine course of their research, there are thousands of non-SETI scholars poring over ancient manuscripts. It’s entirely conceivable that if aliens had encrypted a code into one of those old books, some historian, anthropologist, ethnologist or theologian might stumble on it by accident and identify it as a foreign anomaly that didn’t fit the text and couldn’t be easily explained.
Should that happen, there would be a chance that the data might work its way through whatever academic environment it was discovered in until, hopefully, it would eventually find a home with some SETI scholar, Book or Dish, who recognized it for what it was.
This, in a nutshell, is the history of the Z signal. It was discovered by a Christian minister who kept it as a biblical curiosity until he managed to get it peer reviewed at a leading theological research seminary. Initially thinking it was a divine encryption, the theologians pronounced it a major discovery, but then, without explanation, suddenly changed their minds and abandoned further research.
By this time, suspecting that he had discovered an extraterrestrial signal, the minister passed the data on to Dish SETI scientists, who pronounced it empirical and testable, allowing for the possibility that it could be alien in origin. But Dish SETI, being technology based, wasn’t in a position to falsify the data and, frankly, didn’t show much interest.
If Dish SETI intercepted a hopeful signal, would they send it out to a librarian for testing?
Not likely. The librarian would take one look at the data and probably throw it away. It wouldn’t make any sense. The opposite is also true. If a Book SETI scholar found a signal in an old manuscript and sent it to an astrophysicist, what would they be likely to do with it?
I know, because that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few years – sending data that is distinctly literary to Dish SETI experts for their professional appraisal. The result is predictable: they don’t know what to do with it and they aren’t all that interested.
This is why there needs to be an organization like XSETI, made up of literary experts, who are devoted exclusively to searching for an alien signal in ancient manuscripts. Now that a possible signal has been detected in the Old Testament, it’s time to turn to the wide world of academia for help. A Book SETI organization has been launched, it has a website, and it has something to test. This is where we now stand.
After 50 years of not hearing anything, Dish SETI people are working feverishly to expand the range of their search strategies, and invariably they all involve advanced technology. In my opinion, this isn’t out-of-the-box thinking, it’s moving around inside the box.
As a Book SETI advocate, XSETI is a true outside-the-box enterprise, and, based on the limited interactions I’ve had with Dish SETI experts, I think they will, to a person, be supportive of an alternative methodology that was pioneered by Carl Sagan.
No Stone Unturned
In the search to find empirical evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, all the top names in Dish SETI research have repeatedly said the same thing: that they will leave no empirical stone unturned, and no testable hypothesis will go unvetted, no matter how wacky or improbable it might seem. It is this noble resolve to do whatever it takes to succeed that is one of the trademark qualities of Dish SETI. XSETI shares that same commitment and is counting on the tenacity of serious investigators who are determined to prove the existence of extraterrestrials to see that the Z-signal is fully investigated.
XSETI is convinced that the Z-signal is the most hopeful development that has happened in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in decades. We remind everyone that it isn’t just a theory; it’s concrete evidence waiting to be tested.
In a sense, a public claim of scientific discovery is an act of desperation, because in most cases the claimant has spent years trying to falsify his or her own hypothesis, without success. At that point their only option is to stake out a claim and turn their theory and the supporting data over to their peers to see if they can find a better explanation. This is the falsification process.
As the claimant, XSETI is announcing that it has discovered an alien signal in the Old Testament, and is prepared to defend its position with professional resolve. At the same time, we promise to cooperate in every way with those who challenge our claim and try to come up with a simpler and more logical explanation for the data. We look forward to a vigorous and productive dialectical interaction. This is the scientific method at work.
While we invite Dish SETI to participate in the vetting process, we suspect that most of them will remain on the sidelines, waiting for writing experts to test the sequences and analyze the results. At the same time, Dish SETI people tend to be extraordinarily intelligent and creative, so it is entirely possible that at least some of them will find ways to get personally involved, possibly by collaborating with writing scholars in a joint venture falsification process. We encourage such activity, we wish them well, and we will post their test results as we receive them.
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