This month I seriously propose that we begin the process of repositioning the sun and other nearby stars in order to send signals to aliens, and that we begin the search for signs that aliens might have done the same for our benefit.
Perhaps I should preface this crazy-sounding idea with an explanation. Science is an emotional experience for me, sometimes even more emotional than art. The reason, I think, reflects both our current understanding of humanity’s place in the universe and the events of my childhood. Astronomy has taught us that Earth is a mere dot in an inaccessible vastness. Almost everything in the night sky is so far away that there’s little hope of our having contact with other life out there—if such life even exists. Worse than the possibility that we are alone is the feeling that it doesn’t matter even if we aren’t. My early life amplified this feeling of solitude: My mom died when I was a kid, and for a time the rest of the human species felt as distant from me as the deep universe does now.
