Contact – the movie- searching for radio transmissions

Did you see the movie Contact starring Jodie Foster – made back in 1997? It’s based on Carl Sagan’s novel and it’s one of our favourite movies here at SentForever.

It’s based around the story of an astronomer who is searching for radio transmissions from other civilizations in deep space. Despite deep scepticism from people involved in the more traditional fields of science and astronomy, she perseveres and eventually finds one of these transmissions. The rest of the film follows the decoding of the transmission and how they go about following its instructions.

I was interviewed on BBC radio recently and was asked if anybody will ever receive the SentForever messages that are transmitted. It was a good question which I had to answer in two parts.

First of all – I don’t know if it will ever be received. Our transmissions go out in a narrow beam into one particular part of space ay any one time so on one hand the chances are slim. However, the transmission will last forever even though it gets weaker and weaker over time. So, on the other hand that boosts the chance of a message being received.

The other important element is that SentForever’s messages aren’t intended to be received. They are intended as eternal commitments and messages that people just want to send – and then to tell someone about what they have said. It’s called Unrequited Love.

So, if you’ve sent a SentForever message of unrequited love to someone here on Earth, then I hope they enjoyed receiving it. As to whether someone else out in the Universe will receive it – well, my answer comes in two parts….

If you sent a SentForever message, do you think it will be received? Let us know.

Announcing a new birth

I recently blogged about the Pale Blue Dot picture and mankind’s tenuous existence on the solidified outer crust of a blob of molten rock which is hurtling through the void of space. Which kind of puts into perspective the fact that we are pretty damn fortunate to actually exist in the first place.

You know in the newspapers they have those announcements pages full of the notices of births, deaths and marriages that have occurred recently? Well, a good friend of SentForever gave birth to a baby boy on recently. So we decided to send her a special message. But what to say?

Obviously the new-born is an addition to her family and an addition to the local community, but who can say what this child is going to achieve in the future? Not just for himself, his family or the local community, but for all mankind. And the Universe?

This amazing little boy is actually a new born soul in the entire Universe and should be welcomed as such. In the whole of the Universe there is not another soul like him. And I’m sure that in some distant galaxy on some remote planet another being has been born (as we call it) too. Exactly what that being is, or looks like, I have no idea. But I don’t think this entire Universe was created just for us.

How that distant race celebrates the creation of another of their kind I can’t even imagine – but whoever or whatever you are – welcome to the Universe.

Back to our friend’s little boy. We transmitted a SentForever eternal message for him that welcomed him into the Universe and into the amazing world of which he is now part. I’m not going to tell you the full message as that was personal to him and his parents, but our friend told us the words were so emotional that it brought tears to their eyes.

Maybe we should celebrate the birth of every new-born baby by welcoming them into the Universe. After all, they are a part of it – and who knows, maybe a very significant part….