Humans to meet aliens within next century but they may not be friendly, predicts physicist

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New Delhi: During a Reddit AMA last week, Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist, and futurist predicted that humans will come face to face with aliens for the first time within the next century.

However, he wasn't very certain about the nature of that encounter, saying that he wasn't sure whether it would be friendly.

On Thursday, Kaku was asked whether he thought we would make contact with alien civilizations. The professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York said that while he was sticking his neck out, he believed we would make contact within this century.

According to Kaku, radio technology may soon allow us to listen in on alien conversations. Just because we can hear them and know they are there, though, doesn’t mean we will understand what they are saying, Newsweek reported.

“Talking to them will be difficult since they could be tens of light years away,” explained Kaku. “So, in the meantime, we must decipher their language to understand their level of technology.”

If aliens stop by Earth for an in person (or in-creature) meeting, Kaku explained that the scenario could unfold in one of two ways: Either they are expansive and aggressive, similar to to the aliens in War of the Worlds, or they are peaceful and simply want to announce that they exist.

As per Newsweek, he said he thinks the latter “is unlikely since we would be like forest animals to them, that is, not worth communicating with.”

The search for alien life has been going on for years and those involved in alien hunting or UFO hunting have many a time, come close enough to provide evidence justifying it.

While many UFO/alien hunters from around the world have sworn that extraterrestrial life exists, NASA has dismissed these claims, leading alien hunters to believe that the space agency is deliberately trying to hide alien existence.

However, this is where the 'Zoo Theory' – a popular idea about alien contact – comes into the picture, which suggests that aliens know we exist and observe us without making contact, just like zookeepers, in order to allow us to evolve on our own, without outside interference.