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00:00 Has alien life ever been to Earth?

00:02 Is it on Earth right now?

00:04 If not, then does it know of our planet and is it watching us?

00:07 In answering these questions, we could go one of two ways.

00:11 The conspiracy theory route is well-trod, claiming, as it so often does, that there's

00:16 more than likely some kind of massive, global cover-up that's messing with our heads.

00:21 However, the question of aliens is one that a number of less contentious scientists and

00:26 researchers are trying to answer as well.

00:28 And with one theory in particular, we might finally have solved one of cosmology's biggest

00:33 problems.

00:34 This is Unveiled, and today we're answering the extraordinary question; have aliens already

00:39 sent their DNA to Earth?

00:43 Do you need the big questions answered?

00:45 Are you constantly curious?

00:46 Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more clips like this one?

00:49 And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content!

00:54 The Fermi Paradox is really a cornerstone of contemporary scientific inquiry.

00:59 Famously put forward by the Italian-American, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Enrico Fermi

01:04 sometime in 1950, during a lunch break conversation with his friends and colleagues, it asks,

01:10 where are all the aliens?

01:12 Despite the seemingly overwhelming likelihood that they must exist, Fermi wanted to know

01:16 why we hadn't heard from them.

01:18 More than seventy years later, and the situation is unchanged.

01:22 The paradox is still in play, as we still haven't discovered alien life.

01:26 So, what's going on?

01:28 Are we just a seriously slow species?

01:31 And despite all of our apparent technological advancement, are we just still so hugely behind

01:36 the rest of the universe that we can't even reach or recognise new life in general?

01:41 Well, actually, that is one possibility.

01:43 But another is that, in recent times especially, we have gotten closer and closer to uncovering

01:49 the truth.

01:50 It's just that we're looking in ever-so-slightly the wrong places.

01:54 Theories on information panspermia suggest that everything we need could be all around

01:59 us already.

02:00 It's simply a matter of identifying the data that's required, and decoding it.

02:05 General panspermia is the theory that life could pervade throughout the universe.

02:09 Of course, we know it's on Earth.

02:11 But panspermia says that maybe our planet isn't so special after all.

02:15 Instead, life is carried via a number of means through the cosmos.

02:19 Even dust and gas, for example.

02:21 And so it actually collects and distributes anywhere and everywhere.

02:25 In fact, according to advocates, it's potentially how life got to Earth in the first place.

02:31 Rather than abiogenesis during the earliest stages of evolution, it was panspermia that

02:36 seeded this world to flourish into what it's become.

02:39 Or that's the idea, anyway.

02:41 There are extensions to and specifications of the theory, though, including directed

02:46 panspermia - which is the notion that none of this universal spreading is at random.

02:51 For those backing the directed kind, life not only exists throughout the universe, it's

02:56 also deliberately guided to where certain, higher groups want it to go.

03:00 Interestingly, the British biologist Francis Crick, most famous for his role in unpicking

03:05 the double helix structure of DNA, was said to be an early proponent for this way of thinking.

03:11 In the early 1970s, almost twenty years after his DNA breakthroughs, Crick suggested that

03:17 advanced, intelligent lifeforms may have sent the first bits of life - namely proteins - to

03:22 Earth via a futuristic means of high-speed space travel.

03:26 It should be said, though, that in later years Crick did row back on some of those ideas.

03:31 Nevertheless, there are other versions of panspermia, too.

03:34 And when it comes to alien DNA, perhaps "information panspermia" is where we should really be looking.

03:40 Information of the term is attributed to the Armenian physicist Vahe Gherzadyan, and while

03:45 it doesn't have quite as full a history as most other panspermia models, many believe

03:50 that this one really could provide the answers we've been searching for.

03:53 In short, that it really could solve the Fermi Paradox.

03:58 Information panspermia envisages that life might easily be passed around through space

04:02 if it's compressed down into reconstructable data.

04:06 By way of explaining this, Gherzadyan expands on a term usually more closely associated

04:11 with computer science - Kolmogorov Complexity, otherwise known as Algorithmic Complexity.

04:17 It's a measure used to determine the simplest and shortest way that any one thing or object

04:23 can be translated down into a code that could then be used to reproduce that thing or object

04:30 at some other time or place.

04:32 In general, it's an essential idea in the terms of the speed, efficiency and accuracy

04:36 of digital programming.

04:38 With theories on information panspermia, though, the same concept is applied to something far

04:43 more consequential from our point of view - life itself.

04:46 To some degree, human DNA - the human genome - is also just a long line of bits of information.

04:53 The same goes for any animal, plant or any life form at all.

04:57 Strip it all back to the very bare essentials and the genetic code is, well, a code.

05:02 And it can be reproduced.

05:03 What's especially interesting is that, with human DNA in particular, contemporary research

05:08 suggests that it isn't even that complicated to begin with.

05:12 There are changing perspectives at play here, but in some sense all that we really are is

05:17 a trackable series of repeating patterns.

05:20 It may have taken millions of years to flesh us out with bodies and brains, but that can

05:25 still be boiled down to "just information" presented in a certain way.

05:31 So, could that information then be sent elsewhere?

05:34 That's what information panspermia would be.

05:37 DNA translated into radio waves, sent across the cosmos at the speed of light, so that

05:42 life may naturally appear essentially anywhere that will allow for it.

05:46 It's a potentially history-breaking and world-shattering thought, both in terms of our own life story

05:52 and in the search for alien life, as well.

05:54 On the one hand, it could be speculated that life on Earth is only here, as the result

05:58 of information panspermia, at some point in our planet's distant past.

06:02 Much as Francis Crick had once suggested that physical proteins may have been beamed here

06:07 from some distant galaxies, is it actually more possible that just the "information"

06:12 for those proteins was sent as though ahead of time?

06:15 On the other hand, and in taking ourselves out of the picture for the moment, if information

06:19 panspermia is viable, then might advanced enough civilizations already be doing it?

06:25 It would certainly be one way to travel at the speed of light.

06:28 And we of course know that the universe is full of variously unidentified light signals,

06:33 many of which do reach Earth.

06:35 Could it be, then, that we're already seeing alien life all around us?

06:39 It's just that we've so far been unable to identify it?

06:42 It's certainly one implication of the information panspermia theory, and as a result, one potential

06:47 answer to the Fermi Paradox, suggesting that aliens do exist, and they are here… it's

06:53 just that we need to catch up enough to view and eventually host them.

06:56 Quite how the receiver of this kind of panspermia would do that - would convert and rebuild

07:01 it into life at their end of the communication - is difficult to imagine.

07:05 But then, that would make sense if it's simply the case that humankind is simply not

07:09 advanced enough to do so at the moment.

07:11 That might bruise the ego of our species, but in a universe of infinite possibilities,

07:16 that doesn't really matter.

07:17 So, what do you think?

07:19 Modern ideas on panspermia have been discussed for more than a century.

07:23 The first mention of information panspermia came in 2005, in a paper written by Vahe Gurzajan.

07:30 Our understanding of the human genome has rapidly improved in just the last few years.

07:35 But does that mean that we could one day send ourselves to other worlds, in the hope of

07:39 our species being rebuilt and recovered there?

07:42 And on the other side, does it suggest that a more advanced alien force might already

07:47 be doing the same thing - waiting patiently for the penny (and their data) to drop on

07:53 Earth?

07:54 Importantly, panspermia of any kind is not the leading theory for how life emerged on

07:58 Earth itself.

08:00 Science is reasonably confident in models on abiogenesis, most notably involving the

08:05 organic emergence of life in and around deep-sea thermal vents billions of years ago.

08:11 The idea, then, that we could be the result of information panspermia is highly speculative

08:16 and controversial.

08:17 However, the notion that it could be possible in general does seemingly hold some merit.

08:23 The algorithmic complexity of life as we know it could, it seems, enable it all to be reduced

08:29 down enough to truly travel the universe.

08:32 That's a pretty exciting prospect, when you think about it… and it's why aliens may

08:37 well have already sent their DNA to Earth.

08:41 What do you think?

08:42 Is there anything we missed?

08:43 Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you

08:47 subscribe and ring the bell for our latest content.

Have Aliens Already Sent Their DNA To Earth? | Unveiled

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