While scientists continue to try and find evidence of life existing on planets other than our own, an American astronomer named Seth Shostak argues for a new approach in this endeavor.
According to the Daily Star, Shostak, who works for the SETI Institute, suggested that searching for planets that can sustain human life may not be such a good idea when the goal is to look for aliens, since, if the latter are “intelligent enough to seek out Earth, they will probably have gone beyond biological smarts and, indeed, beyond biology itself.”
"If extraterrestrials come to Earth, the ensuing scenario would be quite different than picking up an alien radio signal or detecting a flashing laser in the sky, modes of discovery being pursued by my colleagues and myself," he added. "The aliens producing such signals will be light years away, and their appearance and intentions wouldn’t be of much concern. But those of anyone landing their spacecraft on our turf would be."
Shostak also reportedly claimed that a "human-centered" point of view may not be a good thing in the quest to search for aliens out there, as conditions on planets capable of hosting as yet hypothetical alien life can turn out to be quite different from those on Earth.