Transcript of News Alert

TRANSCRIPT OF TGS NEWS BROADCAST
1700hrs, GMT+8 13 SEPTEMBER 2012
LIVE AND VIA SATELITE

Global Signal Editor: Good afternoon, and thank you for tuning in. I'm joined by The Global Signal's science correspondents, who are with us today via satellite. I'll get right to the matter at hand and turn this announcement over to Mr. Masaharu Nakagawa, Japanese Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Mr. Nakagawa.

Masaharu Nakagawa: Yes, thank you. Approximately 5 days ago the Nobeyama Radio Observatory in Nagano Prefecture detected a very strong radio signal. Subsequent sightings from the Mauna Kea observatories in Hawai'i confirmed our finding that this signal has its origin in 55 Cancri, a binary star system located 41 light years from Earth in the constellation Cancer. Upon detecting the signal, we immediately contacted other radio observatories around the world to verify our finding.

GS Editor: For more, we turn to Mr. David Willetts, European Union Minister of State for Universities and Science. Mr. Willetts.

David Willetts: When Minister Nakagawa called, we had time to direct our observatories at Effelsberg, Germany and the MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network) installations toward 55 Cancri. The rotation of the Earth meant that we had several hours of waiting, in which we could begin our own analysis of the signal detected at Nobeyama. What we found was startling, to say the least. Our findings confirmed the source location of the signal as 55 Cancri, and it became obvious to us that this was not a natural-occurring signal, such as we might pick up from a pulsar or some other radio-wave-emitting star.

GS Editor: To help explain why, Dr. Elizabeth Cannon, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, as well as the President of the University of Calgary, is here to clarify.

Elizabeth Cannon: Thank you, Editor. As scientists, it is our job to cast a skeptical eye toward everything we observe. As the American President Ronald Reagan often said, "Trust, but verify." Ideally, this caution prevents us from repeating such scandals as the cold fusion debacle, or the more recent announcement of faster-than-light tachyon particles. Naturally, when we in Canada heard of the so-called 55 Cancri "signal," we immediately began searching for alternate explanations. Could it have been from a naturally-occurring astronomical object? Could what we were hearing have come from a different source location, and somehow bounced off of the binary 55 Cancri system? Could black holes, such as the supermassive black holes recently discovered by NASA's WISE satellite (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), have interfered with a natural signal to make it appear to be purposive? We investigated all of these, and were forced to reject each hypothesis in turn. The signal appears to be a message sent by someone. Who? We do not know.

GS Editor: Adding the final piece to this puzzle is Dr. Myriam Adela, Latin American Union Minister for Science, Technology, and the Environment. Dr. Adela?

Myriam Adela: Thank you, Editor. Naturally occurring signals either follow regular patterns, as we find with pulsars, or produce a burst of radio "sound" that trails off, as with novas and supernovas. This signal does neither of those. As we heard at our own observatories in Pueblo and Chile, the signal follows a particular, repeating but non-regular pattern. As you can hear in this recording --

[Dr. Adela pauses as the signal is played.]

-- the signal contains pulses that create this sequence: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29. These are the first ten prime numbers. The signal reproduces the first 101 prime numbers, and then repeats itself. 101 is itself a prime number. We were confident that the appearance of the prime numbers is conclusive evidence that the signal was the product of intelligent life.

GS Editor: But that wasn't all we found. Minister Nakagawa, would you please inform us all as to what your team found inside the signal?

Masaharu Nakagawa: Yes, of course. At first, we believed the signal's structure to be evidence enough of highly-advanced extraterrestrial life. We had begun analyzing the various radio spectra of the signal as soon as we began to receive it, but with no success. It wasn't until we could combine the entire signal from observatories around the world that we found repeated, overlapping bits of code. Putting these together, what appeared to be randomness, merely "static," was revealed to be a visual signal, a schematic for a machine of unknown purpose and whose method of functioning remains... elusive.

David Willetts: My esteemed colleague is correct. We have no idea what, if anything, this machine does. Nonetheless, this is the single most exciting discovery in the history of humankind, and it behooves us as a people, irrespective of nationality, to pursue this to the fullest of our-

Elizabeth Cannon: Mr. Willetts, I would like to point out that any talk of actually constructing this... thing... is completely irresponsible. We have no idea what it would do to us and to our planet. And that ignores the fact that no one here knows how to build it, and the fact that if we were to even attempt to build it, the costs would be globally prohibitive, and-

GS Editor: Dr. Cannon, I believe Dr. Adela wishes to join the conversation. Dr. Adela?

Myriam Adela: Thank you, Editor. My learned friends are correct. The signal contains plans for a machine. The machine is currently beyond all of our technology and manufacturing skills, and would cost -- conservative estimates put the cost somewhere in the vicinity of $5 trillion dollars US.

[Elizabeth Cannon and David Willetts attempt to interrupt.]

Myriam Adela: NONETHELESS. [Cannon and Willetts fall silent.] The signal is very clear. We are to build the machine and to activate it at 0800hrs GMT on December 14th. Three months from tomorrow. So. We have a problem. We have a machine we can't build, that will do something we can't predict, at a cost we can't afford, and a deadline whose significance is unknown. What will happen on December 14th if we build and activate the machine? Do we dare to find out? Do we dare find out what happens if we don't activate it?

[All fall silent.]

GS Editor: Well. There you have it, folks. We are not, it would seem, alone. I have been informed by our science team that 55 Cancri was one of the stars targeted by METI, the so-called Message to Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. The METI message “Cosmic Call 2” was sent in July of 2003 to 55 Cancri and other stars, but that message should not have been received at 55 Cancri for 41 years – sometime in May of 2044. Obviously, something has sped that process up. That would also explain how a message sent a mere 9 years ago could produce a message so quickly from a system more than 40 light years away. There is so much we do not know.

It now falls to our leaders to decide what course humanity will follow. The Global Signal is in contact now with leaders from across the globe, and we will publish their decisions as they make them, right here on Global Signal's site, in their own words. They will announce the policy of their governments, and will, we can only hope, help us all to understand what forces led them to make those decisions, and how we can best support their decisions. Mankind stands on a precipice. May God help us all.