Open hailing frequencies! Star Trek’s Anson Mount joins the board of METI, a non-profit sending messages to outer space
Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike in Star Trek: Discovery
NOVEMBER 18, 2020 - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ Anson Mount has joined an ambitious effort to try and contact extraterrestrial civilizations.
In a statement yesterday, the organization METI (short for Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence) announced that Mount, along with a few others, will be joining their Board of Directors. “It is a distinct privilege to be asked to join the outstanding scientists, artists, and innovators that make up the METI team,” Mount said. “As a Starfleet Captain, it brings me unbridled joy to be able to say that I am actually sending out a hail.”
ANNOUNCEMENT: I am deeply honored to have joined this incredible group of scientists, linguists, & thinkers who are collaborating to take on what’s perhaps the greatest creative challenge in the history of our species. More to come in the days, weeks, & centuries ahead. @METIintl https://t.co/yJeirKE5JX
— Anson Mount (@ansonmount) November 17, 2020
METI is an organization devoted to the branch of extraterrestrial study known as Active SETI. SETI (short for “Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence”) is a broad term covering a number of search methods, including Active SETI (like the METI organization) and the more commonly-known Passive SETI. Passive SETI covers things like monitoring deep space signals for signs of life, whereas Active SETI involves transmitting messages to deep space, in the hopes that someone will hear us.
Active SETI endeavors are somewhat controversial, and the SETI scientific community is not agreed on whether broadcasting to potential alien species is a good idea. This controversy has given rise to what’s known as the “SETI Paradox”. That term was first used in a 2006 paper by physicist Alexander Zaitsev, and poses the question: if all alien races (including our own) are willing to passively search for life, but not willing to actively search for it, will we ever find each other?
While Active SETI efforts are not universally agreed upon, they are nonetheless allowed. Enter METI, a San Francisco-based nonprofit whose aim is to facilitate scientific research in Active SETI. Anson Mount will join the Board of Directors with Dalia Rawson, Director of the New Ballet Studio Company out of San Jose, California, and Ian Roberts, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. METI’s 10-person Board of Directors takes guidance from an advisory council of over 90 leaders in diverse disciplines from across the globe.
Mount first met METI’s founder, Douglas Vakoch, when he interviewed him for his podcast The Well. Vakoch said of Mount joining the board, “We’re delighted to welcome Anson to METI’s leadership team as we continue to reach out to other worlds, letting them know we want to make first contact.”
You can learn more about METI at METI.org, and if you’d like to listen to Mount’s two-part interview with Vakoch for The Well, you can do so at thewellpod.com.
