Beatles to Polaris

Tomorrow, NASA will beam the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into space, towards Polaris, using the Deep Space Network. The DSN is the system of radio telescopes around the world that allows NASA to stay in comtact with its far-flung probes. The beaming is in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th of the DSN, and the 50th of NASA.

Clearly, NASA sees this action as harmless fun, uniting a pop culture legend and geekdom, if only for a few minutes. NASA is probably right. However, there is a bigger picture. Some argue that we shouldn't be calling attention to ourselves. A more advanced civilization, once it knew of our existence, would be in the position to decide our fate, or so the concern goes. There are several huge assumptions underlying that worry that no doubt say more about ourselves than about any theoretical aliens, but at this point in time, possibilities are all we have in this area.

It's also true that Earth continually broadcasts its existence in the radio spectrum as broadcast signals from commercial stations to military users fly into space. Such disjointed, broad spectrum noise is inevitable for a civilization of our level, however; some risks simply cannot be avoided. Using tight, directed radio beams to sed signals into space for no particular reason, on the other hand, may not be the best idea.