How crowdfunding can help us find aliens

I can't think of many things that would change the global economy more than finding out that we're not alone in the universe.

Other intelligent species out in the cosmos may have advanced technology to share with us — which would obviously be a potentially huge economic stimulus here on Earth. Or perhaps they'd want to wage war against us and wipe us out. But even if there are hostile species out there, it is better that we know about them as early as possible so we have a better chance to make massive investments to try to defend ourselves.

Meeting intelligent alien species may also provide new markets for us to sell goods. And even the discovery of primitive life — say, in the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa — would greatly enrich human scientific knowledge by giving us a new tree of evolutionary life to study.

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So far, the search for extraterrestrial life has been a failure. After scanning the skies with radio telescopes for more than 50 years, despite discovering a few interesting anomalies, we haven't picked up any alien broadcasts. But scientists have not given up hope, especially now that we are detecting Earth-sized planets in Earth-like orbits — meaning they're the right temperature for liquid water — around other stars.

Funding for large, open-ended projects like the hunt for alien life has been difficult to secure in the past. Such initiatives don't promise any immediate return or immediate industrial applications for investors. So funding is mostly limited to those who hope to see the initiative succeed for nonfinancial reasons.

But now, investors concerned or excited about the possibility of discovering alien life may soon have the option of purchasing a hedge against it.

In an article for the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Jacob Haqq-Misra of the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science has an idea for a new way to fund research. Business Insider reports:

Haqq-Misra offers more detail:

Lottery bond issues — like crowdfunding — could also be useful for other enigmatic projects that struggle to attract government and industry funding. Science crowdfunding projects like petridish.org have already attracted money for projects including tracking pacific Orca whales, studying wolves near Lake Superior, and research into human-animal disease transmission.

A world in which scientists can appeal directly to an increasingly scientifically literate public for funds instead of having to rely on approval by government or industry would be a much brighter one. It would allow funding for a huge range of projects, not just initiatives with applications (e.g., military applications) desired by government and industry.

And if that leads to the discovery of alien life, all the better.

Editor's note: This article has been revised since it was first published in order to more clearly include proper attribution to source material.