My fascination with extraterrestrial beings has not waned. From the first time I saw "Invaders from Mars" as a kid, my instinct told me there must be something beyond our reality. And this might not just be hocus pocus. An article I read on Thursday says that researchers using AI have come up with possible evidence of radio signals from faraway stars. I want to believe something lies beyond us. As the years go on, I've grown wearier of man's inhumanity to man. It gives me hope to think there could be a more civilized society somewhere out there. 

Don't misunderstand. There are superb people on our planet doing invaluable and selfless work--creating advances and services that will benefit us all. Many decent folks do great things, like volunteering at food banks, schools, hospitals, or senior centers. But the viciousness, crime, and racism in the world sometimes feel like it overshadows the good. Creatures living in other dimensions might have gotten it 'more right' and lived together more harmoniously. 

Science fiction movie makers have always had a field day with the topic. From "Star Trek" to "Star Wars" to "Planet of the Apes," the minds of cinematographers throw us into other dimensions where inhabitants might not share humankind's characteristics. Could there be other creatures who may or may not resemble us, striving to make advances in technology, medicine, and the arts, as we are?

According to research from a team at the University of Toronto in Canada, a machine-operated algorithm detected eight radio signals coming out of five stars far away. The balls of light are 30 to 90 lightyears from Earth. A light year is the amount of time light travels in an Earth year and is a distance of 6 trillion miles from Earth.

For example, the sun is 93 million miles away from us, which equals 0.00001581 light-years (have you gotten your calculator out yet?!?) So assuming we could travel at the speed of light, it would take about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach the sun. If this analysis helps, then the closest star where scientists caught radio signals would take at least 9 and half years to reach, traveling via the speed of light--conventionally thought of as 186,000 miles per second. 

The "technosignatures" that have been picked up by the sensitive telescopes could be transmitted by aliens from other cultures. Scientists in Toronto have streamlined a process using AI to weed out other radio interference. 

It would be phenomenal if we are receiving communication from other cultures. Is this possible? Brilliant people way above my scope of intellect say 'maybe.' The late physicist Steven Hawkins said extraterrestrial life is possible but the likelihood we'll come into contact with aliens is unlikely. He noted, "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet." Dr. Hawkins supported Breakthrough Listen--collecting data from radio waves to search for civilizations outside Earth.