UFO (2018)

David Strathairn: Franklin Ahls

Quotes 

• Franklin Ahls : The sighting at CVG wasn't the first. There were others. And every time we tried to establish contact with them using a variation of the Arecibo signal, we failed. They put the Fine-Structure Constant in their message to build a common mathematical language.

  Derek : Uh...

  Franklin Ahls : I didn't know it could be used for determining intelligence. In the new signal we received today, there are 19 decimal places. We can only measure it to 12. And this one is much more complex than anything we've seen. The last one was 14-bit, but this one is 42-bit. And not only is it laid out on a grid, it's three-dimensional. Which tells us a couple of things. One...

  Derek : They're a hell of a lot smarter than us.

  Franklin Ahls : And two, when we're trying to find them, we might be off by a lot. In their first signal, they sent two-dimensional coordinates here on Earth. In this new signal, I believe they sent...

  Derek : Three-dimensional coordinates in space.

  Franklin Ahls : Well, the focus of research now is not that it changes throughout the universe, but that it changes over time.

  Derek : Okay, so we have to work out a more accurate way of measuring the FSC.

  Franklin Ahls : Which means developing new technologies, new theories. And that could take five years or 500. Or five months, with your help. And you do understand what this means?

  Derek : We're not alone.

• Franklin Ahls : I'm not an astrophysicist so thank you for coming. I just want to ask you a few questions about the Fine-Structure Constant. I'm told that you could shed some light on it, how it could be used as a benchmark for determining intelligence or pinpointing a location in space.

  Female Astrophysicist : Using the FSC to determine intelligence is fairly straightforward, but using it to pinpoint a location in space is problematic. Say the FSC is different in different parts of space, which there's essentially no evidence of. If the FSC did depend on things like local density, and if two places, way far apart from each other had the same local density, they might also have the same FSC. And if you gave that number to someone, how would they know which place to go?

  Franklin Ahls : But if we had more than one, couldn't we use them the same way we use pulsars to pinpoint locations? Over a much greater distance, obviously?

  Female Astrophysicist : The idea that it's different in different parts of space isn't really the focus of research now.

  Franklin Ahls : You know, I have a room full of scientists who haven't been able to explain anything to me.

• Franklin Ahls : [talking to a room full of astrophysics]  I wonder if they've got anything to do with the Fine-Structure Constant. Can anyone explain to me how this can be used for determining intelligence? As well as pinpointing a location in space? How come we don't know everything there is to know about this number? People? I guarantee you, if this was the Manhattan Project or you all were trying to decode the Enigma machine, things would be a little bit different in here. So, I'm gonna try to put this in a little bit of perspective for you. Ten to the sixteen watts of energy. Now, I know you're all familiar with the Kardashev Scale, Type I, Type ll, Type lll civilizations. Type I is a global civilization that controls an energy level roughly equivalent to all of the solar energy striking the planet's surface. Ten to the sixteen or seventeen watts. Type ll controls all the energy from a star and Type lll is galactic. Right now, we are about a Type 0.7. We are becoming a global civilization, but we are not quite there yet. We control... roughly ten to the 13 watts of energy. Now, scientists like you, have calculated that we might possibly make the transition to a Type I in the next hundred years or so, if we don't destroy ourselves first. We should see evidence of Type I, Type ll, Type lll civilizations everywhere in the universe, if they existed, but what have we found so far? Nothing, which makes me think it's either very rare or impossible to make that first step to becoming a Type I, but whatever, or whomever, showed up at CVG the other day, traveled huge distances to get here. They have a mastery of space travel that, well, we can't even begin to understand. Chances are they have made that first step, maybe even the second. And we need to find out how they did it and learn from that because I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure we can't do it on our own.