THE FUTURISTIC COMMITTEE ON

COMMUNICATION WITH THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL.

“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of Kepler-Spacecraft. Its thirty five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

Revised from Star Trek

STUDY GUIDE

Director: Moderator: A. Director:

Sumona Banerji Nihar Chitre Dheer Modi

DIRECTOR’S NOTE

Dear delegates Welcome to the future! You are now in 2050 A.D., and the human race has just found the answer to one of the most baffling questions ever asked in history…are we alone in the universe? The answer is, no. Kepler-442b also know as ’Kepler Object of Interest’ designation KOI-4742.01, a planet 1,120 light-years away from earth has been detected with life. After 35 years of speculation and extensive research, the NASA’s Keplar Spacecraft has reached an 85% confirmation of life based on the planet’s size, density, temperature, atmospheric composition, climate and the presence of liquid water. This startling discovery is both exciting and frightening and calls for immediate and collective action. For the first time, we must not make decisions as countries, but Earth as a whole. A little about myself- I am a girl who believes in doing what she loves because life is short. Being deeply passionate about dance and theatre, I plan on following it as my life career. I am successfully trained in Indian classical dance (odyssey), hip-hop, contemporary and jive. I have also trained in martial arts and football. I love camping, trekking, deep sea diving, river rafting, paragliding, mountain climbing and unfortunately everything that potentially scares my parents to death. I enjoy adventures and challenges…and this is my next challenge!

I find debates, discussions on political/social issues and absolutely anything related to space, freakishly exhilarating! I hope to be successful in instigating that level of excitement in all my delegates. A part of me is stern, but a greater part of me is one of the most friendliest and approachable people you will meet. Your Moderator Nihar Chitre is an inspiring and ambitious yet, an extremely down to earth person. He is an enthusiastic speaker; interested in sci-fi, history, politics and world affairs. He has a remarkable memory, ever flowing creativity and a knack for factual accuracy which almost makes him a walking Wikipedia on world events of the past and the present and those that may take place in the future. Your Assistant Director Dheer Modi is a man who is dependable, responsible and ever ready to help when you need him. He is great at sound and tech and enjoys composing his own music and is also a talented dancer. A brilliant brush stroke of creativity along with the paints of a confidant, sweet and approachable color, portrays him to be a competent assistant director to this committee. The debate entails drafting a protocol that must be followed in case of direct contact with these beings.

1 How should Earth initiate communication? 2 What happens if the aliens are hostile? 3 What are the risks and measures of such communication? 4 Who shall be presented as the world leader?

This decision has only two futures; the expansion of life or the extinction of humanity. The fate of the human race now lies in your hands.

TOPIC ESSENSE

A 100 billion stars in the sky…and now, one with life. Unrealistic as it may seem, mankind’s pertinacious and zealous endeavor to find our closest neighbors in the universe has finally paid off. Since the days of our earliest ancestors exploring the plains of Africa, to Apollo 11’s historic landing on the moon, we humans have been ceaselessly driven by a fiery instinct to explore. The last couple of decades have resulted in a booming technological advancement. NASA’s spacecraft Kepler has been able to stretch to the furthest reaches of our galaxy and has successfully redirected signals and messages back to earth that indicate the presence of life on Kepler-442; designation KOI-4742.01, a planet 1,120 light-years away. The United Nation’s Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) had announced in 2012 that it would consider drafting protocols for what to do when we finally make contact with extra-terrestrial civilization in space. The UN had already considered the possibility that soon after, our satellites (Kepler and Corot) would identify earth-like planets in space. It is time delegates! The protocol must be drafted so that Earth can give a unified, coherent response. However, there are several problems facing such an attempt. If the SETI Project can eavesdrop on messages from extra-terrestrial civilizations, then it will take many decades and centuries for us to return the message, because the aliens are more than a thousand light years away. So it would be a one-way conversation. Even a simple conversation would be impossible. All we can do is listen to their communications.

Secondly, it is mandatory to draft a method that would help us find out if the aliens are hostile or not. Or we will end up with only one option and that is monitoring them for years, before actively trying to reach out to them. Third, the only way that a two-way dialog can take place with such aliens is if they actually visit us. But that would mean direct contact with them. The problem here is that, if they can travel such vast distances to reach us from distant stars, then they have probably already done so, and have been observing us for years. So, we can have no guarantee of the efficiency and usefulness of our protocols.

POINT TO NOTE

When making nearly 35 years worth of predictions, we’re bound to deviate from real outcomes more than once. Assumptions based on assumptions tend to produce less than robust simulations, so we ask that you accept the contents of this study guide at face value. Apart from fitting our predictions into a reasonable-length study guide, we have also endeavored to design updates that make for an interesting committee dynamic. If you find loopholes or unlikely events in this study guide, rest assured that we have also.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

1. Australia, 2. Brazil, 3. China, 4. France, 5. Germany, 6. Indonesia, 7. India, 8. Iran, 9. Iraq, 10. Italy, 11. Japan, 12. Malaysia, 13. Netherlands, 14. Pakistan, 15. Poland, 16. Republic of Korea, 17. the Russian Federation, 18. Saudi Arabia, 19. South Africa, 20. Sweden, 21. Switzerland, 22. Thailand, 23. the United Kingdom of Great Britain 24. United Ireland, 25. the United States of America, 26. Viet Nam

27 Argentina, 28 Armenia, 29 Austria, 30 Azerbaijan, 31 Belgium, 32 Burkina Faso, 33 Chile, 34 Cuba, 35 Egypt, 36 Hungary, 37 Jordan, 38 Kazakhstan, 39 Philippines, 40 Portugal, 41 Syrian Arab Republic, 42 Turkey, 43 Israel 44 European Space Agency 45 Algeria 46 Canada, 47 Kenya, 48 Bulgaria 49 Czech Republic, 50 Spain, 51 Singapore 52 North Korea (DPRK)

GEO-POLITICAL SITUATION

ASIA SOUTH EAST ASIA

India, China and Pakistan have grown far more powerful economically and in military strength than they were in the beginning of the century. China and India are now considered global superpowers almost at par with Russia and the United States. India is now a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council but without veto power.

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Pakistan’s defense forces have grown stronger and are considered one the most efficient in Asia and have remained a stable democracy for the last 20 years. They are now the undisputed leader of the Islamic world. While India is a thriving democracy and prides itself on being so, China remains under the authoritarian rule of the Communist Party of China. The growing resentment in China erupted into a popular and heated revolution against the government in January 2050 (this year), which was thought to be crushed by the Chinese government. The UNO has not yet received any confirmation on the present situation within the country. The is evidence of an ongoing subtle cold war between Russia, China and the USA. Even though China has made attempts for truce, it is developing at a rapid rate and is still perceived as a potential threat by USA and Russia. India’s meteoric development in technology and weaponry has enabled it to come at par with the global powers but remains non-aligned in accordance with its historic policy and hence is not considered a threat.

As the entire world changed around, so did Japan. In 2041 (mark the irony), after decades of failed attempts, the Japanese constitution was finally amended, allowing further militarization and deployment of troops abroad. Enthusiasm to make up for years of missed opportunity, coupled with an extremely large increase in the Defense Budget led to rapid militarization, significant increase in troops and development of offensive and defensive military technology.

JAPAN

EUROPE

The European Union was dissolved and the common currency of the world’s largest trading bloc, the Euro, was abolished. It started with a “Grexit”, where Greece was finally, inevitably forced out of the EU for raising collective borrowing costs and for highly unreasonable levels of debt. Decades of low birthrates in developed countries, especially in Europe, have resulted in dramatic cultural, social, and political shifts through the first half of the 21st century. These countries have experienced economic and social strain, caused by an increasingly smaller working age demographic and a rapidly aging population. As a result, in the decades of the 2020s and 2030s, Western nations have begun to compete for immigrants. In particular, the United States has greatly eased immigration controls, and is beginning trying to entice foreigners - especially Mexicans - to immigrate to the United States.

AMERICA

The United States of America has grown immensely over the last few years into a nuclear superpower. It is known to be one of the most reticent members of the UN. USA contains a lot of confidential facts, information and scientific data regarding the various space exploration programmes as well as new advanced methods of nuclear weaponry, contained in secret research bases, the whereabouts and position of which is currently undisclosed not only to the public but also the members of the UN. USA, Russia and China are engaged in a subtle cold war which has been evident in numerous events and situations in the past.

THE DISBELIEVERS

Iraq, Iran and The Democratic Peoples Republic Of Korea along with a few other allied countries share the belief that the entire theory of potential life is a farce and is an extremely elaborate plan devised by the superpowers that justifies their intended accumulation of nuclear weaponry and WMDs, in order to make themselves absolute powers. It is an attempt to replicate the mad race of armaments like that of the circumstances created prior to 1914 which led to the First World War. They believe fostering such a situation, is a potential trigger to what could to be called a third world war.

GENERAL INFORMATION

After the International Space Station mission was ended in 2027, the world was not in a very cooperative mood, to say the least, so most nations and/or blocs began to launch their own space stations. In a bid to consolidate its newfound superpower status, China launched its very own space station. Not to be outdone, India followed, setting off a chain reaction, which caused Pakistan to (at great expense) launch a small space station of its own. The United States, England, France, Russia, and Israel, with pre-existing space programs, were able to easily launch their own stations. South Korea and Japan collaborated to launch an East Asian Station. Germany collaborated with other European nations - countries like Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland, to launch the European Associated Station. Iran, with its newly acquired rocket technology and pre-existing focus on science, had no trouble sending up its own space station. North Korea, surprisingly enough, also managed to launch a station of its own. Suspicions abound as to how and from where they were able to acquire such technology, in contravention of internationally imposed sanctions. Fingers are most often pointed at North Korea’s closest allies.

While all the above space stations vary in their sophistication, size, cost, and estimated life span, they have one thing in common - they are legally bound by the now-antiquated but still applicable Outer-Space Treaty of 1967, which disallowed WMDs and nuclear weapons in space except during crisis such as an extra-terrestrial invasion or attack. This Treaty was followed until 2085, when an unknown belligerent space station severely damaged the European Associated Space station with a ballistic missile.

The source remains unknown, but rumors and accusations have been flying, and many fingers have pointed to the Russian space station as the source of the missile. These remain unconfirmed, but the EAS is back to full operational status. In the mean time, almost every space station has been unofficially militarized. The capabilities of these space stations, as mentioned in the below Weapons technology section, extends from space-to-space and space-to-ground warfare, up to still-untested interplanetary warfare.

Communication with a planet over a 1000 light years away is next to impossible. Signals sent from the Keplar to the planet, planet back to the Keplar and from the Keplar to earth will take over a thousand years to receive because nothing can travel faster than light. Not even frequency signals. So, if light takes a thousand years to travel, it will take a far longer time for a complete signal circuit.

COMMUNICATION

Earlier we anticipated that the only mode of direct communication thus, would be if the unknown being physically landed on our planet. But that is not just a far fetched idea, but is also a highly dangerous one as we do not know what they are and aren’t capable of. There needs to be a drafted protocol in case of hostility.

But recently, USA has been suspected of hiding the successful invention of what is called ‘Warp Drive Technology’. This device was believed to be purely fictional as it entails bending the rules of space-time. Ever since the sound barrier was broken, people have turned their attention to how we can break the light speed barrier.

For instance, if you roll one

HOW IT IS ASSUMED TO WORK Newton's Third Law of Motion. You've probably heard it before -- this law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It simply means that for every interaction between two objects, a pair of forces is working on both of them.

billiard ball straight into another one that's at rest, they will both exert an equal force on each other. The moving ball will hit the ball at rest and push it away, but it will also be pushed back by the latter. In order to sidestep the issue of Newton's Third Law of Motion and the impossibility of matter traveling faster than the speed of light, we can look to Einstein and the relationship between space and time. Taken together, space, consisting of three dimensions (up-down, left-right, and forward-backward) and time are all part of what's called the space-time continuum. It's important to understand Einstein's work on the space-time continuum and how it relates to the Enterprise traveling through space. In his Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein states two postulates:

1 The speed of light (about 300,000,000 meters per second) is the same for all observers, whether or not they're moving.

2 Anyone moving at a constant speed should observe the same physical laws

According to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, matter bends the fabric of space and time. The distortion of the space-time continuum

even affects the behavior of light

Putting these two ideas together, Einstein realized that space and time are relative -- an object in motion actually experiences time at a slower rate than one at rest. Although this may seem absurd to us, we travel incredibly slow when compared to the speed of light, so

we don't notice the hands on our watches ticking slower when we're running or traveling on an airplane. Scientists have actually proved this phenomenon by sending atomic clocks up with high-speed rocket ships. They returned to Earth slightly behind the clocks on the ground. How does this help us? The closer an object gets to the speed of light, that object actually experiences time at a significantly slower rate. If the spacecraft were traveling safely at close to the speed of light to the center of our galaxy from Earth, it would take 25,000 years of Earth time. For the spacecraft, however, the trip would probably only take 10 years. Although that timeframe might be possible for spacecraft, we're presented with yet another problem -- a Federation attempting to run an intergalactic civilization would run into some problems if it took 50,000 years for a spaceship to hit the center of our galaxy and come back. So a spaceship has to avoid the speed of light in order to keep in synch with Federation time. At the same time, it also must reach speeds faster than that of light in order to move around the universe in an efficient manner. Unfortunately, as Einstein states in his Special Theory of Relativity, nothing is faster than the speed of light. Space travel therefore would be impossible if we're looking at the special relativity.

That's why we need to look at Einstein's later theory, the General Theory of Relativity, which describes how gravity affects the shape of space and flow of time. Imagine a stretched-out sheet. If you place a bowling ball in the middle of the sheet, the sheet will warp as the weight of the ball pushes down on it. If you place a baseball on the same sheet, it will roll towards the bowling ball. This is a simple design, and space doesn't act like a two-dimension bed sheet, but it can be applied to something like our solar system -- more massive objects like our sun can warp space and affect the orbits of the surrounding planets. The planets don't fall into the sun, of course, because of the high speeds at which they travel. The ability to manipulate space is the most important concept in regard to warp speed. If the Spaceship could warp the space-time continuum by expanding the area behind it and contracting the area in front, it could avoid going the speed of light. As long as it creates its own gravitational field, the starship could travel locally at very slow velocities, therefore avoiding the pitfalls of Newton's Third Law of Motion and keeping clocks in sync with its launch site and destination. The ship isn't really traveling at a "speed," per se -- it's more like it's pulling its destination toward it while pushing its starting point back. The warp drive is powered by matter-antimatter reactions, which are regulated by a substance called dilithium. This reaction creates highly-energetic plasma known as electro-plasma, a type of matter with its own magnetic field, which reacts with the ship's warp coils. The warp coils are typically enclosed in what is called a warp nacelle. The whole package creates a "warp field" or "bubble" around the Ship, allowing the ship to remain safe while space manipulates around it.

- Your Director

POSITION PAPERS

This is a single delegation committee; every delegate is required to submit one position paper. We recommend that delegates wait until the Extended Information Guide is released on the SMUN website to finalize their position papers, as there will be substantive material in the Extended Information Guide that delegates should consider. I hope you have a lot of fun! This is a great platform to explore your creativity. Remember, because this committee is in the future, you are permitted to form any policy you deem fit as long as it is within the mandate of the committee and your country. Hope to see you soon! BEST OF LUCK!

For any doubts and queries please contact us on : futuristic.smun2015@gmail.com