Why the Silence from E.T.?

Humorous, but as in all good humor, a kernel of truth? I was thinking on this very thought for awhile - would advanced, especially postbiologic, beings either destroy themselves or get so wrapped up in virtual reality technology that they turn inwards and not actively care about technologically primitive aliens (not care enough to contact them)?



Reference:
Weiner, Zac. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. 18 Sept. 2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2010.

The Visitors...

The Visitors arrive...


Yet another alien invasion show. Not that that's a bad thing (the show that is - alien invasion would be a bad thing). I am looking forward to the re-imagining of the 80's series. However, it got me to thinking again about the possible motivations for an alien species to invade the Earth, and the many difficulties involved with invading an already populated planet.

1. Atmosphere: a sentient species will be evolved to their specific environment. Slight changes can prove to be very toxic. An alien invading Earth would need to be able to breathe our particular blend of gasses. That would be a rare alien. Ah, but what about spacesuits or masks? True, those would help, but then why take over a planet that you can not breathe unassisted on? I would think it be easier to terraform a barren, or nearly so, planet than to "terraform" one with an already fully developed ecosystem. Though as mentioned in previous posts, postbiologic / robotic sentience creatures probably can withstand a very wide range of atmospheres.
   
   
2. Nutrition/Dietetics: a sentient species coming to Earth to use us as food would run the risk of finding us to be indigestible or even poisonous. Even if their genetics/physiology are somehow close to ours (that DNA is somehow a normal result of biochemical processes leading to life in the universe), there are many example on Earth where food that is nutritious to one creature, is not nutritious to another (and may even be poisonous). Of course, if the aliens find Earth life to be eatable, it stands to reason that Earth life would, in turn, find the aliens eatable as well, from mammalian predators to invertebrate parasites.
   
   But it is more likely that our physiological makeup will be too different to be of any use dietetic use. The To Serve Man recipe book would not be a top seller for aliens. Although if Earth animals were heavily processed, the aliens possibly could get some food value from them - but a lot of work for little return. Why not find a suitable barren planet, terraform it, and raise food more suitable to their physiology? If the aliens are postbiologic, which many think aliens would probably be (a next natural step in evolution for sentient species), they probably do not need biological food anymore anyway.
   
   
3. Disease/Immunity: I have read conflicting opinions on this matter. One opinion is that humans and disease have evolved side by side - it's a continual arms race as our immune systems evolve to better protect, and diseases evolve to defeat our systems. An alien system would be, well, alien. Diseases have evolved to attack other Earth creatures and are finely tuned to Earth creatures and thus would not be able to attack an alien creature. Others are of the opinion that an alien would be wide open to attack, since their defense systems have never seen Earth diseases and thus have no finely tuned defenses or mechanisms to block or fight them.
   
   In addition to diseases, there are all manner of venomous arachnids, insects, snakes, toads and poisonous plants that an alien would have to contend with. Many would not care if the creature they are in contact with is from the Earth or not. How many of us have put a straw or stick into an ant hill and see the ants swarm and viciously attack the stick? Would the alien bodies be able to tolerate foreign venom or poison?
   
   However, with advanced nanotechnology (or technology advanced beyond it), aliens may very well have postbiologic systems to help them deal with diseases, venomous creatures, and poisonous plants - such matters may be of no real threat or concern to them.
   
   
4. Other environmental factors: we have evolved in a particular gravity well, in a particular magnetic field, with certain ranges of light and other radiation hitting our planet's surface, and a certain range of temperatures. Any invading alien would need to have come from a planet similar to ours if they have any plans for long term domination. Unless, of course, they are postbiotic creatures.
   
   
5. Water: many alien invasion scenarios have aliens coming for our water. Yet we are discovering that water is rather common in the cosmos. There is water on the moon, Venus, Mars, many of the moons of our gas giants, in comets and meteors. Why mess with a populated planet when water is probably much closer to home?
   
   
6. Overpopulation: some alien scenarios have aliens invading because their home planet is overpopulated. I guess their entire solar system would have to be too, for them to move out into the stars to expand. If they were postbiologic and still felt the need to increase their population, they could easily colonize barren systems first or large space stations (Dyson spheres?).
   
   
7. Salvation I: several scenarios have dying aliens coming to Earth in order to do medical experiments to either create some vaccine or gene therapy that can restore the alien's health, or to create alien-human hybrids so that the aliens can continue to live on, albeit in a rather different form. Besides the difficulties of two species evolving on two planets being compatible enough to be of any use to the other medically, again it would seem logical that an interstellar space faring race would be able to evolve into postbiological forms and thus not need to invade another planet to save their species. Though Studying other biologies can help uncover any universal biology laws and principles and thus help a species understand itself better.
   
   But let us say, for the sake of argument, that they cannot or are unwilling to go the postbiologic route and need to leave their star system (going nova?) and colonize another system (ours) and thus need to create hybrids to survive in our very alien environment (this scenario also assumes they cannot or do not have time to terraform another unpopulated world). A hybrid would feel and be different than the aliens - it would be a new species, experiencing the universe differently, and thus evolving away from the invading alien's culture and identity. How is that helping anything? They might as well just impart their knowledge to another race and consider the torch passed and not bother with the whole hybrid thing.
   
   
8. Salvation II: ala The Day the Earth Stood Still, aliens may invade to save us from ourselves, baring any alien version of a Prime Directive, or to prevent us from being a danger to our space neighbors (not all of our space neighbors may be advanced enough to be safe from dangerous space faring races).
   
   
9. Salvation III: alien missionaries come to convert us.

I am sure there is more that I have not thought of.

Alien Missions

Overall, it seems that for the most part postbiologic creatures would have very little drive to invade another planet. At least for physical reasons. But they may have psychological or theological reasons. For instance they find the postbiologic evolutionary step incredibly repugnant or blasphemous. They may fear for their safety or for the safety of other less develop extraterrestrial species and decide to keep us restrained or contained until we, in their minds, have matured enough. Maybe they have long forgotten their own early sentience past and look upon our aggression with psychological or theological horror. They may look upon us as heathens and feel the need to forcibly spread their theology upon us. Now those are scary thoughts indeed.

Image credit: ABC

The Future of Human Evolution.

I came across a Web site today which will be of some interest to those interested in speculating about alien life: The Future Human Evolution Website at <http://www.humansfuture.org/>. Yes, it is about human life and not alien life, but speculating about the future of human evolution and speculating about alien life, especially alien sentient life, overlap. If there is a Universal Biology, then examining the evolution of human life, and the future of our evolution (both natural and artificially guided) will inform our discussion and speculations on the evolution of alien sentient life.

Technology Singularity - Or, We Are Borg

The overlap is particularly salient when it comes to speculations regarding the technology singularity - when technology advances to the point that it becomes sentient. This advancement also allows sentient races who feel they have reached the limits of what biology can do for them to integrate themselves (partially or, eventually, fully) with advanced technology/machines. This is also referred to as "postbiologic." Some scientists feel this technology singularity may arrive for the human race as early as 2040, though most feel that it is more likely to be much later, the year 3000 or so.

For More Information

For more information about universal biology, visit my initial post on the topic, Universal Biologies?

For more information about postbiologic evolution or the technology singularity, visit my post Robot Aliens, The Tecnological Singularity, and Where did I leave my Borg party body?

Cyborgs (Re: Robot Aliens)

In this month's Discover magazine is an interesting article, "Rise of the Cyborgs," which examines the present state of cyborg development. After reading it, I find myself believing that the earlier estimates for the arrival of the technological singularity may be correct (the predicted arrival varies between years 2040 and 3000). We are well on our way to making the lame walk, the blind man see, and the mute to talk - we are freeing minds that are trapped in bodies that have quit (or never did) responding.

There already has been dramatic successes with cyborg experiments with primates (including monkeys able to control robot arms with their thoughts, like the Duke University experiments by Dr. Nicolelis experiments involving an owl monkey named Belle). A few human trials are already underway. Humans and machines are merging.

In a previous posts on postbiologic / robotic sentience, I've discussed some reasons why postbiologic creatures make pragmatic sense in regards to space travel: postbiologic, or sentient robots, will have greatly improved abilities to survive cosmic radiation, alien atmospheres, alien germs, and the long travel times. This includes having improved reaction times to unexpected space phenomenon or events - a blessing for travelers far from home and thus rescue.

But while reading the Discover article, I realized there is an additional advantage: the ability of those postbiologic sentient space explorers to more efficiently and effectively control both large and microscopic equipment and tools by using just their minds. This could include controlling the space craft to microsurgery to communicating with their comrades.

The likelihood that aliens are cyborgs or robots is, I would think, rather high. And the likelihood that we are headed in that same direction, whether some of us like it or not, is likewise rather high.

Resistance is futile. Or maybe even irrelevant.

Reference:

Baker, Sherry. "Rise of the Cyborgs." Discover. October 2008, 50 -57. Print.

Exploring artificial gravity

© Mars Society

The Mars Society has chosen an new project to fund: TEMPO³. For the long trip to, and back, from Mars (around 6 months), there will be a need to produce artificial gravity. However, very little research has been done in this area (NASA abandoned such research after project GEMINI). NASA's plate is rather full, and its budget strapped, so the Mars Society has stepped in with TEMPO³ , an experimental satellite that will help fill the gap in artificial gravity research. In the future, when the technology singularity allows cyborgs to explore space, maybe being able to produce artificial gravity for space explorers won't be a concern. But for now, it is.


References:

Hill, Tom. "Tethered Experiment for Mars interPlanetary Operations Cubed (TEMPO³)." Mars Society. 27 Aug. 2008. Web. 2 Sept. 2008. <http://www.marssociety.org/portal/c/TEMPO3>.

Alien Superiority Complex

© DigitalBlasphemy.com

In the last post I mentioned the Popular Science article "Could Robot Aliens Exist." In it, NASA astrophysicist Steven Dick wonders if postbiological aliens, in their superior advanced bodies and computer minds, would not be interested in us because either our minds may be too primitive for them to be able to communicate with us, or " they might consider meatheads like us too primitive to warrant their attention" (83).

Maybe. But I still think they would be interested in us.

On our planet, there are many primitive minded creatures that we do, on a limited basis, communicate with. Our pet dogs understand commands and have been shown recently the ability to map language, which is something that was thought to belong only to the province of humans. Chimpanzees and apes have shown the ability to communicate by sign language. Sure, we can't debate philosophical questions with Fido or Koko, but it is technically communication nonetheless. Not all humans care about this. Likewise, there may be some, even only a few, of the superior aliens who may be fascinated in just how much communication can occur between them and humans. And maybe they will be a little surprised at how much communication can occur.

However, I wonder if it is a fair analogy to begin with. While dogs and apes are self-aware, like humans, they re not aware that the area the live in is but a small part of a planet which is circling a sun in a galaxy that is in a universe with many dimensions, and are not increasing their awareness. However, we are aware. And, as a species overall, are continually increasing our awareness. Sure, we don't understand - yet - the nature of it all, and continually find more questions than answers, but that doesn't mean that we are to the aliens like apes, dogs, or ants are to us. We have the capacity to understand much more than we do at the moment - and we will understand more than we do at the moment. That they are ahead of us in knowledge and experience does not make us impossible to communicate with.

Even if they are aware of something that is as beyond the universe as the universe is beyond the local awareness of an ape - the earlier analogy still does not work. We know the ape cannot be made to understand that there is an awareness beyond their local awareness. But we can be made to understand. We can work with analogies and the abstractions and can be told by advanced aliens that there is yet a greater awareness beyond what we are cognizant of. We may not, at present, be able to wrap our heads around that greater awareness, but we may be able to wrap our heads around the fact that there is a greater awareness beyond what we are presently capable of. And as we head toward the Technology Singularity we may, sooner rather or later, be capable of wrapping our heads around that greater awareness (Some predict the Technology Singularity will arrive as soon as 2040, others by 3000).

And even without the Technological Singularity, human beings of today are aware of and working to wrap their heads around, incredible concepts (11 dimensions any one?) that human beings of 10,000 years ago were not even remotely aware of. Our brains, as primitive to postbiological creatures as they may be, are still remarkable organs - they can be rewired, they can make new connections, and they can achieve greater awareness. Plus, our brains may not be static - there are evolutionary pressures on our brains to evolve further as we advance technologically and culturally (though the latter seems to lag behind the former). There are limits to how far the brain can evolve on its own - thus the need for the Technological Singularity and postbiological life (or technology enhanced biological life).

So the analogy of "aliens are to us like we are to dogs" such that the aliens just won't be able to communicate with us is not an appropriate analogy. Dogs do not have anywhere near the same potential to increase their awareness as we do (if we give them a few million years to evolve further, maybe then).

I think a more appropriate analogy would be modern human to a Neanderthal or Cro-magnon. The aliens would most likely have to greatly oversimplify the smilies used to teach us, or introduce the idea of, advanced concepts, and thus would definitely have to skip the details, but some limited communication regarding the advanced awareness could occur. Communication may be slow, difficult and, at times, frustrating for both parties, and details will have to be left out, but they would be able to communicate with us. And we would strive to increase our understanding. OK, not all of us individually, but overall, as a species, enough would be.

© Animation Factory

OK, so say they can, with difficulty, communicate with us. But are we still "meatheads" and thus too primitive to warrant their attention? Why? Are sentient species only interested in what is at their level? I doubt they got to their level by that kind of narrow thinking. Exploring the universe, gathering knowledge and experience, discovering new aspects and new questions along with finding the occasional answer is what will most likely drive a species to push their intellectual evolution in the first place.

If humanoid sentient creatures like Earthlings are common or if not common, then at least common enough that they've already encountered beings rather similar to us at least once before, the aliens may not believe we warrant their attention.

But let us say that Earthling like creatures are not common. There is probably one large rainbow of possibilities for life, including sentient life, in the universe. We may warrant attention because they've never seen anything like us. One of yet another unique worlds in the galaxy, adding new data, new knowledge, and, possibly, new questions for the aliens to consider. And one way to learn about these wacky Earthlings, besides observation, is to communicate with them - even if it is an everyday level of communication, or alien kindergarten level of communication.

Also, keep in mind that we are growing, we are working our way toward their level. And that alone may warrant curious, or cautionary, attention from the aliens.

References:

"Could Robot Aliens Exist?" Popular Science. Sept. 2008: 83. Print.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

Vinge, Vernor. "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era." San Diego State University. 1993. Web. 16 Aug. 2008. <http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html>.

Robot Aliens, The Tecnological Singularity, and Where did I leave my Borg party body?

© Animation Factory

In this month's Popular Science is an interesting article "Could Robot Aliens Exist?" The question is posed to the NASA astrophysicist Steven Dick, chief historian for NASA and astrobiology and postbiological universe specialist.

Mr Stevens postulates that there is a 50/50 chance that robotic, or postbiological, sentient aliens do exist. On Earth we have supercomputers that are faster than human brains. In a few decades, some scientists predict, the Technological Singularity event will be reached where computers will not only achieve sentience, but will be smarter than their human creators (Skynet anyone?).

Thus, some feel that it may not be long (just a few decades) before the once science fiction concept of downloading one's brain into a computer becomes an actuality. There are limits to biological systems (which could be thought of as biological machines) that advanced robots could overcome. Biological sentient races may want to evolve themselves into postbiological beings - robots. There will be people vying for this - a chance to live forever (or at least a very long time). As the robotic body gets too worn out to be effectively repaired, one just uploads to a new (and maybe improved) model. Or one could switch bodies as situations warrant:

© Animation Factory

"See you later dear!"

"Jane, did you forget?

"What?"

"You're still in your party body. You're working on the space platform today."

"Oh! Right! I need to download to my astrobody! I guess I just love being in my party body too much; I overlooked -"

"On purpose."

"- that I was still in it."

"Yeah, yeah, we know where your "heart" really is!"

Jane, laughing, goes to her closet to switch bodies...

In a few decades, shall some of us become Cylons?

© DigitalBlasphemy.com

Speaking of working on space platforms, the case can be made for robots to explore inhabited planets since, as mentioned in my 11 Aug. 2008 post, Blog in Space III: The Beatles' "Across the Universe", robots make a very pragmatic choice for traveling long interstellar distances (if no faster than light speed travel exists), and for exploring planets that may be extremely hostile to our biological systems due to attacks by alien viruses and predators, as well as surviving a n alien atmosphere hostile to human life. They don't need space suits, or to carry large stores of food. Thus, it is probably easier and safer for sentient robots to explore alien planets.

Some argue, though, that are advantages to an organic brain that trumps speed (intuitive leaps, imaginative creativity). However, a few days ago (13 Aug. 2008) it was reported by the BBC News that researchers had created a robot that was largely controlled by a group of 300,000 living rat brain cells. It is a project to study how memory is laid down as the robot learns how to navigate around objects. Maybe the new human will be a blend of biological and postbiological systems. In a few decades, maybe just call us the Borg...


References:

"Could Robot Aliens Exist?" Popular Science. Sept. 2008: 83. Print.

Kurzweil, Ray. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.

"Rat-brain robot aids memory study." BBC News. 13 Aug. 2008. Web 16 Aug. 2008. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7559150.stm>.

Vinge, Vernor. "The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era." San Diego State University. 1993. Web. 16 Aug. 2008. <http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/faculty/vinge/misc/singularity.html>.

Blog in Space III: The Beatles' "Across the Universe"

© NASA/JPL

"Nothing's going to change my world..."

Beatles in Space

At 7 pm on 4 February 2008, NASA beamed the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" toward Polaris (the North Star) 431 light years away via NASA's Deep Space Network. This was done to celebrate several anniversaries that occurred in the first week of February 2008:

• 5oth anniversary of the founding of NASA
• 50th anniversary of the founding of the Beatles
• 50th anniversary of the launch of the first U.S. satellite, Explorer I
• 45th anniversary of the founding of the Deep Space Network
• 40th anniversary of the production of the first version of the Beatles "Across the Universe" by George Martin.
  

For NASA to pick "Across the Universe" to beam makes sense, from the shared anniversaries, to the title of the song itself. However, for NASA to beam the song in the first place may not make as much sense.

A Moot Question?

As mentioned in an earlier post, on one hand the question whether we should or should not send a message into space for aliens to detect may be a moot point as we've been leaking radio and TV signals into space for over 60 years now. And the amount of signals we're leaking out into space has increased. However, weakly leaking out man-made radiation isn't the same as purposely beaming out a strong focused signal into deep space.

© Lynette Cook

The chance that there is, or will be by the time the signal reaches it, a technologically advanced sentient alien race who are not only able to detect the signal and understand that it is artificially produced, but who also just happen to be listening with their electronic ears pointed toward our region of space at the right moment to pick up our one "Across the Universe" transmission is rather minute.

Possibly decreasing the chances even further is the nature of Polaris. It is a Cepheid variable star in a triple-star system. A Cepheid variable is a star 5 - 20 times the mass of the Sun that regularly cycles between expanding and contracting in size. This may impact the stability of the habitable zone for the star system.

Finally, the chance of an alien space probe (not necessarily from Polaris) happening across our transmission beam, or for another sentient race around a star beyond Polaris detecting the beam is also rather minute (even astronomically minute).

The Problem of Blasting Music toward Your Neighbors 

So what's the problem with introducing the Beatles to the Polarians, and whoever else may hear it after them?

We do not know the nature of the Polarians, or of any alien that may intercept our message. We do not know how they will react to it. Too often on Earth, when a technologically advanced civilization meets (or "discovers") a less advanced civilization, it usually ends up disastrously for the less advanced one. This does not mean that the aliens would behave the same way, but it does point to the distinct possibility that they could. If we can, others can - I seriously doubt that there is a universal natural law that only one arrogantly aggressive sentient race can exist in a galaxy.

The aliens may be xenophobic because they were invaded once themselves by an alien race, and their leader(s) decide that it is better to do preemptive strikes. Or maybe their world leader is a megalomaniac who isn't satisfied with ruling just one planet. Is it impossible for someone to want to try to rule the galaxy, even if that is a deluded desire? Or the aliens may have a religious reason to attack, one that we can not fathom. The aliens may misinterpret our message as one of aggression or of grave insult to their faith, leader, or way of life.

Or they may want to come and "help us" - parent us. They may feel it is their inherent right to do so. Some imperialistic nations in Earth's history had that philosophy - they conquered other nations to help them. They may see us as uneducated, lost heathens who need to be shown the light, and they know, from experience with other planets or their own history, that heathens won't listen unless you use "tough love" on them.

Technological advances do not always come with the appropriate advances in culture or society. A technologically advanced alien race does not have to be morally advanced as well (though one sentient species morality may not be the same as another's).

Yes, there is also the chance that the aliens that happen to hear our transmission will respect our sovereignty in all aspects of our world. They may be merely knowledge seekers, explorers, curious to learn more about us, and nothing more.

Or the aliens may even be rather indifferent to us, like the aliens in Dan Abnett's short story "Point of Contact" (found in The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, Volume Two, edited by George Mann).

We just do not know. Is it worth the risk to announce ourselves?

Ah, but, you may say, at 431 light years away are we not safe?

Vast Distances, Like Fences, Good Neighbors Make?

It would be if the speed of light is the fastest any one can travel, and the aliens are short lived as we are and are adversed to multi-generational space journeys. Recent research over the last 15 years shows that "warp drives" may be possible one day after all. A more technologically advanced civilization than ours may have figured out warp drives.

© Animation Factory

Such an advance in spaceflight technology could make moot another related barrier - long interstellar distances can, with sub light spaceships, take many generations to traverse. This, of course, assumes that an alien race has short life spans like ours. With great medical advances, and their own different biology that may allow longer life spans to begin with, it is not inconceivable that an alien race could live long enough to make the trip to Earth and back in one generation or less. Of course they would have to be able to deal with being cooped up in the small (compared to the open air or water of their home planet) spaceship, as well as be able to produce enough sustenance and breathable atmosphere. But again, faster than light travel would take care of most of those problems.

Another barrier to traveling interstellar distances is the danger of cosmic radiation. It is difficult to shield from it. Our atmosphere is thick enough (60 miles) to protect us, but out in space, travelers just have the skin of their spacecraft. Though researchers are looking into creating magnetic bubbles around spacecraft to protect the humans within it from cosmic radiation. So that is probably not a problem for a more technologically advanced space faring civilization.

They, Robot

However, even if an alien race is too far away to send some of their own out to travel to Earth, they could send robots in their place. Sending robots solves many problems - no need to grow food, maintain a breathable atmosphere, or worry about the trip taking generations. Robots would also be able to explore a greater variety of planets as they would be able to tolerate a far wider range of physical environments as well as be essentially immune to any alien virus or bacteria. They could even be more resistant to attack from many biological creatures. This is one reason why some ufologists believe that the aliens known as "Grays" are actually advanced robots.

The robots would need to have sufficiently sophisticated AI (Artificial Intelligence) though, so that they can operate mostly on their own due to a 862 year round trip for any communications - unless the aliens are able to develop something akin to subspace communications like in Star Trek (would such robots be sentient?). Of course, if their mission is simple, like "observe from a distance, take notes and report" or "destroy all humans," there wouldn't be a great need for two way communication. Just sending reports updating on their progress (either to the home planet, or to a second wave of robots coming after them so that they can adjust their game plan if need be before arriving at Earth).

"Nothing's going to change my world..."

Outro

The irony of it is, the song could change our entire world by its being beamed into space by a radio telescope. Yes, I know that what John Lennon means is that when you achieve a pristine state of consciousness, you are in a mental and spiritual state where you are free of worldly distractions: "Nothing's going to change my world..." However, if, and it is a big if, the song does get the attention of aliens, most of us will find our worlds changing as most of us haven't reached the mental and spiritual state sung about in the song.

What do you think about this?



Some additional information about the Polaris star system

© NASA

Like most triple star systems, the Polaris system contains a close binary with a more distant star circling the binary.

In the Polaris system, the central binary pair is made up of Polaris A, the giant Cepheid (somewhere between 4.3 to 5.4 times the mass of the Sun), and Polaris Ab, a dwarf star (1.4 solar mass).

Polaris A is the brightest Cepheid as seen from Earth. Polaris Ab circles Polaris A in a highly eccentric orbit, with the distance between it and Polaris A varying from 27 AU to 6.7 AU, taking over 29 years to orbit Polaris A (about the time it takes Saturn to orbit the Sun).

Comparing those distances to our solar system, Pluto's closest approach to the Sun is 29.7 AU, and Jupiter's furthest distance from the Sun is 5.5 AU. By the way, recall that while Pluto is further away than Neptune, on average, it has a much more eccentric orbit than Neptune and thus actually can be closer to the Sun than Neptune.

The third companion, Polaris B, is a main sequence Sun-like star (1.1 to 1.25 solar masses) which orbits some 2400 AUs from the center binary pair, or 60.8 times the distance from our Sun to Pluto (at its furthest point in its orbit). It takes Polaris B 29,000 years to orbit Polaris A.



References:

"About the Deep Space Network." Deep Space Network Home Page. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 20 Mar. 2008. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/>.

Borland, John. "Physicists Do the Math on Warp Drive Science." Wired Science. Wired News. 14 Dec. 2007. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/physicists-do-t.html>.

"Cepheid Variables - Introduction." Imagine The Universe! NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/mysteries_l1/cepheid.html>.

Kaler, Jim. "Polaris." Stars. University of Illinois. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/polaris.html>.

Knight, Will. "Repelling cosmic rays with magnetic bubbles." New Scientist.com news service. 19 Nov. 2004. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6694>.

"NASA Beams Beatles' 'Across the Universe' Into Space." NASA. 5 Feb. 2008. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html>.

Nave, Carl R. "Solar System Data." HyperPhysics. Georgia State University. 2006. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/solar/soldata2.html>.

Tytell, David. "Probing Polaris." News from Sky and Telescope. Sky and Telescope. 10 Jan. 2006. Web. 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3311001.html>.

"Warp Drive, When?" NASA. 17 Mar. 2006. Web 11 Aug. 2008. <http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/warp.html>.