Sh. M. Kocharyan- Department of Foreign Relations and Diplomacy, Yerevan State University, Yerevan, Armenia
The problem of transmitting an interstellar message from one communicative civilization to another is examined, taking into account possible scenarios for the prevalence of civilizations in the Galaxy, including the possibility that Earth’s civilization is unique. I propose the hypothesis of Directed Information Panspermia (DIP), according to which a sending civilization, aiming to transmit a message to a future civilization, may undertake two simultaneous actions: (1) introduce artificially synthesized primitive life forms onto planets favorable for the development of life and intelligence, from which communicative civilizations may subsequently emerge through biological evolution; and (2) encode the transmitted message on a carrier capable of preserving information for the timescale required for the emergence of the recipient civilization. These two actions can be unified by using the biological structures of the introduced life forms—in particular the genetic code of terrestrial-type organisms—as the message carrier. This approach suggests that the genetic code, in addition to its biological function, may also serve a supra-biological role as an interstellar information medium.
1 Introduction
Are we alone in the Universe? Did life on Earth originate from non-living matter (abiogenesis), or was it introduced from elsewhere (panspermia)? If other civilizations exist (extraterrestrial intelligences, ETI), why have we not yet detected them, and how might inter-civilizational communication be achieved without posing risks to humanity? How might we receive messages from ETI, or transmit messages to them? What constitutes the cosmic mission of humanity? Such questions are attracting increasing attention in connection with progress in various branches of modern science—from the molecular foundations and origin of life to astronomy and cosmology. In this work, a method of sending a message to another civilization is proposed that, to varying degrees, addresses these questions.
The number of planets in the Galaxy with conditions potentially favorable for the evolution of life and intelligence continues to grow (Planetary Habitability Laboratory, 2024). More than six decades ago, Cocconi and Morrison (1959) proposed the possibility of interstellar communication via electromagnetic waves, and Drake (see Drake and Sobel, 1993; Sagan, 1973) initiated the first program for detecting radio signals from the stars nearest to the Sun. Later, Bracewell (1960) suggested an alternative method—communication between civilizations using automatic space probes capable of reaching orbits around planets presumed to be inhabited. However, despite various SETI programs conducted over recent decades, no confirmed detections have been made to date (Anderson et al., 2025).
Organic molecules associated with life have been detected on celestial bodies and in interstellar space. Accumulating data support the hypothesis that organic molecules and primitive life forms may be transferred between planetary and stellar systems via comets, meteorites, and interstellar dust (Guelin and Cernicharo, 2022; Napier, 2004; Wickramasinghe et al., 2003). This mechanism—biological panspermia—has been proposed to explain the relatively early appearance of life on Earth (Chyba and Sagan, 1992; Line, 2007; Osinski et al., 2020; Pearce et al., 2018).
Meanwhile, the evolutionary origin of the terrestrial genetic code remains unresolved. The code is universal: with rare exceptions, it employs only 20 amino acids out of hundreds of possible candidates for protein synthesis and preserves the same codon (nucleotide triplet) specificity for each amino acid in nearly all terrestrial life forms (Crick, 1968; Woese, 1965). Because changes in codon specificity would alter all proteins, including those essential for DNA replication and protein synthesis, most such changes would be lethal - rendering the evolution of an established code virtually impossible (Crick, 1968; Koonin and Novozhilov, 2009; Woese, 1965).
The universality of the genetic code and the difficulty in explaining its origin have been cited in support of the hypothesis of Directed Panspermia (DP)—the artificial seeding of life on planets by advanced civilizations (Crick and Orgel, 1973). Thus, unlike various mechanisms of biological panspermia, in which the transfer of life or its building blocks is a spontaneous natural process (Burchell, 2004; Mitton, 2022; Sadlok, 2020), directed panspermia presupposes deliberate seeding of planets by an advanced civilization. As an alternative to electromagnetic messaging, Marx (1979) proposed that extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) might encode signals or messages within the genome or genetic code. Following this idea, several studies have explored the possibility of detecting ETI messages embedded in terrestrial genomes (Davies, 2012; Nakamura, 1986; Yokoo and Oshima, 1979) or ETI signals within the structure of the genetic code itself (shCherbak and Makukov, 2013).
Another approach, termed Information Panspermia (IP), involves the microwave transmission of compressed data—serving both as a signal and as a description of the genomic structures of the sender civilization (Gurzadyan, 2005). This approach assumes the non-directed dissemination of information about a civilization’s own genomic structure, in the expectation that it may be reconstructed by another civilization or by possible automated systems.
In this work, I propose that an advanced civilization might not only inseminate planets with life but also encode and transmit a message to the future civilization that may emerge. A distinctive feature of the proposed approach is the addressed nature of the message sent by the sender civilization—the message is directed to a civilization generated by the sender civilization and expected to arise in the future. This proposed method of interstellar communication is hereafter referred to as Directed Information Panspermia (DIP).
2 Approach
This study adopts a conceptual and theoretical rather than experimental approach. The analysis of the feasibility of interstellar message transmission given the ratio between the average distances separating extraterrestrial intelligences and their average lifetimes indicates that the only strategy that remains valid across all plausible scenarios is the idea of sending a message to a future civilization. This leads directly to the core premise of DIP: to generate a future civilization and simultaneously embed a message intended for it. The basic assumption of DIP is the possibility that Darwinian evolution will allow artificially introduced primitive life forms, delivered by a sender civilization to other planets, to evolve into a communicative civilization. Another assumption concerns the preservation of the message carrier and its content for the time necessary for the evolutionary emergence of the recipient civilization. The detection of the message carrier created by the progenitor civilization and the decoding of this message by the recipient civilization determine the success of DIP. Particular attention is given to the potential use of biological structures, especially the genetic code, as a possible carrier of encoded messages.
In this work, the following conceptual distinctions are used. A developed or communicative civilization is a civilization capable of sending and receiving messages from other civilizations. A sender civilization, or in the context of the DIP hypothesis, a parental civilization, is a civilization that sends a message to another civilization or civilizations. A recipient civilization, or child civilization, is a civilization to which a message is addressed or which receives a message from another civilization. A future civilization is a civilization that has not yet emerged during the time interval under consideration. A past civilization is a civilization that ceased to exist prior to the considered time interval. A message carrier is any entity, regardless of its specific implementation, in which a message from the sender civilization is encoded. Primitive life forms are microorganisms and their communities, or pre-cellular associations of macromolecules, capable of Darwinian evolution, as conventionally understood in astrobiology.
2.1 Generating figure 1
The purpose of Figure 1 is to illustrate, using an artificial example, the potential ability of the terrestrial genetic code to contain information not related to its known biological function—namely, encoding the correspondence between nucleotide triplets (codons) and amino acids, as well as translation termination signals. Such additional information encoded in the genetic code will be referred to here as supra-biological information.
Figure 1. Representation of Einstein’s formula E = mc2 using the genetic code. For the specific sequence of 64 DNA codons used in this figure, the resulting pattern of points—when viewed diagonally from the upper left to the lower right corner—forms the image of Einstein’s formula E = mc2.
A method analogous to Drake’s image technique (see Sagan, 1973) is applied. A 32 × 32 square is constructed, with the left vertical and lower horizontal axes representing one possible sequence of 64 DNA codons, and the opposite axes displaying the symbols of the corresponding amino acids or the translation termination signal (Ter) associated with each codon. The points are plotted only at coordinates where the codons are synonymous, encoding the same amino acid or termination signal. As a result, different sequences of 64 codons can generate different corresponding sets of points (images).
Figure 1 was generated in reverse order: an image (in this case, Einstein’s formula E = mc2, written in symbolic form “E = mcc”) was first selected, and then a corresponding sequence of 64 DNA codons was constructed. With the chosen method of image generation, no row or column can contain more than five intersection points of synonymous codons, according to the standard genetic code table (Crick, 1968; Woese, 1965). This prevents the formula E = mcc from being displayed horizontally or vertically; therefore, it is arranged diagonally in Figure 1. Other images can be constructed from the genetic code using the same procedure.
2.2 Calculation of the number of distinct images for the method used in figure 1
The total number of distinct sets of points—or “images”—produced by the method used in Figure 1 corresponds to the number of distinguishable sequences of 64 codons, taking into account both synonymous codons and reverse-symmetric sequences. According to the standard table of the genetic code (Crick, 1968; Woese, 1965), there are 21 groups of synonymous codons: six codons each for Arg, Leu, and Ser; four each for Ala, Gly, Pro, Thr, and Val; three each for Ile and translation termination codons; two each for Asn, Asp, Cys, Gln, Glu, His, Lys, Phe, and Tyr; and one each for Met and Trp.
The number of distinguishable 64-codon sequences, denoted Nᵢ, taking into consideration indistinguishable sequences within synonymous codon groups, is calculated by the formula (Korn and Korn, 2000, see Table C-1 in Appendix C):
If we also account for the equivalence of reverse-symmetric sequences, which produce identical images, the total number is 2.3 × 1069.
To illustrate the concept of indistinguishable sequences of 64 codons, we return to the generation of Figure 1 (Subsection 2.1). In the 64-codon sequence of Figure 1, all six codons of the amino acid arginine were replaced by the six codons of serine, and vice versa. The resulting configuration of points (the image of Einstein’s formula) remains unchanged. This implies that the original sequence of 64 codons in Figure 1 and the modified sequence obtained by exchanging arginine and serine codons are indistinguishable. As calculated above, even after excluding such indistinguishable codon sequences (as well as sequences with inversion symmetry), the total number of images that can be generated based on the genetic code is 2.3 × 1069. This illustrates the potential capacity of the genetic code to contain a large amount of supra-biological information.
3 Results
3.1 Theoretically permissible message exchange with ETI
The selection of methods for searching messages from extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) fundamentally depends on estimates of the prevalence of civilizations in the Galaxy, specifically on two key parameters: the average longevity L of the communicative phase of civilizations, and the average distance d between them (Drake and Sobel, 1993; Sagan, 1973; Shklovsky, 1987). According to various estimates, L may range from several hundred years to ≥107 years, and d from a few tens to ≥104 light-years (Bracewell, 1960; Sagan, 1973; Shklovsky, 1987; Westby and Conselice, 2020). The most pessimistic scenarios (Shklovsky, 1987; Tipler, 1982) suggest that life on Earth may be unique, though this uniqueness may be practical rather than absolute, due to astronomically large distances separating civilizations.
Several scenarios regarding the prevalence of civilizations in the Galaxy are considered here, taking into account the full range of existing estimates. For each scenario, the theoretically permissible modes of message exchange between ETI and Earth’s civilization are assessed (see Table 1).
Table 1. Possible scenarios for the prevalence of extraterrestrial civilizations (ETI) in the Galaxy, together with the potential roles of message senders and receivers relative to Earth’s civilization. Assumptions: time is irreversible, and the speed of light constitutes the ultimate limit. Abbreviations: d—average inter-civilization distance (light-years); L—average duration of a civilization’s communicative phase (years).
Scenario A represents the most pessimistic outlook: it excludes the possibility of receiving messages from ETI but permits the transmission of a message from Earth to a future civilization, assuming one will emerge. Scenarios B and C are formally equivalent from an information exchange perspective: they allow only the reception of messages from civilizations that no longer exist and the sending of messages to civilizations that have not yet arisen. Scenario D - the most optimistic - permits two-way communication with contemporary ETI.
However, even under the optimistic assumptions of Scenario D, several limitations must be considered. As highlighted by previous studies (see Webb, 2015), ETI may choose not to transmit messages to us for reasons including:
a. Energy and technical constraints imposed by vast inter-civilizational distances d (rendering it equivalent to Scenario C of Table 1);
b. A decision to wait until humanity reaches a sufficiently advanced stage to comprehend the message;
c. A perception of Earth’s civilization as too primitive;
d. Fundamental differences preventing mutual understanding;
e. Lack of awareness of our civilization’s existence due to its relative youth, discouraging indirect transmission;
f. Concerns about possible aggression from other civilizations.
Previous studies (Drake and Sobel, 1993; Sagan, 1973; Shklovsky, 1987) have outlined several basic requirements for the successful transmission of a message to another civilization:
1. The message must be affordable in terms of energy and material costs to the sender.
2. The message must remain intact and safe until received.
3. The message must reach the recipient civilization at a time when it is capable of understanding it.
4. The message should be capable of conveying a large amount of information, accessible through sequential learning by the recipient.
For future civilizations as intended recipients, satisfying Requirement 2 is particularly challenging due to potentially vast temporal intervals between transmission and reception. The method of electromagnetic waves (Cocconi and Morrison, 1959) could solve this problem by transmitting the message as far as possible. The rocket-probes method (Bracewell, 1960) could be used by choosing favorable stars in accessible surrounding space and waiting—as long as possible. Issues concerning where the message can be transmitted and how to satisfy Requirement 3 are inherent to the electromagnetic wave method, while the rocket-probes method has the problem of ensuring the physical safety of the probe, including protection against meteorite impacts.
3.2 Suggested way of sending messages
I propose the hypothesis of Directed Information Panspermia (DIP), which offers a potential solution to the challenge of both receiving a message from a civilization perceived by the recipient belonging to the past, and transmitting a message to a civilization regarded by the sender as existing in the future. Within this framework, the sender civilization actively participates in the emergence of the recipient civilization while simultaneously embedding a message intended for it on a stable carrier.
To accomplish this, the sender civilization undertakes two key actions:
1. It introduces artificially synthesized primitive life forms onto planets favorable for the development of life and intelligence, which may, through biological evolution, give rise to communicative civilizations.
2. It encodes the message to be transmitted onto a carrier capable of preserving information for the duration necessary until the emergence of the communicative civilization.
Under this mode of message transmission, the sender civilization may be regarded as a “parent” civilization, and the emerging recipient as its “child” civilization. In what follows, depending on context, I will use the terms sender civilization and parent civilization, as well as recipient civilization and child civilization, as equivalent.
3.3 Carrier of a message from the parent civilization
Preserving a possible message carrier over the extensive timescale required for the emergence of a child civilization is theoretically feasible—especially if the carrier possesses stable self-replication capabilities and the ability to correct alterations in the message using energy derived from the environment. Since sustainable self-replication driven by environmental energy is a defining property of life, the artificially introduced life forms themselves could serve as potential carriers of messages from the parent civilization.
However, while life as a phenomenon is a relatively stable (the age of life on Earth is estimated to be about 4 billion years; Pearce et al., 2018), it does not fulfill the requirement of invariability due to the ongoing process of biological evolution. Therefore, it becomes necessary to identify a component of life that is both universal and invariant—or nearly so—throughout most stages of evolution.
Given current scientific understanding, the genetic code appears to be the most plausible candidate for such a nearly universal and stable component of terrestrial life (see Introduction). Let us assume that terrestrial life arose as a result of a DIP event, and that the message from the parent civilization is embedded in the genetic code. In this scenario, the genetic code, in addition to fulfilling its biological function of encoding the correspondence between 64 codons and 20 amino acids, along with translation termination signals (Crick, 1968; Woese, 1965), would also carry the intended message—thereby performing a supra-biological function.
To illustrate this idea, consider a specific example demonstrating the potential for supra-biological information within the terrestrial genetic code (see Figure 1 and 2.1 Generating the Figure 1).
Among the estimated 1069 possible images (see 2.2 Calculation of the Number of Distinct Images for the Method Used in Figure 1)—even with the constrained by the method used in Figure 1—some can be selected as “meaningful.” The image of Einstein’s formula shown in Figure 1 is one of many such “meaningful images”. At the same time, the possibility of generating images based on the genetic code should not be interpreted as direct evidence of the presence of an encoded message. This artificial example of image generation serves to illustrate that the genetic code could, in principle, contain a substantial amount of supra-biological information. If such a form of encoding exists, then the problem of decoding would depend on possessing knowledge acting as a key—enabling the recognition of consistent encoded patterns and their coherent interpretation through a process akin to simultaneous education.
4 Discussion
The Directed Information Panspermia (DIP) hypothesis may be considered as a conceptual extension of Directed Panspermia (DP; Crick and Orgel, 1973) and Bracewell’s (1960) autonomous probe communication model. DIP combines biological seeding with the transmission of a durable informational message intended for a future civilization. Unlike DP, it explicitly incorporates a communicative component; unlike the probe-based approach, it involves the introduction of primitive life forms.
As a communication strategy, DIP addresses scenarios in which intelligent civilizations are rare (Table 1), taking advantage of the greater likelihood of identifying a planet favorable for the evolution of life and intelligence than an extant technological society within a given spatial volume. If the introduced life forms are engineered to facilitate or accelerate biological evolution and to promote the eventual emergence of intelligence, DIP could act as a catalyst for the rise of new civilizations.
Earth’s civilization need not have been the direct target of DIP. Mars, with its earlier habitable epoch (Osinski et al., 2020; Mileikowsky et al., 2000; Moser et al., 2019; Sleep and Zahle, 1998), could have served as an initial site, with life subsequently transferred to Earth via natural biological panspermia (Napier, 2004; Wickramasinghe et al., 2003). Taking into account the possibility of biological panspermia provides an additional argument in favor of the parent civilization selecting the structures of the introduced life forms as the message carrier, since such a choice would enhance the preservation and accessibility of the message carrier. Considering the possibility of biological panspermia also implies the potential for seeding not only planets but also asteroids and comets as intermediate cosmic transporters of artificially created primitive life forms. In this case, the selection by the parent civilization of the structures of primitive life forms as the message carrier likewise appears more justified.
Analyses of the terrestrial genetic code have revealed structured patterns that some authors interpret as potential artificial signals, possibly referencing a hypothetical message embedded within the genomes of terrestrial organisms (shCherbak and Makukov, 2013). The possibility of recording information in synthetic DNA sequences (Church et al., 2012), as exemplified by Escherichia coli, in the genomes of living organisms (Shipman et al., 2017), has been demonstrated. Current knowledge suggests that DNA sequences of terrestrial life are more susceptible to evolutionary changes than the genetic code itself. The results presented here indicate that the genetic code could, in principle, encode substantial supra-biological information (Figure 1; subsection 2.2), suggesting that it represents a viable medium for interstellar communication. This interpretation aligns with the hypothesis that the genetic code itself may serve as a message carrier originating from an extraterrestrial intelligence.
Within the DP framework, the primary motivation of an advanced civilization is to stimulate the biological evolution of seeded organisms toward the emergence of a communicative civilization (Crick and Orgel, 1973) and to ensure the preservation of Earth-like forms of life (Mautner, 2004; Tepfer, 2008). In the Information Panspermia (IP) approach, the objective is to replicate a civilization by transmitting compressed data—such as genomic sequences—via automated systems and/or other extraterrestrial intelligences acting as information processors (Gurzadyan, 2005). The DIP paradigm extends the objectives of DP to include the transmission of meaningful knowledge intended to guide or enrich the evolutionary trajectory of life and intelligence throughout the Universe.
DIP’s operational model parallels that of DP in selecting suitable planets and introducing life, but adds the aim of inter-civilizational knowledge transfer. Implementation would require a multi-version program embedded in autonomous spacecraft capable of reaching and inoculating target worlds. The primitive life forms introduced to a planet may include either cellular entities, such as microorganisms or their consortia, or pre-cellular systems, such as macromolecular assemblies capable of Darwinian evolution. The RNA world hypothesis offers a conceptual analogue for such molecular systems, explaining the origin of life on Earth (see Higgs and Lehman, 2015). Clearly, the feasibility of DIP depends on the developmental level of the parental civilization. Humanity has only recently entered, or is now entering, the communicative phase. For more advanced civilizations—and for humanity in the foreseeable future—it is reasonable to assume the capability to synthesize primitive life forms adapted to a target planet and to encode a message on long-lasting carriers, potentially within the structures of the introduced life.
Empirical testing of the Directed Information Panspermia (DIP) hypothesis is inherently challenging, given that Earth’s biosphere and civilization represent the only known example of life and intelligence. Direct validation of DIP would require the identification of an artificial information carrier and the successful reconstruction of its encoded message. Nevertheless, partial empirical approaches are conceivable, including systematic searches for non-random, information-rich patterns in biologically universal and evolutionarily conserved structures, such as the genetic code. Advances in bioinformatics, comparative genomics, information theory, and pattern-recognition techniques provide a methodological framework for such exploratory investigations, while fully acknowledging the intrinsic limitations of such tests.
For a prospective child civilization, the recovery of the parental message depends on numerous challenges. Using Earth as an example: Was Earth an object of DIP? Has the message carrier and message text been preserved? Could the introduced life compete with pre-existing or emerging indigenous life? If the message were embedded in biological structures—e.g., in the genetic code—how much has it evolved, and can its original form be reconstructed? Finally, can the message carrier be recognized, and can a decoding key be identified? The preservation of the carrier and the competitive success of the introduced life depend on many factors, including the technological level of the parental civilization. The remaining challenges depend on the developmental stage of our own civilization. In particular, the reconstruction of biological structures that may have contained information-bearing structures and subsequently evolved (as well as verification of their invariance) could be facilitated by studies of organic or organism-bearing fluid inclusions in minerals. Studies of fluid inclusions demonstrate that chemically and isotopically informative biological signatures can be preserved over geological timescales, providing a natural analogue for long-term information storage in solid-state carriers (Peters and George, 2018; Pinti et al., 2009; Roedder, 1984).
Messages transmitted via DIP could be intercepted by civilizations other than the intended recipients. If humanity originated through DIP, we may be either the intended addressee or an incidental carrier of such a message. Conversely, if our origin was entirely independent, humanity could still initiate its own lineage of civilizations by implementing DIP. In either scenario, the detection of extraterrestrial life and the subsequent analysis of its biological structures could offer an opportunity to recover a message originally encoded for another civilization. In the event of their discovery, extraterrestrial organic or organism-bearing fluid inclusions in minerals could be subjected to similar analyses.
One explanation of the Fermi Paradox—the absence of observable manifestations of ETI—is the reluctance of civilizations to send messages due to concerns about hostile actions by others (Baum et al., 2011; Harrison, 2011; Musso, 2012). Within the DIP framework, the risk of interception implies that the message must not reveal the sender’s spatial location.
Another explanation of the Fermi Paradox is that advanced civilizations might wait until humanity is sufficiently mature to understand their message (Wandel, 2022; Webb, 2015). In the DIP context, the discovery of a message carrier from a parental civilization—together with a successfully decoded message—would itself indicate that humanity had reached such a stage. More broadly, the adoption of DIP-like strategies by extraterrestrial civilizations could itself represent a potential explanation of the Fermi Paradox.
Although civilizations may independently acquire substantial knowledge of the Universe, their limited lifespan restricts the time required to accumulate and transmit this knowledge. Accordingly, DIP messages could include instructions to prolong the communicative phase and to replicate DIP programs.
One can envisage that, through the implementation of DIP programs by extraterrestrial intelligences (ETIs) or their subsets, a form of natural selection analogous to Darwinian evolution could operate at the level of intelligent civilizations. In this speculative framework, groups of civilizations sharing a common origin would function as populations, whereas separate civilizations would act as individual. While individual civilizations may become extinct, the lineage—a connected assemblage of civilizations linked by a shared ancestral source—could persist and continue to evolve across space and time.
Across all theoretically permissible galactic population scenarios, humanity’s potential role may be to serve as a parent civilization, propagating life and intelligence while transmitting its accumulated knowledge to future civilizations. Whether as the originator or a descendant of a DIP initiative, such engagement would help sustain the continuity of intelligent life and cultural memory over cosmic timescales.
5 Conclusion
Considering the full range of theoretically permissible scenarios regarding the prevalence of communicative civilizations in the Galaxy (Table 1), I propose the hypothesis of Directed Information Panspermia (DIP). This hypothesis posits that a sender civilization actively contributes to the emergence of a recipient civilization in the future while simultaneously embedding a message for it on a durable carrier.
I suggest that the long-term preservation of both the carrier and the message text—over the timescale required for artificially introduced primitive life forms to evolve into a communicative civilization—can be achieved by embedding the message within the biological structures of the introduced life forms themselves. As demonstrated (Figure 1), the genetic code of terrestrial organisms has the potential to store a substantial amount of supra-biological information, supporting the notion that the genetic code may serve as a message carrier from an intelligent sender civilization.
Regardless of whether humanity originated through a DIP initiative or through a fully natural process without intelligent intervention, I advocate the development and implementation of DIP-based programs as a forward-looking strategic mission for Earth’s civilization. Such a mission remains relevant under any plausible scenario concerning the existence or absence of extraterrestrial intelligence in the Galaxy, including the possibility that Earth hosts the only communicative civilization.
Data availability statement
The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.
Author contributions
SK: Writing – review and editing, Writing – original draft.
Funding
The author(s) declared that financial support was not received for this work and/or its publication.
Conflict of interest
The author(s) declared that this work was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Generative AI statement
The author(s) declared that generative AI was not used in the creation of this manuscript.
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Keywords: biological evolution, extraterrestrial intelligence or civilization (ETI), genetic code, methods of interstellar communication, panspermia, search for extraterrestrial intelligence or civilization (SETI)
Citation: Kocharyan SM (2026) Directed information panspermia as a possible method of interstellar communication. Front. Astron. Space Sci. 13:1721171. doi: 10.3389/fspas.2026.1721171
Received: 09 October 2025; Accepted: 08 January 2026;
Published: 15 January 2026.
Edited by:
Ricardo Amils, Autonomous University of Madrid, SpainReviewed by:
José Manuel Martínez Lozano, Autonomous University of Madrid, SpainElio Quiroga Rodriguez, University of the Middle Atlantic, Spain
Copyright © 2026 Kocharyan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Sh. M. Kocharyan, c2hhdmFyc2gucW9jaGFyeWFuQHlzdS5hbQ==
†ORCID: Sh. M. Kocharyan, orcid.org/0009-0006-6952-3143