space.com— "At what point would you abandon the search?" That's a question Seth Shostak gets relatively frequently from folks who think that SETI may be a It's a fair question, but why would they give up?
Jan 18, 2007View in Crawl 4
@ilyag"Overall, nothing about our lives will change in any noticeable way."I think that is sad but true. I'd love to see contact with advanced civilizations taken to be proof that God didn't create the universe for us (especially, not my god over your god) and that all humanity should work together to better ourselves.However, I think my vision of what contact would be like is far more optimistic than the possibility of making contact in the first place.
Yeah f**king time. We need time to confirm that a radio signal was sent from somewhere else. While most certainly any signal that comes from space will be from a past time period it would at least confirm that something is out there. What irritates the hell out of me is that this seems to be made into a slam against SETI as the dreams of Sci-Fi nerds. Let me ask you something, how many Sci-Fi nerds go on to do a whole lot. Most I've met have dead end jobs, play too much D&D, and make up silly songs about Star Trek. This is real research, about trying to find out our place in the universe.
actually, this is a question about the act of performing science aand the utlity of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. shutting down SETI is rediculous. "shut down the patent office... everythings been made."
Apart from what has already been mentioned as reasons for SETI not finding anything yet, maybe other, superiorly advanced civilizations, has already found us and for some reason has decided not to make contact, maybe even actively preventing us from making contact. Look at Star Trek as a fictional example: The Vulcans knew about us and where watching us for a long time, but their policy was not to contact a civilization that had not yet aquired crucial technology and maturity on their own. The minute the humans on earth launched their first "warp" ship the Vulcans made contact.Maybe they are so intelectually superior to us that they don't find it meaningful to try to make contact, just the same as we don't attempt to make contact with ants or bees.But, a more serious issue to concider is the "Window of oppurtunity". Humanity has had the capability to look for radio frequency signals for less than a hundred years, and has been doing it for 50. To actually find anything, another civilization needs to be transmitting right now (compensating for speed of light for signal to reach us). Even if there has been thousands of civilizations rising and falling (dominant species do get whiped out from time to time), what are the chances of them beeing around and transmitting in the correct time frame? Even if the haven't been whiped out, they might have evolved into using other means of communication. Or they may not yet have the technology.
When SETI was started, we made the assumption that all transmissions would be like ours and have recognizable patterns, but as our technology advanced we now compress and encrypt everything so likely any recognizable patterns would be be missed. So we like would not recognize noise from signal. Similarly as we are progressing to directional signals, like any other advanced intelligence would do the same. So likely we only find someone looking to be found. Likely the last things we want to find, think about any animal that send things out for other species to be noticed.
banditskiJan 18, 2007
@ilyag"Overall, nothing about our lives will change in any noticeable way."I think that is sad but true. I'd love to see contact with advanced civilizations taken to be proof that God didn't create the universe for us (especially, not my god over your god) and that all humanity should work together to better ourselves.However, I think my vision of what contact would be like is far more optimistic than the possibility of making contact in the first place.
finalbroadcastJan 19, 2007
Yeah f**king time. We need time to confirm that a radio signal was sent from somewhere else. While most certainly any signal that comes from space will be from a past time period it would at least confirm that something is out there. What irritates the hell out of me is that this seems to be made into a slam against SETI as the dreams of Sci-Fi nerds. Let me ask you something, how many Sci-Fi nerds go on to do a whole lot. Most I've met have dead end jobs, play too much D&D, and make up silly songs about Star Trek. This is real research, about trying to find out our place in the universe.
nosliwmJan 19, 2007
They should stop the very instant that they've looked everywhere. Or when they start making Richard Dreyfuss carve mountains out of potatoes.
s1ngular1ty1Jan 19, 2007
SETI listens to a very large portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. They don't just listen to AM and FM if that is what you guys are thinking.
starmanjonesJan 19, 2007
actually, this is a question about the act of performing science aand the utlity of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. shutting down SETI is rediculous. "shut down the patent office... everythings been made."
bewing77Jan 19, 2007
Apart from what has already been mentioned as reasons for SETI not finding anything yet, maybe other, superiorly advanced civilizations, has already found us and for some reason has decided not to make contact, maybe even actively preventing us from making contact. Look at Star Trek as a fictional example: The Vulcans knew about us and where watching us for a long time, but their policy was not to contact a civilization that had not yet aquired crucial technology and maturity on their own. The minute the humans on earth launched their first "warp" ship the Vulcans made contact.Maybe they are so intelectually superior to us that they don't find it meaningful to try to make contact, just the same as we don't attempt to make contact with ants or bees.But, a more serious issue to concider is the "Window of oppurtunity". Humanity has had the capability to look for radio frequency signals for less than a hundred years, and has been doing it for 50. To actually find anything, another civilization needs to be transmitting right now (compensating for speed of light for signal to reach us). Even if there has been thousands of civilizations rising and falling (dominant species do get whiped out from time to time), what are the chances of them beeing around and transmitting in the correct time frame? Even if the haven't been whiped out, they might have evolved into using other means of communication. Or they may not yet have the technology.
ascusJan 19, 2007
When SETI was started, we made the assumption that all transmissions would be like ours and have recognizable patterns, but as our technology advanced we now compress and encrypt everything so likely any recognizable patterns would be be missed. So we like would not recognize noise from signal. Similarly as we are progressing to directional signals, like any other advanced intelligence would do the same. So likely we only find someone looking to be found. Likely the last things we want to find, think about any animal that send things out for other species to be noticed.