Are the SETI kooks still at it?

Davoud wrote:

Arnold:

The point is - although the galaxy is not blaring with alien beacons or
radio stations, we should still try and detect electromagnetic emissions
of artificial origin. If we don't, we will never know the truth.


The corollary is that if we /do/ , we will /surely/ know the truth. Do
you believe that?

My point (belief) is - if you don't try, you won't succeed.

Unless of course alien space ships just show up in orbit tomorrow and
they are visible to everyone everywhere.


PS : Belief vs faith? Now that is topic for another thread!


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Arnold:
Unless of course alien space ships just show up in orbit tomorrow and
they are visible to everyone everywhere.

Glad you mentioned that -- I am again reminded that Fermi's question
remains unanswered: "Where are they?"

PS : Belief vs faith? Now that is topic for another thread!

Or, we could just take it as read that that is a distinction without a
difference.

Davoud

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Davoud wrote:
Glad you mentioned that -- I am again reminded that Fermi's question
remains unanswered: "Where are they?"

Of course it's been answered. There are just too many answers to choose
from.

One potential answer is, of course, that (to quote Sagan) "It's a big
cosmos." Lots of people seem to have confidence that the speed of light
is merely another barrier that humans, assuming they survive long
enough, will learn to overcome. But we have no particular reason to
think this is necessarily so. Maybe the interstellar distances really
are too great.

Another answer is that life develops fairly rapidly, but intelligence
doesn't. It took life a matter of just a few hundred million years to
develop on the Earth, but (at least from our provincial perspective)
evolution then stalled at unicellular organisms for three billion years.
If it had stalled another billion, more complex life forms might never
have evolved at all.

Yet another answer is that life is preciously rare, maybe to the point
of our being the only instance. Personally, I don't find that idea
particularly compelling, but it really doesn't matter what I find
compelling, of course!

PS : Belief vs faith? Now that is topic for another thread!

Or, we could just take it as read that that is a distinction without a
difference.

I think that depends an awful lot on context. Perhaps you disagree.

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Arnold wrote:

Rich wrote:
I remember back in the 1990s they were using computers with spare
processing power to analyze signals to look for extraterrestrial life.
I read the Drake Equation and wonder, how do you have a scientific
theory when EVERY term in an equation is an unknown variable?
I hope NASA, etc, never put any money into this rubbish.

1. Do yourself a favour and google the "WOW! signal". It was a
'perfect' alien signal but it didn't repeat. Imagine it was real!

2. The SETI Institute is privately funded and as far as I know, US tax
dollars are not used for SETI searches.

3. There were and will be a lot of spin-off discoveries made from doing
searches for alien signals.
Seti@home data led to some unplanned discoveries related to the
distribution of hydrogen in the galaxy.

4. Do not limit your thinking to radio signals only. Projects exist
that look for optical signals like lasers.
One day we might even detect artificial alien structures using
sensitive infra-red detectors.

The point is - although the galaxy is not blaring with alien beacons or
radio stations, we should still try and detect electromagnetic emissions
of artificial origin. If we don't, we will never know the truth.

Most good discoveries come by accident. Maybe not searching is the key
to discovery?
We are our own first instance of extra terrestrial life?






As suggested in another post, have a look at the Planetary Society's
website for more info (see link below).

I keep an open mind. Never say never.

--
25° 45' S
28° 12' E
GMT+2

Join the Planetary Society
http://www.planetary.org