Posted on 01/12/2006 6:04:48 PM PST by KevinDavis
Hardly a week goes by without some keyboard correspondent reluctantly telling me that SETI has a honking big problem. "Even if the Galaxy is brimming with intelligent life," they’ll gravely intone, "SETI has virtually no chance of success."
Their reasoning is this: the probability that SETI’s receiving antennas are pointed at the aliens’ world just when their transmitting antennas are aimed at ours is vanishingly small. Since we lack a TV Guide for extraterrestrial broadcasts, we’ll never twist our telescopes to the right direction, at the right time, to pick up a signal.
Note that this is not the well-known "lifetime" problem (their civilization flowered and died a billion years ago, or a billion years from now). That’s hardly an issue if the Galaxy spawns technical societies on a regular basis – societies that manage, on average, to keep self-destruction at bay for at least a few thousand years. No, this is a synchronization problem. SETI researchers have typically looked at any particular star system (at a given frequency) for only a few minutes, at most. But what are the chances that an alien signal has been sent our way just at the right moment to splash upon our antennas during that brief interval?
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Au contraire! SETI has been a huge success.
SETI - Securing Evermore Taxes Indefinitely!
SETI is privately funded...
Here on FR, the F does NOT stand for facts!
I don't know and I don't care. Gotta keep an eye on those Borg dudes.
Sounds like the probability that life would originate in the first place. I think the best bet for discovering life is to push out into space and make it ours. Our ancestors could've spent years sending up smoke signals and never communicated with indians. Look at how many times impressive civilizations arose and did not produce anything close to radio let alone the other wonders we have in the modern world. That aside I think eventually we will discover life somewhere else but whether "they" will be interested in broadcasting into empty space looking for us to reply is a reach.
I'm from a planet circling alpha centauri.
As soon as my grill and cookbook arrive, you humans are in big trouble.
(please soak your thighs in my sauce before entering the barbecue pit. Thank you.)
I had to pass a FCC test to xmit, and if they try without a license, boy are they in trouble!!!
We just received a message from the aliens:
"Send more Chuck Berry."
Ummm, if I'm not mistaken, SETI has been privately funded for quite some time.
If the 'Verse was chock full of intelligent life, we'd be receiving their ancient commercials for A'khtu'k's Wondrous Tentacle Rejuvenation Cream from all over the Cosmos.
So, from the hard evidence we have (ignoring ancient books of human fables), the entire observable universe is ours for the taking.
We just have to figure out how to go out there into the black and take it.
;-D
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