Sometimes how I feel about SETI and the the search

[Ichingcarpenter]

[longship]

1. Well, Kepler's gonna plug a number into the Drake eqn.

Of course, the rest of the parameters to the right are unknown, especially L, the lifetime of a technological society's transmissions.

But, damn! According to Kepler's findings, the damned galaxy is chock full of earth like planets. And Kepler still has years to go on its search.

Kepler Project

[Speck Tater]

2. The most plausible explanation

is gthat technological civilizations destroy themselves. Our sample of one is on track to confirm that theory.

[krispos42]

3. Try reading "If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens, Where is Everybody?"

I think you can read it free here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Kp6g79LuKWEC&pg=PA2&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false


I hope the irrational saves us. The rational conclusion is a bit of a letdown.

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. read it and its conjecture

as are the opposing views.
I liked the toon because if a 'race' was 240 million years ahead of us we might be just ants and not even have the capability of understanding intelligence at that level. We have a relatively young sun as compared to others in the milky way. The head start of a few billion years in evolution although conjecture too, might mean we are not even looking or using nor understanding the technologies they use to communicate

I hope we keep searching and approve of all methods possible be it with all our limited technologies and budgets. Post was a food for thought science thread.

[Occulus]

8. Stephen Baxter came up with a chilling possibility in his novel "Manifold: Space"

His idea was that there is periodically a belch from a gamma ray burster (neutron star) so strong it drives all complex life in the galaxy back to the level of pond scum.

Scary idea....

[Warpy]

5. HAHAHAHA!! Exactly!

Radio waves are pretty inefficient for long distance communication. They're limited to light speed and they get weaker and more jumbled by background noise from the working of the universe the farther they travel.

True long distance communication will be something we're not close to getting a handle on, quite possibly that "teleportation" phenomenon they've discovered and extended to over 100 Km so far.

Not only that, but our idea of communication would hardly apply to Og of Planet Zarkon, a methane breather who communicates chemically through pads on his tentacles.

My own guess is that any planet capable of life will have it, if only under the surface in deep caves. However, it is not going to be Star Trek out there, a mistake the SETI people are making.

(Oh, and the "Wow!" phenomenon? Sort of like the "bloop" on undersea monitors, both likely to be explained by boringly ordinary workings of the environment)

[caraher]

6. Don't look to "quantum teleportation" for "instant" communication

You can't do superluminal signaling via quantum entanglement. Evading the speed-of-light limit requires either some topological spacetime tricks or new physics.

Still, I agree that it's quite likely that the communication technology an advanced interstellar civilization would use exceeds our present imagination, let alone technology...

[Warpy]

7. Exactly, and quantum teleportation

just gives us a glimmer of what might exist.