So, do YOU believe?

[Vam]

Professor Stephen Hawking seems to!

Prof Hawking said: "Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean"

http://news.sky.com/story/1522308/search-of-a-million-stars-for-alien-life-begins

I love stories like this! WTG, Yuri Milner, for financing the project. The only downside is that any definitive answers could take "generations" to be revealed.

[LordRaven]

Professor Stephen Hawking seems to!

Prof Hawking said: "Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean"

http://news.sky.com/story/1522308/search-of-a-million-stars-for-alien-life-begins

I love stories like this! WTG, Yuri Milner, for financing the project. The only downside is that any definitive answers could take "generations" to be revealed.

Likewise

"Our project is only in the listening mode. We have no intention to send any signals proactively.

"The experts are divided on that subject.

"Because there is no conclusive position, we are taking a prudent position. But listening is a very innocent endeavour. In fact - the more we know, the better."

Recent discoveries, largely from NASA's Kepler space telescope, suggest at least 10% of stars in the Milky Way harbour a planet of almost Earth size with mild temperatures conducive to life

Passive listening only, Hawking thinks it dangerous to transmit our presence, he's said so before.

Anyway I have said before that any intelligence advanced enough to have warp/FTL capabilty would be a bit stupid to communicate with radio waves because they would be going slower than the ships as radio waves only go at light speed.

Therefore any really advanced race would have developed superior faster communications, ala Star Trek's subspace communications.

Our listening for radio signals is akin to them using radio and us looking for smoke signals.

We are not advanced enough to understand their subluminal communications sadly

[Stooo]

In what exactly?

[Vam]

In what exactly?

In intelligent alien life out there...somewhere in the universe. For all we know, WE could be viewed as alien life here on Planet Earth

[Stooo]

In what exactly?

In intelligent alien life out there...somewhere in the universe. For all we know, WE could be viewed as alien life here on Planet Earth

We can't be viewed as alien life on our own planet, we're indigenous...

What do you mean by intelligent?

[Vam]

In what exactly?

In intelligent alien life out there...somewhere in the universe. For all we know, WE could be viewed as alien life here on Planet Earth

We can't be viewed as alien life on our own planet, we're indigenous...

What do you mean by intelligent?

...

"Civilizations that are more advanced than us, that travel faster than light and/or live thousands of years, but are no longer enough like us to find us interesting. Perhaps they have seen enough primitive civilizations like ours such that we are not (yet) particularly interesting"
Source: http://www.quora.com/Hypothetically-if-there-is-intelligent-alien-life-with-the-knowledge-and-means-to-traverse-space-and-travel-to-Earth-what-would-be-their-reasons-for-not-making-contact-Please-read-details

I like this site!

[LordRaven]

In what exactly?

In intelligent alien life out there...somewhere in the universe. For all we know, WE could be viewed as alien life here on Planet Earth

Panspermia? Some think we arrived on martian meteorites or comets.

Personally I think life on earth evolved here on earth.

Intelligent life? I'd be happy if we found primitive life in our solar system.

Top hopefuls are enceladus, europa, titan, ganymede, and mars.

Some think we have seen signs of life, but not as we know it, on Titan even but it would be methanological and not hydrological as per earth.

[Vam]

....Lordy, at this rate you'll have me Googling all night

But stuff like this really does fascinate me. The Hawking/Milner initiative captures the imagination, doesn't it?

[LordRaven]

:yikes: ....Lordy, at this rate you'll have me Googling all night

But stuff like this really does fascinate me. The Hawking/Milner initiative captures the imagination, doesn't it?

It does but looking for radio waves that only travel at the speed of light when a civilisation, even one a thousand years more advanced than we are, will have communications that travel much faster.
They will have to if their ships are going faster than the speed of light.
Hence we might as well be looking for smoke signals.

[McAz]

Radio waves are entirely appropriate for our search - it is inconcievable that a technological civilisation would not have broadcast using electromagnetic radiation in one form or another - and likely for some considerable time.

[LordRaven]

Radio waves are entirely appropriate for our search - it is inconcievable that a technological civilisation would not have broadcast using electromagnetic radiation in one form or another - and likely for some considerable time.

Not really, if they get to us at all the civilisation in question would have evolved far far more in the time it took radio waves to get here.

We'd be hearing the echo of a civilisation from eons ago that is today way way beyond radio.

[LordRaven]

To prove a point read this and then look at the image in the link...

Extent of human radio broadcasts

Humans have been broadcasting radio waves into deep space for about a hundred years now, since the days of Marconi. That, of course, means there is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity's presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way. This bubble is astronomically large (literally), and currently spans approximately 200 light years. But how big is this, really, compared to the size of the Galaxy in which we live (which is, itself, just one of countless billions of galaxies in the observable universe)? To answer that question, Adam Grossman put together this diagram. It's not the black square; it's the little blue dot at the center of that zoomed-in square.

http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-la ... oogle.com/

[McAz]

Radio waves are entirely appropriate for our search - it is inconcievable that a technological civilisation would not have broadcast using electromagnetic radiation in one form or another - and likely for some considerable time.

Not really, if they get to us at all the civilisation in question would have evolved far far more in the time it took radio waves to get here.

We'd be hearing the echo of a civilisation from eons ago that is today way way beyond radio.

That's because you assume physical FTL travel - and that is not necessary in order to make contact.

Besides SETI is about establishing that there is intelligence out there - not what stage of evolution that intelligence may have reached.

[LordRaven]

Radio waves are entirely appropriate for our search - it is inconcievable that a technological civilisation would not have broadcast using electromagnetic radiation in one form or another - and likely for some considerable time.

Not really, if they get to us at all the civilisation in question would have evolved far far more in the time it took radio waves to get here.

We'd be hearing the echo of a civilisation from eons ago that is today way way beyond radio.

That's because you assume physical FTL travel - and that is not necessary in order to make contact.

Besides SETI is about establishing that there is intelligence out there - not what stage of evolution that intelligence may have reached.

Read my last post, when and if a radio signal gets to us they could be extinct or too advanced for us to even comprehend their latest communications techniques.

You base your thoughts on todays technology just as some feared the speed of steam engines as the pinnacle of human evolution over a century ago.

[McAz]

Radio waves are entirely appropriate for our search - it is inconcievable that a technological civilisation would not have broadcast using electromagnetic radiation in one form or another - and likely for some considerable time.

Not really, if they get to us at all the civilisation in question would have evolved far far more in the time it took radio waves to get here.

We'd be hearing the echo of a civilisation from eons ago that is today way way beyond radio.

That's because you assume physical FTL travel - and that is not necessary in order to make contact.

Besides SETI is about establishing that there is intelligence out there - not what stage of evolution that intelligence may have reached.

Read my last post, when and if a radio signal gets to us they could be extinct or too advanced for us to even comprehend their latest communications techniques.

You base your thoughts on todays technology just as some feared the speed of steam engines as the pinnacle of human evolution over a century ago.

Irrelevant - SETI is about establishing proof of extraterrestrial intelligence - not what stage of evolution that intelligence may have reached- or whether they are extant.

If I based my thoughts on today's technology I wouldn't be seriously suggesting primitive Star Trek concepts like FTL matter travel.