11–20 of 123 posts
As someone who hopes there’s other life out there we can communicate with this is exciting.
if they are reading the news these seti scientists must be so excited about how the government got some aliens and their spaceships
Why would they be excited? That would certainly cut their funding. > UFOS: CHALLENGE TO SETI SPECIALISTS (Friedman, 2002) > Major news media and many members of the scientific community have taken strongly to the radio-telescope-based SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) program as espoused by its charismatic leaders, but not supported by any evidence whatsoever. In turn, perhaps understandably, they feel…
Then, we people are very soon capable of communicating using quantum entanglement, which means it’s beyond wireless and you simply couldn’t tap into it with some antenna.
For these reasons I suspect that SETI is waste of money.
I doubt SETI could detect even our own signals, when it’s encrypted digital data. I mean it’s just noise like any background signal.. Then, we people are very soon capable of communicating using quantum entanglement, which means it’s beyond wireless and you simply couldn’t tap into it with some antenna. For these reasons I suspect that SETI is waste of money.
> If an extraterrestrial civilization has a SETI project similar to our own, could they detect signals from Earth?
> In general, no. Most earthly transmissions are too weak to be found by equipment similar to ours at the distance of even the nearest star. But there are some important exceptions. High-powered radars and the Arecibo broadcast of 1974 (which lasted for only three minutes) could be detected at distances of tens to hundreds of light-years with a setup similar to our best SETI experiments.
It's not really a surprise why we aren't finding things. It's a surprise that we're still acting like this is a good way to look.
I doubt SETI could detect even our own signals, when it’s encrypted digital data. I mean it’s just noise like any background signal.. Then, we people are very soon capable of communicating using quantum entanglement, which means it’s beyond wireless and you simply couldn’t tap into it with some antenna. For these reasons I suspect that SETI is waste of money.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a very strong argument to be made that making first contact with an intelligent extraterrestrial species would be the most significant single event in human history. I can't say I have high hopes given the odds of making first contact, but it'd still be a huge milestone for our civilization if we can survive it.
Even just knowing they are there/coming or might arrive in 1000y would have huge effects on human society. Not being alone as a species has fundamental existential meaning and religion. Would the effects be good? The truth can have bad effects, but so does not confronting reality.
Finding signals from aliens on some distant planet would be interesting for one news cycle. Then everything would continue on as before.
I doubt SETI could detect even our own signals, when it’s encrypted digital data. I mean it’s just noise like any background signal.. Then, we people are very soon capable of communicating using quantum entanglement, which means it’s beyond wireless and you simply couldn’t tap into it with some antenna. For these reasons I suspect that SETI is waste of money.
I doubt SETI could detect even our own signals, when it’s encrypted digital data. I mean it’s just noise like any background signal.. Then, we people are very soon capable of communicating using quantum entanglement, which means it’s beyond wireless and you simply couldn’t tap into it with some antenna. For these reasons I suspect that SETI is waste of money.
Just because it's "noise" (ie. random/unpredictable looking) doesn't mean it's indistinguishable from other "noise".
Not all "noise" is created equal. "noise" can have properties that make it distinguishable from other "noise". You may have heard of "white noise", "brown noise", "pink noise", "gaussian noise", etc...
A sequence that appears random or unpredictable may nevertheless fall in to certain distributions.
I am not an astronomer, statistician or cryptographer, but would not be in the least surprised if encrypted communication could be clearly distinguishable from the cosmic microwave background radiation -- not only based on its distribution, but other properties such as intensity of the signal, how frequently the signal appears, and other much more advanced signal analysis techniques which are way beyond my expertise to analyze but not beyond the experts at SETI.