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Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#11

Post by zamalek »

JosephRedfern wrote: post #5
k8tte wrote: post #3

one week Hawking warns about skynet-style AI. next week he insist of us go hunting it. good troll?

It strikes me that the two are very different things. ET != AI.

SAI != ET.

The idea of SAI is that it progresses at a significantly faster rate than biological processes can. For example, if humans and chimps were on a "staircase of evolution" and were one step apart; SAI would be one step above us a mere hour after it is turned on. After 2 hours it would be multiple steps above us. So the theory goes, anyway.

This means that evil aliens would be unlikely more dangerous than evil SAI.

Not that he's suggesting we announce our presence to aliens, merely look for them.

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#13

Post by randallsquared »

zamalek wrote: post #11
JosephRedfern wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It strikes me that the two are very different things. ET != AI.

SAI != ET. The idea of SAI is that it progresses at a significantly faster rate than biological processes can. For example, if humans and chimps were on a "staircase of evolution" and were one step apart; SAI would be one step above us a mere hour after it is turned on. After 2 hours it would be multiple steps above us. So the theory goes, anyway. This means that evil aliens would be unlikely more dangerous than evil…

A timescale of hours is not required for most of the AI-doom arguments; if it took a year, that would have a similar outcome.

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#14

Post by melling »

I wish someone would instead come up with a project to really capture the public's attention about space exploration. More interest means more funding. The U.S. Budget is measured in billions. The New Horizons project, for example, only cost $700 million.

The Lunar X Prize might have been that project but it doesn't seem to be making progress:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize

http://lunar.xprize.org/

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#15

Post by jshelly »

melling wrote: post #14

I wish someone would instead come up with a project to really capture the public's attention about space exploration. More interest means more funding. The U.S. Budget is measured in billions. The New Horizons project, for example, only cost $700 million. The Lunar X Prize might have been that project but it doesn't seem to be making progress: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize http://lunar.xprize.o…

I'd like to think the podcast Radiolab has done more for generating interest in science then any other project I can think of.

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#17

Post by codeshaman »

A very noble endeavour indeed, but I still don't get it.

So let's say that by examining the petabytes of data that's received from the telescopes, at some point a signal is detected.

Let's say that somehow all the competing scientests and skeptics, religious and opinion leaders magically and peacefully agree: the signal is from an inteligent life form. Somewhere close, just a couple of hundred light years away ...

Then what ?

Do we build rockets to travel there ? Do we 'tune-in' and decipher the signal ? Do we send them our own signals in the hope that they are listening ?

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#18

Post by saiya-jin »

jshelly wrote: post #15
melling wrote: post #14

I wish someone would instead come up with a project to really capture the public's attention about space exploration. More interest means more funding. The U.S. Budget is measured in billions. The New Horizons project, for example, only cost $700 million. The Lunar X Prize might have been that project but it doesn't seem to be making progress: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Lunar_X_Prize http://lunar.xprize.o…

I'd like to think the podcast Radiolab has done more for generating interest in science then any other project I can think of.

sorry to break your perception (or not), but even as a space exploration enthusiast, never heard of that. but then again, podcasts generally are on outer rim of interest of general population

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#19

Post by Tepix »

Amazing initiative! I wish we had more of these. And it's coming right after "Armada" by Ernest Cline was released, which deals with aliens.

If the livestream is overlaid with page elements for you as well, try this URL:

http://livestream.com/accounts/6714632/events/4205486/player...

Re: Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100M Initiative to Seek ET

#20

Post by evantahler »

codeshaman wrote: post #17

A very noble endeavour indeed, but I still don't get it. So let's say that by examining the petabytes of data that's received from the telescopes, at some point a signal is detected. Let's say that somehow all the competing scientests and skeptics, religious and opinion leaders magically and peacefully agree: the signal is from an inteligent life form. Somewhere close, just a couple of hundred light years away ... Th…

The answer is usually "what would Jean luc Picard do?"
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