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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

#131

Post by msane »

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…

Taking the "I don't get it" attitude on this resembles a sort of classic anti-science ignorance, not sure if that's what you were going for.

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

#132

Post by zf00002 »

agentgt wrote: post #99

One of my favorite topics is the Fermi Paradox and consequently the Great Filter (which someone already discussed). One of my favorite explanations is that there are other ET out there but they are two engrossed with their own entertainment to "give a fuck" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#They_tend_to_iso... ). I find it amusing and ironic while also seriously consider it a possibility. From wikipedia:…

I read an interesting book called "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe" that attempts to tackle why we haven't found evidence of any other life. It was written in 2000 so I guess it's rather old now in that many interesting things have been discovered since to discredit it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Earth_hypothesis

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

#133

Post by codeshaman »

furyofantares wrote: post #119
codeshaman wrote: post #50

If we really believe in scientific progress, then we must accept that, compared to some time in the future, our current understanding of the Universe is akin to people thinking the world was flat some time in the past. Maybe the Universe's scale compared to our physical form has a purpose. Maybe it's intended to not be traversed physcally. Maybe that's the most obvious conclusion an intelligent life form might draw f…

> We should start exploring the inner space just like we are exploring the outer space. When will we see $100m invested in that ? :) We already have: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/04/why-spend-... And I'm sorry to tell you that I think brain science does a good job at explaining perception when intoxicated without invoking "other stuff out there"

Yes yes, the brain, the mapping, the neural network... the physical, chemical, electrical thing that if wired properly would produce consciousness...

It would be so easy if it were that easy...

And brain science can't explain too much, because it couldn't research these substances, since they're illegal everywhere in the world.

Edit:

Long story short - take the red pill and you'll see for yourself how little we understand about the mind and the Universe.

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

#134

Post by stephengillie »

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 but I think NASA has done a LOT more for generating interest in science than any other project.

It's cool to hear that people are podcasting about it. I'm glad you were able to plug them on HN.

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

#135

Post by stephengillie »

nicboobees wrote: post #115
thebouv wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is millions of dollars for scientific research compared to millions blown on stadiums, or billions on new jet fighters?

Stadiums benefit millions of people. Jet fighters save lives. Finding out that there's water on mars, or some single cell organisms on pluto, does nothing apart from fill a few future text books.

Since there IS water on Mars, then it's a lot more likely those future textbooks will be written there.

Edit: corrections.

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

#136

Post by adamtj »

scrumper wrote: post #69
jessriedel wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditionally, SETI is not specialized to messages intentionally crafted for us (or, in fact, necessarily crafted for anyone). It's just a search for radio transmissions that are unlikely to have been created by natural sources using various statistical techniques. Even for intentional messages, it's certainly conceivable that another civilization with sufficient power simply transmits the message in all direction co…

Even for intentional messages, it's certainly conceivable that another civilization with sufficient power simply transmits the message in all direction continuously. I think that scenario would imply a relative scarcity of intelligent life: after all, if a space-faring civilization needs to transmit powerful, omnidirectional signals in the blind, it must be pretty lonely. Maybe, just maybe, the fact that we're not se…

Or, perhaps planets able to support civilization are relatively rare, and the few civilizations dumb enough to loudly broadcast their presence soon get exterminated when their planets are colonized.

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

#137

Post by JosephRedfern »

icanhackit wrote: post #10
JosephRedfern wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Funny you say that: The Dominant Life Form in the Cosmos Is Probably Superintelligent Robots “If they were interested in us, we probably wouldn’t be here,” said Schneider. “My gut feeling is their goals and incentives are so different from ours, they’re not going to want to contact us.” That’s a welcome divergence from Steven Hawking’s claim that advanced aliens might be nomads, looking to strip resources from whatev…

Hah. I suppose it depends how you classify "Artificial Intelligence". It was my understanding that Hawking was concerned about humans creating skynet-style AI ourselves, rather than discovering AI created by an Extra-terrestrial.

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

#138

Post by ionised »

rimantas wrote: post #126
nicboobees wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stadiums benefit millions of people. Jet fighters save lives. Finding out that there's water on mars, or some single cell organisms on pluto, does nothing apart from fill a few future text books.

With attitude like this we'd never have neither stadiums nor jet fighters.

And there would be much rejoicing.

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

#139

Post by timothya »

agentgt wrote: post #99

One of my favorite topics is the Fermi Paradox and consequently the Great Filter (which someone already discussed). One of my favorite explanations is that there are other ET out there but they are two engrossed with their own entertainment to "give a fuck" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#They_tend_to_iso... ). I find it amusing and ironic while also seriously consider it a possibility. From wikipedia:…

Here's a couple of great videos explaining the Fermi Paradox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhhvQGsMEc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fQkVqno-uI

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

#140

Post by ekianjo »

agentgt wrote: post #99

One of my favorite topics is the Fermi Paradox and consequently the Great Filter (which someone already discussed). One of my favorite explanations is that there are other ET out there but they are two engrossed with their own entertainment to "give a fuck" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#They_tend_to_iso... ). I find it amusing and ironic while also seriously consider it a possibility. From wikipedia:…

> It may also be that intelligent alien life develop an "increasing disinterest" in their outside world

That's only something you can say with n size=1 (human civilization). We have no idea if intelligent species out there with similar capacities as humans would actually think in the same way or not. Let's not assume every intelligence out there is just like ours.

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