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Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

news.mit.edu

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Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#171
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that extraterrestrial intelligence is not “a strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics”?

There's no evidence extraterrestrial intelligence is a phenomenon at all. [1] We can worry about whether it's explainable by 21st century human physics when that stops being true. [1] Although there is evidence very weird things have happened on Earth, like the recent confirmation that the US Navy UFO videos are genuine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/pentagon-relea...

Not weird at all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jcBGLIpus

Mick West's full playlist with explanations:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4ZqTjKmhn5Qr0tCHkCV...

An article mentioning Mick West:

https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a...

https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a...

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#172

One of paper authors here. I'll try and answer some of the questions in the comments. It seems like so long ago the paper actually went public onto the arXiv, but I guess the press embargo just ended.

Why are there press embargoes for these things?

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#173
post #6

Since it hasn't come up yet: whenever a new astronomical phenomenon is detected, people think "Aliens!" as the reason. In fact, when the first pulsar was discovered, it was (somewhat jokingly) called LGM-1 for "little green men". I'm sure the news hype cycle will come up with similar ideas this time, and I'm just as sure that we'll find a perfectly reasonable explanation not involving intelligent, extraterrestrial li…

There was a time when people thought a ball of fire moving across the sky every day must be alive. The universe is full of strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics. This is no different.

The problem is, any form of intelligent life that exists in the same universe as us is going to have to be able to be explained by physics, since that’s what physics does - explain the way the universe gives rise to the phenomena in it which we observe. I mean, if we detected signs of intelligent life that can’t be explained by physics, that either means we have some new physics to discover, or physics has to give up because it turns out there is a form of life not subject to its rules.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#174

One of paper authors here. I'll try and answer some of the questions in the comments. It seems like so long ago the paper actually went public onto the arXiv, but I guess the press embargo just ended.

Why are there press embargoes for these things?

In order to maximize impact. Press doesn't want to talk about this unless there is an embargo, otherwise they might be 'late' in which case they would rather not mention it at all (and not have to spend costly journalist time)

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same feelings. It's never aliens, but it sure would be cool to meet a benevolent super advanced species or catch an intergalactic soap opera with octopus people. Really, any indication that we're not alone.

We are not :-)

Given the size of the Universe, I would guess this as well 10/10, but so far we have zero evidence.

I wonder if we're all destined to stay within our own solar systems due to the light speed barrier, or if we'll ever figure out how to do FTL or bend space. It's frustrating that we can't seem to break out of our tiny bubble.

Maybe there is a prime directive that has nothing to do with a species achieving warp, but instead attempts to see if a species can work together on a planetary scale to tackle disease, hunger, energy, climate...etc? If so, we're doing a poor job, but are making progress.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#177
post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine! People with your philosophy of self will just cease to exist, as they presumably will refuse to optimize for likelihood of being simulated, and those with a more permissive notion of self-identity will be the ones willing to adapt to the hellish computational circumstances. (Of course, you could say that everyone's ceasing to exist, here, because your rules of what counts as a person and what's their cop…

For an exploration of the perception of self by a digital copy I can recommend The Old Axolotl by Jacek Dukaj.

Have you read it in English? Dukaj is my favorite modern sci-fi author and I'm wondering how well he's translated.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how to subscribe to a Youtube video with antennapod. Have you done it?

I assumed you were talking about podcasts, audio only. Try finding the RSS feed of the channel and adding it to Antennapod, but I am not sure it will work

I found the RSS feed - https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=UCz3qvET...

...unfortunately, it's not a podcast RSS format, so there's no way to load it into Podkicker.

In AntennaPod, it'll subscribe, but won't download or play the episodes...

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are a lot of cool concepts in those books Which books, if I may ask?

The Three Body Problem and it's sequels by Liu Cixin. The series is called "Remembrance of Earth's Past".

Thank you!

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#180
post #155
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just made me realize that it would be cheaper for an advanced civilization to send a message light years away by altering the medium through which the signal passes than to control the source directly, e.g. a neutron star.

The Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin might interest you

That book is garbage and the author doesn't understand science, let alone writing. Just heads up for all the recommendations spammed on here.

Though his creative interpretation of higher dimensions was interesting (sending the tiny probe that unfolds on earth).

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