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Active SETI?


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God loves a trier especially good old Seth.

 

Its a bit weak of him saying we've been anouncing our presence for the last 30 odd years with tv and radio waves (its actully over a 100 years) because they get drowned out by natural frequencies and dissapate within a distance of 3 to 4 light years so would be many times harder to detect than what SETI is doing near the 1420 Mhz frequency.

 

Its an interesting concept seeing as there's not been a single confirmed candidate signal received (although Wow! does peak my interest and curiosity) despite searching for 50 years. A single 'Active' SETI test was made around 1974 from Aricebo by Frank Drake and friends.

 

Not that I think there's anyone else out there in the Milky Way right now but seems a bit risky shouting into the great void. But, perhaps that's what everyone else is doing, keeping quiet?

 

If and its a massive if, the Wow! signal was from an ETI, maybe they were cautious in anouncing their location too because there's nothing in that particular region and why its never been heard of again?

 

Scientists in US are urged to seek contact with aliens

By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News

_80966442_r1600351-allen_telescope_array
Seti listens out for signals using its own radio telescope array at Hat Creek in California

 

Scientists at a US conference have said it is time to try actively to contact intelligent life on other worlds.

Researchers involved in the search for extra-terrestrial life are considering what the message from Earth should be.

 

The call was made by the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence institute at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose. But others argued that making our presence known might be dangerous.

 

Researchers at the Seti institute have been listening for signals from outer space for more than 30 years using radio telescope facilities in the US. So far there has been no sign of ET. The organisation's director, Dr Seth Shostak, told attendees to the AAAS meeting that it was now time to step up the search.

 

"Some of us at the institute are interested in 'active Seti', not just listening but broadcasting something to some nearby stars because maybe there is some chance that if you wake somebody up you'll get a response," he told BBC News.

 

The concerns are obvious, but sitting in his office at the institute in Mountain View, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, he expresses them with characteristic, impish glee.

Game over?

Continue reading the main storyStart Quote

Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here”
Dr Seth Shostak
Seti Institute

 

"A lot of people are against active Seti because it is dangerous. It is like shouting in the jungle. You don't know what is out there; you better not do it. If you incite the aliens to obliterate the planet, you wouldn't want that on your tombstone, right?"

 

I couldn't argue with that. But initially, I could scarcely believe I was having this conversation at a serious research institute rather than at a science fiction convention. The sci-fi feel of our talk was underlined by the toy figures of bug-eyed aliens that cheerfully decorate the office.

 

But Dr Shostak is a credible and popular figure and has been invited to present his arguments.

Leading astronomers, anthropologists and social scientists will gather at his institute after the AAAS meeting for a symposium to flesh out plans for a proposal for active Seti to put to the public and politicians.

 

High on the agenda is whether such a move would, as he put it so starkly, lead to the "obliteration" of the planet.

"I don't see why the aliens would have any incentive to do that," Dr Shostak tells me.

"Beyond that, we have been telling them willy-nilly that we are here for 70 years now. They are not very interesting messages but the early TV broadcasts, the early radio, the radar from the Second World War - all that has leaked off the Earth.

 

"Any society that could come here and ruin our whole day by incinerating the planet already knows we are here."

 

His argument isn't entirely reassuring. But neither is the one made by David Brin, a science fiction writer invited to speak at the AAAS meeting, who opposes the plan. "Historians will tell you that first contact between industrial civilisations and indigenous people does not go well," he told me.

 

Mr Brin believes that those in favour of active Seti have been "railroading the public into sending a message without a wide and detailed discussion of what the cultural impact might be".

He does not fear a Hollywood-style alien invasion and thinks the likelihood of making contact is extremely low. But the risks, he argues, are extremely high and so merit careful consideration before anyone sends out a signal to potentially habitable worlds.

 

"The arrogance of shouting into the cosmos without any proper risk assessment defies belief. It is a course that would put our grandchildren at risk," he said. Also on the agenda at the active Seti symposium is that if we are to send a message to ET - what should it be? Some involved in the discussions believe we should send a sanitised account of ourselves, leaving out parts of our history we aren't proud of and putting a positive spin on our achievements - as if our species were attending a job interview or first date. Dr Shostak disagrees. He thinks the only way to win over the aliens is to be ourselves.

 

"My personal preference is to send the internet - send it all because if you send a lot of information then there's some chance that they'll work it out".

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-31442952

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Send the internet?

 

Yep, they will see us in a good light then wont they.

 

"Oh look, man kills 40 with bomb attached to waist.... nice these earthlings"

 

"ooh whats this ? big country invading little country? hmmm...."

 

"what...the? two girls one cup? aaaaaaggghhhhhhh activate planet destruction device immediately"

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