Is SETI a Silly Effort To Investigate?

[Tony B.]

I got to shake hands - and chat briefly - with Mr. Friedman at the last "UFO fest" over in McMinnville. A classy and very intelligent man.

I finally understood that bit in "Wayne's World"; where they run into the guys from Aerosmith, and start in with the bowing, scraping, and
"We are not worthy! We are not worthy!"

 

[Randall]

I got to shake hands - and chat briefly - with Mr. Friedman at the last "UFO fest" over in McMinnville.

Interesting.

A classy and very intelligent man.

And of course Stan is also the one who appears to have coined the phrase "Silly Effort To Investigate". Do I agree with that assessment? Yes & No. I don't think it's the best approach for investigating the possibility of alien visitation or that the absence of evidence from SETI validates any suggestion that aliens haven't visited Earth. However at the same time, I think it's a very reasonable and scientific approach to detecting other civilizations that also use radio technology for communication. Such civilizations may not have interstellar travel capability, yet discovering them would still be momentous. A couple of short bits on what I think of alien communication ( ACOM ) and the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence ( SETI ) can be found here:

• http://ufopages.com/Content/Reference/ACOM-01a.htm
• http://ufopages.com/Content/Reference/SETI-01a.htm

 

[Sub-light]

Ive always wondered if they would be a lot better at "hearing" a signal if their listening post was off planet.

 

[Tony B.]

Ive always wondered if they would be a lot better at "hearing" a signal if their listening post was off planet.

That's one of the arguments in favor of putting a research base and radio astronomy facilities on the lunar Farside, thereby blocking all of the line-of-sight EM caterwauling from good old us.