Silly Effort To Investigate after 50 years

[Ezechiel]

It's been almost 50 years since scientists first came up with the idea of looking for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations - and although there have been a couple of curious blips, we haven't yet definitively heard E.T.'s cosmic call. Now the experts in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, are wondering whether we've been looking in the wrong places for the wrong kinds of signals.
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/04/1921655.aspx

So where should we look? Historically, the SETI Institute's target list has favored Earthlike planets where life as we know it might have taken root. But in "Confessions of an Alien Hunter," Shostak suggests that on the basis of what we're learning about artificial intelligence, the most likely aliens to send signals would actually be artificially intelligent machines.
If E.T. is a big shiny robot, the strategy of targeting Earthlike worlds orbiting sunlike stars may turn out to be "a very antiquated idea," Shostak acknowledged during a weekend interview. "A world on which the whole thing can rust might not be the best place for it," he said. A better place, from the machine's point of view, would be in orbit around a star hot enough to provide the prodigious power required for the big broadcast.

ZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZzzzz

 

[Hoffmeister]

So finally they're realising that Aliens probably wouldnt be using radio waves.... I think Mr Friedmans been telling them that for a while now

 

[TClaeys]

If we are resigned to the fact that SETI is indeed a silly effort to investigate then what are we to think of the effort to investigate UFO's?? We may as well call the UFO effort FETI. Futile Effort To Investigate.

Because all we have come up with is a myriad of witness testimony with a certain portion being completely or partially deluded. Hoaxes, misidentified objects or natural phenomena, as well as seemingly true anomalies. When you boil down 60+ years of the UFO "research" down what do you have?? A, extraordinarily massive piece of crap. And an exceedingly small portion of evidence that suggests that there is a true unsolved mystery at hand.

People are content to live with the mostly shoddy, subjective, sensationalized, work of UFO researchers and at the same time tell SETI that what they are doing is stupid. However small the chance that they find something, at least it is based on empirical scientific ideals. Very unlike any UFO research. And if you read the article you would see that they are opening up the search for more than just radio waves.

With the help of current missions in action like Kepler, and more time and focus with the Allen array, perhaps SETI can refine and morph themselves into a better position for finding ET. Finding ET isn't an easy thing unless you are being visited nightly by the Grays.

My bet is that ET is not going to openly engage us here and now (if they are even "here") So, it's up to us to go find them. And right now the best options we have are to visit our local vicinity (solar system) and look the best we can for signs of life and intelligence. It may take time and modification, but it IS worth looking for, even if it seems a bit unlikely. We haven't really got that far with all the UFO studies now have we??

 

[Stillborn]

If the question is, are we alone? I think various fields of the paranormal have far better evidence to support the answer that we aren't than SETI.

I hate the double standard used by Poostack and I have been pointing this out for years and even mentioned it in another thread recently. He criticizes ufology for no evidence (which isn't accurate) or maybe he means proof, which I'll give him, but SETI has none. The big wow is interesting, but even SETI astronomers don't consider it evidence.

 

[Trajanus]

"A world on which the whole thing can rust might not be the best place for it," he said.

I don't know if the alternative--worlds with great temperature extremes--would be much easier on complicated technology.

A better place, from the machine's point of view, would be in orbit around a star hot enough to provide the prodigious power required for the big broadcast.

One thing that always struck me as silly about SETI is the assumption that ET intelligence, which might be FAR older--would rely on something familiar to us.

 

[Trajanus]

If the question is, are we alone? I think various fields of the paranormal have far better evidence to support the answer that we aren't than SETI.

I hate the double standard used by Poostack and I have been pointing this out for years and even mentioned it in another thread recently. He criticizes ufology for no evidence (which isn't accurate) or maybe he means proof, which I'll give him, but SETI has none.

Very well said, thanks.

 

[TClaeys]

One thing that always struck me as silly about SETI is the assumption that ET intelligence, which might be FAR older--would rely on something familiar to us.

The only way we can go about trying to find ET is to use some assumptions. And the only assumptions we can make are those that are familiar to us. What else would we use?? Sure we could be wrong, but it's the only thing we can base the search on. It's better than nothing, well, .... maybe. At least it is worth attempting.

 

[Stillborn]

I hear the search for radio signals might be dying and optical seti is the new, or going to be the new thing.

 

[TClaeys]

I hear the search for radio signals might be dying and optical seti is the new, or going to be the new thing.

It mentions this in the article.

 

[skunkape]

I'm sending a smoke signal to outer space in exactly 1 minute. 8)
<input id="gwProxy" type="hidden"><!--Session data--><input onclick="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" type="hidden">

 

[Stillborn]

It mentions this in the article.

Oh. I saw drake equation, and some other crap I've read a million times and moved on.