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When Does SETI Throw in the Towel?
space.com ^
| 01/18/07
| Seth Shostak
Posted on 01/18/2007 6:48:30 PM PST by KevinDavis
At what point would you abandon the search?
Thats a question I get relatively frequently from folks who think that SETI may be a quixotic quest, as futile as searching for the Seven Cities of Gold. After all, modern efforts to find signals from extraterrestrial transmitters are now in their fifth decade. Could it be that those of us who still hope to tune in other worlds may be missing some writing on the wall? Some dead-obvious, chiseled text with a simple, if disappointing message: There are no aliens?
The question seems fair, since SETIs obvious analogsthe historical voyages of discovery made in the centuries following the Renaissancewere completed in considerably less time than SETI has been beating the cosmic bushes. Columbus spent five weeks finding North America (and he wasnt even looking). Captain Cook, a true paragon of explorers, and a man who mapped places that Europeans didnt even know were places, never mounted an expedition that lasted more than three years.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: seti; space; whenthemoneystops
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To: KevinDavis
as futile as searching for the Seven Cities of Gold
What?!? I've spent years looking for those.
21
posted on
01/18/2007 10:28:23 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
To: SunkenCiv
Don't worry too much. With inflation, they're only worth four now.
To: KevinDavis
23
posted on
01/18/2007 10:35:26 PM PST
by
denydenydeny
("We have always been, we are, and I hope that we always shall be detested in France"--Wellington)
To: SoCal Pubbie
I found a web page a week or so ago, some mathematician, where I read that the odds of driving a mile each way to get a MegaMillions ticket and being involved in a wreck with a fatality (yours or the other guy) is six times better than having the winning numbers.
So, from now on, buy seven tickets. Pllt, problem solved.
24
posted on
01/18/2007 10:59:19 PM PST
by
SunkenCiv
("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
To: GonzoGOP
So if 'God' created our Solar System simply for the human race and fundamental physics prevents us from attaining FTL velocities whats the rest of the huge mass that is the universe for ?
25
posted on
01/19/2007 1:32:33 AM PST
by
Brit1
(Not by strength by guile .)
To: KevinDavis
Never give up...... Never surrender.
26
posted on
01/19/2007 1:35:14 AM PST
by
Straight Vermonter
(It takes a school to bankrupt a village.)
To: Brit1
1) Don't know the mind of 'God' myself so can't say.
2) Can't even prove 'God' exists, I'm just pointing out one of a whole series of highly improbable things that had to break our way in order to show up. The moon forming event is only the most improbable. And total probability is all of the individual probability's multiplied the MFE tends to skew the numbers from the already highly improbable into the silly. A pit boss in Las Vegas once told me that he doesn't have to know how a guy is cheating, or even prove that he is. If he saw something that defied the laws of random chance you were asked to leave.
3) While higher life appears to be highly improbable, even given the enormous number of stars in the galaxy, 'Life' in its simplest forms appears to be able to exist and develop almost anywhere. Perhaps God, Fate, or the Bookies in Vegas just prefer bacteria over higher forms.
4) While fundamental physics does prevent FTL it does not stop us from reaching the stars. A starship using a Helium 3 fusion drive and magnetic ram scoop breaking could reach some of the nearer stars that we know to have planets. It would have to be a giant ship and the generation that departs Sol would not be the one that arrives in their new home. Humanity can reach the stars, just not commute back and forth like Star Trek.
27
posted on
01/19/2007 4:56:07 AM PST
by
GonzoGOP
(There are millions of paranoid people in the world and they are all out to get me.)
To: GonzoGOP
I suspect that as we fill more of the unused 96% of our 'Grey Matter' with knowledge of the 96% of the universe we don't understand and can't see then the 'highly improbable ' will become the 'more than likely'.
28
posted on
01/19/2007 8:55:14 AM PST
by
Brit1
(Not by strength by guile .)
To: Brit1
Who says we're filling the unused part?
Despite all our scientific advances, there's still lots of people who think WWF wrestling is genuine, or that Elvis is still alive.
To: canuck_conservative
Of course Elvis is alive the wife says she saw him going into the grocery store last week. ( I'm not going to argue)And while were 'on message'the Americans never landed on the Moon and NORAD tracked Santa Claus travelling at faster than light speeds on Christmas Eve.
Happy new year.
30
posted on
01/22/2007 10:34:19 AM PST
by
Brit1
(Not by strength by guile .)
To: Rodney King
they will dip us in a honey mustard sauce"Is that from "To Serve Man"?
31
posted on
01/22/2007 10:42:33 AM PST
by
Bat_Chemist
(I was on a roll, and then the backspin kicked in...)
To: Bat_Chemist
i thought i just made that up but perhaps is subconciously stole it from somewhere.
32
posted on
01/22/2007 2:37:40 PM PST
by
Rodney King
(No, we can't all just get along.)
To: Rodney King
LOL, "To Serve Man" is an book in an old B&W Twilight Zone episode. As it turns out, it's a cookbook.
33
posted on
01/22/2007 5:27:04 PM PST
by
Bat_Chemist
(I was on a roll, and then the backspin kicked in...)
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