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Are we alone? Do we want to know?
WaPo ^ | 28 Feb 2015 | Joel Achenbach

Posted on 02/28/2015 4:34:21 PM PST by NRx

...So began SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a form of astronomical inquiry that has captured the imaginations of people around the planet but has so far failed to detect a single “hello.” Pick your explanation: They’re not there; they’re too far away; they’re insular and aloof; they’re zoned out on computer games; they’re watching us in mild bemusement and wondering when we’ll grow up.

Now some SETI researchers are pushing a more aggressive agenda: Instead of just listening, we would transmit messages, targeting newly discovered planets orbiting distant stars. Through “active SETI,” we’d boldly announce our presence and try to get the conversation started.

Naturally this is controversial, because of . . . well, the Klingons. The bad aliens.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science; UFO's; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: seti
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To: NRx
I COME IN PEACE!

http://i203.photobucket.com/albums/aa235/1stendic/dark-angel-still_zpsnl0ihnif.jpg


21 posted on 02/28/2015 5:19:24 PM PST by Ruy Dias de Bivar
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To: NRx

22 posted on 02/28/2015 5:21:27 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

That flick was terrible! Where’s Dolph?


23 posted on 02/28/2015 5:24:17 PM PST by EEGator
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To: NRx

SQUINT is the acronym I use for an idea called

S earch for
QU antum
INT ellegence

Have wondered why SETI limits their search to the outer universe

The Microcosm is just as vast

If intelligent life were found in the microcosm it would be much easier to correspond with

I could go on but expect to be clobbered here for just saying this much


24 posted on 02/28/2015 5:24:22 PM PST by jcon40
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To: NRx
This objection is moot, however, according to the proponents of active SETI. They argue that even if there are unfriendlies out there, they already know about us. That’s because “I Love Lucy” and other TV and radio broadcasts are radiating from Earth at the speed of light.

See #20

So the proponents are being a little disingenuous: "Even if there are unfriendlies out there, they already know about us." Horse hockey! Even if they are out there, most of them, and perhaps even all of them, wouldn't have intercepted our broadcasts yet, and it's not too late to go silent; the leading edge of those early broadcasts is extremely attenuated by now and difficult to pick up. We just have to hope that unfriendlies within a hundred light years of us don't have the technology to detect them. In any event, it's obvious that very, very few intelligent species as a percentage of the whole in our galaxy know about us based on those early I Love Lucy type broadcasts. Let's keep it that way!

25 posted on 02/28/2015 5:32:57 PM PST by LibWhacker ("Every Muslim act of terror is follow by a political act of cover-up." -Daniel Greenfield)
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To: fieldmarshaldj
I'm not saying it was humans... but it was...


26 posted on 02/28/2015 5:33:18 PM PST by Rodamala
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To: NRx

On the other hand, they could be a bit too friendly.

27 posted on 02/28/2015 5:36:05 PM PST by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
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To: NRx
I'm more concerned with... the Borg.

Me too.


28 posted on 02/28/2015 5:36:45 PM PST by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: uglybiker
Ming The Merciless: Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would've hidden from it in terror.

Ming was my kind of a bloodthirsty despot.

29 posted on 02/28/2015 5:39:56 PM PST by Billthedrill
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Less than $6.8k to go!!

30 posted on 02/28/2015 5:44:42 PM PST by RedMDer (Keep Free Republic Alive with YOUR Donations!)
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To: NRx

We come from a galaxy 50,000,000,000 light years away. Prepare to be probed.


31 posted on 02/28/2015 5:44:54 PM PST by Organic Panic
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To: NRx
...that we are not the only intelligent species in the universe.

Every day we hear nothing increases the chances that we are alone. How sad that will be if true. That said I am against rushing out without scoping out the lie of the land. Further we should become an interstellar civilization with some time amoung the stars before we go around announcing our presence. Folks out there may know we are here, if so they are not talking.

32 posted on 02/28/2015 5:45:19 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: NRx
We're probably alone.

The Fermi Paradox

33 posted on 02/28/2015 5:49:08 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: JesusIsLord
Stupid Hippies ruined everything....
34 posted on 02/28/2015 5:49:50 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: NRx
And if WE are the most advanced and smartest race out there? It's just as likely as another species being it.

But that never gets brought up.

/johnny

35 posted on 02/28/2015 5:52:30 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: jcon40

Good point. As the micro so the macro.


36 posted on 02/28/2015 5:53:23 PM PST by Nuc 1.1 (Nuc 1 Liberals aren't Patriots. Remember 1789!)
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To: JRandomFreeper

Until there’s evidence of life beyond this blue orb it’s just as “correct” to say that we’re it, as it is to assume that we’re not. Seems highly unlikely in light of the apparent scale of the universe, but until it’s known it’s conjecture.


37 posted on 02/28/2015 5:57:56 PM PST by RegulatorCountry
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To: BenLurkin

Agree. Very tongue in cheek and self deprecating humor. Charles Nelson Reilly was a riot.


38 posted on 02/28/2015 5:59:30 PM PST by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: RegulatorCountry
The proper answer, without evidence is: "Who knows?"

/johnny

39 posted on 02/28/2015 6:00:51 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: JRandomFreeper
So GOOD tro see you. You are in my faithful prayers. LINK
40 posted on 02/28/2015 6:07:19 PM PST by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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