Posted on 09/24/2015 10:14:39 AM PDT by lbryce
22 Articles on Whether Or Not To Search for Extraterrestrial Life.
Full Title:Commentaries: Stephen Hawking's Aliens. The Search for Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life. Project Breakthrough Listen
Abstract
Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner have launched a $100m search for intelligent alien life beyond solar system; a program focused on listening for radio signals coming from advanced civilizations far beyond the solar system, which, presumably, rely on similar technologies as those of the present civilizations of Earth. The search will be 50 times more sensitive, and cover 10 times more sky, than previous hunts for alien life. According to Stephen Hawking the effort is "critically important" and may answer the question of whether humanity is alone in the universe. "It’s time to commit to finding the answer, to search for life beyond Earth. Mankind has a deep need to explore, to learn, to know. We also happen to be sociable creatures. It is important for us to know if we are alone in the dark." Project Breakthrough Listen is funded Yuri Milner, a Russian internet billionaire: "It is our responsibility as human beings to use the best equipment we have to try to answer one of the biggest questions: are we alone?"
Signals will not be broadcast from Earth into space, announcing our presence; in part because of the concern that voracious aliens may decided to conquer our planet once they know of its existence and resources. Hawking, like many others, has warned against shouting into the cosmos, because some advanced alien civilizations might possess the same violent traits as humans.
"A civilisation reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmology.com ...
Contents
1. Hawking's $100 Million Hunt For Intelligent Alien Life on Other Planets Louis Le Sergeant d’Hendecourt 2. Intelligent Extraterrestrial Life? Berntsen R. G. and Grøn Ø. G.
3. Risky Research: Why Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligences is Important And Dangerous Ruediger Vaas
4. Fear of Alien Civilizations, Terraforming and Panspermia Benoît E. Prieur
5. Strategies and Problems in the Search for Extraterrerstrial Intelligent Life A.D. Panov
6. Where To Look For Alien Civilizations Alexander Alexandrovich Antonov
7. Limiting and Cautionary Factors in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Life John Cox
8. Exoplanets, Extraterrestrial Life and Interstellar Flight Vito Francesco Polcaro
9. Evolution and Alien Visitors From the Stars, R. Gabriel Joseph
10. Uninvited Guests, Peter Sturrock, Ph.D.,
12. Darwinism and Hawking's Aliens, Blair Csuti, Ph.D.,
13. Alien Conquistadors? Hawking is Right, Robert Ehrlich, Ph.D., 14. Hawking's Alien Invaders Might Be Microorganisms, B.G. Sidharth, Ph.D.
15. Alien Life and Quantum Consciousness, Randy D. Allen, Ph.D.,
16. Fear of Fanatics... Ruediger Vaas,
17. Are Intelligent Aliens a Threat to Humanity? Diseases From Space. C. N. Wickramasinghe, Ph.D.,
18. Aliens and Stephen Hawking: The Wisdom Principle. Pushkar Ganesh Vaidya.
19. Why Should Hawking's Aliens Wish To Destroy? GianCarlo Ghirardi, Ph.D.,
20. The Dangers of Anti-Science: Stephen Hawking’s Fear of Dangerous Aliens. Stephen Freeland, Ph.D.,
21. Who’s Afraid of Hawking’s Aliens? Arpita Roy, Ph.D., James D. Wells, Ph.D.,
22. Stephen Hawking Is Wrong. Earth Would Not Be A Target For Alien Conquest. Harold A. Geller, Ph.D.,
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Personally, I never understood the desire to look for extraterrestrial life. There is more than enough anecdotal, even genuine evidence of ETs within our midst. Despite certainly being aware of our desperation to making contact, they have studiously been avoided us. And that I believe considering the risks is a very good thing.
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So we want to find them without them finding us. I don't think it will work out that way. Best guess is Earth is marked on alien navigation maps as a no-fly zone due to dangerous inhabitants of that planet.
The only come here to dump their garbage.
Our galaxy is relatively new when compared to the universe.
Now imagine a planet with life 1 or 2 billions years more advanced than us.
If the above is true then it's going to be a very long time before they and us ever meet
There is no way to prove there is NOT intelligent life “out there.” This endeavor begs the question as to what constitutes “intelligent” life in the first place. The human experience of intelligence is so intangible as to defy science. We draw conclusions about intelligence solely on the basis of our own experience. It is rather a conundrum to possess intelligence on the one hand, while owning a strictly material view of origins and purpose. How is intelligence defined by science? Does there have to be a demonstration of cause and effect that meets or exceeds a specific quantity?
This is not something I laugh at, because it is of course rational to ask about and to seek life forms beyond what we know and experience. But I do question the audacity of assuming “other” intelligent life to be accessible on the basis of our own observational capabilities.
“A civilisation reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so they will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria,”
Ah sure, because we don’t eradicate bacteria casually, or harvest them for a great number of practical uses, right?
So surely an advanced civilization would never do something like that to us?
/sarc
Actually I think they will find nothing at all, but even if something IS out there, this is a really bad, emotionally driven idea.
Because the bible says they aren’t there. Those who don’t believe the bible really want to prove it wrong by finding aliens.
” - - which, presumably, rely on similar technologies as those of the present civilizations of Earth. “
“We also happen to be sociable creatures.”
I sincerely wish these people luck, and they have to start with some sort of plan, and I could probably not come up with a better one. But - -
They are looking for the paranormal, the mere definition of paranormal means what they are looking for is beyond scope of normal scientific understanding. It’s a shot in the dark as any ET out there may not be using the same technology and if they could pick up their signals may not have the ability to decipher it.
And are they sociable? That’s another assumption.
And who is to say they are not here right now, studying us. Do we even have the technology to detect them if they are here or have tried to communicate?
Or are they a lot like us, with a waring nature where we (people and nations in general) are continually trying to take over other lands, subjugate the natives, killing them off at will?
Finding ET’s could be a very good thing or the beginning of our end (life on earth as we know it).
Don’t tell anybody, but $100m is the same as $100,000.
I.e. peanuts.
The universe is big not only in space but in time. The human race has been around for less than the time span of an electronic flash. And it’s about to expire. There could be thousands of such flashes going off all the time, but the likelihood of two going off near enough to each other at the same “instant” are mind bogglingly low.
The Bible is filled with vast evidence of other life and powers we cannot comprehend.
I agree. The vastness of space makes for any increase to $100 million practically no difference.
It might be like that, but we only have one example to look at, us. So it seems to me assuming anything about how long species/civilizations might last to communicate with each other is going to be based off that example of one.
For instance, if a hypothetical species has 100,000 year lifespans as opposed to 100 years, it probably becomes more feasible. Likewise if the drive to explore is super rare among hypothetical species, it doesn’t matter how long their civilizations last, they just won’t look or explore in the first place.
Freegards
Yes, that would be God, Angels and Demons.
No, it would be much, much worse - for us. The technology necessary to travel interstellar distances reliably and safely is way, way beyond us right now. The difference between us and them would be far more than the difference between the Aztecs and the conquistadors.
It wouldn't be Spaniards vs. Aztecs, it would be much more like humans vs. cockroaches (and there are far fewer of us, and we don't breed like roaches - so it is worse, yet for us).
If there are any extra terrestrials they are demons breaking through from another dimension. IMO. :-)
If the above is true then it's going to be a very long time before they and us ever meet
I disagree. Read "Genesis and the Big Bang" by Schroeder. He is both an astro-physicist and an Orthodox Jew. He has shown that the first 5 1/2 "days" (i.e. before the creation of Man) were not days as we know them, but epochs. He shows how the Talmud puts the age of the universe at over 14 billion years (in our terms), not 5776 years. The latter number is since the creation of Man (and is, I would contend, the time since God put a soul in a human creature). There is PLENTY of room for lots of evolution, both here and elsewhere. How dare you put limits on what God can create!
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