Posted on 02/10/2014 6:28:41 AM PST by 12th_Monkey
The first detection of intelligent extraterrestrial life will likely come within the next quarter-century, a prominent alien hunter predicts.
By 2040 or so, astronomers will have scanned enough star systems give themselves a great shot of discovering alien-produced electromagnetic signals, said Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
"I think we'll find E.T. within two dozen years using these sorts of experiments," Shostak said here Thursday (Feb. 6) during a talk at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium here at Stanford University
"Instead of looking at a few thousand star systems, which is the tally so far, we will have looked at maybe a million star systems" 24 years from now, Shostak said. "A million might be the right number to find something."
(check out the rest of the article at the link)
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
I have no problem believing intelligent life existed somewhere else in the universe at some point or another. It’s the idea that they STILL exist that I can’t grasp.
The universe is 13.8 billion or so years old. Mankind has been advanced enough to send signals to the stars for what, 100 years? 200? In that relatively short time span we’ve also figured out about a dozen ways to kill ourselves entirely - to wipe away that capability.
What we’re looking for when we say “alien life” is something that came about in the same basic time period we did. Something at our relative level of progress. Too advanced and we may not even recognize their signals as “life.” Too backward and we wouldn’t sense them at all.
Even the difference of 1000 years - minuscule on the universal time scale - could make the difference. Think about it this way: If the aliens sun coalesced and their planet formed life just a million years earlier - .000007% sooner than our sun did - they’d be A MILLION years more advanced than us.
In my opinion, the Star Trek / Star Wars / general Sci-fi theory of encountering alien life close to as advanced as we are is virtually impossible. It’s much more likely that they’d be significantly more or significantly less advanced than us.
Of course, if the ancient alien theory is true (aliens spread through the galaxy seeding habitable planets with the seeds of life) then finding aliens similar to us much more likely.
sure, no evidence at all.
As I stated in previous replies on this subject, people go to the max and think about some “creature”. Life is more than a multi cellular being. I’m satisfied with a single cell paramecium swimming around vent tubes at the bottom of the ocean on Europa. If that is possible, then so is the possibility of a more developed organism elsewhere across the vast universe.
I agree.
Alien? Yes. Intelligent? No.
He DERPED out on that picture
yes, the death panels compliment the “To Serve Humanity” cookbook, don’t they?
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I do not know how this can be measured or quantified. It happens when it happens.
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