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 ...
Next we’ll all be required to put up signs on some terrible pictogram language catering to the interplanetary jet set.
“just in case”
Oh wait, that’s the visual picture menu at McD’s.
gotta switch to another browser, chrome isn’t displaying pictures.
ALIENS?????
Wouldn’t they be referred to as ‘Undocumented Space Travelers’?
Like Sienfeld opined....
A space craft hovering above you while you are walking your dog.
Dog stops to ‘do doo doo’ and you stop and pick it up.
Don’t really have to wonder ‘who is in charge’ now do you?
it’s a 50-50 shot and your analogy is very valid. Twilight Zone’s “to serve man” springs to mind....
HA!
I am hoping that we discover the cowrovians living on the planet Pondetaur in my lifetime.
Kind of like Hitchhikers guide, where the visiting alien thought the predominant life form were cars.
No doubt there is other life forms in the universe......fact is there is not a shred of evidence they have ever visited this planet!!!
WATER?
Looney politicians?
Or perhaps, as described in C.S. Lewis's SciFi Trilogy beginning with Out of the Silent Planet, we have Evil in an abundance not seen in the remainder of the inhabited Universe?
It’s interesting research, I suppose.
But look at our history. We didn’t start broadcasting until the start of the last century.
I’m sure we’ll continue to do so for the forseeable future, but how likely for another century? A lot of what was previously broadcast is now transmitted via the internet, which is mostly wired.
Who knows what other sorts of transmission possibilities may open up - eventually we may no longer generate as much.
But let’s say we continue to do so for another 200 years. That would be 300 years total.
So even if we happened to be looking in the right place, and found a civilization with similar advancement path, what are the chances we’re looking at the right time? And, given how long it takes those signals to reach us, the civilization we happened to catch broadcasting will have advanced thousands of years ahead - possibly dying out in the process.
Then there’s the possibility that intelligent life is out there in droves. How likely is it that they’re all friendly? I suspect most intelligent worlds would stop broadcasting out into the galaxy just to minimize the chance of their being discovered. Maybe being an EMF beacon isn’t the greatest idea in the grand scheme of the galaxy.
When folks think about alien life, the conclusion is always something kind of like us.
If we were to find microbes deep in the soil of Mars or plankton like creatures under the ice of Europa, that is alien life because it’s not from here.
So when I think about the vastness of the universe, I cannot buy into the idea that every planet circling a sun’s habitable zone is a sterile world.
I agree with you on all your points. We are looking at a small window where our technology matches ET’s. I’ve also wondered if ET’s have made contact and decided that it’s best to go dark and not let anyone know where they are.
Earth is a noisy place, spewing RF in all directions.
If they exist and are at all intelligent, they won’t let our moronic, self destructive species find them.
Hope you don't run into this guy..
Aliens only seem
intelligent when they have their teleprompters.
ET would probably just put us on a watch list. Hopefully not the easy pick’n watch list....
HA!
Who said anything about sterile planets? I believe there are planets pretty much like ours some where out there...they’re just not close enough to be visiting us. Unless one believes that Star Trek was real!!!
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