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Where Are The Aliens? How The ‘Great Filter’ Could Affect Tech Advances In Space
universetoday.com ^ | May 13, 2014 | Elizabeth Howell on

Posted on 05/13/2014 1:43:32 PM PDT by BenLurkin

As Snyder-Beattie explained in the article, the “Great Filter” is a response to the question of why we can’t see any alien civilizations. The “Great Filter” deals with similar issues as the Drake Equation, which talks about the probability of communicating civilizations outside of Earth, and the Fermi Paradox, which asks where the civilizations are.

Simply speaking, the idea is that if a civilization continues to expand (especially at the technological pace we humans have experienced), it wouldn’t take all that long in the lifespan of the universe for artificial processes to be visible with our own telescopes. Yes, this is even taking into account a presumed speed limit of no more than the speed of light. So something could be preventing these civilizations from showing up. That’s an important part of the Great Filter, but more details about it are below.

Here are a few possibilities for why the filter exists, both from Snyder-Beattie and from the person who first named the Great Filter, Robin Hanson, in 1996.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/111660/where-are-the-aliens-how-the-great-filter-could-affect-tech-advances-in-space/#ixzz31d9mu0xO

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


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: fastradiobursts; fermiparadox; frb; greatfilter; jocelynbellburnell; pulsars
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21 posted on 05/13/2014 2:19:01 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

We’ve busted open the atom, and have seen down to scales where Higgs bosons may lurk,

Looked out as far as has ever been seen, and possibly found the greatest evidence for God yet in mathematical sequencing.


22 posted on 05/13/2014 2:19:22 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: BenLurkin

Far too many speculations based on wrong assumptions about the universe in that article...


23 posted on 05/13/2014 2:19:52 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: BenLurkin

” I’d say that if there is such a thing as ETs, chances are 50/50 they’d want to exterminate us.”

Sounds about right

Maybe we should move underground and let the alien exterminate the liberals who live in mud huts while we prepare for a counter attack...


24 posted on 05/13/2014 2:20:10 PM PDT by GraceG
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To: BenLurkin

I think we were already visited by aliens from outer space. They didn’t like what they saw so they don’t come back anymore.


25 posted on 05/13/2014 2:21:07 PM PDT by Vinylly (?%)
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To: BenLurkin

Yes!

Precisely!

And by the very same reasoning muslims don’t allow polio vaccinations!

No Jewish vaccinations for our kids!!!


26 posted on 05/13/2014 2:22:32 PM PDT by null and void (When was the last time you heard anyone say: "It's a free country"?)
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To: onedoug

Yes. But that is the beginning. That is a mere ‘quantum’ of what ‘is’ and what there is yet to discover/learn/know.

It is, IMO, delusional for a people confined to their planet/solar system (and Voyager is one little highly limited exception) to think they can definitively say SQUAT about this particular issue. That is stupid arrogance.


27 posted on 05/13/2014 2:25:49 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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To: null and void

Was Sagan Jewish? Would it really make a difference if he were?


28 posted on 05/13/2014 2:26:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

The Berserker Theory was interesting but the problem I see with that is that a psychotic killer race of beings couldn’t cover the distances to stamp out life everywhere in the galaxy. Then there are other galaxies we might see signs of artificial phenomena from. Unless the theory is that every galaxy has a Berserker race in it that manages to extinguish all other advanced cultures before they produce an identifiable trace of themselves. Sounds extremely unlikely.


29 posted on 05/13/2014 2:33:32 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" is more than an Army Ranger credo it's the character of America.)
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To: BenLurkin
Is Drake wrong just because he knew Sagan?

That's what you said.

Polio vaccinations are wrong in the "minds" of a billion people because the creator was Jewish.

The Drake equation is wrong because of Sagan.


30 posted on 05/13/2014 2:42:48 PM PDT by null and void (When was the last time you heard anyone say: "It's a free country"?)
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To: BenLurkin

Wiki says Sagan was raised a Reform Jew. I neither knew, nor cared. Happy now?


31 posted on 05/13/2014 2:45:44 PM PDT by null and void (When was the last time you heard anyone say: "It's a free country"?)
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To: wattsgnu

“I always thought there should be a multiplying factor to the Drake equation, whose value is 1 or 0. And the factor is if God wanted their to be life elsewhere. 1 if yes, 0 if no.”

Warning this is a rant. Read at your own risk.

You have been warned!

The Drake Equation is basically nonsense. Without actual knowledge of the probabilities of life - from an evolutionary perspective - it is simply garbage in and garbage out. It is actually an example of a logical fallacy because it is a false comparison. It does not mater how many stars there are or how many of them have planets. Yes, on one level it might even be truth but we have data to determine that level.

A+B=C but only when “A”,”B” &”C” have definitions beyond the literal phonetic because combining the “AHHH” or “AAAAE” sound with the “BEE” sound does not yield a “Cha” sound


32 posted on 05/13/2014 2:48:22 PM PDT by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: BenLurkin

His parents were Reform Jews according to Wikipedia.


33 posted on 05/13/2014 2:52:35 PM PDT by Procyon (Decentralize, degovernmentalize, deregulate, demonopolize, decredentialize, disentitle.)
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To: GraceG

I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords.


34 posted on 05/13/2014 2:53:03 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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To: null and void

Perhaps we can agree that the Drake Equation is over-ballyhooed.


35 posted on 05/13/2014 2:53:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

How about we are just in a crappy location. We are all alone (as opposed to being in a nebula) at the edge of spiral Arm, 2/3 on the way out.

Essentially, in Galactic terms, we are in the middle of nowhere in South Dakota.

The whole galaxy could be filled with life that talks to each other, but we are just so far away from it all


36 posted on 05/13/2014 3:00:46 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: Norm Lenhart

I believe God wants us to be curious about His existence, both within the universe, and even outside of space and time. That’s what makes M-Theory so interesting.

Held together by the consistency of math and physics, these things give us ever more interesting takes on being made “in His image”.

IMHO, anyway.


37 posted on 05/13/2014 3:05:54 PM PDT by onedoug
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To: TigersEye

But how do you see signs of artificial phenomena from other galaxies? Remember as far as we know all “signs” we can access travel no faster than the speed of light. We literally have no idea what has happened in any of these galaxies for the last hundreds of millions of years. Our information on these galaxies is so post dated they aren’t even in those locations anymore, drift has moved them at least a galaxy length away.


38 posted on 05/13/2014 3:06:54 PM PDT by discostu (Seriously, do we no longer do "phrasing"?!)
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To: qam1

I just can’t get past the sheer arrogance of it all. Literally 40 years ago, we could not verify the existence of a single planet outside the solar system. Not one.

Now, 40 years later, some liberal ivy tower whackjob in a lab coat/pocket protector can make a definitive statement saying we are alone? On it’s face it’s absurd.

Maybe we are. But These guys sure don’t have the evidence to prove it. We can’t even doc all the species on our planet yet. We find plants in volcanic vents where ‘life cannot exist’ almost regularly now.


39 posted on 05/13/2014 3:09:19 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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To: onedoug

Works for me.


40 posted on 05/13/2014 3:09:57 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart (How's that 'lesser evil' workin' out for ya?)
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