Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Alien Life, Seth Shostak and SETI
The Chris Pryor Show ^ | 08/09/2018 | Chris Pryor

Posted on 08/09/2018 11:10:20 AM PDT by jcpryor

Seth Shostak from SETI.org joined the Chris Pryor Show. Seth discussed current scientific attempts to discover intelligent life and the mechanisms involved in this search. Seth has a fantastic radio show of his own, Big Picture Science and it can be found here https://seti.org/education-outreach/big-picture-science-overview


TOPICS: Hobbies; Science; UFO's
KEYWORDS: 13questions; astronomy; ceti; chrispryor; et; science; seatrain; sethshostak; seti; space; ufo

1 posted on 08/09/2018 11:10:20 AM PDT by jcpryor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: jcpryor
Perhaps someone should look for intelligent life in a lot of places here on "erf" first. 👹🔬📡.
2 posted on 08/09/2018 11:18:39 AM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jcpryor

I think the aliens came, saw and left!

The more time I spend around certain individuals from certain places, the more I believe in ancient aliens.

There is no way these people could have ever figured out how to stack blocks to make those pyramids in a certain Central American area.

Do the labor, yes. But put two and two together to design it, no.


3 posted on 08/09/2018 11:53:54 AM PDT by SolidRedState (I used to think bizarro world was a fiction.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SolidRedState

That’s what I think too.

Look at it this way. There are billions and billions of planets that can hold life by the Drake equation. (not that that is the be-all, end-all of the discussion, but its a good starting point for my purposes)

But even billions is a tiny fraction when you take an almost infinite universe/ divided by billions.

Compare that to the Erf.

A comparable tiny fraction of the earth would be minuscule. But let’s say it’s one square meter.

If you zoom in on one square meter of the earth from space most of the time it will be empty. The top of Mount Everest is almost always empty. The middle of the ocean, etc etc.

But we have gone to the top of Mt Everest and will will go there again.

It’s like that. There may be places in the universe teaming with life and we’re on the fringe.

Aliens might have been to this tiny fraction of the universe and could be back. I think there is ample evidence of it, and the 10,000 years or so we know about is nothing compared to the millions of years this planets has been here.

Erosion takes a huge toll. If you look at places that we KNOW once had thriving civilizations we have to sift through dirt to find traces. Civilizations from millions of years ago would be harder.

But we have found iron pots embedded in coal. metal pieces have been found in rocks millions of years old.


4 posted on 08/09/2018 12:06:04 PM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare itself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

Bookmarked.


5 posted on 08/09/2018 12:18:42 PM PDT by wally_bert (Just call me Angelo or babe.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K
"I think there is ample evidence of it...." that aliens were here.

Might you share some of this "evidence"?

6 posted on 08/09/2018 12:19:39 PM PDT by onedoug
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

“Look at it this way. There are billions and billions of planets that can hold life by the Drake equation. (not that that is the be-all, end-all of the discussion, but its a good starting point for my purposes)”

This is maybe, but, there are only a few stars around that can actually support the formation of planets. Even fewer that can produce conditions for life.

It took 3.5 BILLION years for multicell life to appear on Earth. Most stars, and, almost ALL the stars we can see at night, are less that a billion. Most will never make it that far.

Just using Earth as a baseline (we don’t have anything else we can go by) you would have to have a star that is relatively stable, capable of existing for more than 4.5 billion years, and, have to have been at least a third generation star to have the elements in it’s vicinity for life to form JUST to get to where we are now.

Personally, I think we would be incredibly lucky just to find a planet out beyond the solar system that is capable of being terraformed to our needs, to say nothing of being able to just plop down and take over an already usable world, or, finding some kind of civilization already there.

I also think we need to start planning to go and look as fast as possible. The Sun is NOT a stable star and one day we are going to wake up and find the Earth is more like Crematoria from the Riddick movies or Hoth. And there won’t be anything Algore can do about it.


7 posted on 08/09/2018 12:43:46 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: onedoug

the fact we need to build a wall on the border tells me that alien life exists.


8 posted on 08/09/2018 1:59:50 PM PDT by PCPOET7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Conan the Librarian

Agreed, Conan. We need to spread across the galaxy and not keep all our eggs in one basket. There’s a theory that humanity came close to the edge of extinction around 12,000 BC and nothing says it can’t happen again.

In fact, with all the near-miss space rocks we’ve seen lately, we might be on borrowed time right now.


9 posted on 08/09/2018 2:31:34 PM PDT by DNME (The only solution to a BAD guy with a gun is a GOOD guy with a gun. Period.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: jcpryor

The NSA has a severely redacted article on deciphering one of several ET messages from SETI on their public web site. Perhaps these fellows should start with that document.


10 posted on 08/09/2018 4:17:01 PM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Conan the Librarian

Do you know what the Drake Equation is? You missed the entire point, i think.

Even if you use very small possibilities for the variables the result is still a pretty big number - but divided by incredibly huge space it’s very close to zero density.


11 posted on 08/09/2018 7:13:59 PM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare itself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

I have known the Drake equation since the first Cosmos series, back in the 70s.

I just know that (going by our only example...us) it takes a VERY long time, and, a VERY special set of circumstances, available elements and locations for life to be possible, not even talking about making to an advanced civilization capable of building a telescope, not to mention spacecraft.

All in all, I think the number of civilizations in any particular part of the universe isn’t going to be much higher than 1, with all the special factors needed.

Then you have to deal with the distance problem. Getting around the speed of light may be impossible. Generation Ships might get around it, but, that’s if we are lucky.

Its fun to speculate about such things, but, reality is a harsh mistress.


12 posted on 08/09/2018 7:43:41 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

I have known the Drake equation since the first Cosmos series, back in the 70s.

I just know that (going by our only example...us) it takes a VERY long time, and, a VERY special set of circumstances, available elements and locations for life to be possible, not even talking about making to an advanced civilization capable of building a telescope, not to mention spacecraft.

All in all, I think the number of civilizations in any particular part of the universe isn’t going to be much higher than 1, with all the special factors needed.

Then you have to deal with the distance problem. Getting around the speed of light may be impossible. Generation Ships might get around it, but, that’s if we are lucky.

Its fun to speculate about such things, but, reality is a harsh mistress.


13 posted on 08/09/2018 7:44:01 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Mr. K

Sorry about the double post. We are having internet issues this evening.


14 posted on 08/09/2018 7:45:32 PM PDT by Conan the Librarian (The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Conan the Librarian

You are assuming the speed of light is a limit.

The math proves that FTL is not possible but shrinking the space between objects is.

Plus, have you ever listened to Bob Lazar talk about that space ships he worked on at Area 51? I’ve listened to him talk since he went public- he has never been inconsistent, his physics knowledge is correct, and I believe him. in fact, the way he describes it is the way you would have to get around the FTL limit.

We’ve recently deteced gravity waves, and so the math is correct. Which means space can be compacted. Gravity is so weak compared to every force that if you are able to amplify it then you can bring Mars a footstep away.

There are some good videos (before Photoshop) that show alien spacecraft making 90 degree turns. That would require gravity propulsion.


15 posted on 08/10/2018 7:50:55 AM PDT by Mr. K (No consequence of repealing Obamacare is worse than Obamacare itself.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

10 SETI Messages That We May Not Want to Receive An exploration of alternative SETI messages that may not say hello. | Published on Nov 6, 2017 | John Michael Godier | from his Patreon page -- "I am passionate about all science fiction, however with my own writing I want to create hard science fiction stories that blow people's minds but stay within the confines of the scientifically possible. Plus, I just want to spin a good old fashioned entertaining yarn in the process. In addition, I am an aspiring documentary filmmaker and maintain a science and technology based YouTube channel showcasing interesting and unusual subjects from the realm of hard science and futurism." John Michael Godier

10 SETI Messages That We May Not Want to Receive

16 posted on 08/10/2018 11:46:11 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

"But I am not really willing to accept your premise, because it may well be that the means of communications they have are of a kind that we do not know how to receive, and that they would not have the means of communicating with sufficiently powerful radio or optical signals. That is something which, technologically, is too difficult for them but they would have some other means we would not recognize." -- Thomas J. Gold, 'Communication with Extraterrestial Intelligence' (Sagan, ed)
"To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field of millet, only one grain will grow." -- Metrodorus, 4th c BC Greek philosopher
"Heaven and earth are large, yet in the whole of space they are but as a small grain of rice. How unreasonable it would be to suppose that, besides the heaven and earth which we can see, there are no other heavens and no other earths." -- Teng Mu, 13th c AD Chinese philosopher

17 posted on 08/10/2018 11:46:38 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson