Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Historian looks at fruitless quest for intelligent extraterrestrial life (Barf Alert!)
SFGate.com ^ | 04/02/06 | George Basalla

Posted on 04/03/2006 5:10:47 PM PDT by KevinDavis

The year 2010 will mark the 50th anniversary of humanity's strangest scientific quest: the use of giant radiotelescope dishes to listen for radio messages from alien beings in space. So far, the search has been a complete bust. The radioastronomers keep listening, but the stars aren't talking to us -- not yet, anyway.

Oddly, the failure of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or SETI, has been largely ignored by the general public, journalists and Hollywood filmmakers. They continue to be enchanted by (and, in Hollywood's case, to commercially exploit) the hope that intelligent life is sprinkled across the galaxy like dandelions across a spring meadow, that those faraway intelligences wish to communicate with us by radio and that said communication would mutually benefit both parties. For example (we are told), aliens could transmit to us cures for cancer and warfare, while we could enlighten them on the mating and sexual rituals of hominids on the third planet of the star called Sol.

Why does the public remain fascinated with a project, SETI, that has so far yielded only disappointment? No doubt it's fun to think that the cosmos is more than "drops of mud," as Anatole France sneered. In an unhappy world, it's reassuring to think that no matter how miserable we are Down Here, there's all kinds of wondrous stuff going on Up There, i.e. that the center of our Milky Way galaxy is a celestial Broadway teeming with brilliant societies and buzzing with starships. Toward that stellar metropolis 30,000 light years overhead, we suffering terrestrials gaze wistfully, rather like the ragged working girls of romantic fiction who gaze longingly at the lights of Manhattan.

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


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alfs; artbell; beammeup; crevosciarchive; et; ets; extraterrestrials; fringe; ohsomysteriouso; space; tinfoil; wasteofmoney
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 181-192 next last
Let see here.. There are billions upon billions upon billions of stars and we are the only intelligent speicies in this universe?? Right.. I do have some oceanfront property in Arizona...
1 posted on 04/03/2006 5:10:51 PM PDT by KevinDavis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: RightWhale; Brett66; xrp; gdc314; anymouse; NonZeroSum; jimkress; discostu; The_Victor; ...

2 posted on 04/03/2006 5:11:34 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis

Algore is proof of non-human humanoids.


3 posted on 04/03/2006 5:12:11 PM PDT by pissant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis
Let see here.. There are billions upon billions upon billions of stars and we are the only intelligent species in this universe?? Right.. I do have some oceanfront property in Arizona...

Other than your saying it. What proof do you have there is any other intelligent life out there?

4 posted on 04/03/2006 5:14:33 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bnelson44; All

What proof do you have there isn't???


5 posted on 04/03/2006 5:15:40 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis

"use of giant radiotelescope dishes to listen for radio messages from alien beings in space. So far, the search has been a complete bust."





Instead of listening for messages, why not send messages?


6 posted on 04/03/2006 5:16:49 PM PDT by Brilliant
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis

Visionless idiot.

We have only been searching a *tiny* portion of time.
The search has only just begun. But I guess that just not fast enough for fools. Somethings take a great deal of time from a human perspective.

And who is to say that alien signals havent been streaming through our very bodies all along as thousands of radio signals do every second?

All the time as we searched for "smoke signals" while they were using "radio".

And if we are truly alone. then THAT is a valid answer to this quest too. Either way it is our nature to find out.


7 posted on 04/03/2006 5:17:05 PM PDT by Names Ash Housewares
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis
What proof do you have there isn't???

That's a cop out. No one can prove the negative, however the positive is not proven then it is not proven. As far as I know we're it, and you need to face that fact.

8 posted on 04/03/2006 5:18:08 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Brilliant; All

I agree.. We should send the messages..


9 posted on 04/03/2006 5:18:10 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: bnelson44; All

No it isn't....


10 posted on 04/03/2006 5:18:32 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Brilliant
Instead of listening for messages, why not send messages?

We do. It is called television.

11 posted on 04/03/2006 5:18:57 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis

Oh, yes it is


12 posted on 04/03/2006 5:19:21 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis

I'm still hoping they look like "six".


13 posted on 04/03/2006 5:20:16 PM PDT by neodad (USS Vincennes (CG-49) Freedom's Fortress)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Names Ash Housewares; All

How long did it take to prove the Earth was not flat and this planet was not the center of the universe...


14 posted on 04/03/2006 5:20:17 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: bnelson44

I gotta disagree. Back when I was married I used to see flying saucers all the time.


15 posted on 04/03/2006 5:20:39 PM PDT by umgud (12 gauge, the original pepper spray)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: bnelson44; All

Only people who believe that we are alone are ignorant.. My gut instinct is that we are not alone.


16 posted on 04/03/2006 5:21:18 PM PDT by KevinDavis (http://www.cafepress.com/spacefuture)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis; bnelson44; All

Have you been receiving signals again?









What's the frequency, Kevin?


17 posted on 04/03/2006 5:21:34 PM PDT by Triggerhippie (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: KevinDavis
They are all ready here....


18 posted on 04/03/2006 5:22:11 PM PDT by Dallas59 (MOHAMMED LIED-PEOPLE DIED)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Names Ash Housewares
1) We are not interested, I think, in extinct forms of life. But life that is around right now.

2) It is most likely that any intelligent life form that is superior to us would recognize organized radio waves.
3) People need to get use to the fact that we may very well be alone.
19 posted on 04/03/2006 5:22:13 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: neodad

7 of nine...


20 posted on 04/03/2006 5:22:39 PM PDT by bnelson44 (Proud parent of a tanker! (Charlie Mike, son))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 181-192 next last

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
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

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