Astronomers Hope to Find E.T. in Next 25 Years

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | Tue Jul 16, 6:34 AM ET | By Belinda Goldsmith

[Momaw Nadon]

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Scientists searching the stars for aliens are convinced an E.T. is out there -- it's just that they haven't had the know-how to detect such a being.

But now technological advances have opened the way for scientists to check millions of previously unknown star systems, dramatically increasing the chances of finding intelligent life in outer space in the next 25 years, the world's largest private extraterrestrial agency believes.

"We're looking for needles in the haystack that is our galaxy, but there could be thousands of needles out there," Seth Shostak, the senior astronomer at California's non-profit Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence ( news - web sites) (SETI) Institute, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

"If that's the case, with the number of new star systems we now hope to check, we should find one of those in the next 25 years."

But Shostak, visiting Australia to attend a conference on extraterrestrial research, said detecting alien life, like the big-eyed alien in the film E.T., was only the start.

"Even if we detect life out there, we'll still know nothing about what form of life we have detected and I doubt they'll be able -- or want -- to communicate with us," Shostak said.

Since it was founded in 1984, the SETI Institute has monitored radio signals, hoping to pick up a transmission from outer space. Its Project Phoenix conducts two annual three-week sessions on a radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Project Phoenix, widely seen as the inspiration for the 1997 film "Contact" starring Jodie Foster, which depicted a search for life beyond earth, is the privately funded successor to an original NASA ( news - web sites) program that was canceled in 1993 amid much skepticism by the U.S. Congress.

But the search has been slow. About 500 of 1,000 targeted stars have been examined -- and no extraterrestrial transmissions have been detected.

E.T. NOT ON THE LINE

"We do get signals all the time but when checked out they have all been human made...and are not from E.T., more AT&T," said Shostak.

He said the privately-funded institute was developing a giant US$26 million telescope to start operating in 2005 that can search the stars for signals at least 100 times faster.

The so-called Allen Telescope Array, named after sponsor and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is a network of more than 350, six-meter (20-foot) satellite dishes with a collecting area exceeding that of a 100-meter (338-foot) telescope.

The Allen array, to be built at the Hat Creek Observatory about 290 miles northeast of San Fransciso, will also expand the institute's stellar reconnaissance to 100,000 or even one million nearby stars, searching 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Shostak said he is convinced there is intelligent life out there -- but don't expect to find a loveable, boggle-eyed E.T..

He said if any aliens share the same carbon-based organic chemistry as humans, they would probably have a central processing system, eyes, a mouth or two, legs and some form of reproduction.

But Shostak thinks any intelligent extraterrestrial life will have gone light years beyond the intelligence of man.

"What we are more likely to hear will be so far beyond our own level that it might not be biological anymore but some artificial form of life," he said. "Don't expect a blobby, squishy alien to be on the end of the line."

[Frank_Discussion]

LOL! Just goes to show that the government continues it's PR spin on big projects: "Only we can look for ET, it's too big a task for the private sector. Just like going to the Moon..."

People think NASA still controls SETI, not realizing it went private a long time ago.

[CaptRon]

If I had known this earlier I'd have taken better care of myself!

[Physicist]

Quantum Physics predicts additional forces and additional properties of the classical ones, which makes more exotic communication possible.

Quantum mechanics does not permit FTL communication.

[Physicist]

the Brookings Institute 100 page report is alive and well I see.

I'm not familiar with it.

[Frank_Discussion]

"We may find that we humans are not the real "backward ones" in the universe... "

When I say something like "backward humans", I'm kidding. I am saying, however, that there is a self-flagellating bias that we are somehow lowly compared to other possible races out there. The bias is very likely wrong.

"Point being, there may actually be a great deal of intelligent life "out there". They just might not have taken the same roads that we have taken, and never have developed space and SETI programs. I don't dismiss more advanced civilistions than ours existing, but given how all the pratfalls that can take a civilsation "backwards", our current level may not be reached as often as some dreamers imagine..."

I imagine there is a whole range of developmental steps out there without some imposed "sequence" so there could be some very advanced races that never found it necessary to explore space. On the other hand, there may be races that are very unsophisticated in many technological ways, but somehow found themselves in advanced space travel.

The spectum in this case is mottled.

[Frank_Discussion]

I'll do a little looking, but there is info on this out there to be had. I may have used "Quantum Mechanics" too loosely, as a term.

Forgive my inexact hand in this...

[RadioAstronomer]

They just might not have taken the same roads that we have taken, and never have developed space and SETI programs.

Except any sufficiently advance race will realize long distance communications is a must for technological growth. EM is the only practical way of doing this that we know of. My SETI search does not require an active search by another civilization. Just the fact of using EM will be enough thru unintentional radiation of EM into space like our civilization is doing now.

[Tolik]

I have often considered if people would classify the Egyptians who built the pyramids as being unintelligent. Sure, they may not have developed nuclear power, but I would speculate that if one was to take a 5 year old out of the Nile Delta, circa 2400 BC, and wisk them into the present, they would be able to develop as much computer skills as the average present day person has. Point being, there may actually be a great deal of intelligent life "out there". They just might not have taken the same roads that we have taken, and never have developed space and SETI programs. I don't dismiss more advanced civilizations than ours existing, but given how all the pratfalls that can take a civilization "backwards", our current level may not be reached as often as some dreamers imagine...
 

I suspect that for better or worse, humans won't remain in the current biological form for too long. Tinkering with genome to improve IQ and appearance are too strong to resist. It will be only the beginning. Enter the nanotechnology and continuing miniaturization of the computers, the Cyborgs will be here too, regardless of developing or not of an artificial intelligence. Eugenic wars as described in Star Trek can still happen with the result unpredictable.

 

[RightWhale]

the Brookings Institute 100 page report

The report Art Bell talks about all the time that says the authorities should withhold knowledge of existence of space aliens to avoid social disorder.

[Shryke]

I wasn't referring to the 25 years, which indeed may be a tad optimistic. The assumptive nature of the statistics are also true; however, they are very practical assumptions. We can, after all, pretty much be sure of the amunt of stars we can see, correct? The Hubble sees so many stars it borders on incomprehensible. The assumption that planets orbit alot of these stars is, in my opinion, very straightforward.

[SkyRat]

I think he is talking about Quantum Entanglement.

[Physicist]

I'll do a little looking, but there is info on this out there to be had.

Oh, there's a lot of information out there, but it's all based upon very common misconceptions. The two most common misconceptions are 1) that Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen correlations transmit information faster than light and that 2) that "photonic bandgap" materials and related structures have been used in the laboratory to transmit information faster than light. In fact, both of these phenomena are completely consistent with the causal structure of special relativity.

[Charles Martel]

OK, I'll concede the possibility, though not the likelihood, of extraterrestrial spuds. But I draw the line at cabbages.

Funny, I'd always figured that Brussels Sprouts were demonic little space cabbages. ;-D

[LRS]

Briefly, and I would suppose that there are those on Free Republic who are far more involved with "Velikovsky-ism" than I am these days, Mr. Velikovsky wote a series of books, starting with 1950's "Worlds in Collision", in which he put forth the notion that the Earth was almost struck by a very large body, cicrca 1500 bc, with that near collision almost destroying the planet, and accounting for such things as Joshua's "day the Earth stood still" story in the Bible. Velikovsky started his work by using ancient legends, myths, and writings, such as the Bible, and took them at their literal meanings. He then went off in seasrch of supporting "hard" evidence to support his claims. From that begining, he then went on to suggest that such happenings as the Great Flood accounts were also the result of other bodies impacting the Earth, and that Earth owed it's water and atmospere to the resulting impacts, as just a small example of all the areas Velikovsky went into. However, his basic premise in Worlds in Collision sounds so outlandish, involving Venus being only a few thousands of years old, that it takes awy from some of his other truly groundbreaking notions. But to me, the whole response by the scientific community to Worlds in Collison went beyond reason, involving such things as forcing the original publishers of the book to stop its publication. A really interesting account of the whole story can be found in The Velikovsky Affair by Alfred de Grazia.

As for my use of the word"dogma", perhaps if I had been a little more awake after a sleepness night, I might have opted for "orthodoxy" instead...

[Sabertooth]

Funny, I'd always figured that Brussels Sprouts were demonic little space cabbages. ;-D

Well... that would explain the Hague, the ICC, and the NWO.

[LRS]

When I say something like "backward humans", I'm kidding.

That's ok, I actually gathered that, and was supporting you in my own way...

[LRS]

Trust me, I have no problems with the search at all. (Got my SETI@Home program running every day since it started.)

And, the EM approach does have some promise. If they are out there, we will eventual find them!

[sphinx]

Perhaps we are alone in the universe; perhaps not. If not, one of these days ET will disembark and promptly give thanks to the Creator of the Universe.

He will then humbly present us with a copy of his scriptures, which will begin "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth ...." It will differ thereafter in minor tribal particularities.

A few will be converted. A majority of our atheist friends, however, will announce that this powerfully substantiates the theory of interstellar colonization, as two species independently hitting upon congruent creation myths is highly unlikely.

[VOR78]

Well, consider the case of lasers used in communication. Being as highly focused as it is, wouldn't it be extremely difficult to detect if not aimed right at us? I realize that it is still EM communication, but it does not propogate in all directions like a radio transmission does. In other words, they'd probably have to be making a directed communication attempt with us, where picking up a radio transmission propogating in every direction might be more likely even if they aren't intending for us to find it. I'm also not sure that SETI is searching in the visible EM spectrum, which is where a laser would be. That's on the more practical side of what another civilization might be using to communicate.

On the impractical and totally unprovable side, I would argue that a civilization a few million years ahead of us may have found some ways to bend the rules. I realize it has no sound scientific argument behind it by our current physics laws, but its something to consider.

[BikerNYC]

A majority of our atheist friends, however, will announce that this powerfully substantiates the theory of interstellar colonization, as two species independently hitting upon congruent creation myths is highly unlikely.

Perhaps. Yet, if our ET friends turn out to be atheists, I have a feeling that our Christian brothers and sisters will be saying that this confirms that only they are truly saved in the eyes of their God.