# SETI



## Brian G Turner (Mar 15, 2003)

I figure most people have heard of the SETI project. At the moment they're about to focus on listening to the most promising 150 signals, as reported here.

I have two questions, though - 

1/ Is it possible that the SETI project could ever succeed?

2/ Should we actually _want_ the SETI project to ever succeed?

More later...


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## Survivor (Mar 16, 2003)

Of course it's possible SETI could succeed.  There is no scientific evidence to suggest that Earth is the only life bearing planet in the galaxy, and artificial radio waves are highly to be emitted by several possible types of advanced civilizations (though they may not be "signals" at all, but simply EM noise emitted by artificial machines).

I don't think that it is all that likely, because we've only used radio for about a hundred years and we're already moving away from broadcasts.  But it isn't all that expensive to look for radio signals, after all.

I don't know any reason that we wouldn't want SETI to succeed.  If there's another civilization using radio waves within detectable range, then I would rather know than not know.  That's pretty much the choice we're talking about here.  SETI isn't trying to cause an alien civilization to exist or even tell such a civilization about us.  They're just trying to find radio emissions from such civilizations.


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## nemesis (Mar 20, 2003)

It is a bad naive idea. There is no historical precedent for two cultures sharing knowledge without one dominating the other. Every politician knows this. The superpowers would not stand for it. Fundamentalists would stir hatred. And then on Earth....


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## Survivor (Mar 21, 2003)

We _won't_ be "sharing knowledge" in any meaningful way.  Two way communications at tens or hundreds of light-years wouldn't be feasible anyway.  We'd just be listening in on someone else's radio broadcasts.


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 21, 2003)

Heaven forbid what they may have heard - even be watching - sent out from us!


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## Survivor (Mar 22, 2003)

Yes, well, if SETI succeeds, I'm sure that the FCC will become a very important agency indeed


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## mac1 (Apr 2, 2003)

Did they ever find out what that now infamous "WOW!!!" transmission was? Do they even have any theories?

1/ Of course. REF: Frank Drake's Equation (and possibly the WOW!! signal) !!

2/ Most people would say yes, finding out that aliens exist would stir up the sense of wonder in pretty much everybody. Would we told if there was a success though, this I believe is the real question. Would it be a cause of mass-hysteria? I don't really have an answer to this one, but people suspect one of three possible outcomes.

(a) The "Star Trek Scenario". Temporary hysteria followed by the uniting of the planet, the end of war blah blah blah etc. Happy world, something to aim for etc etc.

(b) The "Heaven's Gate Scenario". Mass-hysteria an a grandious scale. People killing themselves in a belief that the aliens are there to bring them to the afterlife. Huge increases of cult sect attendance. The abolishion (or at least major rethinking) of religion as we know it. Huge fear of the unknown by the general public, used as an excuse to increase spending on over-the-top weapons systems to "defend" our planet. Possibly another world war, brought on by fear of what "could be coming". Basically the complete breakdown of society and democracy as we know it.

(c) Temporary insanity and mass-hysteria, followed by more-or-less a return to our normal lives. The government would tell the people that is impossible to reach the planet in question, and it is impossible for them to reach us. Most people believe it, a few speak out. Life returns to normal.

I personally believe that (a) is completely out of the question. Maybe I am too cynical but there is far too much greed in the world for this too be a plausible scenario. In my opinion, what would happen would be somewhere between (b) and (c). There would obviously, definately be huge increases in government spending into Space related sciences. Many people would build bunkers and live in fear. Most people would be affected for at least a decade. The military would build far greater weapons and aim them into space - you know, "just in case". But after a decade or so, I think life would pretty much revert back to how it is now. The notion that aliens existed would eventually just be accepted. On the other hand religious beliefs would change drastically. Those who believe that mankind is unique would be forced to completely reasess their belief systems, or simply deny the evidence and say something like "God Is Testing Us - Blah Blah Blah."

Would the evidence be surpressed?
I believe so. If there is even a possibility that people will simply react with mass-hysteria, then those who attend Bilderburg meetings would probably assure that the public never finds out. Perhaps this has already happened!


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## Survivor (Apr 2, 2003)

*We are not alone*

I don't think that anything much would happen.

Think about it.  First, you would just have an interesting signal.  Various scientists would study it, hypothesize that it was being created by this or that natural process, or that it showed these characteristics of being artificial, or that it was possibly a hoax.  Eventually hoax would be ruled out (assuming here that it was a real extraterrestrial signal), but some people would continue to believe it was faked...certainly anyone whose belief system absolutely _required_ it to be untrue.

Even for those that believe it was a genuine signal, there would be the possibility (fainter as time when by, to be sure) that it was a natural phenomenon until such time as the signal could actually be decoded and translated.  Assuming that it wasn't a message meant specifically for _us_, there would probably be nothing very alarming about it even when it _was_ decoded.  It seems unlikely in the extreme that we would rapidly gain advanced technical information from such a signal...even assuming that the aliens creating it didn't ever create fiction, we would have to develop our technological understanding right to the threshold of any breakthrough before we could understand the portions telling us _how_ to make that breakthrough.

Most reasonable people believe that intelligent life is not unique to Earth already.  Several religious traditions explicitly believe that there is life on other planets, and no major religion that I know of explicitly denies at least the possibility these days.

Would it be suppressed?  That is difficult to say.  I think that if it _could_ be suppressed, it would be.  Our government might deliberately jam the frequencies where the signal appears enough to obscure it.  Researchers claiming to have evidence of the signal would be systematically mocked.  But whether that would be sufficient would depend on the characteristics of the signal and who discovered it first.


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## Moebius Tripper (Mar 9, 2007)

Seti is a cover for Nasa which doesn't want you to know what they have discovered exits on the moon and Mars....They want you to think aliens do not exist...But that policy has recently changed...Our government now has plans to use holograms of ufo's to scare the public that we are being invaded by aliens in order to declare martial law and take away the little rights we the people have left.....The resent ufo's that have been seen over Chicago's airport is one example of these hologram ufo's.....The U.S. military is even using lasers from satelites to produce those "Crop-circles" The lasers are using computer programs to produce the many complex designs for these crop- circles. This is also being done to scare the people and prepare us for a bogus invasion.


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## Spartan27 (Mar 13, 2007)

> I figure most people have heard of the SETI project. At the moment they're about to focus on listening to the most promising 150 signals, as reported here.
> 
> I have two questions, though -
> 
> ...


 
Brian..this is probably a very important issue for humanity.

I recommend the reading any one of the many books on Nicola Tesla.

There is strong evidence to believe that the very first "contact" occured when Tesla was experimenting with is coil, and he received a signal back. What we writes in his memoirs is that he had numerous "signals" but nowhere does it state he notated the signals...this is odd since that would have been his primary function running tests etc.....anyway this is a very interesting subject


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## Dave (Mar 13, 2007)

Moebius Tripper said:


> Seti is a cover for Nasa which doesn't want you to know what they have discovered exits on the moon and Mars......


Is everything and everyone part of a government conspiracy? In how many other discussions are you planning to use this argument? Just in one thread do you think we can stay on topic and not go off on some wild, abstract, unsubstantiated theories?

You don't need lasers from space and computer programs to make crop-circles. Some rope tied to a wooden steak, a plank of wood and a couple of alcohol fuelled students works quite well enough.

Is there a link about the Tesla coil experiment? That actually sounds interesting.


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## Spartan27 (Mar 16, 2007)

Dave said:


> Is everything and everyone part of a government conspiracy? In how many other discussions are you planning to use this argument? Just in one thread do you think we can stay on topic and not go off on some wild, abstract, unsubstantiated theories?
> 
> You don't need lasers from space and computer programs to make crop-circles. Some rope tied to a wooden steak, a plank of wood and a couple of alcohol fuelled students works quite well enough.
> 
> Is there a link about the Tesla coil experiment? That actually sounds interesting.


 
Dave, I read through a couple of his books (auto-bio's and one book which was a compilation of memoirs). In all instances, he had either written or discussed, that the pulses he was receiving back through his coil (and into the ground) had a pattern that in his opinion not random but manufactured some way. If you google Telsa you will come up with this very item. His coil work also can be found by looking up "free-energy". The problem I have with all this info is why he never did followup work in trying to duplicate the experiment. That is the first thing "you" do when you are on to something.


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## Hiro Protagonist (Mar 16, 2007)

Dave said:


> Is everything and everyone part of a government conspiracy? In how many other discussions are you planning to use this argument? Just in one thread do you think we can stay on topic and not go off on some wild, abstract, unsubstantiated theories?
> 
> You don't need lasers from space and computer programs to make crop-circles. Some rope tied to a wooden steak, a plank of wood and a couple of alcohol fuelled students works quite well enough.
> 
> Is there a link about the Tesla coil experiment? That actually sounds interesting.



Either way the conspiracy theory is bogus.  Have fun thinking its true if you want, you will just never find out and live a life of desire.


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## Pyan (Mar 16, 2007)

Besides, it's always useful to have a mysterious and sinister "_they_" to blame!


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## Admiral Ryouhei (Mar 20, 2007)

> I figure most people have heard of the SETI project. At the moment they're about to focus on listening to the most promising 150 signals, as reported here.
> 
> I have two questions, though -
> 
> ...


 
first, look at the level of stealth tech we've achieved, aliens will only ever be discovered if they want us to, or some random thing happens and we say "oh, hey, aliens" and they say "oh, hey, they saw us"

second, we might have had contact already, but the govs don't let us know, or the aliens are the govs and don't want us to know

I don't really care about alien lifeforms, I'm a little concerned for the state and future of human life, granted the cybernetic singularity will solve most troubles of the times, our biggest obstacles are: 1) expending our excessive surplus towards humanitarian efforts, 2) prevent Islam from world subjigation(spl?), 3) dismantling the current corrupt governments, politicians, and wealth-holders that hold us in their death-grip


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## Urien (Mar 20, 2007)

"...our biggest obstacles are: 1) expending our excessive surplus towards humanitarian efforts, 2) prevent Islam from world subjigation(spl?), 3) dismantling the current corrupt governments, politicians, and wealth-holders that hold us in their death-grip. " Admiral.

Why didn't you say, I should have all of that sorted by dinner.


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