'Are UFOs Real?'

This is all based on the assumption that radio is the best means of communicating across the cosmos ?!? as far as we know it is.

Lasers are probably a better choice for communication. Though being directional we can't eavesdrop as easily as we can with radio.

So listening for radio signals gives us the best chance of picking something up. What radio is best for is for a beacon. If you wanted to broadcast a message that you are here, radio is probably the best way to do it. SETI is more about looking for these signals than long distance commincations of ET's.

Dave, your point about writing, then radio, then who knows is valid. However a more advanced civilisation would presumably have discovered radio along the way, and would realise that this is an effective medium for transmission over long distances, and one that civilisations are likley to come across before more advance means of communication, whatever they may be. Therefore if they were to send a 'we are here' message it still makes sence that they should choose obvious radio frequencies for the task.

We could try and look for lasers, but this is likley to be less fruitful than looking for deliberate 'we are here!' transmissions.

Veering back to UFO's. One issue I have with UFO's being ET is that if they are piloted by ET's then they must be very intelligent and clever to construct such devices. However they must be very stupid to allegedly get caught on dodgy video camera, occasionally show up on radar, and as for what they are supposed to do with cows...!

If they are intelligent and can cross the galaxy and find us, they should be intelligent enough to not occasionally scare the wits out of pilots and cows. And if we believe the roswell conspiracies, then they can't fly properly either. If they really wanted to make contact I'd have expected them to land in the White House lawn by now! If they are observing us then I'd expect them to be a bit more responsible about it!

Cheers,
~Al

and as for what they are supposed to do with cows...!


Cheers,
~Al

C'mon al. you're a long way from home been away from your "Honey" for a "long" time you get boozed up and go crusing and well : :roll:

If ETI was trying to communicate with lasers, we would expect to see laser beams sweeping the night sky. Even if finely focussed into a narrow beam, laser light from ETI would be spread out in its vast journey through the cosmos, so we could not expect to see ETI laser beams crisscrossing the haevens. Any spread out laser light would need to be detected with giant optical telescope.

Laser beams can carry vastly more information than radio waves. Therefore lasers might be atractive to ETI. But targeting would be a problem. A laser beam directed at Earth would need to anticipate the movement of the Earth during the travel time of the light pulse from ETI's planet to Earth. Radio waves still seem a more atractive beacon for ETI, but we need to be alert to the laser option.

It appears that if ETI exists, then it is rare for the following reasons; failure of over 4 decades of SETI to produce an unambiguous positive signal, the low likelihood of the emergence of intelligence and dexterity needed to develop communication technology ( regardless of the diversity of life forms in the cosmos).

ETI exists, but rather than there being hundreds of thousands or millions of ETI civilzations in the Milky Way Galaxy, as claimed by the SETI optimists, the number is probably much smaller and may measure in thousands.

The challenge for SETI is staggering. Absence of evidence should certainly not be taken as evidence of absence. But Occam's razor remains as sharp as ever. The evidence from SETI will need to be confirmed by many, and be unambiguous in its interpretation.

Eamonn A

I had a feeling someone would pick me up on the radio versus laser methodology.
Lasers would be a great way of communicating, great bandwidth (more info).
But by their very nature they are a coherent (directional) light source, if someone was communicating in our own solarsystem using lasers between Mars and Jupiter, we would not be able to detect it at all from Earth, unless we were directly in the line of sight of the 2 planets.

But then again we all know that laser light does eventually spread out given a very long distance, so the question is how much does an ETIs laser spread out over a given distance. If they have much more advanced technology then us I think its good to assume that the beam would be very narrow as this makes it easiler for themselves to detect it on the receiving end. This would a good design criteria in such a telecom system designed for lightyears of space.

This would reduce our ability to pick up the laser beam as the chances of been in the line of sight are reduced. On the other hand if you do happen to hit the line of sight, then you are more likely to see it since the beam is very narrow and the light will be brighter. So it really comes down to laser beam coherence versus the chance of detection by been in the line of sight, a tricky question.

This of course assumes that ETI is at the exact same level of technological development as us. Humanity is reputed to date back at least 150,000 years. Yet, the technology we refer to has only come about in the last 100+years in terms of radio and far shorter in termms of laser. This is at best approx 0.06% of the total time humans have been around.

If there is life on other solar systems and if it's development bares any remote similarity to life on Earth, it is most likely at the microbial level and least likely at the "advanced" or "intellectual" level, assuming humans are considered "intelligent". After all, it's easier to create something simple and harder to create something complex.

It's interesting to see how the debate of life outside Earth has developed. It's not so long ago that people would have sneered at the thought of any form of life beyond Earth. Now, it seems to be almost taken for granted - the only questions remaining are where, how much and how advanced.

Clear skies,

The Third Irish International UFO Conference is on 23/24 September 2006 at the Bush Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.

Some IFAS members were at last year's conference to explore this reality- that despite the ridicule doesn't seem to go away.

I see experts in the UFO field are coming from as far as Peru and Brazil.

Should be fascinating!

Eamonn A