SETI....Worthless rubbish OR Worth Trying Anyway

i don't think they will look or act like us, the odds of that happening are probably zero.

Add "Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe" by Simon Conway Morris to your reading list

i don't think they will look or act like us, the odds of that happening are probably zero.

Add "Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe" by Simon Conway Morris to your reading list

having had a a quick look at the oracle of google for this book, my answer is that his conclusions are based on a sample of one, i.e. this planet.

In order to design effective instrumentation for the search, SETI needed to define what it was looking for. Many concepts of what ETI could be, or could be doing, were available and have been considered by SETI proponents at one time or another.

In an extreme view for a SETI scientist, one assumes that interstellar travel is possible at subluminal speeds. This assumption leads to various scenarios in which the Galaxy becomes populated from one or more seed civilizations. However, there is no "clear" or "strong" evidence that an ETI has ever settled or colonized Earth. This senario is aware of within the entire SETI community.

For reasons that are obscure but, to be generous, SETI chose to go forward with the most conservative depiction of ETI and ETI technology. The rationale for SETI requires that interstellar travel be impossible, so SETI attempts to quash all questioning of this point. Its reason for doing so, then, appears to be less science than self-preservation. Yet SETI is beginning to create fallback positions in recent years. SETI's position is that interstellar travel by subluminal or superluminal means - is impossible. This is one of SETI's great mistakes. New models of physical reality that would be highly supportive of travel are now in the forefront of theoretical physics. SETI's position could increasingly be termed not conservative, but one of radical denial.

Eamonn A

........ or maybe they are communicating with us right now.

We're all outside looking up saying "Aw look, aren't those twinkling stars pretty. Wonder if there's any life out there".

Meanwhile .... On the other end is a whole bunch of aliens standing around muttering (OK, wibbling) "If they're out there, the buggers can't be very smart if they can't read Morse code."

Anybody got some spare torch batteries? :oops:

Meanwhile .... On the other end is a whole bunch of aliens standing around muttering (OK, wibbling) "If they're out there, the buggers can't be very smart if they can't read Morse code."

Look, I dont know what frequences or what part of the electromagnetic spectrum they are listening to and it does not matter. These people at seti@home have been discussing this amoung themselves for years. They are not idiots and I trust them.

Its about trust. I trust that the people that are in control of the project are doing the best they can to addapt their search methods the more they learn.

If you agree that searching for other life is a good idea then you have to trust the people who have been debaiting this for years. You have to trust that they are not mindlessly searching the same place, in the same way, all the time.

Anyway, seti@home is about the only way that you or me could get involved in this search anyway. And its free. It does not cost you a penny of your time or money.