SETI....Worthless rubbish OR Worth Trying Anyway

The Drake equation allows us to calculate the number of intelligent species in the Universe.
Some factors in the equation we are fairly sure of.
Some factors we have good estimates for.
Some factors we should know within 50 years.
Other factors we will probably never know.
However we already have a lower limit for the answer ie 1.

It would arrogant to assume that this was the final answer.

Kieran

I agree with Carl. But ponder this folks: our existence as a species has been shorter than the blink of an eye in terms of the age of the Universe. I believe the odds of other civilizations developing elsewhere in this galaxy are high and the odds of it happening somewhere in the Universe is for all practical purposes 100%; however the odds of civilizations with a matching level of technology sending us whatever beacon signal we can think of existing somewhere in our galaxy at the right moment in time for that signal to arrive here today are infinitesimal.

We perceive our existance in four dimensions, one of which is time, yet when we discuss the existence of alien civilizations or even just look at the stars we tend to forget it. When we go outside to gaze at the stars we seldom stop to consider that the light we see, even with our naked eyes, set out on its journey tens, hundreds, thousands or in a few cases even millions of years ago. In the past and expected lifetime of this galaxy a million civilizations could easily rise and fall without any two crossing each others paths in time and space. The galaxy could well be teeming with life in one sense yet within the confines of our species' perception of other life it may prove to be nothing more or less than the Big Empty.

It would arrogant to assume that this was the final answer.

True, and I'd be very surprised if somewhere out there there was not more intelligent life.

It sure is awful quiet on the radio waves at the moment, so where are they?

In the past and expected lifetime of this galaxy a million civilizations could easily rise and fall without any two crossing each others paths in time and space.

Give the other assumptions we make about alien life its not unreasonable to suggest that the beacons that we are searching for in SETI would still be around. The civilisation could have left a beacon to denote their presence that had the ability to repair itself and use a star somewhere as a power source. ok thats a bit sci-fi but once up and running it would still be there after the civilisation was gone.

It sure is awful quiet on the radio waves at the moment, so where are they?

I really don't think we have looked at enough of the spectrum to say that it is awful quiet TBH. We seem to be concentrating on a very small band assuming that any ET that wants us to find them will be broadcasting here to be noticed. I don't think that's a valid assumption. We don't have a beacon, why would others at our level have one? I think we actually need to look at the rest of the spectrum because I think we have a hell of a lot more chance of finding ET by looking for it's leaked TV programs than by looking for a beacon. Move 20 LY away from earth and turn around, then do what SETI do now and see if you find us. I don't think you will TBH.

Bart.

Just what we need. Millions of hours of repeats of bad alien soaps, reality TV and scripted celebrity quiz shows...

I totally agree that the effort is worthwhile.

The chance of sucess is miniscule, yet unless anyone comes up with a better approach or avenue to pursue there is little we can do but go on.

One of the main traits that defines humanity is curiosity and a desire to expand our knowledge. Without this trait we would probably still be living in the tree canopy of the tropical forests or maybe in caves.

While I am sure advanced races may have developed better ways to communicate than EM waves they remain our only known method, by relying on them we are limited to looking for races at a similar level of development to ourselves (at the time the signals were transmitted) and thus we are pre-selecting a sub-set of all civilisations for the search.

Until I see absolute proof that life does not exist anywhere except on earth
we must continue to search, if only to lessen the lonliness of being the only race in a vast universe