Scientists just sent a message to a possible alien civilization, and it could have disastrous conseq

Discussion in 'Science' started by wgabrie, Nov 16, 2017.

  1. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Scientists just sent a message to a possible alien civilization, and it could have disastrous consequences
    https://bgr.com/2017/11/16/alien-messages-scientists-seti-meti-signal/

    Okay now we've done it, we've broken the silence and sent a message to another star system.

    I thought we weren't going to do this because of the sentiment of caution that revealing ourselves could be a bad thing.

    Well, to serve man... it's a cookbook. :alientwo:
     
  2. Bear513

    Bear513 Banned

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    What kind of goofy link is that? We have been sending messages since 1927 and before

     
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  3. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    Our radio emissions have been leaking out for 100 years. And ET could detect them. And we could detect ET, which is the justification for the SETI program.

    Anyone 12 LY away with radio technology knew about us long ago.

    Why no ET detection? Even now, the earth is going radio silent. Microwaves and LASERS don't create the boom box for others to hear. So it appears the age of radio is only about a century. ET may have tossed out their radios many thousands of years ago.
     
  4. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  5. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    The thing with radio signals is that they degrade with distance. The radio signals will never reach their intended destination Unless you use specifically powerful signals, called Active SETI.

    I'm assuming they used Active SETI, but the article doesn't say.
     
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  6. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  7. perotista

    perotista Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Another Rod Serling original Twilight Zone fan I see.
     
  8. perotista

    perotista Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Very true on the radio. Who knows if E.T. even evolved a communications systems like the ours or the one's we used in the past?
     
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  9. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    Yes, even highly evolved ETs might not follow the same path that we did. It depends a lot of the nature of ET. They may be very intelligent squid-philosopher things who communicate with natural electric fields, and never worry about hard science. :D But if they can make tools and live on land, consider also that physics does have a natural flow and is built on existing principles. As Newton said, "If I have seen further [than others] it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. So we might expect ET technology to follow a path similar to ours. The timing may be wildly different. Consider for example how different history might be if the library at Alexandria had not burned. A wealth of knowledge was lost. It is possible that set us back a 1000 years or more in some areas. But knowledge is still built upon knowledge. We might well expect there to be an ET Galileo, Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Schrodinger... There is a natural progression and the laws of physics are the same everywhere [we think :D]. But it does appear that catching ET in the act of transmitting radio is very unlikely. Its use may only represent a tiny fraction of the age of an advanced civilization - a flash in the pan.

    And the chances are, if we do detect an ET signal, by the time we get it, they have moved beyond the age of radio; perhaps long ago.
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2017
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  10. saveliberty

    saveliberty Well-Known Member

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    So do you think these guys will interfere with the 2048 election?
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2017
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  11. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    They'll arrive and turn us into fries.:sing:

    Hey it's a red sun, according to the comic books when they get here and our yellow sun they'll have super powers. Like superman. :rolleyes:
     
  12. jay runner

    jay runner Banned

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    They're listening to Dick Biondi talk about the submarine races on Lake Michigan on WLS Chicago right now. They got a line on Wolfman Jack too. jk
     
    Last edited: Nov 16, 2017
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  13. saveliberty

    saveliberty Well-Known Member

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    I suspect we will save ourselves with the foil ketchup packets they can use on fries.
     
  14. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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  15. perotista

    perotista Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Exactly. I always wondered if life had to be carbon based? Life as we know it, yes. Liquid water, a planet in the Goldilocks zone, among other things have to be there for a carbon based life to exist. Could life take a completely different form? I always thought it could. Perhaps way too much sci-fi.
     
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  16. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    Eh, I tend to go with Haldane, or Eddington in a similar quote.

     
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  17. perotista

    perotista Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I totally agree with that. There are more possibilities than one, we, man can even think or imagine of. Probably a lot more that is possible that we can't imagine or even think of.
     
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  18. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    The crap-shoot of timing within 200-300 years to detect radio signals, when we're talking about thousands and millions of years, is a great reason to focus on looking for other detectable signs of life...like atmospheric and biologic. Does anyone know how far into space a reasonably detectable radio signal can travel? Why not just construct the most powerful laser, in a fixed position, on 24/7,and let Earth's rotation broadcast this signal over and over across the galaxy...showing repetition which can mean intelligent life?

    I don't have a problem broadcasting our existence because any alien life who can visit and/or harm Earth surely already knows we exist...
     
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  19. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Regardless of the technology used at this point, Laser, radio...whatever. Anything we send or produce will take tens of thousands of years to cross our galaxy and millions/billions to reach anything outside of it. By the time it is noticed we will be long gone and anything we hear or see will be so old it is pointless.
     
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  20. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    We could have neighbors.
     
  21. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    I believe SETI determined that we could detect civilizations anywhere in our galaxy.
     
  22. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We probably do...but they already know we are here regardless.
     
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  23. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    We can detect any civilization that just happens to be at the stage of our technology and just happens to exist within a couple hundred light years and just happens to have halted their progress long enough for us to just happen to be looking at the one star in 100 billion at just the right moment with just the right telescope for the exact minute they are broadcasting just the right wavelength of energy.
     
  24. OldManOnFire

    OldManOnFire Well-Known Member

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    Well...a laser...at the SOL...can arrive in our closest solar system in less than 5 years...maybe another 150 solar systems within 20 years. I can only guess that Earthlings have focused on some of these closer solar systems to try to detect life and obviously nothing yet...
     
  25. tecoyah

    tecoyah Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Our closest Star has already received our transmissions if anyone can hear...this does not change what I have typed. All I am trying to get across is that regardless of what we transmit, we are unlikely to be around for a reply,
     
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