The Fatal Flaw of the SETI Project.

Originally posted by whatukno
1. I know what SETI stands for, please don't insult my intelligence. I know it's not about contact or communication, but about detection. That wasn't my point.

2. Looking for a radio signal from an extraterrestrial society in my opinion is pointless. Say the civilization is 50,000 light years away, that means that the radio signal would take 50,000 years before it would reach us. It's entirely possible that we won't receive that signal for thousands of years.

3. There is also no guarantee that an alien civilization ever developed radio as a form of communication. We may be looking for a signal that will never arrive.

edit on 12/21/2010 by whatukno because: (no reason given)

2. It's also entirely possible that we'll detect that 50k year old signal tonight or next week. It's a craps shoot for sure. If that civilization started leaking signals into space 50,000 years ago and happens to be 50,000 light years away or less, then we're in business.

3. The only example of intelligent life we have is ourselves, and we don't have any evidence to suggest that we are either more developed or less developed than other civilizations in the galaxy. I'd say we might take the position that we are kind of average; nothing special as tech development goes, yet not on the galactic "short bus" either.

If we look at it that way, since we developed radio and such, it's a fair assumption that other civilizations, no matter how advanced now, went through the same phase in their "childhood"

Originally posted by whatukno
Dude, when you are looking for a needle in a haystack you don't look for hay.

Hay we got. The universe is chock FULL of hay.

We are looking for the needle, and in reality, when looking for the needle, you use a magnet.

You don't use a device that looks for hay.

I believe you have no idea what you are talking about, to be frank.

Can you please explain what this "hay" is?

I don't believe for a second, that an intelligent civilization would want to invite in strangers to their home planet. What if these strangers were violent hostile entities, like us for example.

WE did...(remember those plaques on Voyager?)

Btw, I don't consider us a truly intelligent civilization, as a very large majority of us are idiots.

Ahh...right then. Point taken...ouch.

I believe a truly intelligent civilization would all be millions of years more advanced on the evolutionary ladder and let's say 95% of them have IQs of above 140.

Sure, but BEFORE they got there, maybe they, like us, were dumb enough to send out such a message or messages? Once sent, you aren't pulling them back.

The thing is though, I doubt they'd be hostile. Why? Simple. Wars are fought for resources. A civilization capable of interstellar travel (to get here) would not be wanting for resources. They have the whole galaxy to pick from. Need water, stick a hose in Europa, etc. No need to war with an inhabited planet. (or course, for all we know, there may be Europan cities under the icy ocean, who knows?)

Exactly, exactomundo!!! The Letter Code

Australian scientist Ragbir Bhathal, a SETI researcher, has said that he is following a hint offered by science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who suggested that Bhathal study "the better spectrum, light" in order to find out how to detect and communicate with extra-terrestrial civilizations. Here is a link to that Australian news story:

www.theaustralian.com.au...

Some years back, there was a Kevin Spacey movie on that same theme: K- PAX
Here is the Internet Movie DataBase review and trailer: www.imdb.com...