With New Funding, Quest for Alien Life Is Back On

I did an ATS search and did not find anything on this, but if it's been discussed, please feel free to remove/delete.

With New Funding, Quest for Alien Life Back On

If ET phones, we're listening again -- thanks to you.
Astronomers at the cash-strapped SETI Institute are poised to resume the quest for extraterrestrial life, after raising more than $200,000 to restart a key array of telescopes.
The institute was forced to put the hunt on hold in April, after cash-strapped governments decided they could no longer afford to pay the interstellar phone bill. To raise the required money, SETI turned to crowdsourcing: It unveiled the SETIStars.org website in June and independently raised the $204,129 needed to restart the Allen Telescope Array.

Fantastic! Crowdsourcing is something I am not familiar with, and I'm assuming it has to do with fundraising through people who have visited the website since April. According to the article, SETI needs $2.5 million annually to operate. I'm wondering what happens when their crowdsourcing depletes.

It's good to see that people still want this organization to continue. I know people have mixed feelings about SETI.

Seti to Turn on Telescopes in Coming Days
SETI Receives Over $200,000 in Donations; Allen Telescope Array Back in Action

EDIT: I know this is from FoxNews, I'm hoping I can find something more credible.

reply to post by beauty from pain


whats more intriguing is WHY more funding is being provided to the search for ETI all of the sudden... and WHY is it being put in MSM

reply to post by beauty from pain


You forgot the link to your source .

So SETI gets to limp on for a while , blissfully unaware of their irrelevance in the search for ET .

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by beauty from pain

 

You forgot the link to your source .

So SETI gets to limp on for a while , blissfully unaware of their irrelevance in the search for ET .

Thanks mate, fixing that now!

Sorry, but I never think SETI will pick anything up.

They/we are spending the money on the wrong, wrong way.

Originally posted by ypperst
Sorry, but I never think SETI will pick anything up.

They/we are spending the money on the wrong, wrong way.

You got that right! Why would an advanced alien civilization, probably capable of interstellar/intergallactic travel bother to use an antiquated system that uses surface topography transmission to move information, read RF. I would think their communication systems would be far more advanced that what we are using. But then again, an aggressive alien culture might throw out an RF signal, a beacon of sorts as bait just the way I would use a Mepps to catch a trout. What a way to bring fresh breeding feed stock to your home planet huh?

SETI and the rest of them are pretty smart huh LOL

Cheers - Dave

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle

Originally posted by ypperst
Sorry, but I never think SETI will pick anything up.

They/we are spending the money on the wrong, wrong way.

You got that right! Why would an advanced alien civilization, probably capable of interstellar/intergallactic travel bother to use an antiquated system that uses surface topography transmission to move information, read RF. I would think their communication systems would be far more advanced that what we are using. But then again, an aggressive alien culture might throw out an RF signal, a beacon of sorts as bait just the way I would use a Mepps to catch a trout. What a way to bring fresh breeding feed stock to your home planet huh?

SETI and the rest of them are pretty smart huh LOL

Cheers - Dave

Reminds me of the quote, think it was Friedman: "Before Columbus set out for the new world, did he try and contact the natives with smoke signals?".

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
You got that right! Why would an advanced alien civilization, probably capable of interstellar/intergallactic travel bother to use an antiquated system that uses surface topography transmission to move information, read RF. I would think their communication systems would be far more advanced that what we are using. But then again, an aggressive alien culture might throw out an RF signal, a beacon of sorts as bait just the way I would use a Mepps to catch a trout. What a way to bring fresh breeding feed stock to your home planet huh?

SETI and the rest of them are pretty smart huh LOL

In insulting SETI you are demonstrating your own lack of imagination and intelligence. As to be expected in such a thread, we are seeing the UFO believers completely illogical and completely stupid hatred of SETI.

Sure, a single advanced civilization may have developed a better form of interstellar communication. However, if there are hundreds or thousands of cultures out there, then they have varying levels of communication technology. Some may have more advanced techniques and some may be using techniques familiar to use, able to be detected by us. Advanced cultures may use older techniques in order to find/communicate with less technologically advanced cultures. And even if these advanced cultures have different techniques now, less advanced methods would have been used in the past, techniques we may still be able to detect. They could have broadcast hundreds or thousands of years ago; those broadcasts could still be detected even if they are ancient and even if that culture has advanced beyond radio waves since.

reply to post by gortex


You mean like UFO researchers?

reply to post by gortex


You mean like UFO researchers?

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle

Originally posted by ypperst
Sorry, but I never think SETI will pick anything up.

They/we are spending the money on the wrong, wrong way.

You got that right! Why would an advanced alien civilization, probably capable of interstellar/intergallactic travel bother to use an antiquated system that uses surface topography transmission to move information, read RF. I would think their communication systems would be far more advanced that what we are using. But then again, an aggressive alien culture might throw out an RF signal, a beacon of sorts as bait just the way I would use a Mepps to catch a trout. What a way to bring fresh breeding feed stock to your home planet huh?

SETI and the rest of them are pretty smart huh LOL

Cheers - Dave

Love the name...and yes he is my uncle!
The atomic blasts mid last century was a heck of a holler from what I am led to understand...it was like ringing a bell. And seems like they reportedly appear around missile sites. Faking a launch of atomic missiles should get them to speak up, if this is really true and what better way to find out? Well there must be better ways but so far...this is it.

I think I read recently they are indeed making some sort of paradigm change to the way they seek ET life and communication. It is not sending noise out there and waiting for a response, although I do not know exactly what it is. How much would it cost them to seriously study the crop circle phenomena and either embrace or dismiss it. Lots of common sense ideas are still hanging... undone.

Doesn't SETI search for radio waves? If our evolution is to teach us something it's that we suddenly stopped beaming radio waves and went digital.

I always wondered why we went digital, it was as if we wanted to suddenly stop broadcasting to the Universe.

Originally posted by scottlpool2003
Doesn't SETI search for radio waves? If our evolution is to teach us something it's that we suddenly stopped beaming radio waves and went digital.

I always wondered why we went digital, it was as if we wanted to suddenly stop broadcasting to the Universe.

I noticed on their website they are hiring.

This woman is who the Jodi Foster character in CONTACT was based on.

Jill was the lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long SETI scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico.
While no clearly extraterrestrial signal was found, this was the most comprehensive targeted search for artificially generated cosmic signals ever undertaken.

Today, Jill and her team are using a large radio telescope, the Allen Telescope Array, that is optimally suited for finding a signal from another star system.
With sufficient funding, this instrument can search millions of star systems in the coming decades – a thousand times the total examined since the first SETI experiment a half-century ago.
It is hard to imagine a discovery more profoundly exciting than learning that other beings exist among the star fields of the Galaxy.

reply to post by newcovenant


Jodi Foster is one of the people who donated money to have SETI back up and running (the Allen Telescope Array).

Originally posted by WingedBull

In insulting SETI you are demonstrating your own lack of imagination and intelligence. As to be expected in such a thread, we are seeing the UFO believers completely illogical and completely stupid hatred of SETI.

Sure, a single advanced civilization may have developed a better form of interstellar communication. However, if there are hundreds or thousands of cultures out there, then they have varying levels of communication technology. Some may have more advanced techniques and some may be using techniques familiar to use, able to be detected by us. Advanced cultures may use older techniques in order to find/communicate with less technologically advanced cultures. And even if these advanced cultures have different techniques now, less advanced methods would have been used in the past, techniques we may still be able to detect. They could have broadcast hundreds or thousands of years ago; those broadcasts could still be detected even if they are ancient and even if that culture has advanced beyond radio waves since.

edit on 9-8-2011 by WingedBull because: (no reason given)

I don't have any hatred of SETI, I think actually it's quite a nice array and a good make work project, as far as money pits go. Seriously, why would an "alien" culture be stupid enough to broadcast their location, unless of course they were masochists and wanted to be resource raped. If the human race is any indication of how any allegedly intelligent species behaves, "Cosmic Muffin" (read God) help us all. Just look at what the US government does, the spread of corporate dictatorships while babbling about democracy, pah, get a clue or at least rent one. My opinion is as valid as anyone else's, so unless you are advocating censorship to produce only a warm huggy feely thread for SETI, play the ball not the player.

Cheers - Dave

Originally posted by newcovenantLove the name...and yes he is my uncle!
The atomic blasts mid last century was a heck of a holler from what I am led to understand...it was like ringing a bell. And seems like they reportedly appear around missile sites. Faking a launch of atomic missiles should get them to speak up, if this is really true and what better way to find out? Well there must be better ways but so far...this is it.

I think I read recently they are indeed making some sort of paradigm change to the way they seek ET life and communication. It is not sending noise out there and waiting for a response, although I do not know exactly what it is. How much would it cost them to seriously study the crop circle phenomena and either embrace or dismiss it. Lots of common sense ideas are still hanging... undone.

New ways, yes, but I don't think they have been made available to SETI. If those methods were to become public, it would show just how much money has been wasted "scanning the skies." Quantum tunneling is where it's at and you can make a little device that would actually fit in your pocket that you can hook up to a good oscilloscope and actually see the data packets coming in from someplace that isn't here. It's very interesting technology, bi-directional communication between (only) two points at a time over infinite distance in real time.

A couple of problems, there is no method by which to determine the direction from which the communication is coming. It could be a hundred miles off planet or a few hundred light years from Cygnus X1. But you can determine distance fairly accurately based on the amount of energy required to curve space and produce the gateway. A second problem is that we all know scientists want to "talk" and understand these incoming messages, but the military/industrial complex wants to define the messages as a threat potential and line their pockets further. Unfortunately, the scanning technology went to the universities fifteen years ago, don't expect it to surface for another twenty-five years.

Cheers - Dave

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
I don't have any hatred of SETI, I think actually it's quite a nice array and a good make work project, as far as money pits go. Seriously, why would an "alien" culture be stupid enough to broadcast their location, unless of course they were masochists and wanted to be resource raped. If the human race is any indication of how any allegedly intelligent species behaves, "Cosmic Muffin" (read God) help us all. Just look at what the US government does, the spread of corporate dictatorships while babbling about democracy, pah, get a clue or at least rent one.

Again, you show your ignorance and lack of imagination.

Despite what science-fiction movies may tell us, there is no reason for an alien race to attack us (or any other civilization) for resources. The only reason humans attack each other for resources is because we are working in a very limited space. Once you are capable of easy space-travel, you are no longer confined to limited space and limited resources. There is an unlimited amount of worlds rich in resources, worlds that have no inhabitants. There is nothing on Earth that cannot be found in abundance elsewhere in the solar-system or galaxy. There is simply no need to attack other civilizations.

So yeah...

Originally posted by bobs_uruncle
get a clue or at least rent one.

Definitely happy they're getting stuck into this again, and happy they raised the money. I'd like to think that yeah, ok we might find a signal and it may be off the mark of where we are hearing/receiving it from, and whatever else any of the nay sayers have to say in here, but wouldn't it be nice to actually detect a signal from another civilization no matter how old it was, how long it took to get here, and whether we are on the money about exactly where it came from in the universe?

Originally posted by Gwampo
reply to post by beauty from pain

 

whats more intriguing is WHY more funding is being provided to the search for ETI all of the sudden... and WHY is it being put in MSM

So at what point would it be that when they received funding, you would not consider it to be "all of a sudden"?

Originally posted by newcovenant
The atomic blasts mid last century was a heck of a holler from what I am led to understand...it was like ringing a bell.

Why would that be even noticeable? That explosion was nothing compared to what the Sun puts out in a micro-second. You can barely see the Sun from Pluto. How would creatures from another solar-system even notice we used an atomic weapon?

Originally posted by newcovenant
I think I read recently they are indeed making some sort of paradigm change to the way they seek ET life and communication. It is not sending noise out there and waiting for a response, although I do not know exactly what it is.

There are a lot of methods employed by SETI researchers, not just simply listening for a signal. There is optical SETI and projects that have looked for signs of astronomical engineering.