One reason for the silence could be that the universe, like life on our planet, is hostile. From the insects on up all life on this planet is capable of violence.
The building blocks of life are carried throughout the universe by astroides and meteors. Using the same amino acids to build life anywhere would result in life that at least has biology like ours. Eat, poop, reproduce. Life starts and life ends. It might be that the competition that we know in our existence is exactly the same everywhere. If this is the case then they stay silent for a reason. They dont want to be found by others. Perhaps we are being niave when we hope that any intelligent life is also benevolent life. Perhaps we are being downright stupid to shout out a hello to them.

I would like to believe that intelligence breeds tolerance and acceptance. It might to a point and then survival instincts take over no matter how intelligent you are.

Originally posted by zooplancton
SETI Did get a transmission in the 80's. they essentially received Pi.
the thread is on ATS here somewhere.

That signal turned out to come from one of our own satellites.

Originally posted by PhoenixOD

What if ever phones our home?

maybe ET is already phoning our home

edit on 16-1-2012 by PhoenixOD because: (no reason given)

Must have been one cosmic orgasm to get his hair to stand up like that!!!

Again !
I get to the last page of a thread and find I have been talking to myself for half an hour.

They do all the time. You seem to be missing the experiencers/abduction accounts. They use telepathy and beam it right in. Then they can, if they chose to, pull you astrally, and take you somewhere, in the cosmos, and if when you wake up and doubt the whole thing, show up in a craft your whole family sees, with a huge greeting. That is ET.

Ignorant Humans!

We will have done reconnaissance for years before ever showing any sign of ourselves.

Your primitive ballistic projectile weapons are useless and merely demonstrate your inevitable futility.

Only a tiny fraction of the technology we use to traverse the galaxy is needed to instantly render your planet uninhabitable.

Yet, we see no reason to intervene whatsoever, as you are simultaneously and expeditiously destroying yourselves and your own Earth. Your lovely planet will survive; you, however... well.

Unless you, as a species, radically and permanently change your behavior, your solar system will soon crowd with bidders from around the galaxy –perhaps farther.

One of the most valuable, most unappreciated, most naturally-magnificent and diversified jewels of the cosmos may soon be without a resident, sentient stewardship.

There is a protocol in place for such matters. And intense interest.

But this is of no concern to you.

End.

I dont think anyone can say for certain how we would react if they were to contact, however even if they did using our current technology, we would most likely all be long gone by the time any substantial conversation took place.

Michio Kaku made an interesting point regarding interstellar communication which may be digital and therefore broken up into tiny packets of data that would make no sense unless you understand the protocol

Furthermore communication between other civilisations may be encrypted and obfuscated to be indistinguishable from background noise. As emoted by Stephen Hawking maybe it pays to keep your head down

I am personally leaning towards the idea that civilisations are so rare in cosmological terms that there may be only one instance per galaxy, or even just a few civilisations spaced out across the entire Universe

However if another civilisation did make contact then perhaps the most difficult decision would be whether to respond

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
Found this today?

For decades we've been sending signals - deliberate and accidental - into space. But what is the plan if one day an alien were to reply?

I think the phone is already ringing and most folks are just too busy leading their individual lives to pick up..

Originally posted by Scramjet76

I think the phone is already ringing and most folks are just too busy leading their individual lives to pick up..

True, true. Problem is, among others: we don't have the right phone. We don't know which phone is ringing. There are perhaps millions of frequencies ringing simultaneously (a tiny fraction of the whole) and none of them are compatible with the phones we have. The ringing is beyond our sensory perception. Our world governments are either in denial, lying about, or uninterested in answering.

It's like using your cell phone in New York to try and call a couple of kids in Australia holding two tin cans and a long string. Busy, indifferent, or intensely interested won't matter. The kids can listen to their tin cans all day and won't even know you're trying to reach them.

What we need is funding, A LOT MORE funding to conduct research and experiment in this area.

Let's face it. Fools like me have been participating in SETI for decades. That ain't working. I think we're doing the equivalent of walking along a beach, picking up a conch shell, putting it to our ear, and expecting to hear some United Nations proceedings or the evening news to gush out. Nope. Arecibo? Nope.

C'mon, kids. We don't have the right phone. If we had the right phone, we'd pick it up.

I would pick it up in an instant - busy or not. Wouldn't you? Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... "Hello?"


............."EArthLiNgs! wEe wiLl Not HArm YoU! wE ArE enTerinG YoUr sOLaR sYSteM noW. We wILl nOT haRm yOU!"


[then we here only cacophonous squeaks and squeals and sinister laughter and... ]

...beep



.beeep...




.beep



*click*

If ET knows we exist, I think they'd stay away!
I have this theory: we always envisage extremely hostile alien species. What if other species evolve peacefully, leading to technological advancement, while we are here with our hostile ways attacking our own species!

I also agree with another previous poster: they'll be communicating in different ways. There's no good sending digital signals into space if the species that may receive it communicate telepathically, or through pheromones, or another way that we can't even comprehend as communication! Always looking at the bigger picture, there's so much possibility in the universe that we may not even recognise what's going on until it's too late.

ET may try and get in contact by sending a virus because that is how the communicate between their own species. They inadvertently eradicate the human race. Whoops.

Ben.

My 2 cents: SETI is a front to conceal the fact that aliens have been sending us all sorts of wavelength signals for a long time, and they continue to do so. SETI takes the usa's, and to a degree the world's) mind off this issue. If you can't even build a transistor, how would you know any different.