Deep pockets of investors needed to realise deep space dreams (SETI)

Deep pockets of investors needed to realise deep space dreams (SETI)

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We've scoured every point on the surface of the Earth and put footprints on the moon. Our robot spacecraft have visited every planet in the solar system. Climbers produce traffic jams on Mount Everest and the deepest point in the ocean is a playground for a Hollywood director.

It's getting harder to find new places to explore, and new quests for the unknown. Why, then, does humanity seem so reluctant to support one of the last great quests we have left?

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We have the means to discover life beyond Earth, and the means to receive signals from extraterrestrial civilisations. Right now, radio telescopes are quietly scanning the skies, hoping to receive a transmission from another world. They've been looking for decades without success, but the galaxy is a very big place. The earliest searches weren't very powerful, and could explore only small regions of space. Now we have faster, smarter computers that sift through millions of frequencies, and work so much faster than the machines of only a few years ago. We're better equipped than ever to make this big discovery.

There's just one problem. The human race is wimping out of the quest. The SETI Institute is probably the world's best-known centre for searching for extraterrestrials. It squeezes a lot of work out of a tight budget. A small team of scientists is using cutting-edge technology to receive and examine potential transmissions from aliens.

While humanity revels in it's materialism, the quest to be richer than thy neighbour and being distracted by Jersey Shore, the significance of what could possibly be a game-changer for humanity takes a very low priority. SETI has been gradually reduced to barely surviving, yet their quest could culminate in humanities greatest achievement and usher in a whole new era of working for the betterment of mankind, rather than destroying it bit by bit.

I would rather spend a trillion dollars kick-starting humanity into the Universal community than spend a trillion dollars killing fellow human beings wouldn't you?




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Yeah, priorities are all messed up and have been since the dawn of time.

reply to post by Kryties


There's a joke I heard a while back about what the aliens would say if they saw our planet. The one alien would say to the other "they're no threat, obviously primitive". The other alien would respond "how can you tell?" "Well because they all have their weapons pointed at each other".

At some point this needs to stop because it is primitive behavior akin to cave men throwing rocks at each other. The weapons and people may change but war, war never changes. I think that one day humanity is going to grow up and finally understand that there's more to life than entertainment and war. I just hope it happens before some rock comes by and does us in.

It is interesting that if you actually try to talk to people about these issues they look at you like you have 4 heads. If we weren't bankrupting ourselves trying to kill each other we could already have a colony on the moon and Mars. If we funded research into space travel and science instead of defunding NASA and anyone with a dream we probably could have already found alien life (intelligent or not). People really need to think about what this species is doing before it's too late.

reply to post by Lannister


I sometimes wonder whether humanities' description of itself as being "intelligent life" is nothing more than a laughable farce. I can imagine the aliens up there treating us like a pre-warp culture was treated in Star Trek - being non-interference, only to be studied from a distance.

Originally posted by Kryties
reply to post by Lannister

 

I sometimes wonder whether humanities' description of itself as being "intelligent life" is nothing more than a laughable farce. I can imagine the aliens up there treating us like a pre-warp culture was treated in Star Trek - being non-interference, only to be studied from a distance.

More than likely. I like Dr. Michio Kaku's description of the situation. We're like an ant hill next to a 5 lane highway. The ants have no idea the highway is there or what it's used for. The cars on the highway don't pull over and offer the ants technology and trinkets.

The people I love to listen to the most are the ones that say there are too many people on our planet. Overpopulation. And the solution always ends in genocide instead of finding a way to expand ourselves into the Universe. It's never "let's fund Nasa and put a colony on the moon". It just always ends with "we need to kill more of each other so there's less people here".

*sigh*

reply to post by Lannister


Unfortunately humanity has somehow figured out a way to make money by spending money and killing people.

So what are people's thoughts? Do we ignore science in favour of wealth creation and materialism?

Imagine the monumental change that could come about if only we focused our efforts on advancing science and our understanding of the Universe rather than blowing each other up!

I actually believe we need to spend our resources on continued exploration here on Earth. We have barely touched the Ocean and the Polar Caps. Not to mention the Higgs Boson recently being discovered leads me to believe that continued dissection will lead to exponential gains in understanding of the universe; without the need for space travel (yet).

There is a failed playground in your local cluster.

Why you people are not doing everything you can to expand there is beyond me.

You were created to be intelligent.

So why are you only behaving using your animal instincts?

reply to post by AmmonSeth


Ok...?!

Originally posted by AmmonSeth
There is a failed playground in your local cluster.

Why you people are not doing everything you can to expand there is beyond me.

You were created to be intelligent.

So why are you only behaving using your animal instincts?

Are you an alien then? May I ask why the all intelligent and wise alien is on the primitive internet asking the animals questions?

...no really do you think you're an alien? Because that might be some kind of mental health issue man. Check if you have a belly button this way you know for sure!

Originally posted by Lannister


Are you an alien then? May I ask why the all intelligent and wise alien is on the primitive internet asking the animals questions?

...no really do you think you're an alien? Because that might be some kind of mental health issue man. Check if you have a belly button this way you know for sure!

I am more than you and less than some.

The internet becomes much more than it is now.

Even as it stands now, The internet is the most far reaching communications device.

So why would I not be using it?