[Nolug] Way off-topic: SETI

I know this is way off the beaten Linux path, but I (like most people, I
think) have a strong interest in the possibility of ET civilizations. I've
monitored NASA's SETI program since the early '90's, and I invested a lot
of CPU cycles in the SETI@Home screensaver.

Let me make a couple of points:

(1) I understand that the Arecibo (Puerto Rico) radio telescope (a
parabolic reflector built in a natural bowl-shaped depression about 1000
feet across) could communicate with a similar machine on the other side of
the galaxy (about 100,000 light-years away). Of course, this is only if we
knew precisely where the other machine was located.

(2) TV and radar signals from Earth have already reached about 1000 nearby
stars (see www.seti.org/faq.html). A very large antenna would be needed to
detect these signals.

(3) On the subject of very weak radio signals, Pioneer 10 has just recently
been detected again, at over 7 billion miles away. The power of the
detected signal was a billionth of a trillionth of a watt.

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/News/2001/News-Pioneer10.asp

(4) This being said, after running the SETI@Home client software for a
couple of years, my optimism has declined a lot. I also recently read a
book called _Rare Earth_, in which the authors (can't remember their names
offhand) argued that while pond-scum life might be common on other planets,
intelligent civilizations are probably extremely rare.

M.R.F.
 
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Carlos carlos@cancansystems.com
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 09:18:59 -0800
To: nolug@joeykelly.net
Subject: RE: [Nolug] E-T sending messages

Do you think aliens would like to mess with our troublesome species,
after all they are far more advanced and know better. Primitive,
backwards species should be left to their own luck.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nolug@joeykelly.net [mailto:owner-nolug@joeykelly.net] On
Behalf Of Pietu
Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 10:31 PM
To: nolug@joeykelly.net
Subject: RE: [Nolug] E-T sending messages

Heh...

Here's your proof.

I admit, I am an Alien.

At least that is what INS claims about me.
I even have a valid Alien Registration card as a proof.

P

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nolug@joeykelly.net [mailto:owner-nolug@joeykelly.net]On
> Behalf Of Brett D. Estrade
> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 7:09 PM
> To: nolug@joeykelly.net
> Subject: Re: [Nolug] E-T sending messages
>
>
> They're already here ;)
>
> In all seriousness, I though RF signial propagated out
> spherically from a central point, if so
> wouldn't we actually be recieving a little bit of all the signals
> send from the hemisphere of the
> source planet that was facing us? I could be wrong.. I hated
> that part of physics in school.
>
> Brett
>
>
> --- Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> > You are absolutely right. I was intellectually lazy, since there
are
> > so many billions and billions of stars, and thus the likelyhood of
life
> > being out there is a virtual certainty.
> >
> > However, the distances are so great, and RF still only travels at a
> > fixed speed, and, compared to the vastness of space, there aren't
that
> > many stars. Thus, any message round trip (send, interpret, decide
> > response, respond) would take many, many decades. Also, how do the
> > aliens decide which direction(s) around the sphere to send the
codes?
> > Also again, even if you send RF messages to each 1/100th of second
of
> > degree, after a few hundred billion miles, there will be large gaps
> > between each RF beam. ((This is presuming that the codes are sent
> > out in beams instead of broadcast, to ensure energy concentration.)
> > Then, since a light-year is 5.87 bn miles, and that beam may have to
> > go 10 or 20 (or much more!) light-years before reaching Sol's
neighbor-
> > hood, the gaps between each (now *extremely* faint) beam are
enormous.
> >
> > Thus, IMHO, I don't think that even the wealthiest worlds would do
such
> > a thing.
> >
> > On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 17:53, bad-magic-number wrote:
> > > On the date of 12/18/2002 12:08:25 PM , Ron Johnson
> <ron.l.johnson@cox.
> > > net> spoke:
> > > >Instead of searching cosmic static for non-existant aliens,
> the rc5-72
> > > >project from http://www.distributed.net uses the same concept
(hence
> > > >the name) to use brute force to do mathematical-type things.
> > >
> > > That's a bit presumptuous... Live undeniably exists outside
> our Solar
> > > System based on mathematical probability... To say something only
> > > happened in one place in a universe this size would be pure folly.
> > >
> > > And it may very well be intelligent, but:
> > >
> > > 1. We might not find it since we can only see a sliver of the sky
at
> > > Arecibo... 2. We may not know what to look for since the maybe
very
> > > well be more advanced than us. We are cosmic infants as Homo
Sapiens
> > > are a young species.
> > >
> > > And of course life outside our Solar System might very well not be
as
> > > intelligent as us...
> > >
> > > Its a big universe and ludicrous to think we are singular and
> "special"
> > > in a cosmic sense.....
> >
> > --
> > +---------------------------------------------------------------+
> > | Ron Johnson, Jr. mailto:ron.l.johnson@cox.net |
> > | Jefferson, LA USA http://members.cox.net/ron.l.johnson |
> > | |
> > | "My advice to you is to get married: If you find a good wife, |
> > | you will be happy; if not, you will become a philosopher." |
> > | Socrates |
> > +---------------------------------------------------------------+
> >
> > ___________________
> > Nolug mailing list
> > nolug@nolug.org
>
>
> =====
> I know who stole those lunches...it was that damn sasquatch!!!!
> -- "Billy Madison" (1995)
>
> #! ~/myInfo
> set url http://www.brettsbsd.net
> set eFax (253)484-8755
> #A.M.D.G
> exit 0
>
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Received on 12/19/02