Comments on: Confessions of an Alien Hunter

By: Marian

Marian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:31:19 +0000

Dwight – that would be a very interesting area in which to ask Dr Shostak to comment. I know I’ve been uncomfortable with the idea that TV sitcoms (or worse yet, “reality shows”) might be representing human beings to an alien culture.

By: Dwight Decker

Dwight Decker — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:10:06 +0000

I just watched the History Channel program, LIFE AFTER PEOPLE, about what would happen if the human race suddenly disappeared from the planet. In discussing what human artifacts would last longest, a point was made that I’ve heard elsewhere lately. It used to be thought that TV signals would continue indefinitely out into the void, and the aliens 55 light-years out are now enjoying I LOVE LUCY. It’s even been speculated that a TV broadcast of Adolf Hitler at the 1936 Olympic Games would be the aliens’ first introduction to us. (Didn’t Carl Sagan’s SF novel CONTACT use that idea?) But now, according to the LIFE AFTER PEOPLE program… the thinking is that TV signals degrade into indecipherable noise in a light-year or two most. I LOVE LUCY never even got as far as Alpha Centauri. On the other hand, Earth is probably a pretty obvious source of non-natural emissions, so the aliens would know some advanced civilzation is here. (So that cat’s out of the bag no matter what we do.) What the aliens make of it is another matter, but they evidently aren’t watching Lucy…

By: harlock

harlock — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:40:30 +0000

I think Jim is under the misconception that SETI’s primary activity is transmission

By: Marian

Marian — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:26:25 +0000

Hi Jim — You are going to love Dr Shostak, then, because he DOES answer that question, both in his books and in at least two of the interviews I’ve watched featuring him.

The answer is: We don’t assume they will be benign. But whatever alien civilization we find isn’t going to know we’ve found them, no more than a radio station knows when you’ve tuned them in. After all, we’ve been leaking radio waves into space since the early 1900s – do we know if another civilization is picking them up? No – there’s no way we could know.

Dr Shostak also says that once we identify a civilization, then we can decide whether or not we want to try for contact.

Would you be happy with a rephrasing of your question, Jim? Maybe… ARE there assumptions as to the nature/intent of any civilization we find, and what would be the science to support any such assumptions? After all, Stephen Hawking comes right out and says he doesn’t think we should attempt contact with any civilization we find since we don’t know their nature/intent.

By: Jim Addison

Jim Addison — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:29:13 +0000

The one question I’ve never seen answered by the SETI types is: Why would we assume any entity capable of receiving our signals will be benign?

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:45:57 +0000

As a coincidence, years ago, three years ago to be accurate, I was running SETI@home and my laptop did start over heating and eventually went to laptop heaven. I can’t blame SETI though, I had the laptop at the scope and had it soaked with dew many times. I also froze it out a couple times – temps at 28 it went blank and emitted a pitiful tone.