Brother, can you spare a gold-pressed bar of latinum?

$2 million dollars? To search fer aliens?

What kinda commie Dumbocrat libtard are you, Subby? Everyone knows that we're alone in the universe cause God created us! It says so right in the Bible!

SETI is a scam anyway. Conditions have to be near perfect, to an incredibly high order of improbability for us to detect another sentient species.

Consider:

1. In order to reach Earth with a radio signal, it has to be very high-powered and pointed precisely at us
2. Technologically, radio usage will probably only represent a small period of time in our civilization (or any hypothetical aliens' civilization). More likely, we will use some sort of quantum entanglement-based form of communication in the future, removing the limitations of the speed of light and interference from cosmic radiation.
3. In the spans of time we are talking about, we have had radio for a little over a 100 years... out of BILLIONS. We would have to catch those hypothetical aliens at the precise point in their technological development that they were using radio and transmitting a high-powered signal directly at us, in a way that it reached us within our own window of radio usage.

It's also probably NOT a good idea to broadcast your presence to a universe that is a very hostile environment.... announcing your planet's viability to support life to hypothetical aliens that might not be friendly "E.T." type aliens... not that I believe our planet's broadcasts are all that discernible from cosmic background noise beyond our own Oort Cloud.

I also have a hard time believing the scientists behind SETI do not comprehend this, which brings to mind all sorts of scenarios as to why they are pushing this deception on the public, ranging from a simple money scam to interstellar conspiracy.

Carth: What happens if we find life out there? If we discover life on a planet that is too far away to visit/signal does that information really help us/ is it worth the millions spent to find it?

Probably depends on what you think mankind is capable of achieving. In time we'll likely develop interstellar flight, but if we knew there was life out there you can bet it would happen a lot sooner.

dittybopper: Quantum entanglement doesn't work that way. You get the 'spooky action at a distance', but you can't actually *USE* it to transmit information FTL.

You can in Mass Effect 2, so it must be true.

LesserEvil: I also have a hard time believing the scientists behind SETI do not comprehend this, which brings to mind all sorts of scenarios as to why they are pushing this deception on the public, ranging from a simple money scam to interstellar conspiracy.

Yes, because if there's one word I'd use to describe SETI scientists, it's "greedy". Those money-grubbing scientists... excuse me, I mean "scientists" do nothing all day except sit on their yachts, living off the hard work of others.

They need money for equipment to do their work. That, and whatever it takes to buy ramen noodles and diet-Rite for a few years. If it's a scam, it's pretty elaborate considering their work is reviewed constantly by peers and amateur-enthusiasts. Or are they all in on it too? These are people who believe in what they do. Yes, I know it's hard to comprehend beliefs that don't come from a holy book, but they do exist.

RobotSpider: LesserEvil: I also have a hard time believing the scientists behind SETI do not comprehend this, which brings to mind all sorts of scenarios as to why they are pushing this deception on the public, ranging from a simple money scam to interstellar conspiracy.

Yes, because if there's one word I'd use to describe SETI scientists, it's "greedy". Those money-grubbing scientists... excuse me, I mean "scientists" do nothing all day except sit on their yachts, living off the hard work of others.

They need money for equipment to do their work. That, and whatever it takes to buy ramen noodles and diet-Rite for a few years. If it's a scam, it's pretty elaborate considering their work is reviewed constantly by peers and amateur-enthusiasts. Or are they all in on it too? These are people who believe in what they do. Yes, I know it's hard to comprehend beliefs that don't come from a holy book, but they do exist.

I have no idea what the deal is, only that, in the most practical sense, SETI's objectives are pretty much impossible to achieve. You'll note I talked about "a range" of possibilities.

I have nothing against scientists getting money for worthwhile research, but SETI has glaring logical issues that no honest scientist can ignore, which brings to question what, exactly, is the whole charade about? Is it a distraction? Is it covering up something else?

It seemed cool when I was child, but SETI's methods don't stand up to the most simple logical examination as an adult. There are likely other methods that we can use to determine the existence of intelligent life out in the stars.

tsakali: I just want to point out that all you nai-sayers of mathematical probabilities for life outside of this planet are greatly underestimating the numbers at hand.

There are about 200- 400 billion stars in our galaxy alone! and there are about 100- 200 billion galaxies in the view-able universe as we perceive it.

Multiply those numbers together and watch your calculator explode.

...and all of them are so far out of range to get anything resembling a coherent radio signal that that same calculator will explode even more.

I do believe there are other planets out there with intelligent life, and if it is possible, a significant number of those civilizations have the ability to travel interstellar distances.

I only state that detecting them by trying to sniff out something resembling an artificial pattern in a radio signal is INCREDIBLY unlikely to produce any results.

I would find it far more likely that we discover signs of intelligent life outside of our solar system by detecting constructs (like a partial Dyson Sphere, for example) or engineering on a stellar scale, than by hoping some alien is pointing a high-powered radio transmitter at our podunk system on the odd chance we MIGHT have the ability to detect it, during this very narrow span of time we actually might detect it - particularly keeping in mind that such a signal could take years or centuries to reach here, if it's powerful enough to even reach us.

All of this also assumes that setting up a giant beacon that says "hey look here, intelligent species exist in this system" is a good idea that will never attract the wrong sort of attention. More than a few hard science sci-fi authors and scientists have admitted that our inability to hear anybody may be because it is akin to a wounded deer bleating near a pride of lions.

dittybopper: magic_patch: dittybopper: LesserEvil: 2. Technologically, radio usage will probably only represent a small period of time in our civilization (or any hypothetical aliens' civilization). More likely, we will use some sort of quantum entanglement-based form of communication in the future, removing the limitations of the speed of light and interference from cosmic radiation.

Quantum entanglement doesn't work that way. You get the 'spooky action at a distance', but you can't actually *USE* it to transmit information FTL.

Yet

You let me know when you figure out how to transmit information that way, because as a ham, I'd be interested in a new mode like that.

I'm not going to hold my breath waiting, however.

Quantum Entanglement would be a point-to-point communication technology. In such a topology, it would be akin to the internet, with devices set up as communication hubs, probably, and other devices might provide secure, direct communication between two points.

I suspect a HAM operator might be a bit disappointed in such an infrastructure.