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Should we be signalling to ET ?


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A continuous message beacon aimed at contacting aliens is being hailed and criticized in equal measure.

A group of scientists and entrepreneurs has created the world’s first continuous message beacon to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations. And for a fee, people can use it to transmit their own messages into space. But not everyone thinks this project is a good idea.

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Should we be signaling ET? We've already done it for so long...so many people already see weird craft flying around in our skies...I think it's a little late to be asking that question.

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I don't think we should. I don't know why people think an advanced civilization equals a peaceful civilization.

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Should we be signaling ET? We've already done it for so long...so many people already see weird craft flying around in our skies...I think it's a little late to be asking that question.

That is often said, and theoretically we now could be detected by very advanced societies on the hundred or so nearest systems, but they would have to be looking hard and the further out our signals get the weaker they will be.

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Even a predominantly peaceful advanced civilization could have factions that are not so peaceful, ala General Zod in the new Man of Steel movie.

Edited by WoIverine
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I don't think we should. I don't know why people think an advanced civilization equals a peaceful civilization.

I tend to generally think that will be the case. Technology will soon reach the point here where a few lunatics could destroy us, so that would probably be the same elsewhere. Longer term survival will require peace.I agree with you though that I don't think we should set up any beacons or stuff like that. We just don't know enough and what I said above is only surmising.

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we cannot even communicate with earth based animals, so why on earth, pardon the pun, do we imagine that an alien race could ever understand any signal we send? Besides this seems just a money spinner if you ask me. Radio signals deteriorate over time/distance so even if it was picked up, it might just be blended in with all the natural noises of the universe

typo's

Edited by seeder
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I don't think so, why invite trouble. I think we are already being visited but so far none of them have tried to exterminate us so they can have our planet. If they make contact they could bring some sort of bacteria with them we have no immunity to or cure for.

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we cannot even communicate with earth based animals, so why on earth, pardon the pun, do we imagine that an alien race could ever understand any signal we send? Besides this seems just a money spinner if you ask me. Radio signals deteriorate over time/distance so even if it was picked up, it might just be blended in with all the natural noises of the universe

typo's

I don't think they would have to understand what we are saying to know it is a language of intelligent beings. If they are advanced they probably can detect weak signals and sort them out from the clutter of noise the universe puts out.
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Wolverine is right, its too late. We have been sending out radio/tv transmissions for decades, plus throw in the attempts with SETI, and then there are the Voyagers 1 and 2 spacecraft which have earth info on them both.

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And here is an old, 2008 article about an attempt to contact the nearest potentially inhabitable planet, and I quote some paragraphs:

"A television company has joined forces with a social networking site to send a message to the nearest theoretically inhabitable planet. But can our television and radio broadcasts already be picked up in space?

The latest is a collaboration between RDF and Bebo to send a signal to the planet Gliese C, more than 20 light-years away, carrying 500 messages from Earth.

Space scientist Dr Chris Davis, of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, says it is possible that television and radio signals from Earth could be picked up on other planets, but it isn't easy.

There are two things that you would need to get a signal [to other planets] - firstly, it has to be able to leave our planet, secondly it would have to have as much power as possible," says Dr Davis.

"As you go into space that power would dissipate. They would need more and more sensitive equipment to pick it up."

more

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7544915.stm

and...

"Aliens can't hear us", says astronomer (Frank Drake)

Fainter broadcasting signals and digital switchover mean Earth will soon be undetectable to extraterrestrials.

"The trouble is that we are making ourselves more and more difficult to be heard," said Dr Drake. "We are broadcasting in much more efficient ways today and are making our signals fainter and fainter."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/jan/27/aliens-cant-hear-us-astronomer

Besides, with the WOW signal, or the alleged alien signal, did we ever understand that? NO!

Anyway to keep on topic, I dont think sending signals out will do us any harm at all, no matter if we even got a signal back, we still cannot possibly go to any nearby star with habitable planets...

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Wolverine is right, its too late. We have been sending out radio/tv transmissions for decades, plus throw in the attempts with SETI, and then there are the Voyagers 1 and 2 spacecraft which have earth info on them both.

What you say is, frankly, really astonishing. These won't be anywhere near even the nearest stars in a thousand years, and that their presence would be noticed is just incredibly unlikely. The whole thing was pure hype.

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What you say is, frankly, really astonishing. These won't be anywhere near even the nearest stars in a thousand years, and that their presence would be noticed is just incredibly unlikely. The whole thing was pure hype.

So then your saying that there is no possibility that any alien life maybe travelling around our solar system just may have seen or ran into Voyager then? I would like to think it is possible. You can't rule it in or out. I believe there is life out there in the cosmos for what its worth.

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Whether there is life in the cosmos is not at issue. The question is whether it is nearby.

Any space travelers in our solar system would be more likely to find the Earth than Voyager.

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Whether there is life in the cosmos is not at issue. The question is whether it is nearby.

Any space travelers in our solar system would be more likely to find the Earth than Voyager.

exactly right, space is too big and the voyagers are too small. It'd be like driving down a 5 lane endless motorway at speed with the intention of spotting a single grain of sand, which could be anywhere, in all directions and distances from your car.

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Whether there is life in the cosmos is not at issue. The question is whether it is nearby.

Any space travelers in our solar system would be more likely to find the Earth than Voyager.

We do not know yet. It may be under the oceans of Europa, or Enceladus, we just don't know....yet. Sounds like a mission to Europa is in the works to find out.

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We do not know yet. It may be under the oceans of Europa, or Enceladus, we just don't know....yet. Sounds like a mission to Europa is in the works to find out.

If there is any intelligent life in the oceans of Europa then certainly they must be using acoustic or sonar means of communication ( such means would not cross the micro vacuum of space).

It is too late to say "no" to people wanting to communicate the presence of life on Earth because "we" have been broadcasting for more than a century now. Enrico Fermi (the "Fermi Paradox") had it right "Where is everybody?"...

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They already know we are here LOL we are probably their comedy channel!

The channel's logo is probably just one big facepalm.

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The Fermi Paradox has to do with the billions of years the galaxy has existed compared to the few millions of years it would take a space-faring race to colonize the galaxy, assuming only one or two new colonies each century. It seems if space-faring species are even remotely possible, they should long ago have been here.

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Look at it this way, as light and radio waves travel at the same speed in the vacuum of space, the nearest star is approx 4.2 light years away, so a signal will take the same time as light does, to reach the nearest star, ie: 4.2 years, Then the same amount of time for a 'similar' signal to reach us 'if' they understood it, and replied with similar tech to us, so we will be looking at 8.4 years min, for a possible reply.

And thats the nearest star - Proxima Centauri.

Then we have Alpha Centauri at 4.36 light years, so a wait of 8.7 years. Plus we havent figured out yet if the star even has a potentially habitable planet. Its pointless sending signals to stars (suns), we need to send them to the planets around the stars.

Next nearest is Barnards star, 5.9 light years, so again, 11.8 years for a reply, - if - it has any planets at all that is.

then the next nearest is 'Wise', 6.52 light years, so 13 years for a possible reply

Then the stars after that all get further and further away, so nothing we can do is a quick method of sending signals.

But just because a star is near us - doesnt mean its got planets that 'may' be able to support life, so we really need to identify a star system, WITH a planet suitable for life, and then send the signal to it.

Stacking the odds against us isnt it?

But lets say we do find a suitable planet to host life, we wont know if its lifeforms are just simple life like bacteria, or simple animals/plants, or even early forms of humanoid life. So sending a signal to a planet like that will yield NO REPLY, even tho its teeming with life!

As with Europa, there could well be bacteria in the seas, or simple fishy type things, and thats LIFE in the universe - apart from us, but fishy things cant reply!!

So relying on radio signals being picked up by potential lifeforms, could well miss ANY life....at its simplest form

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I am not sure what to think of this. But an Astrophysicist once said to me that signals travels very slowly in space and it will take a very long time to get at some point and the same time if it is sent back in a response. So, unless these signals a picked up by a spaceship travelling in space (which is quite unlikely) it doesn't seems like any threats to us. We will be all gone before anything happens (if it does..) and the humanity will probably far more advanced techonlogically than in 2013 if they had not destroyed the Earth and themselves.

Edited by sam_comm
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I am not sure what to think of this. But an Astrophysicist once said to me that signals travels very slowly in space and it will take a very long time to get at some point and the same time if it is sent back in a response.

well Mars for example, at its closest known pass-by was ONLY 34.8 million miles away in 2003. How close or far it is depends on its orbit, but when signals get sent to mars rovers I think it takes about 13 minutes. Not too bad considering. But then its only "next door" when compared to the nearest stars distance

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