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Intelligent Alien Life found by 2040


Merc14

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Bold Prediction: Intelligent Alien Life Could Be Found by 2040

By Mike Wall, Senior Writer | February 10, 2014 07:14am ET

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The first detection of intelligent extraterrestrial life will likely come within the next quarter-century, a prominent alien hunter predicts.

By 2040 or so, astronomers will have scanned enough star systems to give themselves a great shot of discovering alien-produced electromagnetic signals, said Seth Shostak of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, Calif.

"I think we'll find E.T. within two dozen years using these sorts of experiments," Shostak said here Thursday (Feb. 6) during a talk at the 2014 NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) symposium

Story continues here http://www.space.com/24622-intelligent-alien-life-detection-2040.html

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They would have been producing the signal way before we started producing our signals.Also the signal we do receive may be from a civilization that killed themselves long ago?

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Let's find some intelligent life on Earth first, then worry about the rest of universe.

:)

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Honestly, I can't understand how something like 'finding alien life' can be at all predictable. For all we know Earth could be the only planet in our galaxy with advanced life..or there could be scads of ET civilizations and one will 'phone us' next week.

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What happens if we cannot finds the "ET" by 2040, by searching trillions of star systems?

what if we are not searching in the right place ?

what if "ET" is here on Earth, but on a different realm?

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Honestly, I can't understand how something like 'finding alien life' can be at all predictable. For all we know Earth could be the only planet in our galaxy with advanced life..or there could be scads of ET civilizations and one will 'phone us' next week.

This is certainly a SWAG but I am guessing he feels that since teh number of predicted planets has gone way up due to Kepler's findings and that all teh new instruments coming on line will greatly increase our ability to see the signs of life. He is SETI so there is no limit to his optimism on the subject so grain of salt needed.

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(...). For all we know Earth could be the only planet in our galaxy with advanced life..(...)

Could be or could not be. The option for intelligent and advanced life (in addition to life on earth) in the

Milky Way cannot be excluded as we didn´t were able to explore the whole galaxy yet. The number of

at least 100 billions of stars, and the still unknown number of habitable planets in total, within the Milky

Way is giving a big likelihood that life has been developed already or will be developed in future.

If a contact will be possible some day is another story.

Edited by toast
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Too bad Shostak probably won't be around by then. I think he's in his 70's now.

He's poured alot of effort into this project. I think it is an important one, and I really hope he can see some real results in his live time.

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What happens if we cannot finds the "ET" by 2040, by searching trillions of star systems?

Then he'll have to admit that he was just guessing.

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Still, finding signs of life is one thing, but ever being able to visit - or even communicate, is a whole other story unfortunately

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It's nice that he's optomistic, however I really don't see SETI ever finding anything. It's much too limited of a search. The main problem is the inverse square law which tells us that the farther the transmission is sent, the more spread out it becomes. Some people have this idea that ET will be able to just adjust their alien tv and pick up old episodes of I love Lucy, but in reality after 2-3 light years those signals are indistinguishable from the cosmic backround radiation. If we were at Alpha Centauri, SETI would not be able to tell there was life on Earth. And that is the closest star outside our sun.

The only way SETI will ever find anything is if an advanced civilization points a high powered radio signal directly at us to see if we respond. Considering the number of stars and potential planets in this galaxy alone, the chances are slim that we will be one of the stars they point it at, if they are out there at all.

The way I think we're much more likely to find life (though it may not be technological) is through use of things like Infrared echelle spectrometers, which allow us to see what kind of atmospheres exoplanets have. If we find a planet with oxygen and methane atmospheres there is a huge probability for multicellular life. I'm also very hopeful for us finding simple life in our own solar system, hopefully in my lifetime. The more we learn the more it seems possible. I just want to find life. I don't care if it's smart or not.

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Some people have this idea that ET will be able to just adjust their alien tv and pick up old episodes of I love Lucy, but in reality after 2-3 light years those signals are indistinguishable from the cosmic backround radiation. If we were at Alpha Centauri, SETI would not be able to tell there was life on Earth. And that is the closest star outside our sun.

SETI isn't looking for the equivalent of alien television. It really is looking for aliens sending transmissions directly to us. Not something I would bet on.

Aliens with large enough antennas might be able to determine that our star is generating slightly different electromagnetic radiation from other stars. With even larger antennas it would be possible to determine that the radiation is moving around that star in regular periods. Of course there would be no way for our alien firends to make sense of this energy.

However with the enormous size of these antennas you'd think they'd also have technology to build giant telescopes that could get a view of Earth well enough to see signs of life on it. The light reflected from our planet is much more powerful than all our radio transmitters and light travels in space a lot better than RF energy.

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The assumption is based on some extraterrestrial civilisation still using Electromagnetic forms of communication.... heck! the developed nations of THIS world are moving towards Fibre - Optic (and EM Radiation is shielded).

Just another "Sound Bite" IMO...

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The assumption is based on some extraterrestrial civilisation still using Electromagnetic forms of communication.... heck! the developed nations of THIS world are moving towards Fibre - Optic (and EM Radiation is shielded).

Have you counted the number of satellites spinning around our planet? In the past twenty years direct satellite services have replaced a large percentage of cable and fiber optic services. In the U.S. there is a neverending battle over frequency spectrum over 500 MHz. There is a large infrastructure of radio communications that people don't see.

And why wouldn't aliens use electromagnetic waves for communication? They're extremely efficient. The transmitters in the Voyager probes only use 20 watts of power and we can still receive them 18 billion miles away.

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So they have absolutely no proof of inteligent life existing outside of the earth, indeed, no proof of life at all outside the earth, and also statistics that inteligent life would likely be rare in the extreme, and yet they predict this. How do these people call themselves scientists? They're as bad as people who predict the rapture.

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I think with te

So they have absolutely no proof of inteligent life existing outside of the earth, indeed, no proof of life at all outside the earth, and also statistics that inteligent life would likely be rare in the extreme, and yet they predict this. How do these people call themselves scientists? They're as bad as people who predict the rapture.

I think with Kepler's discovery that habitable planets are far more numerous than theorized, the SETI folks are getting a second wind. Honestly, I am on board but not optimistic we will find intelligent life by 2040.

Edited by Merc14
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"a prominent alien hunter predicts" - Anything like these bigfoot hunters?

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"A skeptic on a forum predicts M&Ms will go into space, For he claims "They melt in your mouth, not in the sun" who knows when M&Ms will be launched but he predicts in the year next Tuesday."

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It sounds like a estimated guess depending on how long they think it will take for real proof.

That's how I figured the claim too.

Which seems fine to me.

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It's nice that he's optomistic, however I really don't see SETI ever finding anything.

If you do not buy a ticket, you don't even have a one in a billion chance. Not costing as much as most programs, could be worse. Like spending decades and billions on idiotic notions like remote viewing.

It's much too limited of a search. The main problem is the inverse square law which tells us that the farther the transmission is sent, the more spread out it becomes. Some people have this idea that ET will be able to just adjust their alien tv and pick up old episodes of I love Lucy, but in reality after 2-3 light years those signals are indistinguishable from the cosmic backround radiation. If we were at Alpha Centauri, SETI would not be able to tell there was life on Earth. And that is the closest star outside our sun.

The BMEWS can attain 200 Light Years. As Scowl said, Interstellar TV is a Sci Fi concept, not what these guys deal in.

Not this:

Aliens%2520TV.jpeg

More like This:

Duke,_Lovell_and_Haise_at_the_Apollo_11_Capcom,_Johnson_Space_Center,_Houston,_Texas_-_19690720.jpg

and reading this:

800px-Wow_signal.jpg

Not this:

lucyethel_i_love_lucy.png

The only way SETI will ever find anything is if an advanced civilization points a high powered radio signal directly at us to see if we respond. Considering the number of stars and potential planets in this galaxy alone, the chances are slim that we will be one of the stars they point it at, if they are out there at all.

Maybe we already got one with the WOW! Signal though?

The way I think we're much more likely to find life (though it may not be technological) is through use of things like Infrared echelle spectrometers, which allow us to see what kind of atmospheres exoplanets have. If we find a planet with oxygen and methane atmospheres there is a huge probability for multicellular life. I'm also very hopeful for us finding simple life in our own solar system, hopefully in my lifetime. The more we learn the more it seems possible. I just want to find life. I don't care if it's smart or not.

I agree completely, however, could the two technologies assist each other?

Edited by psyche101
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The assumption is based on some extraterrestrial civilisation still using Electromagnetic forms of communication.... heck! the developed nations of THIS world are moving towards Fibre - Optic (and EM Radiation is shielded).

Just another "Sound Bite" IMO...

Our Fibre still requires a media converter. Light travels the distance, but it comes back down to simple comms in the end.

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