[ExI] SETI needs new approach (was for the fermi paradox fans)

[The Avantguardian]

On Saturday, June 21, 2014 9:47 AM, Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:


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>On Sat, Jun 21, 2014 at 8:49 AM, The Avantguardian
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>1. There is some very rare astronomical phenomenon that has only been observed once that sends out extremely powerful pulses of narrow band radiowaves centered on the emission line of hydrogen.
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>>2. Some secret conspiracy in the government used a powerful transmitter tuned to a forbidden frequency for some unknown purpose and it happened to get reflected off of some space debris and was then detected by Jerry Ehman.
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>>3. We have, in that instance, detected a radio communication by an intelligent extraterrestrial species but chose to ignore it because it only lasted a short time and was not repeated.   
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>Of those I'd favor #1 - we haven't spent all *that* much time, cosmologically speaking, studying the heavens beyond the visible light spectrum.

True. But how much *time* do we have compared to our potential competitors/collaborators in other star systems? 
 
>But there are at least two variants of #2 that seem more likely.  Either some signal was accidentally transmitted on that frequency (and whoever did it isn't stepping forward because illegal or illegal) and bounced off, or one was transmitted on a nearby frequency and got frequency shifted in the process of bouncing off.

So choose. Which is more unbelievable? Extraterrestrials or a conspiracy theory? The laws of physics gave rise to life here. What is so special about *here*?
 
>When we (presumably an intelligent species) sent out the Arecibo message, we only did it *once*. Why would they do any differently?
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>Because they wanted there to be no mistake on the receiving end?  Or they wanted to avoid the chance that the listener happened not to be listening at that moment?

You are assuming that *we* are supposed to be the recieving end. That seems an unlikely assumption. The majority of tweets do not go to Lone Signal.
 
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>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_message
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>>Of course as of 2013, you got these guys offering to send your tweets to Gliese 526 for 25 cents each:
>>http://thelonesignal.tumblr.com/
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>Exactly.  Arecibo is not the most reliable indicator of a civilization like ours.  It's going to >take repeated signals.

Repeated signals are hard to reliably incorporate when everything in the universe from electrons up to galaxies spin. Thought experiment: how often is Greenwich, England at its closest possible distance from Olympus Mons on Mars? Now imagine that instead of Mars its some exoplanet in a star system many light years away. And now imagine they are not *trying* to communicate with Earth. Then you will understand the true challenge facing SETI.
 
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>Either a hail mary into the void or eavesdropped communications not intended for us. The idea of an ET civilization setting up a beacon seems a little strange from a Darwininian perspective unless it were like the glowing lure of an angler fish. 
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>And yet, in the one example we definitely know of, "a beacon" is exactly what was set up.  Maybe civilizations that incautiously broadcast do not, in fact, inevitably attract interstellar marauders?  (Who would want...what, from a nascent civilization?  Certainly not raw materials that can be gained in larger quantities from unresisting unpopulated star systems.  And just as simply as one could suppose they want to destroy potential competitors, one could suppose they want potential augmentationns to their society to grow until they can usefully contribute: "Oh, hey, these guys can colonize our otherwise-useless oxygen-polluted water worlds, once they learn how to stop ripping up their own planet.")

This would be a believable argument had Colombus, Cortez, and Balboa not happened. I would like to think that lording it over lesser beings was purely a primate fetish. That is if chickens did not do it too with their "pecking order" and those damnable queen ants with their aristrocratic airs. Why go through all the work of mining and refining gold when you can just take the finished product from the Incas? Why were Greek slaves the most expensive to the ancient Romans? Why eat vegetables when with suitable energy expenditure you could manufacture your own glucose from photosynthesis? Damn those Vegans for exploiting the most productive, innocent, and helpless of life-forms. (I refer to those guys who exclusively eat plants, not our future overlords from the constellation Vega whom I would not dare impugn in any way.) ;) 
 
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>"Thousands" of non-repeated signals per day? What if just 1% of them were genuine?
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>This is astronomical stuff we're talking about.  1%, no matter how nice a round number it sounds like, is pretty much not happening.  More realistic fractions are very small fractions of a percent, if not actually 0.

I am willing concede that that the fraction of the signals SETI has recieved is from intelligent ETs *could* be zero if you are willing to concede it *could* be grester than zero. I just don't appreciate that a lack of evidence is being paraded as a logical paradox. If you are unwilling to to fund the experiment, then you deserve to be ignorant.

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>> then put a freakin radio telescope on the far side of the moon. No "side lobes" from terrestrial communications then. You could have a com satellite in lunar L4 or L5 to function as a relay station.
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>Indeed.  Until we can get such instrumentation, I'm reluctant to pay much attention to most chain-of-logic-from-minimal-observations, such as the whole "dark matter" thing (a hypothesis to explain calculated differences in measurement, when measurement error - including systematically overlooking certain types of objects - could readily explain).

Leaving "dark mater" aside for now, maybe we could sell SETI on the darkside of the moon to the government as a national security priority. I mean even the writers of Independance Day figured out that an alien invasion would probably try to sneak up on us by staying behind the moon. After all that is what Sun Tzu would do. :)
 
 
Stuart LaForge
 
"We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring." - Carl Sagan