[ExI] Fermi paradox

[Stuart LaForge]

Quoting SR Ballard:

> ------------------------------

> Isn?t the silence easily explained away by the fact that the farther  
> we look, the farther into the past we are seeing?
>
> If any intelligent life lived there, if they are more than about 200  
> ly away, we wouldn?t have any intelligent life either.
>
> I honestly see it as a non-issue.

I agree. Like foolish youth, we started out the age of radio by doing  
more talking than than we did listening. As you point out, our entire  
SETI light cone has been less than +/-200 years past and future. And  
we led off with "I Love Lucy". What if that was the galactic  
equivalent of a loud and bizarrely long belch at a cocktail party, and  
the "great silence" is just that awkward pause where everybody is just  
too embarrassed to say anything? ;)

Incidentally now that Arecibo is gone, who if anyone is listening for  
a return signal to the 1974 message?

Stuart LaForge