[ExI] Reinventing SETI: Why Our Alien-Hunting Playbook Needs an Upgrade

[spike at rainier66.com]

From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] Reinventing SETI: Why Our Alien-Hunting Playbook Needs an Upgrade

 

On Mon, Sep 29, 2025, 6:23 AM BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

Quote:
The very fact that the universe is so silent and ET is not obvious may
support an argument for pessimism. Perhaps benign alien civilizations
are in the majority, but they know something that newbies such as
ourselves do not, namely, that the universe is a very dangerous place,
and there are some really bad actors out there. They therefore
intentionally keep quiet and low profiles, lest they provoke the bad
actors.

 

The Dark Forest hypothesis, aa that is known, has been generally debunked.  Any such hostile aliens would have been triggered and summoned by our earliest broadcasts, before humanity contemplated the possibility of hiding our radios.  It'd be the same for anyone else out there.

 

 

Disagree.  Our first good strong radio signals are only about a century old.  A hundred year radius sphere is not that big, about ten thousand stars in that range, and even then, only those 50 years out (a coupla thousand) would have had time to return a possibly malignant signal.  We can’t dismiss the Dark Forest notion yet.

 

But I would like to toss out an idea I have found compelling for decades: we aren’t seeing SETI signals because we are looking in the wrong frequencies.  We look in the wrong frequencies because we do everything in the high bandwidth ranges, for good reason: time is money and money is sacred.  I get that, bigtime.

 

But… when having intercourse with alien civilizations… not so much.  Space is big and time is plentiful.  If we are trying to figure out their messages, what’s the big hurry?  People are STILL getting PhDs writing theses on the meaning of ancient passages written thousands of years ago.  Well that’s some pretty damn low bandwidth communication, and it is one way.  So… what’s the big hurry?  

 

Lower frequencies mean lower energy required to send the messages, and if the messages aren’t too yakkity, what difference does it make if it takes a while to send it?

 

Fun parting shot: imagine Gabby’s star flashing out some kind of Morse code (the interstellar version) but they can manage about a byte per century using that technology.  They could eventually get their message across the great abyss of space that way, and if so, they would choose their words carefully indeed.

 

spike  

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