have they found anything?

Belgian thought said:
we should be/are aiming the signals at these, i.e. to one side of the star, hoping that we would hit something within planetary orbits and repeating this after a certain period, in case one potential planet was behind its corresponding star, at the time of the first signal.
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It's called Active SETI.
 
Supposing our radio transmission is picked up by an alien intelligence say, one hundred light years away. We would say, ''hello we are here'' or whatever it is we are transmitting. A reply would take a hundred years to get here and say ''so are we'' Not exactly a conversation starter is it? But at least we would find out we are not alone and perhaps kill off religion once and for all.
 
amb said:
Supposing our radio transmission is picked up by an alien intelligence say, one hundred light years away. We would say, ''hello we are here'' or whatever it is we are transmitting. A reply would take a hundred years to get here and say ''so are we'' Not exactly a conversation starter is it? But at least we would find out we are not alone and perhaps kill off religion once and for all.
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Yup--on the Active SETI Wiki page I just cited, we've yet to reach the arrival date of any of our messages. (So far, the ones aimed at the Super-Earth sized planet Gliese 581 will arrive first--in 2029-2030.)

Plus, as I said, we only sent these directed signals for a matter of minutes each, I believe. So the recipient would have to have their gigantic radio telescope pointed at us and listening or recording our signal at exactly the right moment. Given the huge distances and long times involved, this is about like randomly plucking out a piece of straw from a super-gigantic haystack. We're not likely to find a needle that way.

So, not finding a needle that way doesn't argue that no needles are in the haystack.

And who knows? We might just get fabulously lucky some day.
 
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I doubt that ET will ever communicate with us in our and or our grandchildren's lives.But having said that, who knows what the future holds. If they exist, and a technological civilization has not a limited life span as Earth seems to have what, with overcoming global warming, overpopulation, and hostilities between religions and race, The universe is the limit.
 
Finally, a post that actually makes sense! :D Those limitiations you list are probably an indication that we can't be counted as an intelligent species yet. ;)
 
What's the point of living at all if not to explore?

Do we just be born, make babies, and die, ad infinitum until some cosmic catastrophe wipes us out permanently?

We're doing what we can with the exploration of local planets, and it is a worthwhile endeavor, but SETI is the only program we have which is even capable of saying "Yes, there is intelligent life in this Universe besides us." The dizzying prospect of answering this question at all makes SETI one of the most important exploration programs run today, in my opinion.

Personally, I think we're not doing enough and should be devoting more energy and resources to broadcasting directed, long-term, repeating messages toward high-probability target systems. Maybe everyone out there is listening and no one is broadcasting. Our omnidirectional radio broadcasts are diminishing greatly after only a few decades of having the technology. Let's take the initiative and let the Universe know that we're here in no uncertain terms. Consider the few messages that have been sent so far. If those messages were detected by SETI, would they even qualify as a hit? Would those messages be interpreted as just another "Wow!" ? (edit: It appears Active SETI has done just this a couple times -- though with few repetitions. Hopefully that's enough!)

Amb makes a good point about when the detection may happen. Unless there are projects in other systems to send out a continuous pulse saying "we're here," then we're unlikely to hear anything but a reply, which will take many years to arrive. A more likely scenario than picking up a stray, repeating radio signal is that other civilizations are listening, just like us, and when they detect a faint signal from some direction, they shoot a focused "we hear you" right back.

I also think we have an obligation to reply with a clear message of "we hear you" should we ever detect a stray signal.

Apologies if this has been covered already, I didn't have the time at the moment to go over 24 pages of posts. =) I just wanted to throw out my position (and creep a little closer to 50 posts ;)).

edit- I just noticed the discussion of Active SETI. Fantastic. =)
 
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Seti is not the only way of exploration of a home for life as we know it. In March the Kepler spacecraft was launched. This is the most sophisticated effort yet to look beyond our own solar system for planets orbiting other suns. If the telescope can spot a rock similar to our own, it could be a strong indication that life is possible on another planet.
From Science illustrated magazine
 
But this rock needs to be in the habitable zone with liquid water among other essentials for life to evolve to at least animal intelligence.
 
amb said:
But this rock needs to be in the habitable zone with liquid water among other essentials for life to evolve to at least animal intelligence.
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Really? Why? Just because that's the way it happened to have worked here, doesn't mean that it's universal. I know you kept going on about the "rare earth" conditions in all your posts, but did you get a chance to watch the "Becoming Human" series on Nova? Basically our evolution had stagnated for several million years, UNTIL drastic changes to the environment and the like happened. Maybe this planet is too stable and nice to really help intelligence evolve, and you need more chaos (Man, I feel like I am channeling a "shadow" from Babylon 5!).

You cannot, and should now, make those assertions. We have one datapoint, and that's it. Evolution is much more cunning than any of use dumb apes could ever imagine being.

OH CRAP, HERE WE GO AGAIN!
 
Yet, the universe is around 15 billion years old, and Fermi's Paradox still stands like a beacon in the night.

We still have the very same bacteria that evolved on Earth 4 billion years ago.
 
amb said:
Yet, the universe is around 15 billion years old, and Fermi's Paradox still stands like a beacon in the night.
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LarianLeQuella said:
OH CRAP, HERE WE GO AGAIN!
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You said it.

Amb, please see my numbered list on Fermi's Paradox. Any one of those points pokes a hole in the idea that Fermi's Paradox means intelligent life is rare (the way you mean rare).

And the universe is around 15 billion years old everywhere. No more time has passed in one place than in another place.

By your thinking, the fact that there is not ubiquitous evidence throughout the galaxy of our own existence argues that we don't exist.
 
amb said:
Seti is not the only way of exploration of a home for life as we know it. In March the Kepler spacecraft was launched. This is the most sophisticated effort yet to look beyond our own solar system for planets orbiting other suns. If the telescope can spot a rock similar to our own, it could be a strong indication that life is possible on another planet.
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Kepler is not looking for life. "Looking for a home for life" is not the same as looking for evidence of life.

By the way, I think this post was an improperly credited quote again.
 
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amb said:
Yet, the universe is around 15 billion years old, and Fermi's Paradox still stands like a beacon in the night.
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Rather than repeat this over and over again, why don't you first address the arguments made against it?
 
arthwollipot said:
No we don't.
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The point I was making is that some bacteria has not over millions of years built a civilization. A marine animal like a shark has been a shark for millions of years with no change in it's physical appearance, or very little. Out of the billions of life forms on this planet, only homo has been able to build a civilization.
What if other worlds, Earth like planets, the same thing happens? The asteroid that collided with the Earth and almost caused a complete extinction 65 million years ago is not a given on each and every planet in the cosmos. It was this event that started the evolution of homo erectus and finally us.
Do we know how many stars are as stable for billions of years as our own sun?
Do other planets also evolve an ozone layer to protect any life forms from the deadly ultra violet light? Mankind needs a life support system if he is to go to any other planet or moon in our solar system. Yes, I acknowledge that life evolves according to the conditions, that's why I insist that microbial life is probably even found in our own solar system. I also acknowledge that because of the sheer numbers involved, there has to be other Earth Like civilizations out there somewhere. But what I think is that intelligent life is out there, but not on a scale most people think. The coincidences that allowed us to evolve to what we are today are too great for it to be otherwise.
 
amb said:
The point I was making is that some bacteria has not over millions of years built a civilization.
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And in what way do you think that's meaningful?

What if other worlds, Earth like planets, the same thing happens? The asteroid that collided with the Earth and almost caused a complete extinction 65 million years ago is not a given on each and every planet in the cosmos. It was this event that started the evolution of homo erectus and finally us.
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But the dinosaurs were still evolving. They weren't just unchanging for millions of years. There's nothing that would have prevented some species from becoming intelligent, and technological.
Which of course doesn't mean it would be inevitable, but neither of us knows the probabilities.

Do we know how many stars are as stable for billions of years as our own sun?
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I'm pretty sure we have a good idea, as the lifetime of a star can be deduced from it's mass, colour, etc.

Do other planets also evolve an ozone layer to protect any life forms from the deadly ultra violet light?
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Is ultraviolet light necessarily deadly? Life on earth existed for a long time before we had an ozone layer. There's no reason to believe that ozone layers are necessary for technological civilizations.

The truth is, we don't know what's necessary.

Mankind needs a life support system if he is to go to any other planet or moon in our solar system. Yes, I acknowledge that life evolves according to the conditions, that's why I insist that microbial life is probably even found in our own solar system. I also acknowledge that because of the sheer numbers involved, there has to be other Earth Like civilizations out there somewhere. But what I think is that intelligent life is out there, but not on a scale most people think.
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What is the "scale most people think"? How rare do you think ET civilizations are?

The coincidences that allowed us to evolve to what we are today are too great for it to be otherwise.
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Unsubstantiated assertion. Again.
 
Civilization= cities, technology, communication over thousands of miles, the mapping of the human genome, a heart transplant, jets able to fly faster than the speed of sound, nuclear bombs able to destroy every living thing on this planet except perhaps cockroaches, and most of all, intelligence enough to ask these questions.
 
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