Hum Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Science wants to make you a star. To be more exact, scientists at the SETI Institute in California are reaching out to the public for donations to continue the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. In April, a lack of funding resulted in the shutdown of the Hat Creek, Calif., based Allen Telescope Array, 42 antenna dishes aimed at the sky and used as the primary observation tool to locate possible alien signals in deep space. As part of the effort to bring in enough money to bring the radio telescopes out of hibernation, SETI has begun a program called SETIstars. "We are trying to raise $200,000 from the general public, which we'll combine with some funds we've already raised," said SETI CEO Tom Pierson. "We expect the $200,000 will be the triggering amount for us to get back online. In the long term, the combined cost for operating Hat Creek Observatory and for our observing team to do the SETI science is about $2,500,000 a year," Pierson told AOL. more Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 SETI's problem is that its searching only the RF spectrum. This means it can only find civilizations that are at a stage of development similar to ours from the mid 1800's to perhaps 50 years from now, or less. A pretty narrow window IMO. Before that timeframe communications were limited to stones, papyrus, paper, and their physical transportation. Can't remote sense thst. After that timeframe long range communications will be increasingly optical, and even quantum based - including work already underway that would transfer data bits between entangled particles that have been separated between transmitter and receiver. Einstein's spooky action at a distance. God knows what else comes next, but you can bet SETI's hardware won't do squarlt when it comes to detecting the comms of civilizations 100+ years more advanced than ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 The real SETI problem are those signals that have been detected -- and suppressed. ;) I would not contribute $$$, knowing no results will be revealed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob.derosa Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 SETI's problem is that its searching only the RF spectrum. This means it can only find civilizations that are at a stage of development similar to ours from the mid 1800's to perhaps 50 years from now, or less. A pretty narrow window IMO. Before that timeframe communications were limited to stones, papyrus, paper, and their physical transportation. Can't remote sense thst. After that timeframe long range communications will be increasingly optical, and even quantum based - including work already underway that would transfer data bits between entangled particles that have been separated between transmitter and receiver. Einstein's spooky action at a distance. God knows what else comes next, but you can bet SETI's hardware won't do squarlt when it comes to detecting the comms of civilizations 100+ years more advanced than ours. Well, they are observing at the hydrogen transmission line, which would be a place to look for intelligent life who are broadcasting their existence. I don't think it would be possible to detect optical communications unless they were directed right at us (why transmit an omni-directional optical signal when you can use an extremely collimated laser and save a lot of power). oh and btw, spooky action at a distance doesn't allow you to communicate information at super-luminal speeds as Bob (in star system A) needs to know what Alice (in star system B) observed in order to interpret his result Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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