Re: Time to scrap SETI?

From: Junky Thompson (jk_at_driixel.net)
Date: 12/13/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:30:39 -0600

Joe Strout wrote:
> In article <cph3h6$hl5$2@usenet.otenet.gr>,
> Anthony Ayiomamitis <anthony@perseus.no2spam.gr> wrote:
>
>> Agreed except for one obvious counterargument .... life elsewhere
>> looking to establish contact would purposely look NOT to compress any
>> signal?!
>
> Except that if ET really wanted to talk to us, we wouldn't have to
> comb the EM spectrum for a signal; it would be unmistakable. Most
> likely it would consist of something hopping out of a spaceship and
> saying hello.
>
> This follows from the observation that interstellar travel is
> possible, and indeed inevitable for any sufficiently advanced
> civilization -- where "sufficiently advanced" is only barely more
> advanced than we are, on a geological time scale. The first such
> civilization to arise will quickly spread to fill the galaxy.
>
> So, either ET's not out there, or he's out there and long ago settled
> th entire galaxy, perhaps placing us in some sort of wildlife
> preserve. In the former case, there is nothing to hear; and in the
> latter case, we'll hear from ETI when it is good and ready to
> introduce itself to us. In either case, listening for weak signals
> beamed from hundreds of light-years away is futile.
>
> But, as another poster pointed out, it costs very little to listen.
> And everybody needs a hobby -- this one is at least as relevant as,
> say, hacky-sack (though perhaps without the health benefits).
>

You are assuming that the ET's in question are technologically superior to
us, and while in some cases this might be true, in others not so. ??? <g>

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