45 ms·
But is the frequency of the signals prime numbers?
by swilliams 9y ago
But is the frequency of the signals prime numbers?
- steeve 9y ago"And tell Willie to break out the big boy!"
- jacobush 9y agoI always thought an interesting experiment would be to fire off a handful of nuclear bombs in space. (Rather deep space, like well out of where they could do any harm to Earth.) Then pace the time between detonations to different prime numbers...
- Roritharr 9y agoWhy exactly would you want to draw attention to us?
- lin_lin 9y agoTo show that we're bad-ass
- squarefoot 9y agoIMO they already know. That's why they're waiting for us to evolve one more thousand years before contacting us.
- PoachedSausage 9y agoOr waiting for us to evolve enough to provide good sport.
- draugadrotten 9y agoNah, they're fattening us up to be the intergalactic version of Wagyu.
- danek 9y agoOr waiting for us to compute 42
- MrF3ynmann 9y agoWouldnt 'they' have evolved 1000 yrs as well? By that time their own current state of evolution would look even less developed given the exponentiality of evolution.
- rgbrenner 9y agono.. you're assuming that other species develop technology at a similar rate, and that our current progress will continue at the same rate. Both are things we don't know. There may be hard limits that stop development of technology past a certain point. Like Moore's law coming to an end, but one day we may not have any viable alternatives.
- scoates 9y ago…not if they're moving faster.
- squarefoot 9y agoPerhaps we just need to stop being dangerous to other species and ourselves. Embracing the pursuit of collective goals would be a huge advance in our civilization level. Beyond that point athough less developed we could be accepted for not being harmful anymore.
- jacobush 9y agoI said it would be interesting, not that it would be wise. :-) Curiosity killed cat.
- gpvos 9y agoThat may not be a good way to announce peaceful intentions to the galaxy. But anyway, they would probably be too faint to detect by anyone.
- jacobush 9y agoToo faint? Is there something about the Drake equation you would like to share with the rest of us?
- arethuza 9y agoThe Tsar Bomba test produced 5.3 yottawatts (about 1% of the power output of the sun) but only lasted 39 nanoseconds. I wonder if that would be noticeable over interstellar distances?
- eni 9y ago1% of the Sun's output power seems really huge. Is this accurate? Any references?
- arethuza 9y agoAccording to this: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2006/12/08/yottawatts/ https://wattsupwiththat.com/2006/12/08/yottawatts/ Tsar Bomba - 5.3 YW Sun - 386 YW 39 nanoseconds isn't very long (~39 light-feet).
- rkachowski 9y agoThis is a core point in the Three Body Problem series of books by Liu Cixin (plus a little hand waving sciency signal amplification). As mentioned below it turns out to be a generally bad idea
- 2sk21 9y agoI just discovered this trilogy and have just finished the first book. Truly what a great story
- LaurensBER 9y agoThe second and third book are even better :) You're in for an amazing ride! Enjoy!
- pavel_lishin 9y agoI disagree; I would stop at the second book. Death's End reads like Stephen Baxter/Greg Egan fan-fiction.
- srean 9y ago> Then pace the time between detonations to different prime numbers... There is a problem though. Whose time ? Your time, observers time ? Are the bombs moving with the same velocity ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity
- fennecfoxen 9y ago> Are the bombs moving with the same velocity? Relative to the speed of light, where these effects actually become appreciable? Yes. Hell yes. Basically identical velocities. Signal to noise ratio issues will do in this idea long before relativity has any sort of impact; it's not even close.
- messe 9y agoWon't the ratios should remain the same? A change of inertial reference frame in SR is just a linear transformation.
- grkvlt 9y agoNot really that deep at all, it turns out you can fire off nuclear bombs above about 80km up and they are essentially harmless to life, causing only electrical (i.e. EMP) effects.
- jacobush 9y agoWay to miss my point