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So you're saying we should shut down all of the large and Radio and space telescopes, because it's pointless to look at things you can't visit?
by hannasanarion 8y ago
So you're saying we should shut down all of the large and Radio and space telescopes, because it's pointless to look at things you can't visit?
- themagician 8y agoNot just visit, anything. You'd never be able to communicate. The SNR is such that it would always just be noise. If FTL isn't possible then the end result of listening is simply the confirmation that something else exists and it stops right there.
- hannasanarion 8y agoConversation isn't the only thing you can do with messages. Alan Turing didn't crack Enigma so that he could have a lovely chat with the Germans. Don't you think there's at least a little bit that could be learned by listening to alien communications from centuries ago, other than the fact that it exists? If such signals were found, would you really stop reading at the headline "alien communication discovered"?