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We know how to detect laser / radio transmissions pointed at us. You can't see a laser transmission off-axis if there aren't any stray photons reaching your de
by ohazi 7y ago
We know how to detect laser / radio transmissions pointed at us.
You can't see a laser transmission off-axis if there aren't any stray photons reaching your detector - that's just physics.
You can't detect a radio signal below the noise floor without some a priori knowledge about the statistics of the signal.
These aren't justifications, these are simply facts about the current limits of our ability to detect far-away signals. These limits suggest that millions of far-away worlds could be extremely chatty between themselves, but unless they decided to point a transmitter at us, we would be none the wiser.
You shouldn't use a measurement that looks identical for case A and case B to decide which one is more likely.
- ianai 7y agoI appreciate seeing your comments. The Fermi paradox and these similar ideas seem the modern equivalent to assumptions the sun revolves around the earth. We need more research and infrastructure in this solar system to really progress on this. Imagine if we had thousands of microsats in orbit around the various planets that we could triangulate data amongst? We need to be more aware of our solar system before we can even make reasoned arguments about life within it alone.
- wongarsu 7y ago> before we can even make reasoned arguments about life within it alone. That's an excellent point, for all we know we have intelligent, non-spacefaring life right in our solar system. It's unlikely, but there's still plenty of oceans, gas giant atmospheres and lava tubes that we haven't looked at yet.