5 ms·
> A complementary strategy is to search for technological signals from early distant civilizations that harnessed enough energy to make them detectable across t
by catlifeonmars 6y ago
> A complementary strategy is to search for technological signals from early distant civilizations that harnessed enough energy to make them detectable across the vast cosmic scale.
> Communication signals are not expected to be detectable across the universe, because the signal travel time would require billions of years in each direction and no participant would be patient enough to engage in such a slow exchange of information.
So effectively what we could search for is energy pollution from construction and transportation operations. Although it seems obvious in retrospect, it never occurred to me that intentional communication signals would not have the appropriate characteristics to be detectable across vast distances of space and time.
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y agoWouldn't the signal travel time of energy pollution be the speed of light? Certainly faster than the speed of sound, but still geological timescales.
- ben_w 6y agoSure, but if all you want is an existence proof, it’s still possibly better because it removes the requirement that whoever made the noise needs to still be there (FSVO “still” given how simultaneity behaves in relatively). OTOH, also worse because it’s unlikely to be directional, so the output would have to be powerful even compared to the galaxy it’s part of for an intergalactic detection.
- ClumsyPilot 6y agoI feel a lot of our ideas are no longer valid is the other species has biological immortality. Then travel time to another star doesnt require antimatter, it just needs a long nap
- 7thaccount 6y agoNot as likely, but still fun to speculate about is biological life being a transitory phenomena as Paul Davies (of SETI) postulates. Once you've become a machine civilization (either we build them or upload ourselves and become them), travel at lightspeed becomes possible and so do all kinds of nifty ideas.
- titzer 6y agoOr just send instructions to them and wait comfortably at home for them to come to you. Like "Contact."
- MauranKilom 6y ago> If your TV signals are getting to another star, you’re losing money. Powering a transmitter is expensive, and creatures on other stars aren’t buying the products in the TV commercials that pay your electricity bill. https://what-if.xkcd.com/47/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/47/
- adrianN 6y agoYeah, what we're looking for is the Hawking radiation from the carefully exploding miniature black holes that the aliens use to propel their ships.
- elonvolo 6y agoWe’re not detecting signals from aliens because, in all likelihood, everybody but the Terrans are using quantum entanglement communication for vast distances, and no one’s seriously used radio signals since the time of their great, great, great, great, great, great grandad.
- gilbetron 6y agoWhat's the benefit of using QE for communicating that would outweigh its downsides? And if you say "instantaneous communication", you might want to read more about QE :)
- NotSammyHagar 6y agoPlease explain the downsides then. Does it take too much effort do to make them work, too much energy?
- gilbetron 6y agoGetting entangled particles to both sides of the conversation, maybe there's a way to entangle particles at a distance? I believe current attempts creates entangled photons at one end and sends half of entangled pairs to the other end. Remember that once you "read" from an entangled pair, it becomes "unentangled". Plus photons like to become unentangled along the way! Literally can do the same thing with unentangled pairs with all the benefits (except one) with none of the downsides! The reason to do so (which is an awesome reason) is secure communication.