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I wonder why ideas in this field seem to be stuck with technolgy of the last century? Sending some EM signal and hoping for an answer appears somewhat ridiculu

I wonder why ideas in this field seem to be stuck with technolgy of the last century? Sending some EM signal and hoping for an answer appears somewhat ridiculus. If at all possible, you would go yourself or send an AI capable of doing some serious information gathering. Now, why do people pretend, the time of travel was prohibitive? Not only does that rely on the weirdly self-centered assumption, substantial speeds weren't accessible, it also presupposes domestic time frames. Lastly, the idea we should have been "visited" already. This has the unspoken implication of some big vehicle appearing in the sky, radio broadcasts and TV crews gathering, etc. Why? What sane entity would go about it in this manner?

wingspar 4y ago
>> Lastly, the idea we should have been "visited" already. This has the unspoken implication of some big vehicle appearing in the sky, radio broadcasts and TV crews gathering, etc. Why? What sane entity would go about it in this manner? It’s that basically what happened in our planets ‘Age of Discovery’? Some European ship shows up on a shore/lagoon and ‘takes over’?
- nradov 4y ago
  Europeans hardly had to do much to "take over" in the Americas. After the first few ships arrived, about 90% of the indigenous people died of smallpox and other infectious diseases. At that point the Europeans just walked into land that was largely depopulated and faced only limited resistance. https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html
nine_k 4y ago
If aliens are so internally slow that a few hundred thousand years is not a big deal for them, they likely cannot develop quickly enough to achieve interstellar travel before their star burns down. There are rather understandable limitations on the physical size of electromagnetic transmitters due to wavelength and power parameters. There are also size limitations for sensors: you cannot capture too few photons per second, else you will not register a coherent picture of faster-moving processes on Earth. There are also limitations on the size and mass of a device that needs to slow down from interstellar speeds to take a reasonable peek at Earth. Basically, physics as currently known to us does not allow for a grain-sized interstellar sounding craft that could transmit back much useful info, let alone to spread a lifeform.
- t433 4y ago
  [flagged]
Animats 4y ago
> I wonder why ideas in this field seem to be stuck with technology of the last century? SETI used to be focused on looking for RF carriers. Few modulation modes still in use waste energy in the carrier signal. In newer modes, a small amount of redundancy in the bit pattern provides synchronization. Analog TV was 80% carrier, 20% content at megawatt levels, probably the most detectable signal ever sent from this planet. Hugely redundant and easy to decode. But now it's history. This planet emitted high-powered carriers for less than a century. Modern RF signals look like noise unless you know what to look for. Listen to an old modem sound. That's what efficient data transmission sounds like. If there happen to be some interstellar radio beams that hit this planet occasionally, they might not be recognized easily. Signals sent in a noisy environment have to contain some redundancy and synchronization information to be received successfully. So, unleash the machine learning algorithms on all that radio telescope data. Worth a try.

wingspar 4y ago

>> Lastly, the idea we should have been "visited" already. This has the unspoken implication of some big vehicle appearing in the sky, radio broadcasts and TV crews gathering, etc. Why? What sane entity would go about it in this manner? It’s that basically what happened in our planets ‘Age of Discovery’? Some European ship shows up on a shore/lagoon and ‘takes over’?

nradov 4y ago
Europeans hardly had to do much to "take over" in the Americas. After the first few ships arrived, about 90% of the indigenous people died of smallpox and other infectious diseases. At that point the Europeans just walked into land that was largely depopulated and faced only limited resistance. https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/variables/smallpox.html

nine_k 4y ago

If aliens are so internally slow that a few hundred thousand years is not a big deal for them, they likely cannot develop quickly enough to achieve interstellar travel before their star burns down. There are rather understandable limitations on the physical size of electromagnetic transmitters due to wavelength and power parameters. There are also size limitations for sensors: you cannot capture too few photons per second, else you will not register a coherent picture of faster-moving processes on Earth. There are also limitations on the size and mass of a device that needs to slow down from interstellar speeds to take a reasonable peek at Earth. Basically, physics as currently known to us does not allow for a grain-sized interstellar sounding craft that could transmit back much useful info, let alone to spread a lifeform.

t433 4y ago
[flagged]

Animats 4y ago

> I wonder why ideas in this field seem to be stuck with technology of the last century? SETI used to be focused on looking for RF carriers. Few modulation modes still in use waste energy in the carrier signal. In newer modes, a small amount of redundancy in the bit pattern provides synchronization. Analog TV was 80% carrier, 20% content at megawatt levels, probably the most detectable signal ever sent from this planet. Hugely redundant and easy to decode. But now it's history. This planet emitted high-powered carriers for less than a century. Modern RF signals look like noise unless you know what to look for. Listen to an old modem sound. That's what efficient data transmission sounds like. If there happen to be some interstellar radio beams that hit this planet occasionally, they might not be recognized easily. Signals sent in a noisy environment have to contain some redundancy and synchronization information to be received successfully. So, unleash the machine learning algorithms on all that radio telescope data. Worth a try.