4 ms·

Someone with better #'s can correct me please, but: With so many emitting bodies in the universe, wouldn't we expect to receive the complete works of shakespea

Someone with better #'s can correct me please, but: With so many emitting bodies in the universe, wouldn't we expect to receive the complete works of shakespeare from ~1 remote body/month? I mean, you could find the "WOW" signal in PI somewhere too, right?

marcosdumay 13y ago
Celestial bodies are not random, otherwise the Sun could raise blue tomorrow.
- pbhjpbhj 13y ago
  Solar nucleosynthesis is deterministic? Random doesn't mean without any limitations. You can have random variations in frequency that nonetheless remain red.
  - marcosdumay 13y ago
    A star behaves like a star, a pulsar behaves like a pulsar, etc. Of course, there's some random component, but those bodies do not go out emitting any random wave you can think about. You won't get a WOW signal out of any know phenomenon. It does not matter how many of them you measure.
eru 13y ago
> With so many emitting bodies in the universe, wouldn't we expect to receive the complete works of shakespeare from ~1 remote body/month? Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Matter_content_.E2.80.94_number_of_atoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Matter_con...) says we have around 10^80 hydrogen atoms in the observable universe. That's a huge number, but there are 10^80 different decimal numbers with 80 digits alone. Shakespeare's works are considerably longer.
- kamaal 13y ago
  Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe. Secondly what the above comment means is that with so many bodies emitting some thing random for such a long period of time. You are inevitable bound to notice something that you could make some meaning of. And yes the 'WOW' signal is present some where in Pi.
  - ethanbond 13y ago
    Something you make meaning of yes, probably. The complete works of Shakespeare, no, probably not. And no, that's not necessarily true with regards to Pi.
    - eru 13y ago
      Depends on whether Pi is a normal-enough number. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number)
  - eru 13y ago
    > Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe. We don't know anything about the unobservable universe. And who cares in this context? johnvschmitt was explicitely talking about 'receiving'.

marcosdumay 13y ago

Celestial bodies are not random, otherwise the Sun could raise blue tomorrow.

pbhjpbhj 13y ago
Solar nucleosynthesis is deterministic? Random doesn't mean without any limitations. You can have random variations in frequency that nonetheless remain red.
- marcosdumay 13y ago
  A star behaves like a star, a pulsar behaves like a pulsar, etc. Of course, there's some random component, but those bodies do not go out emitting any random wave you can think about. You won't get a WOW signal out of any know phenomenon. It does not matter how many of them you measure.

eru 13y ago

> With so many emitting bodies in the universe, wouldn't we expect to receive the complete works of shakespeare from ~1 remote body/month? Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Matter_content_.E2.80.94_number_of_atoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe#Matter_con...) says we have around 10^80 hydrogen atoms in the observable universe. That's a huge number, but there are 10^80 different decimal numbers with 80 digits alone. Shakespeare's works are considerably longer.

kamaal 13y ago
Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe. Secondly what the above comment means is that with so many bodies emitting some thing random for such a long period of time. You are inevitable bound to notice something that you could make some meaning of. And yes the 'WOW' signal is present some where in Pi.
- ethanbond 13y ago
  Something you make meaning of yes, probably. The complete works of Shakespeare, no, probably not. And no, that's not necessarily true with regards to Pi.
  - eru 13y ago
    Depends on whether Pi is a normal-enough number. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_number)
- eru 13y ago
  > Firstly the observable universe is nothing compared to the whole universe. We don't know anything about the unobservable universe. And who cares in this context? johnvschmitt was explicitely talking about 'receiving'.