From: Alex Michael Bonnici (albonnici_at_vol.net.mt)
Date: Fri Sep 09 2005 - 16:28:22 UTC
Hello Gang,
I tried forwarding this posting early today but, our
mailing list does not except mailings in HTML format. Sorry about that
folks.
The arguments set forth here remind me of an essay (I think it was by
David Brin) in a book edited by Ben Bova a couple of years back. The
main topic of the essay was find are selves divided into two major (and
may add extreme) camps. The Interstellar Flight Optimists: who are so
optimistic about the feasibility of Interstellar spaceflight but are
pessimistic about the possibility of finding extraterrestrial
intelligence. One argument being they should have already been here by
now. And then we find the SETI Optimists who are confident that we will
stumble upon an extraterrestrial civilization using the techniques of
Radio Astronomy but do not believe in the feasibility of interstellar
spaceflight.
I quite agree that this political divide into two extremist camps serves
no one. We should be looking at the possibility of other search
strategies including the possibility that they have been here already (I
am not advocating -Chariots of the Gods here people but an honest to
goodness second look at the possibility of Paleo SETI), they may be here
now in the outer regions of the solar system or are using nanotechnology
(or some other means) to observe us, in which case they are right under
our noses, or up our noses for that matter, but we haven't notice them
yet (no I do not believe in Alien Abductions).
That's my 2 cents on this topic, I would love to hear your views on this
subject. I really think SETI has to really look at other search methods
other than Radio Astronomy.
Alex
NOT ruling out the best scenario for the success of SETI!
SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has a fundamentally
fascinating hypothesis. Not only do SETI researchers assume
extraterrestrial life exists, which most mainstream scientists now take
as a given, but they further theorize extraterrestrial civilizations
exist that can be detected from Earth...
[But:] ... By rejecting the possibility of interstellar migration, SETI
researchers might be ruling out the best scenario for the success of
their own enterprise. To be successful, humans must be doing SETI at the
same time others are transmitting. Postulating unrelated species
exchanging information and chattering away makes SETI a crapshoot.
Postulating regular communication among related civilizations in several
star systems makes a successful SETI effort not only more likely—it
makes the effort more defensible. That, of course, would mean embracing
interstellar flight as a possibility.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.6 : Fri Sep 09 2005 - 16:34:42 UTC