From: David Ocame (docame_at_sbcglobal.net)
Date: Fri Sep 09 2005 - 16:55:32 UTC
> I really SETI has to really look at other
> search methods other
> than Radio Astronomy.
>
> Alex
Well, actually, no they do not HAVE to do anything,
Alex. SETI, like any other science, is only as good or
bad as the individual investigators involved. It is
really up to each investigator to choose how best to
go about his/her search. If someone thinks we should
dig underground, well then they should do that. But,
just because everybody doesn't dig underground doesn't
mean their search parameters are too narrow (minded?).
I also take issue with people who suggest that the
radio search is no longer valid simply because we
haven't come up with hordes of aliens chattering away
an enormous cosmic party line. One writer even wrote
about the "failure of [radio] SETI" (the insert is
mine, but he was writing about the radio search. I
don't remember the exact reference, but I will get it
if needed). Radio SETI hasn't failed, it simply hasn't
come up with anything yet. Forty years of on again off
again searching (with the exception of at least one
well known, continuous program) with no positive
results really just means we are only in the beginning
stages of looking. Indeed, compared to the size of the
search space (assuming we limit ourselves to looking
just in our galaxy), four decades isn't even a drop in
the ocean.
It's been said, I believe by Paul and others, that
SETI is a multi-generational endeavor. We need to
settle in for the long haul. We need to recruit the
succeeding generations to come behind us to take up
the search when you and I no longer can.
In all this, I do not mean to suggest, Alex, that you
are wrong. Certainly not! Fresh thinking and different
searches are important and necessary. But add them to
the radio search, not instead of.
Ok, my soap box is sagging under my weight. I'd better
get off.
73!
Dave
***********************************
***********************************
Dave Ocame, N1YVV
Awards Chair
The SETILeague, Inc
www.setileague.org
Stony Creek Observatory
FN31og
-72.834 longitude
41.272 latitude
Member: The SETILeague, Inc. and,
The Society for Amateur Radio Astronomy (SARA) and,
The Planetary Society
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