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| Personal background |
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| I am a 79 year old (2005) and have been a S@H fan since July 1999. I was a radio operator on board ship in the Pacific during WWII. I have always been fascinated with how radio waves could carry messages half way round the world. That fascination led me to astronomy, cosmology and Fourier analysis, though not as a career. Because I was interested in any and all fields, I became a librarian. Libraries contained all the information created by intelligent beings here on earth and I could find whatever I wanted. The Internet has expanded the capacity of libraries enormously--by parsecs. I taught library science at a university and retired as a full professor in 1999. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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Because of the enormous distances, I am highly skeptical of ever finding Intelligent Beings (IBs) during my lifetime (all but lived out). After all, consider how long it took the earth to develop IB: millions of years. And millions of species had to develop and become extinct before we came along. We casually say that intelligent life on other planets must be far more intelligent and technologically advanced than we. But I think the opposite must be true. It is us that are in a highly advanced state. If it takes life on other planets as long as it has on ours, that life is more likely in the dinosaur age now. What chance do we have of communicating with them? Chances are nil to none. We had better be satisfied with finding life of any kind, whether advanced or not, and then the possibilities of communicating with dinosaurs is none at all. Actually, the chance of finding life is harder than finding IBs, because they do not send out any radio signals.
S@H by definition is looking for intelligent life. Unless it redefines its goal, there is little or no chance that it will find life.
Even if we do find IB capable of sending messages, they are probably on a nearby (astronomically) planet somewhere between 50 and 5000 light-years away. That means that they sent their message 50 or 5000 years ago. If only 50, they have probably maintained their interest, but if 5000 years ago, they have probably lost their interest. To respond to them, it will take between 50 and 5000 years for them to hear our response. Then another 50 and 5000 years for them to acknowledge our response. Perhaps those intelligent beings have more patience than I. Let's hope so.
Other questionable assumptions: That they will broadcast to announce their presence. After all, we are not broadcasting to announce our presence. That the hydrogen line is the only frequency they would broadcast on.
Despite my extreme skepticism, I am a firm believer in projects like S@H and will support it because of all the other information SETI scientists might learn during the process. After all, we shall never know unless we try.
Curly-Bill |
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