We are ET, and our understanding of the Universe, it's orgin and future may allways remain beyond our comprehension. Will we stop trying to understand it? Never. Are we alone? Unlikely. Will we meet another ET? probally but it may take many generations. We are in our infancy, we are but a new born in the cradle of infinity.
'I am a passenger on the spaceship, Earth.'
R.Buckminster Fuller

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http://www.ktvu.com/news/15054540/detail.html

California Television reports that SETI signal was found at Aricebo last month. Link is to the KTVU website and includes both a text article and a video version that was broadcast as news.

The news report includes a brief interview with:
Dan Wertheimer of the UC Berkeley SETI Project
Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute

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It's not too many computers, it's a lack of circuit breakers for this room. But we can fix it :)

http://www.ktvu.com/news/15054540/detail.html

California Television reports that SETI signal was found at Aricebo last month. Link is to the KTVU website and includes both a text article and a video version that was broadcast as news.

The news report includes a brief interview with:
Dan Wertheimer of the UC Berkeley SETI Project
Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute

That must be a joke. Or not?

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http://www.ktvu.com/news/15054540/detail.html

California Television reports that SETI signal was found at Aricebo last month. Link is to the KTVU website and includes both a text article and a video version that was broadcast as news.

The news report includes a brief interview with:
Dan Wertheimer of the UC Berkeley SETI Project
Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute

That must be a joke. Or not?

I'm sure there are lots of hits in the file 13 department. lol

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Mystery of Radio Signal From Space
A RADIO transmission from outer space could be a message from aliens, say astronomers.

The signal - named SHGbo2+14a - has been beamed to Earth three times since 2002 and picked up by the giant Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

Scientists have not been able to properly analyse it as it is only about a minute long and very weak.

Experts from the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti) say it is unlikely to be interference or a hoax.

Others claim aliens wanting to send messages - like Steven Spielberg's ET who tried to phone home - would transmit via a physical object because radio signals break up during space travel.

But Seti researcher Eric Korpela of the University of California, insisted: "We are looking for something that screams out 'artificial'. But I can't think of any way to make a signal like this."

The Seti project uses software running as screensavers on millions of computers to sift through the data from the Arecibo telescope.

The frequency of the signal is one which experts argue extraterrestrials would be most likely to use if they wanted to make contact, the New Scientist reported.


I saw this after I did a search of that article.

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(I posted this in the number cruncher's forum as well)

Dan just mentioned this to me.. There seems to be some confusion. He said while walking the KTVU reporter back to the car they were discussing our Astropulse project and the kinds of signals we're looking for. He mentioned this recent similar millisecond pulse finding by another group:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;318/5851/777

..which apparently somehow since transformed into "Berkeley found ET."

Anyway, this is very interesting for astronomical reasons, but not extraterrestrial.

You can see why I try to be cautious with what I say to the public. I guess I'll put something on the front page.

- Matt

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-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

(I posted this in the number cruncher's forum as well)

Dan just mentioned this to me.. There seems to be some confusion. He said while walking the KTVU reporter back to the car they were discussing our Astropulse project and the kinds of signals we're looking for. He mentioned this recent similar millisecond pulse finding by another group:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;318/5851/777

..which apparently somehow since transformed into "Berkeley found ET."

Anyway, this is very interesting for astronomical reasons, but not extraterrestrial.

You can see why I try to be cautious with what I say to the public. I guess I'll put something on the front page.


- Matt

I figured they misunderstood something. lol

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Anyone else not getting work units to process. I haven't gotten one all day. :(

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c'mon , if they'd wanted to wipe us out , they would have done so by now. I do sometimes wonder though about the cultural embarassment in communication with a species who have evolved from something other than fish. Rather have become dominant as dino people or whatever - perhaps the monkeys were wiped out by a comet on their planet. i had a waking dream about that a while ago. i also had a waking dream that dog like people had visited and said hello -that was rather silly.

Robert Smith.
These "Scientists" are off their rockers.

1. *IF* our television/radio broadcasting could be differentiated from the random
space noise further than 2 light years, it would take at least 20 or more light years for
these aliens to hear it.

2. They are also assuming these aliens are dumb enough to travel to see us instead
of sending us a message back via radio waves/blinking star or supernova moris
code. =)


Jason Gee, I think your analagy is pretty good, but overlooking a few points.
- We communicated to the aliens, thus the picnic people could try communicating
back. So it might look like this:

> Say you and your family were taking a picnic / camping trip out into the woods ....
> A particularly annoying termite mound nearby is noisy and ***spelling out words
> with their bodies*** and possibly swarming with bitey living things. [short lived
> termites]
>
> Do you?:
>
> 1 - Leave the area and find a less crowded camping spot?
> 2 - Apply liberal quantities of insect repellent and ignore the annoyance?
> 3 - Booze up and play smash the termite mound? or
> 4 - Attempt to make contact with the termites, offer them technology in exchange for culture?

Now, 4 seems more likely an option.

-Gloves Q

P.S. Would a culture hell-bent on smashing termites and such ever survive/progress
to the point of spce-travel?

Ok, let me start off by saying that we put out so many radio waves into space that it would be highly unlikely that any alien life would not yet know of our existance. Second, I don't personally think that we have to worry about an attack from any alien civilization. The distances involved in the universe and the time it takes to travel these distances makes it highly unlikely that any civilization would have the technological capabilities to make the journy to our planet.
I know that someone will probably post the argument that these alien life forms could live very long life spans in comparison to ours and could thus make the journy with the most modest of technologies. While this is true it would take thousands or more years to reach us. Even if they had already started their journey we have only been sending a significant amount of radio waves out into space for a couple hundred years. This means that it would take this civilization another couple hubdred to couple thousand years to reach us becaus it would be highly difficult and highly improbable that this civilization would know of our existance before we started transmitting radio signals.
Further more we must ask our selves "why would an alien civilization go out of their way just to destroy us?" The answer is that they probably wouldn't. Thus, I do not personally believe that we should worry about an attack from any alien civilizations at this time, but who knows? Maybe in a few hundred years we will have to worry about the threat of an alien attack.

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meh-muh, morninna ,

...wHappening?, waiding for the coffee to become ..cold, fancy these false wreckonings, roughly about arriving µ@ Proxima Prhyme in circa 3, 4 yeahs, say. Accelerating to 2/3 of C .... etc. Fact is, when speeding up considerably time is sloweng, presently speyce tries t' shrink rintink (tha's pinetree-lemonade, innit?) and we are nearly there. .. ey photon at least is all over the pAlace in a sec.

=^Q^=
tuned in to bbc.co.uk/6music ... brunchfest, ... cookie? ..crumble!!!

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www.deliciousagony.com
www.space.com www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/
=^Q^= ..(rawkat)..,"i´m taking the...mm, Mikkih!" ~Ö ? ..piff% ö paff% _

I agree with you completely, but the point of the article was that we shouldn't be transmitting signals into space b/c something unfriendly might hear them. Our civilization will likely be long gone by the time anybody hears us and makes their way to our neck of the woods. If we ever do make physical contact with ET, it will more likely be because they stumbled across us by accident, not because they heard us and came to investigate.

LOL Yes, I was responding to another's post when I should have addressed the article, I am Sorry. By extension of the argument, I would be indirectly agreeing with the article.

To explain my position by analogy... Say you and your family were taking a picnic / camping trip out into the woods .... A particularly annoying termite mound nearby is noisy and swarming with bitey living things. [short lived termites]

Do you?:

1 - Leave the area and find a less crowded camping spot?
2 - Apply liberal quantities of insect repellent and ignore the annoyance?
3 - Booze up and play smash the termite mound? or
4 - Attempt to make contact with the termites, offer them technology in exchange for culture?
[Edit: Of course there are other options, you may wish to study some of the termites, conduct genetic experiments on them and put them back .... But that just wouldn't be very nice would it?]

Notes: The termites have no comprehension of your mode of travel, may try to make contact with you or acquire your food...

To me #4 is utterly ridiculous, #1 #2 & #3 possibly equally likely...

IMO We may need a better strategy than randomly beaming signals into space and upsetting ET's picnics :D

2,3 and 5 look like a good combo.

I don't think sending out radio signals into space is a big deal. When the visitors are advanced enough to travel to us, we can safely assume they can detect our little blue planet by many other means as well.
(shifting stars, spectral measurements of our atmosphere in the event of an ecplise, VERY advanced optical telescopes...)

I have some very explicit ideas about alien life, being here already, as we speak.... Since I cant really back any claims watertightly, I will wait until I have the capacity to do some research of my own, as soon as I'm a few years into college. (im gonna study astronomy yeehaahhh!)

edit
@Pziads (or something lol sorry):
I completely agree. That's why the idea that aliens can be here RIGHT NOW doesnt have to be rediculous.

i think that they new we was here before the big bang and after the big bang and i think that they have been here and there just setting back watching till the times right then they will get ahold of use unless we find them 1st
and i think if they wonted to kill us they would of done it long before now and we would of never new who even done it and how
and i think et will not kill us man will kill us
thats how i think it will be
but its cool to read what others have to say on it to
we are all looking for et and having fun talking about it
have a goodone your way

What an interesting article and an interesting thread.
(I have been away from SETI for a little while (too long) and am playing catch up!)

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Quote:
"Would a culture hell-bent on smashing termites and such ever survive/progress
to the point of spce-travel?"

Possibly not - so shall we stop trying now??! :)

Regarding a visit from ET:
(And echoing previous comments.)
It's all a matter of scale - a microbe in one field may well consider (at its own level of consciousness) that travelling to the next field, or even further, an impossibility. Too great a distance to travel within a lifetime using the means at their disposal. It exists without the knowledge of the far larger beings who could make the trip in a few of our minutes.

I just think we need to hope that any visitors are here purely for their own interest, and no other reason. This could happen - after all, humans travel huge distances to see other species, don't they?

Anyhow, no point worrying (or getting excited) about it - if it happens, deal with it then, although we mustn't dismiss the possibility.

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I'm new...I actually joined this project so I could post in this thread.

To answer the question of an alien race's intentions, there is an obvious question we would have to ask...what would we do?

Let's say that 500 years from now, we discover a civilisation on another world that is less advanced than us. And let's say that we have found a way to travel at FTL speeds, or we can fold space...or whatever, in other words, a way to travel great distances in a short period of time.

So what would we do? Would we share our technology with this primitive (by our standards) race?. Would we invade them and enslave them, viewing them as a lesser form of life? Look at our own history, we domesticate some lesser species for our own ends, we kill others. Whales and Dolphins are said to have intelligence yet we still hunt them in some parts of the world.

What if in 500 years, our resources were depleted and our only choice was to invade this other world and take over? Would we do it? Well how many wars have we had on this world where resources have been a primary reason?

Look at what we would do and only then, think about what aliens would do. You can't assume that just because they are more advanced, that they'd suddenly be peace-loving Vulcans.

Our primary goal is survival...that's our most basic instinct. The same can be said for any species...if an alien race needed our resources or slaves or whatever so they could survive, don't think for a second that they wouldn't think twice about invading.

Sure, it's possible that human nature is unique and that aliens would be peaceful no matter what, but being advanced doesn't make that an automatic truth. Being technologically advanced doesn't make them enlightened.

Now, let's say that they're peaceful, what makes anyone think they would even think about sharing their technology? Roddenberry created a "Prime Directive" in Star Trek for a reason...if this advanced race are enlightened, it would be safe to assume that they have something similar.

If the aliens are anything like us though, I'd be worried.

. . . Well said Vadakin - and Welcome to SETI & the Boards

I'm new...I actually joined this project so I could post in this thread.

To answer the question of an alien race's intentions, there is an obvious question we would have to ask...what would we do?

Let's say that 500 years from now, we discover a civilisation on another world that is less advanced than us. And let's say that we have found a way to travel at FTL speeds, or we can fold space...or whatever, in other words, a way to travel great distances in a short period of time.

So what would we do? Would we share our technology with this primitive (by our standards) race?. Would we invade them and enslave them, viewing them as a lesser form of life? Look at our own history, we domesticate some lesser species for our own ends, we kill others. Whales and Dolphins are said to have intelligence yet we still hunt them in some parts of the world.

What if in 500 years, our resources were depleted and our only choice was to invade this other world and take over? Would we do it? Well how many wars have we had on this world where resources have been a primary reason?

Look at what we would do and only then, think about what aliens would do. You can't assume that just because they are more advanced, that they'd suddenly be peace-loving Vulcans.

Our primary goal is survival...that's our most basic instinct. The same can be said for any species...if an alien race needed our resources or slaves or whatever so they could survive, don't think for a second that they wouldn't think twice about invading.

Sure, it's possible that human nature is unique and that aliens would be peaceful no matter what, but being advanced doesn't make that an automatic truth. Being technologically advanced doesn't make them enlightened.

Now, let's say that they're peaceful, what makes anyone think they would even think about sharing their technology? Roddenberry created a "Prime Directive" in Star Trek for a reason...if this advanced race are enlightened, it would be safe to assume that they have something similar.

If the aliens are anything like us though, I'd be worried.

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

Good post. I agree with you in that it is likely that WE will be the alien space invaders!

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Martian Microbial Government Denies UFO Claims
By Marvin Green, Mariner Valley Times

The Martian Microbial Government has denied claims of extraterrestrial UFO activity on Mars. Reports of UFO's first began to appear three decades ago when two UFO's were said to have landed, abducted Martian citizens, and killed them in their thermal death ovens. Setting the record straight, the MMG announced today that these two supposed UFO's were, in fact, only weather balloons.

The MMG also stated that the sightings of supposed monstrous golf carts landing several years ago were most likely illusions caused from either the Earth in the night sky or swamp gas.

Martian scientists believe that the Earth, which is mostly covered in poisonous dihydrogren monoxide and has has an extremely dense atmosphere of enormous pressure, is inhabitable for life.