Why haven't we found anything? Many possibilities.

1. There is nothing to find
2. ET doesn't want to be found
3. We are not looking in the right place
4. We aren't looking for the right type of signal
5. Our algorithms aren't up to the task.

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Don't drink water, that stuff rusts pipes!



Seti Classic 3280 workunits, 28,051 hours
Member UCB Charter Hill Society

You are making Proof out of Logic, by just being dubious!

Too Too far away
No solicitation to nearby stars

6. Stars too far away

Nearest star 4.5 light years
Exoplanets within 50 light years = 35

exoplanets

Perhaps

7. Some religions are right and the earth is the only cradle of aware life.

8. Too much background noise from even the nearest star.

9. The universe is shrinking and not being center of any place special signals are coming in at so many different frequencies we are just missing them.

10. ET or intelligent life has not reached industrial levels required to send a signal.

11. ET. Sent signals with the answers to life, the number 42 everything that reached us 5000 years ago but we were too incapable to receive.

12. Time and universe are vast and we shouldn't imagine other life forms parallel our own evolution... It may be that many advanced cultures happened 10 million years ago and that we are at the end or lull.

13. We are just unlucky ;)

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7. Some religions are right and the earth is the only cradle of aware life.

Given that the universe is infinite, then there are infinite possibilities for ET life n'est-ce pas?

8. Too much background noise from even the nearest star.

Seti goes to great lengths to filter out RFI but, yes that has to be factored in.

9. The universe is shrinking and not being center(re) of any place special signals are coming in at so many different frequencies we are just missing them.

Most scientists consider that the observable universe is expanding.

10. ET or intelligent life has not reached industrial levels required to send a signal.

That could well be the case and a very good point there!

11. ET. Sent signals with the answers to life, the number 42, everything, that reached us 5000 years ago but we were too incapable to receive.

Again, theoretically possible, but one would have expected that they might wonder at what stage we were, and would repeat the signal every so often.

12. Time and universe are vast and we shouldn't imagine other life forms parallel our own evolution... It may be that many advanced cultures happened 10 million years ago and that we are at the end or lull.

Again it is theoretically possible that ET races have lived and died without our knowledge,

13. We are just unlucky ;)

So far it seems so, yes!

Murphy's law says that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong (eventually), Sod's law requires that it always goes wrong with the worst possible outcome.

14. 1/3 of the way to the real answer of 42.

Мы не можем найти внеземные цивилизации только потому, что мы ищем то, что мы хотим найти, то , что в пределах нашего понимания (мы видим то , что видим, мы понимаем то, что мы понимаем), или то , что нашей цивилизации навязали много тысячелетий назад, своего рода программа ,что это правильно, а не то что нужно искать. Мы в корне отличаемся от них.
(надеюсь перевод будет правильным, чтоб сохранить мою мысль.)

We cannot find extraterrestrial civilizations just because we are looking for what we want to find, what is within our comprehension (we see what we see, we understand what we understand), or what our civilization has imposed many millennia ago, a kind of program that is correct, and not something to look for. We are completely different from them. (I hope the translation will be correct in order to preserve my thought.)

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VVV&Z

We are completely different from them.

Of course. It would be very strange if we aren't.
However life and intelligent life make footprints that could be detectable no matter how different they are.
Biosignatures like planets having an atmosphere with oxygen and other elements that carbonbased life create.
Technosignatures like radio communication and many other means of communication.
But our universe is huge, very huge, and actually almost empty...

Anyway. NASA had a workshop on this topic last september.
NASA and the Search for Technosignatures: A Report from the NASA Technosignatures Workshop
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1812/1812.08681.pdf

Oh. Eric J. Korpela from SETI@home is one of the authors:)

We cannot find extraterrestrial civilizations just because we are looking for what we want to find, what is within our comprehension

As I said some while ago now, with the current search for Exoplanets all we are doing is to search for life like us. Because to be quite frank that is all we know how to do. Planets in their stars Goldilocks zone will be able to support water which is a life essential to us carbon based beings. Other lifeforms may be based on something else. Who know? Certainly not scientists

However life and intelligent life make footprints that could be detectable no matter how different they are.
Techno signatures like radio communication and many other means of communication.

Other lifeforms may use ESP for all we know .

Given the length of time that man has been on this planet, the search for ET life is in its infancy. It makes some sort of sense for us as a first step to look for life like ours in places where we think it is likely to exist. We and they would more readily recognise each other via compatible Bio and Techno signatures. If that doesn't work, then at some stage we'll need to widen the search using other parameters.

Other lifeforms may use ESP for all we know

I think advanced life if it's anything like us at all probably does use ESP. I've always thought our brains' capacity is far underutilized, and ESP, while far-fetched in today's human evolution, I think is something on the horizon for us.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Scientists can't even agree between themselves on what is going on in human brains.

In 2012, scientists with the ENCODE project, a huge catalogue of all non-coding DNA in the human genome, declared that 80 percent of our DNA was active and performing some function. Now scientists at Oxford have analysed the human genome and claim that less than 10 percent of our DNA is functional.

Admittedly that report is dated 2014, but when I look back at the claptrap, idiocies, and total garbage that many theoretical physicists have trotted out over the last year, nothing seems to have changed much. e.g. Oumuamua is an ET light sail etc.

Who employs these people and would you let your daughter marry one?

DNA Activity

The 10% myth

My favorite theory is that ET is actively avoiding sending any signal toward our solar system. Why? you ask. Just take a good look at what we have done to our planet.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Admittedly that report is dated 2014, but when I look back at the claptrap, idiocies, and total garbage that many theoretical physicists have trotted out over the last year, nothing seems to have changed much. e.g. Oumuamua is an ET light sail etc.

That some scientists are carried away about ET and their eventually contact with us is of course mostly speculations.
Like Oumuamua and Avi Loeb's speculations about it.
For instance postulating that an ET light sail using as propulsion is ridiculous.
As an sailor as I am, I know that sailing ships doesn't tumble around like Oumuamua did!

Lots of good reading links in your post, Chris.

I guess I fell into the 10% trap, but I never really thought 90% was being unused. I always thought it was all interconnected, but that we have a lot more potential "power" up in our noggins than we've tapped.

These poor fellows below are having a bad day. I've always wondered why dinosaurs didn't develop better brains, especially given their extremely long reign on earth.

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The mind is a weird and mysterious place

For instance postulating that an ET light sail using as propulsion is ridiculous.

Well said. I agree 100%.

we have a lot more potential "power" up in our noggins than we've tapped.

I don't think it really matters if scientists reckon that 10%, 40%, or 90% of DNA and "brain power" is available to mankind. The fact is that some individuals seem to make better use of what we actually do have than others.

The current best measure of "brain power" or of logical reasoning, cognitive ability, call it what you will is the IQ test. It also doesn't matter which scale you use it is a merely a comparative test. Someone who scores highly may be able to make better use of the available brain power, but be a nasty vindictive individual. Someone that scores much less doesn't have the same reasoning powers ability, or use as much drain power, but may be kind to animals and a very nice person.

Scientists "think" that the Asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and most life on earth was the one that hit the Chicxulub impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

Impact

Some "lovely" implausible theories as to why E.T. hasn't been found.

As an sailor as I am, I know that sailing ships doesn't tumble around like Oumuamua did!

Well, sitting in a viscous fluid such as water does tend to dampen oscillations, but that can be offset by ocean swell of course. Large ocean going liners with hydroplanes will be less affected than say a 1/4 or 1/2 ton sail boat.

Nobody is 100% sure what interstellar space consists of, some think dark energy or dark matter, cosmic dust and particles etc, certainly nothing to impede progress unless an object gets affected by gravity to deflect its course or trajectory.


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9) Because we ruined our eyes trying to read that scaled-down image. :^)

Here is a much larger/more readable version.

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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
--- Margaret Mead

Helpful link my good man :-)

I still honestly believe three things.

1. The human race just CAN'T comprehend how vast Interstellar space really is e.g. 4.5 light years to the nearest star, the Milky way Galaxy is 200,000 light years across. Our planet is just under 8000 miles in diameter.

2. We are not SERIOUSLY as a whole planet looking for ET are we? All seti and other projects are doing is using a handful of scientists to look for very small needles in a very large haystack. There is no worldwide consensus that we as a planet should broadcast "we are here" signals either. Probably due to fear of Klingons, the Borg, or Vogon poetry.

3. ET has been here before, is likely observing us now, but we have not yet evolved to anything like the level that would be necessary to join a Galactic Federation.

In the absence of any concrete proof one way or the other, any opinion is as good as anyone else's.

Happy New Year!

Chris as I have often stated Aliens are here and they are on open display over in the politics boards.

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