There were several SETI news articles the last few days. They went from predictions that we will discover we are not alone within 25 years, to worry that we really don't want to draw attention to ourselves. "There might be wolves at out door." so to speak.
I read with interest what Hale Bopp had to say about the impossibility of faster then light transportation (using physics as we know it). This might be true, but the "worlds smartest man" Stephen Hawkins seems to have worries. If the quote is correct, it is reported that he thinks any galactic species we might meet (or answer our radio signal calls) could be thousands or tens of thousands of years in advance of us and know physics that aren't in our league. He worries that they might be aggressive. He feels because of this ambiguity of helpful/benign/aggressive possibilities, it'd be best if we wee quiet as church mice.
It seems to me that if there were galactic entities that were so advanced, and they could travel faster tha the speed of light, they would have made all the other Star Trekkish advances too including food replicators matter transporters and future energy sources. Once you have all needs met, it no longer becomes much of an issue of conquest as all needs are provided for.
For what its worth, if the Stephen Hawkins quote is real, it appears to me he thinks FTL light be possible in the future. Hey, we broke the speed of sound and there wee physicists that had math formulas proving we never would. Insurmountable. Nope, just took higher tech. Other scientists said we would never propel ourselves across the ground and accelerate faster than gravity. Heh, a little Nitro Methane, sticky tires and a Chrysler Hemi has us doing the standing start quarter mile in 3.8 seconds. FTL s just another bar we will pass eventually.
I hope we do find out we are not alone. If the world suddenly found out it was us against another team, I think we might actually pull together as a world body and reach for the stars. A space elevator by 2075. Oh yeah, anything is possible when there's another team to compete against.
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You might be interested in my friend Seth Shostak's response to Stephen Hawking. He's not at well known, but he's a pretty smart cookie and a SETI researcher (with apologies for the conservatives here as he wrote it for the HuffPo...I promise he doesn't blame Bush or any other Republican for anything in this article).
Pretty much he says its too late. We have been broadcasting for a while now and any aliens that can threaten us will be able to find us pretty easily from what we have already done.
Even if we could stop broadcasting, we would have to stop polluting as well. I fully expect in my lifetime we will be able to measure the atmospheres of Earthlike planets around other stars and if we detect smog, we know we have found other intelligent life. If we are in a couple of decades at worst of doing that, it would be trivial for an advanced society to track us down unless we stopped all industry.
Besides, why would any alien species go that deep into our Sun's gravity well when there are plenty of asteroids and comets that have everything they need that are a lot easier to at and easier to transport away from our Solar System? Our planet probably isn't as attractive to species that are that advanced, so I am not losing sleep over it.
Oh, and I should have posted a link to the SETI podcast Are We Along hosted by Seth and Molly (whose last name is totally escaping me right now). Each week they cover a different topic. Free to subscribe on iTunes or listen on their website. Back episodes available.
My first thought also was that the cat is already out of the bag. But I must admit, I never really thought about what if we do pick up a transmission from outer space, do we respond? Who are the SETI people supposed to report such an occurrence to? At what point would the government get involved?
i read that response and have read similar a few years ago. I figure once we made the first spark generator for radio transmission, we put our calling card out there.
Smog reporter don't bother me that much. Too many naturally occurring phenomena might produce it too.
Just get us fusion, or matter annihilation energy sources and we'll be fine.
And that space elevator. A cheap and reliable way out of the gravity well, and we're golden
Seth has talked about that, Orbs. There have been several potential SETI signals that got people excited so he knows what happens in a potential detection scenario.
What happens is phone rings off the hook as every media outlet around tries to get the story. The government does not censor or shut them down or try to suppress the story. So far, every one has turned out to be a false alarm and the source positively identified after further study.
So I can answer one question: they report it to the media. I know quite a few people who work on this and they would be the worst secret keepers ever!
Well, that might be interesting. If they have something they think confirms intelligence on the other end of it, I wonder how the world would react? Would we pull together like Huck says? Are most religions ready to accept intelligent life from "out there?"
Orbs, the first thing that would happen is Beck and Olberman would start fighting over whether the aliens were Democrats or Republicans and the entire scientific community would do a giant facepalm.
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