Thanks for engaging to my comment!
I absolutely see the absurdity of coming to the conclusion that "we are alone" in the cosmos!
The Drake equation just helps me a little to push around some numbers. I first came in touch with the Seti project back in 1997 when we used seti@home in an networked business environment on a few hundred pc's to monitor uptimes of these computers and to do some marketing with it too.
Still besides the well known "Wow!" signal signal that was picked up in 1977 (later believed to be caused by a comet) there has been no second signal picked up that could be interpreted as coming from an alien civilization so far or the ongoing data analysis from Seti didn't uncover such a signal as of now.
There are so many factors coming into play to being able to pick up such an signal or proof of an alien civilization that I'm still critical of this happening in the foreseeable future.
- Distance... and the before already named speed limit. If you then even assume that a signal could come from another galaxy please check this List of nearest galaxies here and think about how long a signal will have to travel to reach us. Put this in relation to the time frame since we are able to pick up radio signals for instance and chances to catch "something" become very narrow.
- Possibility of detecting an alien signal based on our available technology. Who knows what kind of technology they where using when they emitted signals? Again... we're talking these vast distances and resulting big time chunks. Even if they once used something for us detectable the chance that we are able to pick this up today (or better in the last 40 years) is possibly pretty small.
Either way without proofs it comes down to beliefs, right?
But I would be happy to hear about an alien civilization in my lifetime! That's for sure!
And who knows what they are capable of once they are a "Type III civilization—also called a galactic civilization—can control energy on the scale of its entire host galaxy" or even "higher". Kardashev scale
On the other hand... we are not even a "Type I civilization—also called a planetary civilization—can use and store all of the energy available on its planet".
Maybe it's ok to try to pick up an alien signal. But sending out signals might not be the smartest idea... just saying. Oh right... too late... hahaha!
See this here Stephen Hawking warned responding to alien signals from outer space would be a really BAD idea
Cheers!
I read the article about Stephen Hawking’s words in the Mirror. I seriously doubt he would have said “replying to aliens is a bad idea”. If he said it, then he was joking, and the paper has reported it out of context. What do you expect from the Mirror?
As for detecting a signal, I think it may happen soon. I personally think that large numbers of aliens have the technology and motivation to beam focussed signals in the direction of possible habitable planets. Why would they do that? For the same reason that nations spread their discoveries to others. Why did we send the spaceship Voyager 1 on a 40’000 year trek to a star called AC +79 3888? Why do people make Youtube videos? Because intelligent life loves to share. That’s why they are broadcasting to the cosmos.
Our technology of today may not be able to receive the signals. With trillions of places to look we may not be looking in the right places. It is only a question of time.
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Thanks for your answer!
I love the way you think about that and I agree for the most part!
I also believe it's only a question of time. We only vary a little on the specific time frame! But who knows? An interesting signal could already been picked up and might just be waiting for the regarding data analysis to be "seen", it could happen today.
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