SETI Seeks Ideas to Hunt Strange Alien Lifeforms

A new paper in Astrobiology is asking the astronomy community to help the SETI Institute. (SETI stands for “Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.”) With more data on exoplanets coming in from the Kepler space telescope, and 50 years of space and SETI observations behind us, the hope is new tools can emerge to improve the search for life.

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aliens are probably using a non hackable system of comms

radio is useless for great distances, it only moves at light speed and easily gets lost in the morass of natural radio noise

On record as saying that SETI is drowning in it’s own data. The more data you collect, the more a real alien signal comes to resemble a statistical outlier.

But I do have one firm idea that I’d like to try.

Suppose you’re an intelligent alien race with interstellar spacecraft. You’d want to communicate with those spacecraft every now and again. The greatest amount of information can be carried by the shortest wavelengths, gamma rays and X rays. My thought is to heterodyne this high frequency signal on a low frequency radio wave carrier.

The many WOW! type signals that we’ve received, some of these are still beyond statistical swamping, could be carrier waves carrying real high frequency data. So I would propose using radio and gamma – X-ray data detectors pointing in the same direction, using radio wave intensity to trigger higher frequency recording.

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

So something weirder than Melbourne trams?

bob(from black rock) said:

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

So something weirder than Melbourne trams?

Yes. Paranoid imagination.

Tamb said:

bob(from black rock) said:

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

So something weirder than Melbourne trams?

Yes. Paranoid imagination.

Can I use my travel card for this?

bob(from black rock) said:

Tamb said:

bob(from black rock) said:

So something weirder than Melbourne trams?

Yes. Paranoid imagination.

Can I use my travel card for this?

No need. They are already here.

don’t believe quantum entanglement can be used for the transfer of information. plus you can only separate the particles at or below lightspeed.

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

All look quite reasonable comments to me.

Are you feeling ok wookie?

The Rev Dodgson said:

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

All look quite reasonable comments to me.

Are you feeling ok wookie?

Probably a fit of sane-ility

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

Interesting thought Wook.

wookiemeister said:

aliens are probably using a non hackable system of comms

radio is useless for great distances, it only moves at light speed and easily gets lost in the morass of natural radio noise

So what communication system is faster than light speed?

bob(from black rock) said:

wookiemeister said:

aliens are probably using a non hackable system of comms

radio is useless for great distances, it only moves at light speed and easily gets lost in the morass of natural radio noise

So what communication system is faster than light speed?

we, as yet, don’t know of any.

• So what communication system is faster than light speed?

Bush Telegraph…

furious said:

• So what communication system is faster than light speed?

Bush Telegraph…

Grapevine

> if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

“hundreds of years” is no time at all. The galaxy is a lot older than that. As for “happen”, any idiot can calculate where an object is that’s travelling in a straight line at known speed.

As for giving advice to SETI, the first step would be to get them to repair their decision tree, wouldn’t you say? Although satirical, every one of the arrows on the following flow chart has appeared in a scientific publication by a SETI participant, or is a quote from a SETI participant’s statements on TV.

I suggest a rating system for observations similar to the rating system for “Potentially Hazardous Asteroids”. ie. give each observation a rating rather than just saying yes/no. And publish the ratings. SETI currently publishes hundreds of proposals, scores of observation programs, and sweet FA on results. So far as I can tell, SETI has only published three scientific papers in 56 years on the RESULTS of its observations.

That’s a pretty poor flow chart…

i’m a bit dumb on the subject, but how is ET most likely to detect signs of life on earth (or us, ET to him)?

transition said:

i’m a bit dumb on the subject, but how is ET most likely to detect signs of life on earth (or us, ET to him)?

( or us? I thought we are positive proof that there is no inteligent life forms on Earth?

transition said:

i’m a bit dumb on the subject

So is SETI

>( or us? I thought we are positive proof that there is no inteligent life forms on Earth?

meaning to them we are ET

dumb
adjective
1. temporarily unable or unwilling to speak.

furious said:

dumb
adjective
1. temporarily unable or unwilling to speak.

yeah sorry, double digit IQ, thick, obtuse.

furious said:

dumb
adjective
1. temporarily unable or unwilling to speak.

So there is no such thing as a dumb Politician?

bob(from black rock) said:

furious said:

dumb
adjective
1. temporarily unable or unwilling to speak.

So there is no such thing as a dumb Politician?

zing

dv said:

bob(from black rock) said:

furious said:

dumb
adjective
1. temporarily unable or unwilling to speak.

So there is no such thing as a dumb Politician?

zing

—-

Malcolm looks good compared to this:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VmR9CesbXk

transition said:

i’m a bit dumb on the subject, but how is ET most likely to detect signs of life on earth (or us, ET to him)?

Not a dumb question.

Several possibilities come to mind, ordered from easiest to hardest to detect.
1. A general clue from the spectrum of the atmosphere, oxygen atmosphere (not a reliable guide), presence of water, effective temperature between freezing and boiling, high planet density.
2. Radio waves. The strongest signal would be the 50 Hz + 60 Hz signal from our mains electricity power grids. Next strongest signal would be from AM radio stations 150 to 280 kHz, 500 to 1600 kHz, 2.3 to 26 MHz. Then TV. If they are lucky enough to be in the correct direction they could pick up a signal from the deep space network at 2.11, 7.15 and 34.5 GHz.
3. Night light. Would require extremely powerful equipment, but the “smoking gun” for detection of intelligent life on Earth would be light pollution from the night side of Earth.

The Rev Dodgson said:

wookiemeister said:

if aliens are trying to communicate with each other and they are hundreds of light years from each other then it would take hundreds of years to get a message to each other and that’s only if they happen to be in the right place at the right time to receive the signal.

they might be using some kind of quantum entanglement form of Comms , this isn’t bound by the speed of light I think. the reason we’ve never picked them up is because the signal gets too scrambled and swamped to be of any use , gravity bends the signal whilst on its way, dust absorbs it

aliens wouldn’t be using linear travel to get from point to point either , if you hit a speck of dirt at close to light speed there would be an explosion and a hull breach , if you hit a rock it would be finish the ship off.

aliens are using some other means of travel unknown to us

All look quite reasonable comments to me.

Are you feeling ok wookie?

Oh well I’ll continue

Ships “fly” to specific points without taking any time so there’s no problems with waving goodbye to family members or never seeing the eggs you might have laid on your home planet before flying off into the universe. Parents often threaten the young with stories of the ruthless Bubblonium Snatching them whilst they peck disinterestedly at their food.

It’s obvious that aliens have mastered faster than light travel and aren’t subject to being wiped out by a space rock whilst going from point A to B

The Comms network used to be the nebula broadband network (NBN) but it cost to much, many people thought it would be a good idea but others were trying to tell the true believers that “wireless” as the aliens call it was coming.the emerging adopters of each respective Comms system and the disagreements was the start of the first war of the galaxies

The Comms room houses a large device about the size of a car that’s cryogenically cooled that emits a purple light. Particles separated by vast distances are manipulated to transfer binary information across the universe as entanglement relies on other fields and dimensions unknown to men.

Motherships are used to transfer smaller ships around as the energy used to ride timelessly can’t be made much smaller as it all has to be released and sustained for a brief period

The speed of thought is faster than light speed, so we have to work out how to communicate by telepathy.

bob(from black rock) said:

communicate by telepathy.

That would be awfully noisy

Arts said:

bob(from black rock) said:

communicate by telepathy.

That would be awfully noisy

You could practice at a footy match?

thought would have to be transfered from one brain to another. therefore a particle is involved. unless you want to invoke magic. so this particle either has mass or doesn’t. seeing as it probably would be a boson, it would be massless. so would travel at lightspeed.

or something like that.

I imagine finding the signal would be the easy part, interpreting it would be the hard part.

and would it automatically translate when in a foreign country?