Re: [GZG] A number of scientists respond to Hawking's concerns about Aliens

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http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lOn Sun, May 9,
2010 at 7:21 AM, Doug Evans <devans@nebraska.edu> wrote:

> Apparently, Stephen W. made the comment late last month. Doesn't seem
to be
> in the article.
>
> Sounded for a bit like an offhand comment he might have made some time
ago;
> you know I went to the article's date to check to see if the article
itself
> wasn't from the beginning of last month...
>
>
The comment was on a new television show, *Into the Universe with
Stephen
Hawking*, which aired on Discovery in the U.S. two weeks ago. The show
is
"narrated" by Hawking, though for the sake of clarity, and probably to
make
things physically easier on Hawking, the narration is mostly done by
Benedict Cumberbatch (who sounds a fair bit like Sam Neill).

Hawking made the point that maybe not all aliens would be visiting our
solar
system for altruistic reasons. Some folks thought this was a smart idea.
Others are somewhat peeved with Hawking. The big thing is that real,
live
scientists are talking about this openly, something that not that long
ago
would have hurt their careers.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/stephen-hawking/

(I read through some of those comments. One astrobiologist stated that
our
TV and radio signals are available 50 light years out already. This is
actually open to conjecture. There's some suggestion that outside the
heliopause our TV and radio signals are so dispersed that they can't be
deciphered, or even recognized as anything above background noise. This
has
some unfortunate implications for SETI.)

-- 
Allan Goodall		 http://www.hyperbear.com
awgoodall@gmail.com
agoodall@hyperbear.com