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

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu
http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-lEver read The
Killing Star? ;-)

Best,
Ken

--- On Mon, 5/10/10, Doug Evans <devans@nebraska.edu> wrote:

From: Doug Evans <devans@nebraska.edu>
Subject: Re: [GZG] A number of scientists respond to Hawking's concerns
about Aliens
To: gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu
Date: Monday, May 10, 2010, 9:39 AM

TomB, John T, and Indy, respectively:

> If anyone read Luna Marine, Semper Mars, and Europa Strike by Ian
> Douglas, you'd have been exposed to the theoretical question - if
> there are so many aliens out there, why haven't we heard from any?

It's a question posed in just about any discussion of 'life out
there...'.
Given an even distribution over the vastness of time and space, and
posulating that even galactic civilizations most likely will have finite
lives, plugging not unreasonable numbers for rarity of creation of such
empires and and range of lifetimes, gives you 'nobody's around at the
same
time in the same neighborhood to be bothered with each other.'

Rather lovely demonstration is to be found in Sagan's Cosmos series.

I tend to think of this as a high probability, though not a certainty.

The ID4 model of super-virus suggests some concern there as well.

> BTW arn't the aliens from LV 426 someone elses bioweapon?

Never explicit in the films, as I remember. Certainly makes some sense.

I'd say even more sense if they are some sort of 'trip wire'. "You may
attain anything you wish, just never leave your own neighborhood. You
WON'T
like what you find."

> Reading some of the points in this thread, it seemed to me that
> maybe some people out there in the great black think SETI has a more
> active role in detecting extraterrestrial civilizations than merely
> listening?

I believe I've heard of a bit of sending associated with SETI; very
limited, though. Nothing in volume, either duration or
omnidirectionality
(is that a word?), to compare to the drivel at the start of the radio/TV
era. However, I think it was somewhat more selective in frequency.

For this discussion, what was it about our signals being degraded
unrecognizably leaving Sol's sphere? Did I read that in replies to Dr
Hawking's statement?

The_Beast

_______________________________________________
Gzg-l mailing list
Gzg-l@mail.csua.berkeley.edu
http://mail.csua.berkeley.edu:8080/mailman/listinfo/gzg-l