SETI: Breakthrough Initiatives

[CrazyPhuD]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

There's a school of thought that discovery of an outside civilization might be the thing that finally motivates us all to get along with each other.

Personally I doubt that. I think the thing that really divides us is wealth - race, religion and the rest are just bread and circuses; carefully engineered and managed artificial social structures - and outside intelligence would just be another avenue to exploit for profit.

But it might also help us all see each other as humans. Although that's a bit too wide-eyed optimist for me.

That might be true....only in the sense that your BBQ and beans get along on your plate.

Serious while I used to think SETI was cool, it has to be one of the dumbest ideas in the world.

Any 'good' superior aliens won't even be found by us because they wouldn't be so selfish(or frankly arrogant) as to interfere with our natural development.

Any technically superior species that's not good....will end up sucking the marrow out of our bones.

Think about it....what would have happened if some 'benevolent' species came and saved the dinosaurs from extinction(excluding time lords of course). Would we even be hear today? Likely not....our ancestors would have been toothpicks for T-Rexes.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by CrazyPhuD

Think about it....what would have happened if some 'benevolent' species came and saved the dinosaurs from extinction(excluding time lords of course). Would we even be hear today? Likely not....our ancestors would have been toothpicks for T-Rexes.

It's tough to say, really. We could have driven them to extinction by hunting them or hunting their prey.

[arrwheader]

Bigger question:

If we find them, are they Chiefs fans????

[Why Not?]

Originally Posted by arrwheader

Bigger question:

If we find them, are they Chiefs fans????

Did you not read the article? They are searching for intelligent life forms.

[Hydrae]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

There's a school of thought that discovery of an outside civilization might be the thing that finally motivates us all to get along with each other.

Personally I doubt that. I think the thing that really divides us is wealth - race, religion and the rest are just bread and circuses; carefully engineered and managed artificial social structures - and outside intelligence would just be another avenue to exploit for profit.

But it might also help us all see each other as humans. Although that's a bit too wide-eyed optimist for me.

Have you ever read Left Hand of Darkness?

Spoiler!

The main character has dreams that alter reality. When his psychiatrist figures this out he hypnotizes him and has him dream of a world where humans are no longer fighting amongst themselves. When he wakes up, the world has been invaded by an alien species. Humans aren't fighting with each other any more, they are too busy fighting the common enemy!

[Xanathol]

Hawking - proof that people will label a glorified comic book writer as a genius if you hang a handicap sticker around their neck.

[Lzen]

Originally Posted by Xanathol

Hawking - proof that people will label a glorified comic book writer as a genius if you hang a handicap sticker around their neck.

[Lzen]

This reminds me of this little documentary. Very cool stuff.

Alien Planet

[arrwheader]

We have already made contact

[Jerm]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.ph...-1Ep3A.twitter

NASA will host a news teleconference at 9 a.m. PDT (noon EDT) Thursday, July 23, to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.

The first exoplanet orbiting another star like our sun was discovered in 1995. Exoplanets, especially small Earth-size worlds, belonged within the realm of science fiction just 21 years ago. Today, and thousands of discoveries later, astronomers are on the cusp of finding something people have dreamed about for thousands of years -- another Earth.

The briefing participants are:

-- John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington

-- Jon Jenkins, Kepler data analysis lead at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California

-- Jeff Coughlin, Kepler research scientist at SETI Institute in Mountain View, California

-- Didier Queloz, professor of astrophysics at Cambridge University, United Kingdom

Launched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission to detect Earth-size planets orbiting distant stars in or near the habitable zone -- the range of distance from a star in which the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might sustain liquid water. The telescope has since confirmed more than 1,000 planets and more than 3,000 planet candidates spanning a wide range of sizes and orbital distances, including those in the habitable zone.

Questions can be submitted on Twitter during the teleconference using the hashtag #askNASA.

The teleconference audio and visuals will be streamed live at:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

For more information about NASA's Kepler mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

[RobBlake]

yeah - not gonna happen.

[beach tribe]

The SETI ended a looooong time ago IMO.
They're here.
They've been here.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by beach tribe

The SETI ended a looooong time ago IMO.
They're here.
They've been here.

Stupid Obama(Marxist) is letting them in to our country!