News, 'We Are Definitely not Alone in the Universe' (television, Opera, signals)

[John1960]

Mankind has been searching for intelligent life in the universe for decades. One of the leaders of that search is Frank Drake. In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, he said that daytime television might be the aliens' first taste of life on earth. That, he says, "is scary."

Alien Hunting: 'We Are Definitely not Alone in the Universe' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International

[harry chickpea]

About as bad an article as I've read.

"We Are Definitely not Alone in the Universe" no proof, just conjecture. The writer didn't even ask for concrete proof. Then it goes on with a bunch of rehashed boring yada yada that was FAR better presented in the movie "Galaxy Quest."

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by harry chickpea

About as bad an article as I've read.

"We Are Definitely not Alone in the Universe" no proof, just conjecture. The writer didn't even ask for concrete proof. Then it goes on with a bunch of rehashed boring yada yada that was FAR better presented in the movie "Galaxy Quest."

You know I read that and almost commented about it but decided I already throw up several controversial posts at times so maybe I'll give it a rest. But I absolutely agree. The guy believes in aliens, but thinks we're wasting our time and energies looking for them and even his alien friends would be thinking the same thing if he could only find them and communicate with them. I suddenly realized that the article itself was taking up precious bandwidth and I wasted about 10 precious of my minutes trying to figure out exactly what he was talking about.

[NightBazaar]

Interesting interview, but I think one example Drake made is nothing more than a invalid assumption.
"In fact, about the time that a civilization gets the technology to make itself known, it also gets nuclear energy and nuclear weapons."

Drake's statement is NOT a fact, but is based solely on our own experience here on Earth. There is no reason to assume that a civilization somewhere else in the galaxy that gets the technology to make itself known would necessarily get nuclear weapons. While it's possible there are warring civilizations out there, it's also entirely possible that some might have evolved more peacefully without the need to fight among their own kind. That's not to say there would be no need to compete with other lifeforms that have no civilization.

I kind of think that it might be likely all developed forms of evolved life throughout the universe probably have to struggle to survive in one way or another. That would not only include fighting against other competing life forms on their own planets, but also struggle just to survive the hostile nature of the universe itself. That said, their civilization may have evolved in a cooperative way among their own species and any other civilized lifeforms.

I'd still have to give points to Drake though for adding that civilizations with more advanced technology than ours may have gone through warring stage and managed to overcome it. Points also to Drake in his reply to what alien life forms might look like.
"I think it is very probable that these life-forms are carbon-based. We are usually very biased towards thinking that extraterrestrials are like us. But that is just because we do not know what else to think."

The same point would have to apply to whether any alien civilizations might present a hostile threat to us or not. The fact is that regardless of the odds that there may be an abundance of life elsewhere in the galaxy or the universe, we don't actually know. We know there is life on Earth, but so far, that's all we know.

I also agree that much of the signals from Earth present a strange and often hostile view of life on Earth. While SETI has focused on radio signals to hopefully detect a sign of life elsewhere in the galaxy, it's possible alien lifeforms may use something entirely different to transmit information. SETI might be too limited in its focus or even be on the wrong track altogether. For example, maybe it's more common to use a concentrated beam of photons for transmission to selected receivers. High speed scanners could be employed in searching wider areas of space. I think the only reason we're searching for radio frequencies is because that's what's most commonly done here on Earth. What an alien civilization might use is anyone's guess.

Speaking for myself, and based only on how life has evolved here on Earth, I'm not overly optimistic that other civilizations, highly advanced or not, are teeming throughout the galaxy. I do think advanced life is likely throughout the universe, probably in our own galaxy, but I think it may be a pretty rare phenomenon. My guess is that the vast majority of life throughout the cosmos are probably microbes and perhaps smaller lifeforms that do not have a civilization or technology.

[gy2020]

Originally Posted by NightBazaar

My guess is that the vast majority of life throughout the cosmos are probably microbes and perhaps smaller lifeforms that do not have a civilization or technology.

And even larger life forms (the dinosaurs) without civilizations.

[JTraik]

He seems to gloat over the idea of being non-religious yet his faith in aliens is quite contradictory to that.

He believes that any other civilization there is will certainly be more advanced... but has he considered, in his evolutionary line of thinking, that the odds of another civilization capable of sending/receiving this beacon data is literally impossible to have an opinion on? There is simply no relative information for him to base this assumption off of.... He affirms this silly belief by claiming:

They will have gotten through that bottleneck in their history and will be non-aggressive creatures.

I really like this one..

We have technology that basically cannot be improved. But we need more of it. We have to search millions of stars, millions of frequencies.

Pretty narrow minded comment for a man who dedicates his life to hunting aliens. He must have solved everything there is to know in quantum physics.




Sorry but this article is ridiculous and that guy is off his rocker.

[Asheville Native]

Originally Posted by JTraik

Sorry but this article is ridiculous and that guy is off his rocker.

And your knowledge, field of expertise, decades of research to discredit with insult is exactly what?

[harry chickpea]

While the post by JTraik might be strident, it has merit. The subject of the article comes off as an ivory tower scientist who has no grasp of any wider view (ironic, given the subject matter). His personalized viewpoint could be compared to a priest in the Spanish Inquisition, where he hopes that aliens as well as humanity can reach salvation and become non-aggressive. While casual aggression may not have a good grounding in any philosophy, "aggression" itself is how humanity scrambled to the top of the food chain and figured out how to kill instead of being killed. The need for that ability doesn't go away. You aggress against your carrots when you eat them. You aggress against the bugs and rats that would infest your home when you kill them. You aggress against others whose views of life are not compatible with yours.

Decades of research do not automatically mean that a person can't be a dunce in other areas.

[Nomadicus]

Glad I didn't waste ten minutes reading it.

[NightBazaar]

Originally Posted by gy2020

And even larger life forms (the dinosaurs) without civilizations.

Or maybe blobs without civilizations.