Comment Re:So how do we send a signal back? (Score 1) 189
"In other words, interstellar laser communication is altogether practicable." -Paul Horowitz
We have now been observing for more than 2 years of "production runs", during which we have made some 17,000 observations of nearly 5,000 separate target stars. [more...]
What strikes me as the true difficulty in this entire light-show theory, is that if we did encounter a laser-esque communiqué from our little green friends, how would we
a) pick it out amongst all the stellar noise,
b) decypher the meaning/purpose/intent/tone of said message, and..
c) respond in a timely fashion (as to not lose our window of opportunity for contact) with a response-beam that relayed a message decypherable by our ET counterparts.
I support SETI, and I always will, as I refuse to believe the scary possibility that humans are the biggest and best thing out there, but it seems like such a vast undertaking, not unlike the audio SETI project, that it will never be of any active or true use.
We have now been observing for more than 2 years of "production runs", during which we have made some 17,000 observations of nearly 5,000 separate target stars. [more...]
What strikes me as the true difficulty in this entire light-show theory, is that if we did encounter a laser-esque communiqué from our little green friends, how would we
a) pick it out amongst all the stellar noise,
b) decypher the meaning/purpose/intent/tone of said message, and..
c) respond in a timely fashion (as to not lose our window of opportunity for contact) with a response-beam that relayed a message decypherable by our ET counterparts.
I support SETI, and I always will, as I refuse to believe the scary possibility that humans are the biggest and best thing out there, but it seems like such a vast undertaking, not unlike the audio SETI project, that it will never be of any active or true use.
