Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

SETI@Home 2nd Look at Possible Hits

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the wouldn't-that-be-spiffy dept.

cpk0 writes "This article from MSNBC discusses how data returned from SETI@Home users is beign retested by the Institue for a possibility of alien radio signals being included. At just over 4 years old, I think this would be the first big break for SETI@home." This is a followup to a December Slashdot story. Apparently this is getting some major attention in the mainstream media lately.

6 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. could be just what we need... by mike77 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe I'm being too poetic, but with a world on the brink of war, a confirmation of an alien civilization would be an amazing thing right now. Maybe give our leaders a kick in the ass that their petty squabbles are not the end all be all of our existence.

    --

    --Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time

    1. Re:could be just what we need... by uptownguy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I can imagine a beautiful, peaceful alien race. Free of crime, war, and violence

      I wrote a short story on this subject. When they step foot off of their ship, just like any other visitors to a foreign shore we greet them with open arms. They come in peace... they don't want our oil... They don't want our water...

      They want to convert us...

      Makes sense if you think about it. Missionaries would be on that first ship, my friends. And if you think the whole Arab vs. Jewish vs. Christian thing that's playing itself out right now looks bad, just imagine an alien religion gaining mass numbers of converts (free technology, free alien schools, nice little carrot there)and the opposition to it...

      Summary: Just because they are free of crime, war and violence doesn't mean that those buggers won't spell trouble!

      --


      I would have to say that explosives are the most abused technology in all of history.
  2. What a waste by Quasar1999 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The probability of catching radio waves from intelligent life forms in a 4 year window is crazy. The distances they'd have to travel are enormous, and that civilization is probably long extinct, and the spectrum we are looking at is very narrow, and our definition of intelligence is also very narrow... what if what we think of cosmic background noise is in actuality encrypted data transmissions, meant to be indistinguishable from background noise? Too many assumptions are taking place, it's really a waste of resources.

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:What a waste by Skyshadow · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I'm not sure I agree with you 100% on your police work there, Lou.

      Firstly, the distance that signals from another potential civilization *could* be enormous, but then again they could be reasonably small. There are a pretty fair number of stars within, oh, 100 light years or so of our own primary. The real question there is what sort of values to plug into the Drake equation, and we won't have a good idea there until we collect some data points.

      Secondly, why would you assume that an alien civilization would carefully hide their transmissions? We don't, even though we understand that we're basically advertising the location of our planet with TV and radio and radar. Besides, if you really wanted to mask your location, you'd stick to cable. Sure, we wouldn't pick them up, but for each ultraparanoid civilization (and I'll grant you that they very well may exist), there are probably others less cautious.

      Sure, we could be all the life that's out there -- in the absense of any concrete proof, there's always that chance. That said, I personally have a hard time believing that in a universe as big as ours the there's a unique instance of anything. Anyhow, putting in a minimum of effort seems pretty reasonable when you're talking about making the greatest discovery in the history of history, doesn't it?

      --
      Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
  3. Issue by BenV666 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The only problem they have with Seti@home these days is the statistics.
    I know a few people who actually compete over who has computed the most packets. People also try to cheat to get high stats, that is where it goes wrong...
    Therefore it might be better to ditch those stats all together, or at least make them less informative...

  4. Guess they were right by rde · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As someone who scanned that part of the sky for seti@athome (so to speak), I got a mail from our berkelean chums, suggesting that a lot of media interest might be forthcoming. I mentally scoffed at the possibility, but here I am talking about it on a *cough* reputable site like slashdot!

    seti - acting under the auspices of the planetary society - were kind enough to ask whether I'd like my fifteen minutes now, and make my name available for interview to those legions of reporters who'd be after a human interest angle.

    Of course, 'human interest' is exactly not the reason I signed up for seti@home, but there you go. Nonetheless, I volunteered, just in case they want a European perspective. However, I really, really doubt that anything will come of it. Just like a seti user should.