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SETI Finds Interesting Signal
Several readers sent in notes about an interesting signal discovered by SETI. No real evidence of Someone Out There, but not fully explainable either. Another reader submits a blurb suggesting that aliens should send spacemail, not signals: "Rutgers electrical engineering professor, Christopher Rose, has an article on Nature magazine's cover today describing the most efficient way for our civilization to be discovered by aliens. On this question of better to 'write or radiate', his conclusions: better not to send radio transmission, when physical media like DNA on an asteroid can declare a terrestrial presence. Similar to what motivated Voyager scientists to attach a plaque for the outbound trip. Rose has some great information payload sizes as examples (like the entire information equivalent for our global genome fitting on a 100 pound laptop!)."
I for one welcome our new intelligent extra terrestrial overlords!
(Sorry, it had to be done...)
gadgetophile.com
No one's gunna pay attention to us until we have warp drive anyway.
The space unintentionally left unblank.
I, for one, welcome our No-Definitive-Proof-Of-Existance Overlords... or something.
Oh, and to be on topic, here's some other interesting signals....
When dealing with the vastness of space, how can you advocate physical over transmission. The article does nothing to describe why sending an object with mass 1/1000000 the size of a planet that we would notice is somehow preferable to trying to boost a signal.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Voyager scientists attach a plaque on the outbound trip - aliens attach a plague on the return trip.
If this turns out to be an MP3, it looks like someone is gonna get sued (it would be filed as RIAA v. Zorack Doe)
Rose has some great information payload sizes as examples (like the entire information equivalent for our global genome fitting on a 100 pound laptop!)
I'd rather not send a menu with the greeting.
...says SilentChris
Pardon me while I step out to light up my giant "WELCOME TO EARTH" sign.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Do not run. We are your friends.
My wife weighs about 100 lbs, can sit on my lap, and contains a complete copy of the human genome.
Looking at that signal that we are broadcasting to the ET's, they are going to get it and think we are a race of sentient Atari game character, and wonder one thing:
Do they know about the magnet? Can they get the chalice across walls?
"Sig free in '03!"
Oh well, it's probably aliens requesting to be removed from our spam email list.
Oh what are you thinking?!
Everybody knows that if you send some genetically engineered organism into the vastness of space, it will only return far more advanced - and destroy us for sending it's ancestors to a dark and empty prison.
Duh.
Like Teddy with an elephant gun.
Slashdotted my ass. We were never supposed to know about this. The government cover-up is underway.
How true. Consider that the male image on Voyager had a teeny tiny penis, and it all starts to make sense.
The other option is a return message on a plaque, depicting a male alien with really large reproductive organs. That'll tell us, more than almost anything else, what sort of mentality we're dealing with.
...it read "PH1RST P0ST!!!"
Don't worry, NASA scientists have already modded them down.
I am Sartre of the Borg. Existence is futile.
The canonical announcement for this kind of event is "Wow!".
Get off my lawn.
It's not slashdotting, it's been taken down by a secret govt agency who dropped the ball and allowed the news to get out.
Alien_mastermind "You see, it's actually quite simple. We make a signal appear at an 'empty' point in space and they'll just eat it up. They'll spend so much time theorizing and conjecturing that they'll miss our decceleration from hyperspace."
Alien_sidekick"Hey boss, how we gonna do that without the latest hyperspace frequency propagator? All we have is the older Rev A."
Alien_mastermind"Don't worry about a thing! They'll never pick up on that. It only drifts about 32 Hz--good enough for government work!"
stone tools -> spears -> bow and arrow -> bronze weapons -> steel weapons, finally to European society
I'd stay with spears. Archers suck in Civ III. Now if you can get to steel, you get Legions, or if you were smart (and played the Japanese) then you get SAMURAI, which basically means that you are Jim A. Badass during the middle ages, as long as the Barbarians don't eat all the iron on your continent.
Hello Baltzar, Great news! No intelligent life on third planet, but I just saved a bundle on my space-car insurance. Tell the Gecko we'll be over for dinner, 10-4, over-and-out, later buddy, Bizstar84!zirc (no spam) nept.com
Mike www.sharecube.com
when we invent warp brakes!
Alien one: what was that! Was it the martians was it the centaurians?
Alien two: Naw prolly some race that just invented warp speed, give them a couple of thousand years and then they will invent warp brakes.
There seem to be so many being given away anyhow..
Ooh! And some Viagra. That should show how far our race has advanced.
...blasting off the entire human blueprint is such a hot idea. You got a 50/50 split on potential entities, and that would be the universe-all good/bad. Giving potential bad guys the plans to the human species seems a little risky.
Perhaps a few hours of late night TV commercials might be more appropriate. Give them something to ponder on. If they are dumb enough to investigate it, we'll have the upper hand. If they are smart enough to recognize that we are bad news and probably loony tunes, they might leave us alone, and we really don't want *smarter* ETs swinging by, do we?
At least that's how I read this plaque that was bolted on Pioneer 10.
****
"I'd never want to join a club that would have me as a member" - G. Marx
You have no idea how close to the truth you are.
Folks, we're not alone any more. Once you get the data file, plot it as a function and get a best-fit polynomial approximation for (it's not terribly complex). Take the second derivative.
Now, notice that there are lots of places where the new graph will almost touch zero (coming within 4% of mean) then reverse direction, but in other places the line continues right across zero like a typical sine curve. Also note that the zero-crossings and near-zero-crossings are at almost regular intervals.
Next, assign an arbitary "zero" to those places where the graph reverses direction suddenly, and "one" to the actual roots. String those zeros and ones together.
Starting at 11.32 seconds into the signal, I got a string of 11 ones then a zero, then 13 ones and a zero, then 17 and a zero, then 19, then 23, then 29, then 31, then 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and so on until the resolution falls off at about 43.87 seconds.
You heard it here first, Slashdotters. We're not alone anymore! I'm literally trembling while I type this. WE HAVE NEIGHBORS!!!
I'm not sure what the name of the data file meant, but I guess we'll know more when their server comes back online.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Dear Sir/Madam,
Let me start by introducing myself. I am Sub-Commander Qulon Zarg, credit officer of the Trans Galactic Bank Ltd. I have a concealed business suggestion for you. Before the Pulson/Darius war our client Overlord Argus Vader who was with the Gandor Star Force and also business man made a numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar months, with a value of Twenty millions Five Hundred Thousand Zerglian Dollars only in my branch. Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war early this year. Again after the war another notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later find out that the General and his family had been killed during the war in bomb blast that destroyed their entire planet. After further investigation it was also discovered that Overlord Argus Vader did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank.
So, Twenty millions Five Hundred Thousand Zerglian Dollars is still lying in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me most is that according to the to the laws of my country at the expiration 3 years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Episilon Prime Government if nobody applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to Overlord Argus Vader so that you will be able to receive his funds.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE:
I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall come out successful. I have contacted an attorney that will prepare the necessary document that will back you up as the next of kin to Overlord Argus Vader, all that is required from you att his stage is for you to provide me with your Full Names and Address so that the attorney can commence his job. After you have been made the next of kin, the attorney will also fill in for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary approval and letter of probate in your favor for the move of the funds to an account that will be provided by you.There is no risk involved at all in the matter as weare going adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all the necessary documents. Please endeavor to observe utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds
have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall share in the ratio of 70% for me, 25% for you and 5% for any expenses incurred during the course of this operation. Should you be interested please send me your private phone and fax numbers for easy communication and I will provide you with more details of this operation. Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.
Kind Regards,
Sub-Commander Qulon Zarg
You need a FREE iPod Nano
It would be a good idea.
greetings human. your skin looks ... delicious!
I had it running on my desktop for a week, and it didn't find a single alien.
"Here is an article that is un-slashdotted as of 0057 Universal Time. "
You foolish humans and your 'universal' time. We from Persei Omicron 8 will smash you for your arrogance!
"Derp de derp."
(like the entire information equivalent for our global genome fitting on a 100 pound laptop!)
You want me to send them my old TRS-80 Model 4P?
Viv
Gmail invites for ip
Have you seen MTV lately?
Obviously noone would look for intelligent life here --- why do you think people are so busy trying to find it elsewhere?
.. that will show them
Some claim that the best proof of extraterrestial intelligence is that they have _NOT_ attempted to contact us...
If extraterrestial lifeforms will ever show up, it will Vogons coming be to clear away this pathetic planet..
Go ahead Bush, don't let them get that chance, blow up the planet
(Sure that breaks the "only one prime factoring" property of any integer, but if we get a signal that said 1 2 3 5... we shouldn't drop it because it contains 1 :-)
..."
But if we do, our reply should start out "You dumbass,
Probably the most successful troll I've ever seen, at least as far as putting readers on an emotional rollercoaster.
You really never heard of quantum-frequency-time-shifting (QFTS) effects? It will be used in every future broadcast, since it can adjust frequency back in time to what is reciever actually listening. How can we *ever* understend so advance technology millions of years beyond us? Or, maybe, Arecibo is really broken.
839*929
You there, you must be almost thirty. Have you ever kissed a girl?
MD5 hashes.
Oh wait...