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Is SETI Worth It?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the lights-are-on-but-no-one's-home dept.

njdube sent in this Space.com story about the money behind SETI that opens, "It's a risky long shot that burns up money and might never, ever pay off. So is searching for intelligent creatures on unseen worlds worth the candle? After all, aren't there better ways to use our monies and technical talents than trying to find something that's only posited to exist: sentient beings in the dark depths of space?"

4 of 806 comments (clear)

  1. The gods must be crazy too by flyingfsck · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Look at all the money wasted on religion. The pursuit of non-existent super beings makes SETI pale into insignificance. Why has no-one brought a class action lawsuit against churches for defrauding their members?

    --
    Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  2. Re:S.E.T.I by Basehart · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I hope the real nasty people eater species of aliens out there only have an appetite for true believers like Pat Robertson and his ilk. I can see them now lined up behind the pearly gates, knee deep in blood and guts.

  3. Re:S.E.T.I by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    More likely, when we detect proof positive of alien life someplace in the galaxy the world's religions will unite in burning books, killing people, and doing anything they can repress that information. Finding alien intelligence or even life in an age where 90% of the population are religious is pretty much guaranteed to start off another dark ages.

    I mean, seriously, what's easier to believe: that you are a witch and need to die for it, or that the universe if full of scary and dangerous life forms lurking out there just waiting to "cook forty humans".

    Organized religion is an alien life form... but we didn't find it, it found us. And it's hostile.

  4. Absolutely Not by crhylove · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It's absolutely NOT worth it. We should buy more "Mother of all Bombs." I would rather scare the terrorists. All the same size and damage as a small nuke, but none of the fallout! "Take that unborn children shot full of depleted Uranium in foreign lands!!!"

    Yeah, SETI is a retarded idea. Let's cut that one. Let's also cut the space program altogether, and go back to the pony express, while we're at it.

    rhY

    --
    I hold very few opinions. I hold information based on observation and fact. If you wish to disagree, please use facts.