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Congress Is Quietly Nudging NASA To Look for Aliens (theatlantic.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The search for extraterrestrial life, in general, has continued over the past decades, of course, carried out by academic institutions around the world, by people like Tarter, one of the field's best-known seti researchers (and the inspiration for Ellie Arroway, the protagonist in Contact, Carl Sagan's 1985 classic science-fiction novel). But they wouldn't get any help from the feds. "[Senator Bryan] made it clear to the administration that if they came back with seti in their budget again, it wouldn't be good for the NASA budget," Tarter says now. "So we instantly became the four-letter S-word that you couldn't say at headquarters anymore, and that has stuck for quite a while."
That could soon change. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives recently proposed legislation for NASA's future that includes some intriguing language. The space agency, the bill recommends, should spend $10 million on the "search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions" per year, for the next two fiscal years. The House bill -- should it survive a vote in the House and passage in the Senate -- can only make recommendations for how agencies should use federal funding. But for seti researchers like Tarter, the fact that it even exists is thrilling. It's the first time congressional lawmakers have proposed using federal cash to fund seti in 25 years.
That could soon change. Lawmakers in the House of Representatives recently proposed legislation for NASA's future that includes some intriguing language. The space agency, the bill recommends, should spend $10 million on the "search for technosignatures, such as radio transmissions" per year, for the next two fiscal years. The House bill -- should it survive a vote in the House and passage in the Senate -- can only make recommendations for how agencies should use federal funding. But for seti researchers like Tarter, the fact that it even exists is thrilling. It's the first time congressional lawmakers have proposed using federal cash to fund seti in 25 years.
Now they're worried about illegal aliens from other worlds.
I'm not saying it's aliens, but...
Look for real aliens from another planet or non-us citizens who are refered to as "aliens" in usa in a very "friendly" manner .
... illegal.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Just wait till you see the wall for that...charged to the aliens.
I have 3 points to say.
The 1st point: the alienigens are not illegal, the government that goes against them is illegal. It is due to humanity's reasons and not mankind's reasons.
The 2nd point: the language that was used for radio transmissions to outer space is illegal, they should consider to learn 1st the signals of the radio receptions.
The 3rd point: the governments and many peoples had charged this planet Earth with an excess of pollution, contamination, etc.
Maybe they're trying to get ahead of moon/asteroid/mars-based missions by other countries or companies by allocating money to put up space-based surveillance systems
There were a couple of recent FLIR videos taken by F/A-18s off the coast of San Diego that were interesting. I'm not saying they were aliens, but they had the kind of aura of respectability, or at least more than your usual MUFON chapter can muster, that might interest a congressman.
Yes, I want to find alien civilisations, but wouldn't it make more sense to invest in better instruments first? We've still barely begun with exoplanet studies. How about better ways to get data on those. Once we have a good map of where the potential earth-like planet are, we'll know where to point the radio telescopes. Maybe we'll even get a spectrum showing a planet with a high level of free oxygen - it may not be intelligence, but evidence of any alien life at all would be welcome. Even single-celled.
OK, the idea is great, we can't find intelligence on Earth, let's search in space. And I am the first to tell you that the chance of us being alone in the universe is minuscule ("would seem like an awful waste of space" to quote one of the greats). But we say we are certain that we are not alone, because of the vastness of the universe and then we seem to forget that reasoning when it comes to SETI. The fact is, we can't pick up a "technosignature" across significant distances and yet, even for a universe "densely packed" with life, we would still expect distances to be at least in the order of thousands of light years. With our current technology, we can detect "earth like chatter" over just a couple of light years. There is hope that if the Square Kilometer Array project is completed we could perhaps detect over 100 light years. Which is nothing in the cosmic scale. So, to detect someone you need them to send you a targeted powerful emission. If you look up the literature, we haven't really been doing it ourselves - now and then we select a target and send a signal. Well, when I talked about the vastness of the universe, that includes time as well (which explains the "thousands of light years" being optimistic - it still has to be simultaneous civilizations). So you target a few star systems and you broadcast to them, you have to remember someone has to be "listening our way" at the exact time they arrive - given the cosmic time scales measured in billions of years, the minutes, hours or even days you might broadcast for, are nothing.
You can thing of it simply: if other civs are like us, they are mainly listening, so no-one will hear anyone. And it makes sense, listening is easy, transmitting is hard, why put effort on it when you won't really hear back (at least anytime soon)?
Obviously $10 million is peanuts for the US government (perhaps one set of wheels for an F35?), so pursuing such activities in this case is not damaging (and if used right it could help with radio-astronomy's popularity - although I think Contact has done that as well as it can be done already), but the little money that goes into space science could be spent better.
PS. Yes, I still think crypto-currency mining is more wasteful than SET@home...
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
There's always been a lot of talk about the communications technology, but what if we really find them? I'm not worried about any alien invasion (the speed of light fixes that problem). How would the knowledge that we're not alone affect the human psyche, and religion? If we can decode any messages, might that result in some big problems, especially if some countries decode before others to get a technological/military edge?
There's a pot on the stove burning, but I'll take care of it later, just as soon as I find me some aliens!
America's significant embrace of Trump/Putin has also made me strongly tempted to give up on humanity to a great degree also.
Why don't you do the rest of us a favor and kill yourself.
If you lack the courage to do that, at least shut the fuck up with your pointless whining.
white light
red light
fuck you dog
...have there been any credible studies that actually took a hard look at the implications of learning there is in fact intelligent life out there?
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
and they made religions obsolete, and made the nation state with governments obsolete, and made military and police obsolete, and turned this planet in to a utopia, or on the other hand a planet with human slaves mining resources so they can take them to their home planet
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
Compared to all the other hideously expensive bullshit the government spends money on annually, SETI is a drop in the bucket and so worth it for what it could tell us. The only reasons Congresscritters don't like funding it is because uninformed and unimaginative taxpayers don't like it.
Now, the real question is: Why all of the sudden would they want to fund it? Even though the language is extremely vague, if they suddenly want to fund it again they must have an ulterior motive (being politicians and all).
...you can call him just about everything else too.
They're just elated that their jobs will continue. But there's only disappointment waiting at the end of all this money...'cause there's nobody out there.
Since the US is really an Oligarchy, and that Oligarchy has grabbed over 50 of all wealth, they're looking for the next financial conquest - and why not spend other peoples money to find it!!
https://www.theguardian.com/in...
Looking at the ridiculous crap the current script writer has been foisting off on us lately, I can only infer that he is a drunk and a hack of the lowest caliber. You can bet your bippy we're getting aliens thrown into the plot any day now. As a sentient being I can not countenance insulting and literally incredible baloney.
Everytime a fucking trumptard opens his mouth... everytime.
$10E6 would be useful for improvements to detect and identify radio signatures in various ways. It could be used for satellite dishes and algorithm research; I'd personally like to see it put towards improving BOINC, which helps a lot of projects, including SETI.
it's because they know torture doesn't work. The aliens they captured wouldn't give up the location of their home world, nearest base, or their plans. So they're scrambling to find out from what direction they will attack before their scouts are considered missing... :p
They should point one of those honking great telescopes at Congress and look for assholes. You can bet they'd be happily counting away for weeks afterward.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Why is he a Trumptard? Because he told you to stop whining like a little bitch in every thread?
Well sir, I am not a Trumptard. Stop whining like a little bitch in every single thread. The election is over. Get on with your life.
They are in need of another slave labor force. Hopefully without having to subsidized. No more free food, free housing, free medical, free schooling for the kids and get out of jail cards for free.
It's currently President of the United States.
Those were probably teasers that upped their game...
no wait, sorry, it's been done already
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Sent from my ENIAC
America's significant embrace of Trump/Putin has also made me strongly tempted to give up on humanity to a great degree also.
Why don't you do the rest of us a favor and kill yourself.
If you lack the courage to do that, at least shut the fuck up with your pointless whining.
Why don't you do the rest of us a favor and kill yourself.
If you lack the courage to do that, at least shut the fuck up with your pointless whining.
Perhaps NASA ought to direct any effort to search for intelligent life to looking to see if any can be found in Congress.
I'm not believing in them unless I see hot green alien women wearing what is usually considered too few clothes....mmmm, the forbidden pleasure!!
The WH just cut the NASA program responsible for validating greenhouse gas emissions: https://smmry.com/http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/05/trump-white-house-quietly-cancels-nasa-research-verifying-greenhouse-gas-cuts
I think I'd rather spend the money bringing this program back rather than feeding ICE more information on potential immigrants.
Hey NASA, you guys might want to check out this strange orange humanoid that has been hanging around the White House.
Talk about stupid. SETI is a stupid program. NASA is a stupid entity. Now combine the two.
Thanks Republicans, for EXPANDING the government.
Btw, why do you think you got elected ??
The only upside here is extraterrestrials are only SLIGHTLY more relevant US interests with NASA than Muslim outreach.
This sound like a distraction for gutting useful NASA science programs. Gut the useful science, but allow some perfectly useless project that won't possibly harm anyone.
SETI is all about sensing and decoding signals deep in a field of noise. Any techniques SETI develops could be put to use by the government to facilitate secure military communications or to detect the encrypted communications of an enemy. This would be similar to the public effort the U.S. put into reaching the moon in the 60's but which behind the scenes was an effort to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.