For all we know, the delay in hearing from extraterrestrials may be due to their ideas about when contact with us should occur, rather than their rarity, or their distance from us. We may have to cross some threshold of development and/or preparation before we're deemed ready.

For all we know, the delay in hearing from extraterrestrials may be due to their ideas about when contact with us should occur, rather than their rarity, or their distance from us. We may have to cross some threshold of development and/or preparation before we're deemed ready.

Given our track record if I were them no contact with earth would be permitted under pain of death. We are too unprepared for interstellar relations.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

So many questions will perhaps remain unanswered. We can only hope for the best for now.

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rOZZ
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We don't appear to be able to put ourselves in the place of extraterrestrials contemplating contact with Earth. How could we know what they, an entirely different species and culture, would view as adequate preparation on our part? It's possible that we could be harsher judges of ourselves than they would be, or more pessimistic about how we would cope with their presence.

If they could detect us then it is likely that we could detect them. It is unlikely that anyone else knows that we are here. It is possible that no one else will ever know. If we were beaming a message at promising directions in the Cosmos then maybe the chances would be greater of getting a return message.

Earth has been "radio bright" for a little over 100 years. For the first third of that time it was a pretty dull glimmer, but then rapidly got quite a bit brighter, first with the advent of national and international radio broadcasting, then with advent of television, radar. Realistically any feedback would come from a civilisation that had been performing a survey over many years observing this increase in activity, in much the same way as we are doing in SETI@Home. If we assume that for the first few years we were too dim to be observable, then the radius at which we could be observed, and a message sent back is 50 light years There are 1875 stars within 50 light years of earth, which is a pretty small number when considering the number of stars in the universe.

(Edit to correct number of stars - I looked at a list of "naked eye stars", not a full list)

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

On Mars, no proof yet, but scientists’ search for extraterrestrial life continues

The astrobiological truism is that life finds a way.

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rOZZ
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1875 stars within 50 light years of earth

Many of these are binary stars and many are not main sequence stars such as our Sun.

About 90 percent of those 1875 stars are on the main sequence. Many wide binary stars could have stable planets orbiting around either star, and close binaries could have such planets circling both. http://www.space.com/22437-main-sequence-stars.html
http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm

If they could detect us then it is likely that we could detect them. It is unlikely that anyone else knows that we are here. It is possible that no one else will ever know. If we were beaming a message at promising directions in the Cosmos then maybe the chances would be greater of getting a return message.

Make a new instrument, double the size of the largest radio telescope (Arecibo), and sensitivity goes up four times. Even the new 500 meter radio telescope China is building won't be able to match that for sensitivity. Double the size again and sensitivity goes up 16 fold. This doesn't seem too much to hope for from a civilization thousands, or millions of years more technically advanced than our own.

Many wide binary stars could have stable planets orbiting around either star

For intelligent, communicating (electronically) life to form, The orbit must be stable, the planet cannot wobble on its axis and the orbit must be nearly circular.

Many wide binary stars could have stable planets orbiting around either star

For intelligent, communicating (electronically) life to form, The orbit must be stable, the planet cannot wobble on its axis and the orbit must be nearly circular.

Intelligence is developed as a means to adapt to varying conditions. It might be that extreme variability of environment would make intelligence develop sooner.

The "life as we know it" concept must be our baseline in thinking about extraterrestrial life, but it is probably a mistake to think our environment is typical.

                                                                   Joe

but it is probably a mistake to think our environment is typical.

Or authentic for that matter...

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rOZZ
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Since the primal elements appear to be the same throughout the universe, many believe that intelligent life would be carbon-based and be very much like has happened on Earth.

I think that they would have to be more advanced than we are since I think it would take any signal from them tens of thousands of years to reach us.

It would be thrilling to find out if any of these suppositions is true or false.

It would be thrilling to find out if any of these suppositions is true or false.

+1

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rOZZ
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The "Men in Black" do exist. The "Men in Black" official name is the "Majestic 12" commissioned by Harry Truman. Its a Federal entity which means they are governed by the Taxpayers, secretly of course.

+1 for The "Men in Black".

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The "Men in Black" do exist. The "Men in Black" official name is the "Majestic 12" commissioned by Harry Truman. Its a Federal entity which means they are governed by the Taxpayers, secretly of course.

+1 for The "Men in Black".

+ 2 and only for that

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rOZZ
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The "Men in Black" do exist. The "Men in Black" official name is the "Majestic 12" commissioned by Harry Truman. Its a Federal entity which means they are governed by the Taxpayers, secretly of course.

Any evidence for this? Or is this another "I know someone on the inside"?

Interesting read...

http://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/AlienIntelligence.html

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rOZZ
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Thanks Julie, for the article.

When and IF we encounter an Alien, don't think any one of those things will apply.

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