6 degrees of separation

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Profile B Damm
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Message 1799416 - Posted: 29 Jun 2016, 18:26:09 UTC

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

It is difficult to get funding for SETI. It would be even more difficult to get funding for a transmission project.

Anyway, let's try to design a transmission system. We want to transmit a message to ET1 at the distance 1 and ET2 at the distance 2.
Sending the message to ET1 requires 1 unit of energy. Sending the message directly to ET2 requires 4 units of energy.
Sending the message to ET1 and having them passing on the message to ET2 will only require 2 units of energy.
The message might eventually reach the planet where they have the cheapest energy in our galaxy and the message might be passed on to the Andromeda galaxy.
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Profile Gordon Lowe
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Message 1799468 - Posted: 29 Jun 2016, 21:31:02 UTC - in response to Message 1799416.  

The math is over my head, but I like your abacus avatar. Welcome to the forums!
The mind is a weird and mysterious place
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David S
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Message 1799502 - Posted: 29 Jun 2016, 23:00:15 UTC

1. Are we really sure we want to send a message to any ET? What if they turn out to be hostile?

2. Reminds me a bit of the Star Trek novel Kobayashi Maru. In the "present time" there is a minor crisis involving a crippled shuttlecraft. In between working on the problem, there are flashbacks where Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov each tell the story of when they did the Maru simulation at Starfleet Academy. In Sulu's case, he also tells about a diplomacy exercise in which he is a planet which does not have warp travel and only has radio (as we currently have), not subspace communication. This is simulated by him being confined to his seat in the classroom and having to write notes for all his outbound communications. When he wants to ask the Federation Council for assistance, he has to write them a note and then write another note to someone passing by him asking them to deliver the first note.


(If you're interested... To relieve his boredom while everyone is ignoring him, he folds paper cranes and eventually folds one of his notes into a crane and tosses it in the general direction of the Federation. It ends up in the lap of Vulcan, who is only allowed to respond to one communication every half hour, which restarts every time a new communication is received even if he hasn't responded to the last one yet. The other Federation members get mad at him for this. Dejected, he writes "This is a primitive thermonuclear device. 3... 2... 1... BOOM!" and folds it into a crane, but doesn't throw it. At the end of the exercise, the instructor credits him as the only person who worked to solve his problem instead of getting into petty bickering and says the rest of them are lucky he didn't resort to terrorism.)

(If you're really interested, Kirk explains exactly how he beat the no-win scenario on the third try; Scotty defeated one wave of Klingons with a technical trick he knew would work in the computer simulation, but that he also knew would not work in the real world because he was the engineer who had proven it wouldn't; and Chekov tells about another scenario where he completely missed the point -- teamwork -- and just showed what an efficient assassin he could be, whereupon he is crestfallen to hear that his idol Kirk got through the scenario without anyone "dying" at all.)

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

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Message 1799506 - Posted: 29 Jun 2016, 23:09:43 UTC - in response to Message 1799416.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

It is difficult to get funding for SETI. It would be even more difficult to get funding for a transmission project.

Anyway, let's try to design a transmission system. We want to transmit a message to ET1 at the distance 1 and ET2 at the distance 2.
Sending the message to ET1 requires 1 unit of energy. Sending the message directly to ET2 requires 4 units of energy.
Sending the message to ET1 and having them passing on the message to ET2 will only require 2 units of energy.
The message might eventually reach the planet where they have the cheapest energy in our galaxy and the message might be passed on to the Andromeda galaxy.

My guess is that you have watched this TV show.
Jorden runt på 6 steg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorden_runt_p%C3%A5_6_steg
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Admiral Gloval
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Message 1799520 - Posted: 30 Jun 2016, 0:16:26 UTC

@David
I had a audio book copy of the book years back. It is much more interesting to hear it in chacter.

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David S
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Message 1799688 - Posted: 30 Jun 2016, 16:40:58 UTC - in response to Message 1799520.  

@David
I had a audio book copy of the book years back. It is much more interesting to hear it in chacter.

I'd like to hear that.
David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

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Message boards : Cafe SETI : 6 degrees of separation


 
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