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6 degrees of separation
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B Damm Send message Joined: 1 Mar 99 Posts: 10 Credit: 253,629 RAC: 0 |
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. |
Gordon Lowe Send message Joined: 5 Nov 00 Posts: 12094 Credit: 6,317,865 RAC: 0 |
The math is over my head, but I like your abacus avatar. Welcome to the forums! The mind is a weird and mysterious place |
David S Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 |
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. |
janneseti Send message Joined: 14 Oct 09 Posts: 14106 Credit: 655,366 RAC: 0 |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation 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 |
Admiral Gloval Send message Joined: 31 Mar 13 Posts: 20152 Credit: 5,308,449 RAC: 0 |
@David I had a audio book copy of the book years back. It is much more interesting to hear it in chacter. |
David S Send message Joined: 4 Oct 99 Posts: 18352 Credit: 27,761,924 RAC: 12 |
@David 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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