
Broadcasting from Deep Space, a Mysterious Series of Radio Signals - dnetesn
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/10/science/radio-bursts-universe-astronomy.html
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hliyan
Found this article to be a little more substantial: [https://www.seti.org/new-
fast-radio-burster-why-excitement](https://www.seti.org/new-fast-radio-
burster-why-excitement)

This bit is particularly interesting:

 _But you can safely bet that aliens are not the cause of FRBs. Why? The
bursters are seen all over the sky, that’s why. The same sort of signal is
coming from galaxies that are generally separated by billions of light-years.
So how could aliens organize so much of the universe to engage in broadcasting
the same sort of signal?_

~~~
Lucent
I've long held an unsupported belief that life anywhere in any form would
"converge" upon only a few interesting things left to do after having mastered
rearranging atoms and forces in any configuration they desire.

Not only is there likely an ideal, optimized way of sending information long
distances, I suspect there also a very limited number of things a matrioshka
brain would care to broadcast or receive, like the values of some fundamental
constant.

Saying "hi" for fun to other civilizations isn't even something we do on our
own planet with our own people. We only talk to people for specific reasons,
even if we're unaware of those reasons. We'll go out of our way to avoid a
homeless person's greeting rather than risk learning something about/from him.

~~~
brox
Perhaps the life forms with long-term success have learned that it is not
prudent to broadcast your location; the smaller the chance of other
civilisations knowing about your existence the better.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Yeah, because living your entire existence in hiding, and instantly
annihilating anyone else you come across just in case, is totally a worthwhile
way to exist. Do you win if your civ makes it as far as the iron star era?

~~~
PinkMilkshake
What do you mean by 'worthwhile'? And what would worthwhile be to an alien?

For all we know, the universe is jam packed full of Predator-like aliens who
are the dominant species on their planet specifically because their society is
built around dominating everything they can.

~~~
AnIdiotOnTheNet
Well that is a fair point, we only have one example of a species capable of
building civilizations to work from. It seems unlikely, however, that we are
going to end up being particularly unique in that class.

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JohnStrangeII
I've read several times about this signal, but none of the stories come with
an audio signal or any kind of data, no matter how raw or processed or cleaned
up.

But there are plenty of sources for the Wow signal, for example.

Do scientists keep this kind of data secret nowadays?

~~~
wcoenen
Here is the first paper (from 2007) reporting a fast radio burst of
extragalactic origin:
[https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301](https://arxiv.org/pdf/0709.4301)

See page 12.

Since then there have been many papers about FRBs. Typically you can find them
on arxiv.

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user234683
Bit of a coincidence that this article was also posted here regarding the loop
quantum gravity prediction of black hole to white hole transitions, which is
one theoretical explanation:
[https://physics.aps.org/articles/v11/127](https://physics.aps.org/articles/v11/127)

>Models suggest that several observed astrophysical phenomena could be related
to the black-to-white-hole transition [8]. Among these are fast radio bursts
(FRBs) and certain high-energy cosmic rays

However, since this particular FRB case is one that repeats (most of them are
one-time events), I'm wondering if this theory still applies. Black holes seem
like too "clean" of an object to have diverse behavior.

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andrewstuart
As they say on PBS SpaceTime "It's never aliens."

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wcoenen
There was an interview with Shriharsh Tendulkar of the CHIME team (experiment
mentioned in the article) on the Event Horizon youtube channel:
[https://youtu.be/7JIXhDQ38zk](https://youtu.be/7JIXhDQ38zk)

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1024core
> pops of low-frequency radiation, emitting more energy than the sun does in a
> day

That's an insane amount of energy.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
That's an insane amount of energy to waste if you're trying to do something
useful with it.

Which implies that the energy being used is even more insanely huge and these
massive bursts are the relatively trivial overspill, or that it's a natural
phenomenon which doesn't care about efficiency.

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dubrocks
Just because scientists can’t understand something doesn’t make it
“mysterious.”

~~~
CamperBob2
Hmm. What would be a better definition for "mysterious," if not "something not
understood?"

~~~
air7
I think a common distinction is that a mystery is something that isn't just
unknown, but something that's not possible to be known. Beyond human ability
to know. It's used in religious contexts.

