
“Baffling” “signal” “from HD 164595” is probably none of the above - dak1
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=80193
======
lotharbot
The comment I found most useful:

 _We believe a signal when

It is persistent. It appears at the same spot in the sky in multiple
observations.

It only comes from one spot in the sky.

If we reobserve the target, the signal is still there.

Things that add to believability

Its frequency/period/delay does not correspond to known interference.

Its Doppler Drift rate indicates that it is exactly frequency stable in the
frame of the center of mass of the solar system

Its properties (bandwidth, chirp rate, encoding) indicate intelligent origin.

Unfortunately the observing method used by the Russian team does not permit
many of these things to be determine. 1. The signal was not persistent. 2. The
signal was gone when the target was reobserved. 3. The signal
frequency/period/delay cannot be determined. 4. The signal Doppler drift rate
is unknown. 5. Many sources of interference, including satellites, are present
in the observing band._

------
RileyKyeden
[decoded alien signal from HD 164595] "...must be willing to relocate to San
Francisco."

~~~
whamlastxmas
"Sentient species from Gamma Quadrant working on next big thing to change the
galaxy - Facebook for Gilgameks. Seeking unpaid technical co-founder, offering
1% equity and all the blach you can marklar"

~~~
yongjik
> ...all the blach you can marklar

See, it's language like this that turns aspiring blachen in the Galaxy away
from the tech sector...

------
gp7
I find myself frustrated at researchers who get frustrated at non-researchers
being interested at all in their work. It's the same as the hypothetical
megastructure; all the news is quite clear: no satisfying explanation is
available. That's the news! That's interesting, even to people who decided not
to devote their lives to astronomy!

People jump to the alien angle because it's interesting. The few left with
that impression that aliens really are involved are likely not going to be
dissuaded by more technical reporting

~~~
drostie
The problem is that you don't want to be the kid who cried wolf, you don't
want to be endorsing crying wolf, and you in fact maybe even want to punish
the newspapers who cried wolf and said you were responsible for the cry.

SETI wants to have the ability to say later, "guys, we have a signal, _and
this time we think it 's real_." The best way to have that credibility is if
your members are the most likely to say "hey, I know the media is really
interested in this but we're really hard-nosed skeptical bastards who aren't
going to fool you, this is probably nothing." Then when those people actually
say "this is probably something!" you're like, "woah, even the hard-nosed
skeptical bastards are throwing in with it."

Depending on your perspective this is either undermined or enforced by the way
climate change has been approached. Climate change has been an indisputable
fact compelling so many hard-nosed skeptical climate scientists for so long,
that now the deniers no longer believe that the scientists are hard-nosed or
skeptical. So maybe this is misguided and "haters gonna hate" anyway. But I
can understand why it's the default attitude in a tenuous field like fusion
research or SETI.

~~~
Roritharr
Maybe the Fusion and SETI people can learn something from the AI/Machine
Learning people. Lots of funding is currently thrown at people who go around
telling people they can almost taste the Singularity...

------
drmpeg
Here's more coherent article.

[http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/a-seti-signal](http://www.seti.org/seti-
institute/a-seti-signal)

~~~
felideon
While informative your article left me thinking the conclusion was "we don't
know what it is", whereas with the OP the conclusion was "nothing to see here,
move along".

------
erelde
What is the user "bluestar" writing about in this thread?

I don't even understand the intent of the message.

[https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=80193&po...](https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=80193&postid=1813586)

~~~
fsiefken
I wouldn't take it seriously - see the other bluestar posts
[https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_user_posts.php?userid=...](https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_user_posts.php?userid=9772571)
\- just thoughts strung together, a train of thought, lost and found again...
sometimes. I like the style though. I think the comment is about the nature of
ETI communication and if it always fits our expectations (like bluestar's
comment clearly does not).

~~~
slowmovintarget
Makes me wonder if someone isn't pulling an elaborate prank in homage to
Brin's _Existence_... The aliens are communicating by posting on our forums
already.

------
bladedtoys
> There's also nothing that could distinguish it from a satellite passing
> through the telescope field of view

There is no tool that automatically rules this in or out as a possibility? I
would have thought it would be nearly trivial to build such a thing. Am I
missing something?

------
maaaats
What is the table with numbers they have in their signatures?

~~~
isoprophlex
Their individual contributions to various distributed computing efforts, most
likely.

------
test6554
history_channel_aliens_guy.jpg?caption=Dyson%20Sphere

------
okket

      ... decoding, please wait   ...
      ... analysing               ...
      ... complete                ...
      ... message content follows ...
    
      +++  U N S U B S C R I B E  +++
    

[https://xkcd.com/1675/](https://xkcd.com/1675/)

~~~
orliesaurus
One of those Paddy Cosgrave's emails?

or LinkedIN transactional emails?

~~~
misnome
> or LinkedIN transactional emails?

Certainly not the only one to think of LinkedIn;
[http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-
technology/signal...](http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-
technology/signal-from-distant-star-an-invitation-to-linkedin-20160830113017)

~~~
pavlov
In fact the LinkedIn invite seems to work as the "universal caption" for every
New Yorker comic ever:

[http://time.com/4046328/new-yorker-linkedin-
caption/](http://time.com/4046328/new-yorker-linkedin-caption/)

So it's clearly the pinnacle of human civilization. It makes perfect sense
that it's the message an alien intelligence would want to send us too.

~~~
VonGuard
That's a great modern twist on the original idea that every New Yorker cartoon
works then the text is changed to, "Christ, what an asshole."

------
redsummer
Assuming there is really a signal.... The sum of the numbers 164595 is 30. The
traditional 30th wedding anniversary gift is a pearl. I hereby name this
planet Pearl.

------
alabamamike
TL;DR:

Nothing to see here, move along.

~~~
SideburnsOfDoom
Probably not, but I would wait until the original authors have a look at this
rebuttal, and comment on whether it is on the mark. Scientific method.

------
skc
I somehow hate that he used the word "probably"

Takes the sting out of the piece.

