
NASA’s $8B plan to find extraterrestrial life - silverdrake11
https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/inside-nasas-daring-8-billion-plan-to-finally-find-extraterrestrial-life/
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hackuser
The narrative, the drama, of the heroic rich person with single-minded vision
is getting old to me. There's even a TV show about a rich guy taking over a
police district in a major city - those working-class people who've been
working on these problems for their careers are all fools; they need a rich
guy and his money (not taxpayer money from their community) to tell them what
to do.[0] There are other stories.

Remember that for the Apollo missions, it was a drama of a brave nation
working together against the odds, and humble engineers and astronauts.

I also think that this glorification of the wealthy, and the unspoken
assumption that it's a sign of merit, is unhealthy for society. I think
judging people by their bank book is inaccurate, and pigeon-holes people and
ideas into an economic class.

Finally, the less that's paid for by taxes, the more power is shifted to the
wealthy. Do we want important decisions made democratically, by taxpayers, or
by a few with money. Who gets to say how that new park will look, what medical
research we invest in, etc. - the citizens or one guy paying for it?

[0] Maybe an unfair characterization; I've only seen the ads.

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scrumper
Who is the heroic rich person with a vision in this story? I read a story
about a determined congressman. Is this comment on the right story?

~~~
T-A
Subheading: "A congressman, a billionaire movie director, and an unparalleled
mission of discovery."

The billionaire is revealed near the end, to keep you reading: "For this
mission, he has a secret weapon. During the briefings at JPL, Culberson
brought a friend with him, the famed Director James Cameron."

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Entangled
Invisibility is a stage in life evolution. As predation dominates the
universe, life evolves to become invisible from other predators. So we humans
are in a stage of evolution that we can be seen, and I consider extremely
stupid flashing our position to most advanced forms of life that will
anihilate us in a heartbeat.

So our only hope is to find life that is barely advanced, just like algae in a
watery planet, or find life that's more advanced than us and say goodbye to
our existence. Just like aborigins from America flashing lights to european
explorers. We would be extremely lucky to find life in the 100,000 year span
that takes species to gain conciousness and develop invisibility. Not that we
can't just that's extremely improbable, and dangeorous for there are also more
advanced predators watching. That's why we can't find them, they're invisible.

That's my hypothesis.

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Cookingboy
I highly recommend the Three Body Problem trilogy. The second book "Dark
Forest" exactly deals with why the universe _seems_ so barren as far as
intelligent life goes. The theory is that all intelligent species make the
following assumptions:

1\. All other intelligent species have the potential to be hostile. Since
there are large number of races in the universe, it's guaranteed that there
are hostile intelligent species.

2\. One is highly unlikely to be or remain the most technologically advanced
race in the universe. Even a currently inferior race can suddenly become an
existential threat after technology explosion.

3\. All intelligent races prioritize their own survival and have reached the
first 2 conclusions.

So combining all 3 of those assumptions, one can see the logical step is to
assume the universe is a terrifying dark forest filled with dangerous animals.
For any resident in such forest it's natural to conceal its own presence, and
if anybody reveals their location, they will be immediately eliminated by a
more technologically advanced race to insure they will not become a threat.
This is true doesn't matter how technologically advanced a race is because
there will always be a bigger fish out there somewhere that is trying to do
the same thing.

In fact, I can't think of any reasons why we shouldn't take this approach. I'd
love to find the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, but I think we
are being extremely foolish broadcasting our location to the universe.

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partycoder
What if we decide to invade what seems to be small civilization, and it turns
out to be a colony of a much larger civilization or alliance? What if it's a
honeypot?

Maybe the best strategy is to make as many allies as possible expecting that
some day that would increase the odds of surviving a hostile contact with a
other civilizations or other threats...

Our understanding of life and the universe is limited. Our current version of
the Drake equation is really off, and we do not have an answer to the Fermi
paradox. Collaborate or compete are usually context sensitive decisions. The
best thing to do is bounded to our understanding of game theory, which is a
field full of open questions.

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Myrth
Drake equation always bothered me when used in argument of contact
probability, because it doesn't take into account time. Yes, there might have
been billions of extraterrestrial civilizations, but that doesn't mean there
are currently ones that 1) already can communicate or receive EM waves, and 2)
not yet deprecated use of EM waves. Oh and there's also speed of light issue.

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saganus
Lately I've been thinking... however improbable this is, what if we are the
first intelligent species in the Universe?

I mean, not saying that because I think we are special, but just wondering
what would it mean if we were "the first" (for some relatively-local value of
first)?

Are there any hard sci-fi stories about this? or has anyone given any thought
about it? or would it be a very boring outcome?

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M_Grey
I think it ends up being a relatively boring outcome, because then it would
very strongly imply that some previous step between organic sludge, and
intelligent tool users is _very_ _VERY_ unlikely to occur. It would be good
news in a sense, because it would imply nothing sinister about our future by
comparison to past species, but it would be lonely.

In the best estimate, I suppose you've seen that version of humanity in the
various "Ancients" or "Proteans" and other first races in sci-fi.

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XorNot
Conversely I've always wondered what the effect on the zeitgeist would be if
we discovered the ruins of an obviously advanced civilisation.

Like an Earth-like habitable zone planet who's atmosphere was heavily
contaminated with fission byproducts.

~~~
sand500
It would probably enforce the idea of The Great Filter[1]. It would also show
that it's not uncommon for civilizations to develop similarly to humans. I
would argue that the concept of war is a very human concept and doesn't
necessarily have to apply to alien live which developed completely
independently of Earth life.

1\.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter)

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exlurker
Let's hope they find some trace of intelligent life somewhere out in space,
'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

(Mangled Monty Python)

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bostonpete
> A MacBook Pro operating at full capacity, 24 hours a day, would consume
> about that much energy in a month.

What a bizarre restatement of its battery capacity -- I wouldn't think MacBook
Pro power consumption is something people have an intuitive understanding of.
Why not an iPhone? Or a light bulb? Or just compare it to the battery capacity
of devices deployed on Mars in the past? Seems like the writer just looked
around his desk for a good comparison and his eyes settled on the device that
he happened to be typing on.

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radarsat1
But how many libraries of congress does it consume? The people want to know.

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julienchastang
For those interested in this topic, I recommend "Astrobiology: A Very Short
Introduction" by David Catling. Catling details nine celestial bodies in the
solar system that could potentially harbor life.

