> it is an idea that can easily be checked, for astronomers are already sitting on the data that might contain these extraterrestrial messages.
I do not believe this. Whilst we may have vast amounts of data from the electromagnetic spectrum, there are only a handful of neutrino detectors on earth, and they have a very narrow research domain. Not to mention that as neutrinos are so unbelievably weakly interacting the quantity of neutrino interactions ever recorded is minuscule.
The viability of neutrino messaging seems... dubious. The fact that solid matter is almost perfectly transparent to neutrinos makes them a singularly bad candidate for information transmission. You'd need a pool of water the size of the solar system to detect enough of them capable of carrying a meaningful message.
On the other hand, there are large parts of the EM spectrum that are attenuated only marginally by inter-stellar gas and would be much more suitable.
Possibly, if it interacts at all. This is still a vanishingly small probability, even if high compared to other neutrino energies.
10^15eV is an astonishingly high energy. About 1,000 times as energetic as a proton in the LHC (which benefits from a gigantic rest-mass). To generate enough of them to be detected is seriously the realms of ultra-science fiction. Along the lines of turning Jupiter into a star or building a Dyson Sphere.
Over the course of my life, a little tidbit of wisdom I've learned, and not heeded enough - like right now - is the wisdom of shutting up.
As amazing as the prospect of communicating with and meeting a spacefaring race would be, I fear the consequences may lie somewhere between a repeat of the Louisiana Purchase and putting up a galactic 'Joe's Diner' sign.
The book "Killing Star" comes to mind. The aliens did not burn up tons of anti-matter to come and steal our stuff -- the came (in the book) because they had the MicroSoft business plan: destroy any competition. (do unto others before they do unto you)
Yeah, that book starts with a neutrino detector. The guy monitoring it is not a happy camper :-)
> the came (in the book) because they had the MicroSoft business plan: destroy any competition. (do unto others before they do unto you)
And why would anyone logically do unto anyone first? If you're not worried about people stealing your stuff (because it's so fantastically expensive to do that at interstellar distances), then there's really very little incentive to harm anyone.
The only thing I can think of is that you're worried another race might develop cheap enough FTL that they could then do an interstellar smash-and-grab, but compared to the time and expense of mounting your own campaign, it's probably faster and easier just to focus your resources on building your own FTL.
I'm not saying I agree with the philosophy, just that that's how the antagonists in the book thought: we're scared, we don't trust anyone, so snuff out any other possible competing space-faring species in the cradle.
Of course, it's entirely possible that it simply isn't practical to traverse interstellar distances at all, other than sending dormant robots on "the slow boat" to explore and "phone home" about what they found. More likely there are better ways to travel, but it might take more than 50 years on manned space travel to discover / devise them.
That was crazy. The USSR might not have been our equal, but they could have hardly been considered a push-over or "infant society". It's hard to see an outcome from that other than everybody loses.
That was definitely a case where tit-for-tat made a lot of sense.
How would this neutrino beam work, as there is no feasible material that can really focus these particles? Won't a neutrino emitter (the sort we can build) be essentially isotropic. Perhaps higher-energy neutrinos would have a higher interaction cross-section, making them somewhat more 'visible'.
Long wavelength radio (near 3-20Hz) may work just as well, with potentially a better data rate (still poor) than a neutrino-encoded emitter. A "neutrino emitter" would have no 'gain', while we may find ways to build really large and orientable radio antennas. You can build an antenna that can work on wavelengths larger than the earth with very long wires strewn out into outer space. Although below 3 or so Hz, space plasma becomes opaque and that would prevent transmissions.
'If an intergalactic version of "Yesterday in Parliament" showed up in such a trawl it might not demonstrate the existence of truly intelligent aliens. By contrast, coverage of the cricket on "Test Match Special" would surely be proof positive.'
I do not believe this. Whilst we may have vast amounts of data from the electromagnetic spectrum, there are only a handful of neutrino detectors on earth, and they have a very narrow research domain. Not to mention that as neutrinos are so unbelievably weakly interacting the quantity of neutrino interactions ever recorded is minuscule.
The viability of neutrino messaging seems... dubious. The fact that solid matter is almost perfectly transparent to neutrinos makes them a singularly bad candidate for information transmission. You'd need a pool of water the size of the solar system to detect enough of them capable of carrying a meaningful message.
On the other hand, there are large parts of the EM spectrum that are attenuated only marginally by inter-stellar gas and would be much more suitable.