Assuming ET’s output the same technological garbage like radio waves as we do is such a short sighted view of the universe. Assuming alien life is talking on Walkie-talkies or sending radio transmissions between ships like it’s 1944 is simply dumb science. We should invest the money into better methods of observation and discovery rather than AWS data lakes.
No cloud! Too expensive! (my opinion comes being a brief stint as a contributor in data taking for the CMS detector at the LHC. Accelerator ran, threw off data, which went into storage for ad hoc analysis by project collaborators; all data released into the public domain and freely available)
The real problem with previous efforts for finding extraterrestrial life wasn't the technology, it was the lack of competition plus the open ended and uncertain goal. A seed rounds of $50M should be given out to two groups of competing researchers: One group tries to find evidence of extraterrestrial life, and the other group tries to find evidence of the abominable snowman in the Tibetan mountain ranges. The first group to make a discovery takes home the remaining $100M and settles the SETI vs. Yeti debate once and for all.
A standardized robotic platform for automated solar system image collection- high resolution images of every single surface in the solar system. They would operate and report back any unexpected features over the next 100 years.
“The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.”
The much more likely expanation of the Fermi Paradox is that even if intelligent life is fairly common, the universe is so big (and expanding exponentially), that there simply is no way for these populations to notice each other much less visit each other.
From rational point of view (history of Indians, general history) and philosophical point of view (great filter) it is safer to keep quiet.
A lot of scientists got killed by their own inventions. And active Seti should be banned since very few can bring doom on others - without even asking them if they agree for that. Did anyone from the active seti community ask for consent? Nope. They know most people would be against it. UN and governments should be too. Although if they were some assholes would start doing it just in spite.
are they famous last words? are there specific examples of indigenous people that were decimated due to actively seeking out contact? (genuinely asking, not super familiar with the history here, though i'm under the vague impression that most contact has not been active in this sense)
> Assuming ET’s output the same technological garbage like radio waves as we do
That's a very tiny window in time, and after that the bulk of the comms goes optical or to satellites using far lower power levels than your typical radio or TV station. Ironically the first thing ET might be able to hear and what we might be able to hear from ET's is "CQ CQ ... ".
