Is SETI being presumptuous?

Question

Is SETI being presumptuous to assume that if there are any ET's anywhere in space, that they have any equipment compatible with ours in that they can receive our signals? They could be so advance that our equipment is so antique that they have never heard us, or vice versa, we can't hear them because our equipment is not design to receive their methods of communication. So after decades of trying to make that one contact, why haven't we? Does this make any sense or is there some other reason?

Answer 1

The better question is, do we really want to make contact with an alien race? Do we want them to come here? How long would it take for even a peaceful race to completely destroy our civilization? Remember the native Americans when the Pilgrims first came here. The more advanced race always destroys the inferior.



But to answer your question, An "Alien" race would communicate in a totally different way from us. It is unlikely we would even recognize their signals if we received them. Or they ours, for that matter. It would be like swimming in the ocean and hearing a few whale notes in the distance. If you didn't know what a whale was, would you think it was an animal or simply the "sounds of the ocean"?

Answer 2

To have tried and failed, is better than to have never even attempted.



Earth may be engulfed in a sea of signals coming from various parts of our galaxy, or even, the Universe. To say that we are being presumptuous, ignores the facts that we might not yet be pointed in the right area of the space around us, or, that we have not yet evolved the technology necessary to intercept and interpret what ET information is looming above our heads.



Yet SETI shouldn't be our ONLY reliable (hopeful) means of finding out if there is life elsewhere in the Universe.



If we are ready to accept the existence of Black Holes just by looking at their effects on objects that exists in close proximity to them, then we should apply these same sort of techniques for detecting advanced civilizations.



It's great that the search has begun with SETI, but, it doesn't have to end with them.

Answer 3

A null result by SETI simply proves that it is unlikely that alien civilizations with the ability to put out signals in a certain frequency of the E+M spectrum exist within a certain region of space and time.



It's still an interesting answer.

Answer 4

The whole idea of SETI is a rather romantic one. I would love it if someday soon a super civilisation out there does get in touch with us, if only to tell us how awfully silly we are being to think that the primitive hardware, such as that we have invented, is somehow cosmically compatible to anything else that might exist out there.

Humans have progressed little from apelike creatures to the present humanoids. We have this awful enthnocentric, pre - Gallilean notion that we are at the centre of the galaxy.

We are too tied to the "body" and keeping it alive rather than exploring the outer limits of consciousness.

I think humans are a blight on this planet. We should push

our consciousness into massed arrays of supercomputers

that will continue experimentation and possible future contact with other entities in the distant reaches of space.

The Human Being as a species has failed and should collectively be put to sleep. Machines are the next stage.

Humans do not cut it with higher intelligences anyway.

What on earth would we talk to them about? Super Tuesday? Einstein? The stock exchange?

Please!!!

Answer 5

The odds of receiving (and understanding) a signal from another intelligent civilization somewhere in the Milky Way is astronomical. But then science only makes progress by searching. It never hurts to look. You never know what you might find.

Answer 6

It is probably the best available source of looking for other intelligent life sources in the Galaxy. Although being it would take 100,000 light years,( any moving object traveling the speed of light in one year for 100,000 thousand years), just to recieve a signal from the other end of the milkyway, It probably will never occur. Your question is really also the answer. Our best sources of technology are just never going to be good enough to ever accomplish these goals. It is much bigger than humans, It is reserved for gods.

Answer 7

SETI is designed to RECEIVE signals, not TRANSMIT them



chances are...... as they evolve they will still use certain waves to communicate for certain situations.



different waves are used in different situations.

we have LIDAR nowdays but does that mean we trashed RADAR? no.



we can use light to transmit signals, but have we dropped radio waves? no



anyways, so what if they're presumptuous..... at least they are being proactive instead of denying possibility.

Answer 8

The aim of the SETI program is *not* to find evidence of advanced civilizations. The aim of SETI is to find evidence of *any* life beyond Earth.

Answer 9

The surest sign that there is inteligient life out there is that it hasn't tried to contact us.

Answer 10

I wouldn't call it presumptuous. I would call it naive.