[reader50]

...but what would it say? With RC5 we have a general idea of what the encoded message is. With Folding@Home, we again have a general idea and even know the end state, the object is to fill in the in-between details.

But what about SETI? The object here is probably not to find a message directed at us, but to eavesdrop on regular communications signals. After all, any sane & paranoid race will not send intentional broadcasts out to whoever is listening. We have only sent out two intentional messages ourselves.

One radio broadcast was sent towards the Hercules Cluster, it will get there in about 70,000 years if I recall correctly. The other is a plaque & recording on one of the Pioneer probes - expected to pass near other star systems beginning in several thousand years. And it's not going to pass inside any planetary systems as far as the course can be projected. Looks like we are playing it very safe, much like everyone else.

If a signal is found, it probably will not be intended for us, it will have to be decoded. So here are a few possibilities that I thought up. Items inside <tags> are translated to human equivalents.
__________________
Fleet217 to SupplyBase64 Requesting <beets> and <potatoes> for punishment duty. Large supply needed quickly, the <enlisted men> are drinking excessively.
__________________
"Surrender at once, rebels, or we will send in squads of <rock musicians> to drive your population insane!"
__________________
"My poor engines, they need an overhaul because the <Captain> dinna know how to avoid the <gas peddle>. Oh, and send some more <Scotch> too."
__________________
"We're rich, we're filthy rich! Don't tell anyone, we have found the mother lode of rare <complex hydrocarbon polymers/plastics>. The foolish locals have no idea what the stuff is worth, they are happy to sell it by the <ton> in exchange for inexpensive fusion reactors!"
__________________
"And now, yet another replay of Guillotine's Island. We promise no unexpected survivors this time, it really is the final episode. Stay tuned while these <important messages> play."
__________________
Fleet217 to SupplyBase64 Cancel request for <beets> and <potatoes>. The <enlisted men> have discovered distillation. Substitute <broccoli>. Large supply needed quickly.
__________________
Bank of <Rigel> authorizing transfer of 3.6 billion <dineros> from the account of Primitive Worlds Development Inc. to the account of <Military Starships R Us>. Authorization is confirmed in relation to pending real estate acquisition in the <Solar> system.
__________________
"To my dear and <loving? evil? distracted?> parents. I wish to come home from this <torture facility? 'boarding school' probably - translator > immediately. They require us to do <homework?> even though we are living in the <dormitory> rather than at home. If you do not send a starline ticket soon, I fear being <brainwashed> until I start liking <productive career> work."

[ 06-11-2001: Message edited by: reader50 ]

[zac4mac]

Good Monday morning grins,

Thanks Reader...

I personally doubt we will find anything, but we look anyway. It's not that I think we are the only "sentient" beings in the universe, just the only ones technologically advanced to the point of radio at this time/space. Depending on how long civilizations last before they are wiped out by nature or themselves, there may not be a lot of overlap. Look at the news, I don't give Terran humanity a big chance of lasting millions/billions of years.
This is a good testbed for parallel processing techniques, important for the future.
It would be a cool side-note to find something. Even Vegan I Love Lucy reruns.

Between RC5 and S@H, I like to know my "toys" are doing something useful once in a while.

Z

[Bockie]

Or we could discover the alien equivalent of the TeleTubbies and Vanilla Ice!

[Treky]

Zac4mac, what makes you think radio is so imporant to an advanced civilization? We still could be the primative ones. It's possible that most alien species advance from smoke signals to interphasic atomic communications without all the messy intermediate steps that we humans have taken.

[Treky]

Zac4mac, what makes you think radio is so imporant to an advanced civilization? We still could be the primative ones. It's possible that most alien species advance from smoke signals to interphasic atomic communications without all the messy intermediate steps that we humans have taken.

[zac4mac]

Treky-
SETI is using a radio telescope.
I'm not saying we are ultimately advanced because of that, just that it's our current mode of long range communication and if there are better ways, we don't know them yet..
I'm quite sure we, as a civilization, qualify as "primitive". We still kill each other.
Radio is the first technology we have discovered to allow distant communication and we have only been using it a little over a hundred years. Compared to the billions of years the universe has been in existence(most believe), that's a pretty small time window to search for a particular technology's use by other civilizations.