earths stelite and radio broadcasting waves through space?

Discussion in 'Free Thoughts' started by EmptyForceOfChi, Jan 22, 2006.

  1. EmptyForceOfChi Banned Banned

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    would the satelite waves and radio waves reach out of our galaxy or solar system in the far distant future?, and if alien spacecraft far out there could pick them up,


    would any alien races even risk comming here? seeing all of that violent TV what would they think of us?,

    i would personally think "fuck going there"



    peace
     
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  3. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    You need to read more sci fi, dude! That was a rather popular plotline for stories about fifty years ago.

    Assuming that life and civilization are not unique, then there are probably lots of "folks" out there to pick up our transmissions. The problems with this scenario are:

    1. The attentuation of signal strength with distance renders the signals less intelligible. We've been broadcasting for about a century, which means by definition that our earliest signals have traveled about a hundred light-years. How much energy is left in them after spreading out in a sphere two hundred LY in diameter? How much interference have they encountered? Is a technology possible that could even detect, much less decode, such a weak signal? Our SETI projects imply that we believe we can do it, but are we right?

    2. The density of solar systems. There are only 50 stars within 15 light-years of us. That means there should be about 10,000 stars within 100 LY. How many of them have planets? How many of those planets have life? How many lifeforms have become sentient, built civilizations, and have radio wave receivers?

    3. The timing. Many of our fellow Earthlings believe that our civilization will self-destruct before we pump very many more signals into the ether. Even if we don't do it to ourselves, nature can step in at any time with a disease, weather pattern, or a big asteroid. Folks on other planets run the same risk. Moreover, it took a long time for civilization to arise on this planet. If it's a few thousand years later somewhere else, those folks can't hear us yet. How many of our civilizations coexist at the same time, so we can pick up each other's signals?

    4. Finally, the economics of space travel. Sidestepping the question of whether anyone will find a way to travel faster than light, it's still going to be expensive to travel fast enough to be practical. Generation starships, yatta yatta. Whatever, do you see anybody on this planet right now who would commit the resources for manned space exploration? We've got people who think that just going back to the moon will take food out of the mouths of starving babies in Bangla Desh. What level must a civilization achieve before space travel becomes affordable?

    Bottom line: Anyone who could actually consider coming here has some really advanced technology. They detected and interpreted our signals, and they have spacecraft that can cover interstellar distances quickly enough to be worth the trouble.

    These people are way ahead of us and probably have nothing to fear from our military technology. As to whether they'd like to study us up close, that's a different question. If we were in that position you know we'd do it!
     
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