No, its been answered many times, by a few posters, you just fail to accept them as advantages.....
It's not that I haven't accepted them, it's that you haven't listed any. No one has. Is it really that hard to show me where you listed these items? Apparently they're all over the place, so just pick on and list it here.
It's not an advantage knowing our place in the Universe, or knowing we are not alone????
In and of itself? I can't think of any. That doesn't mean there
aren't any, of course. Tell you what: Why don't you just go ahead and tell me what the benefit of knowing we are not alone is?
(and knowing we are not alone is not the same thing as knowing our place, for the record)
I did mention "brain dead"in my post somewhere I'm sure.
Self-diagnosing again? I thought we agreed you'd wait for the nurse next time.
I'm also sure life exists elsewhere, but also realising the strict mainstream attitude is "We don't Know ",
And for the umpteenth time: What is the benefit, exactly, of changing that "I don't know" to "Yes?" In what way does that change our society for the better?
I am enthusiastic enough to be of the same opinion as the reputable people of SETI in wanting to get that final verification on the issue. That's human nature...at least for scientists.
If you see the need to interprete that enthusiasm, as some sort of religious dogma, then I feel sorry for you.
Scientists can usually spell, so you probably shouldn't put yourself in that category until you've at least learned how to use a spell-checker.
And it should go without saying that "I'm enthusiastic" isn't any sort of an answer to the question of "What are the benefits of SETI research?"
And the inference that a fickle general public in knowing ETL does exist, would soon lose interest anyway, is somewhat of a furphy.
That must be directed at someone else, since I never inferred such a thing. What I
said was that we already strongly suspect that intelligent life exists elsewhere. The inference being that the conformation of such wouldn't be all that earth-shattering. I mean, it would be
cool, sure, but that's about it.
The Apollo program consisted of going to the Moon continually....same old, same old sort of thing, at least in the eyes of that fickle public.
Apples and oranges. There were tangible benefits to the Apollo program, both in terms of consumer technologies and economic growth, not to mention more scientists being developed by our school system. And lest we forget the
real driving force behind our space program: Russia.
SETI, if it does find evidence of life, then assures many more questions will need be asked, both of the nature of the origin of the signal, and its senders, and of course ourselves.
There job would be actually never ending.
I'm sure Shostak and his thief buddies would love that. As to the nature of the signal, that doesn't seem to be something we are even capable of determining. There could theoretically be thousands of signals received that we can't decipher. But even if we could, what are we supposed to do with them? How in the hell does one go about
answering any of those questions you mention above?
The direct effect on society is mainly in the philosophical area, similar to the discovery that the Earth is not the center of the solar system, or the galaxy, or the Universe.
We already don't think of ourselves as the center of anything. (Thought it's virtually impossible that intelligent life lives within the Solar System) But hey, at least you provided an answer. And if that's the best you got, then yes, I reject that as reason enough to keep funding SETI.
Again, if you are of the opinion that confirmation of life off this planet would not profoundly change the way we think, then all I can say in the nicest possible way, is I don't really believe you.
And in the nicest way possible, I would respond that I don't really care if you believe me. My position is that we already--all of us--assume that life exists elsewhere, intelligent life. We are starting to get a grasp on just how big the universe is, and nobody in their right mind believes that we're the only ones.
But don't let it worry you too much. As I have also said, it will continue with many reputable scientists supporting it.
I don't consider Seth Shostak to be reputable. He's outright lied about contact--or he's genuinely out of his mind. In either case, that's not what I'd consider reputable.
If you are concerned about the dollars it has cost you, then again, you should look at all government handouts and see where it does rank.
I consider SETI to be a government handout, so that's precisely where I'd expect to find it listed.
I have supported SETI vigorously, and will continue to do so to the best of my ability.
Your irrational diatribe will not change that, just as the never ending diatribe from some religious fanatics, will never deter scientists and others at the coal face of improving knowledge of oursleves and the Universe around us.
Irony!
