MetaFilter posts tagged with SETI

Is life on Mars a good sign for us?

rongorongo — Mon, 12 May 2008 08:11:33 -0800

The "Great Filter" is a hypothetical barrier to explain why civilisations are so unlikely to progress to the point of inter-stellar colonisation that we have not encountered any in 40 years of looking. Maybe humanity has already negotiated the filter - as some massive evolutionary improbability - or perhaps it lies in our future as an almost-certain threat to our existence? We should hold our breath as we look for evidence of life on Mars.

Nothing's gonna change my world?

monospace — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:05:21 -0800

Fears that malevolent aliens will tune into this week's broadcast of The Beatles' song "Across the Universe" have been voiced by scientists.

Far distant lands

Devonian — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:46:24 -0800

The first was found just fifteen years ago, after centuries of speculation. As of today, we're up to 227 and counting. Most are just wobbles in data, but we have pictures and exotica too. And we are looking for more (although some think we shouldn't look very hard and others are drawing some surprising conclusions). The science and technology of finding the most fascinating and elusive types demands some of the cleverest engineering, yet you can even have a go for yourself. Previously on Metafilter

OooohEeeeehOoooh

Lord_Pall — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 05:44:27 -0800

September 30th, 2002, scientists intercepted a 10 minute radio burst from the galactic center, 26,000 Light Years away. 77 minutes passed, and it repeated. And again. The signal repeated 5 times that evening.

Some think those signals are weird mysterious. Others think they are interesting mysterious.

The Hive Mind Discovers Aliens

blahblahblah — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 22:11:56 -0800

The number of communicating alien civilizations = R^* x f_p x n_e x f_l x f_i x f_c x L. The formula is the Drake Equation, and modern estimates range from several thousand to none but us. You can solve it yourself. What is your estimate of the number of alien civilizations out there?

'Alien' Art

jack_mo — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 10:03:32 -0800

'Alien' art Artist Jonathon Keats has made abstract paintings from SHGb02+14a, a radio signal discovered by SETI@home in 2003, then dubbed their best candidate yet for an attempt at contact by intelligent aliens. Keats is also returning the favour, broadcasting his work into space from the Judah L. Magnes Museum using CB radio.

Point to the drawing where the bad alien touched you

Robot Johnny — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:40:46 -0800

Aliens and Children. This website features a series of drawings made by children who were abducted by aliens for the purpose of creating a new race of alien/human hybrids. They successfully resisted the aliens by using a thought screen helmet which blocks the telepathic control aliens have over humans.

SETI's Seth Shostak on Intelligent Design

voltairemodern — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 07:41:52 -0800

Why SETI's search for intelligent extraterrestrial life is different from the work of proponents of Intelligent Design. An interesting bit of argumentation regarding the distinction between the simple signals searched for by SETI and the complex signals used in arguments for ID.

If I could talk to the aliens...

blahblahblah — Tue, 18 Oct 2005 06:54:34 -0800

Call the aliens using first intentional intergalactic communication system. Just $3.99 a minute, though prospective callers should know that they aren't really breaking new ground. Do you need inspiration about what historic message to send? The first commercial telegraph message was the poetic "What hath God wrought?" The first telephone call was the famous "Come here Watson, I want to see you." The first email, rather boringly, announced the availability of email. Stuck on the first word? Follow the path of Edison, who coined the word "hello" as a telephone greeting over Alexander Graham Bell's "Ahoy Ahoy." (Audio version) Just hope that you don't receive a collect call in return.

Where was my kaboom?

loquacious — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 19:44:31 -0800

[x] ok to transmit this posting into outer space (via space.craigslist.org)

Do your part

swerdloff — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 07:26:26 -0800

Fight AIDS @home is a valuable resource for your "wasted" computer cycles. Instead of search the universe for extraterrestrial life, shouldn't we be searching our world for cures to our own diseases?

ET Could Hack SETI.

jasonspaceman — Mon, 24 Nov 2003 09:43:00 -0800

ET Could Hack SETI. SETI, which uses down time on the computers of thousands of volunteers to search for intelligent signals from space, has a potential problem—besides information, a broadcast to us from an alien intelligence could also carry a computer virus. Leonard David writes in the main link's space.com article that physicist Richard Carrigan (who works here) takes it seriously. He thinks SETI should figure out how to decontaminate any signals it receives.

SETI @ Home

elpapacito — Tue, 18 Mar 2003 09:53:08 -0800

Nearly 4 years ago, Seti@Home project started.Today, thanks to millions of CPU and loyal users, after picking 200 interesting signals out of a few billions, they have started rescanning the most interesting ones at Araceibo. One step closer to ET.

can a screensaver find the cure?

greengrl — Wed, 05 Feb 2003 10:00:32 -0800

Oxford University is looking to take advantage of distributed computing to find a cure for smallpox. Much like SETI@Home, the Smallpox Protection Project and Oxford's effort to cure cancer rely on individual computer users to download and run screensaver software to crunch numbers in an effort to speed up processing of large amounts of data. How will this kind of initiative impact science in the future? Can we, by volunteering our processors, be part of the quest for a cure?

salmacis — Wed, 14 Nov 2001 02:33:39 -0800

Have aliens answered our message? In 1974, as part of the SETI project, an encoded message was sent from the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. On the 20th August, near the Chilbolton radio telescope in Hampshire, England, an amazing crop circle was discovered that appeared to answer the message....

Sal Amander — Thu, 01 Mar 2001 11:47:04 -0800

Fiber cut silences SETI@Home. In case you were wondering why you can't upload a data unit. It's supposed to be fixed today.

Steven Den Beste — Thu, 03 Aug 2000 14:20:15 -0800

Science on the cheap! Now this is cool. (more inside)

muta — Fri, 05 May 2000 13:55:51 -0800

Popular Power has released version 0.1.1 of its Worker software. It works kind of like SETI@home, except that the computing power can be organized to work on things like Influenza vaccine research, and they plan to compensate you for the cycles they use.