Strategies in the Search for ET

Google Tech Talk
June 11, 2009

ABSTRACT

Presented by Seth Shostak, SETI Institute.

The scientific hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence is now into its fifth decade, and we still haven't uncovered a confirmed peep from the cosmos. For that matter, we still dont know if life at any level of intelligence exists beyond Earth. Could this mean that finding aliens, even if theyre out there, is a project for the ages one that might take centuries or longer?

The preferred technique used to hunt down cosmic company is to look for persistent radio signals or laser flashes from nearby star systems. But could this be a flawed strategy?

In this presentation, well consider some strategies that new SETI experiments might consider, as well as discuss why its possible that we might find evidence of sophisticated intelligence within only a few decades.

Seth is the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, California. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University, and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. For much of his career, Seth conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies, and has published approximately sixty papers in professional journals.

He has written several hundred popular magazine and Web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television. He lectures on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford and other venues in the Bay Area, and for the last six years, has been a Distinquished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also Chair of the International Academy of Astronautics SETI Permanent Study Group. Every week he hosts the SETI Institutes science radio show, Are We Alone?

Seth has edited and contributed to a half dozen books. He has also been the principal author of four: Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life, Life in the Universe (textbook with Jeff Bennett), Cosmic Company (with Alex Barnett), and, most recently, Confessions of an Alien Hunter.

Seth Shostak was hosted by Boris Debic.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• google
• tech
• talks
• seti
• extraterrestrials

[albamati]

next time, don't walk away from microphone. never

[lllwindrunner]

"Skeptics, who flatly deny the existence of any unexplained phenomenon in the name of 'rationalism,' are among the primary contributors to the rejection of science by the public When a so-called expert tells them the object must have been the moon or a mirage, he is really teaching the public that science is impotent or unwilling to pursue the study of the unknown."

~ Dr. Jacques Vallee, Astrophysicist

[sameer137]

@Zurround100 : I'm also against spending trillions on wars. But does that mean its okay to spend millions on a program that has infinitesimally low probability of success? And in any case, I don't think humans are ready to be visited by a more advanced alien civilization. We're barely out of the jungle yet and haven't learned how not to kill each other. Maybe the aliens have a fucking monolith orbiting Pluto or something and if we get there we'll find it.

[Zurround100]

@sameer137 Dude are you on crack? If you are American like me we have a government that spends TRILLIONS of dollars on wars in the middle east and "bailouts" for irresponsible banks, and you are complaining about spending just MILLIONS to MAKE CONTACT WITH EXTRATERRESTRIAL CIVILIZATIONS? What exactly makes you smarter than the SETI scientists?

[Zurround100]

we SERIOUSLY need to find a way of looking for alien life OTHER than the SETI listening to radio signals thing. Life in some form has existed here for 3.8 billion years yet life that can communicate with radios has existed here for less than a century. It is too tall an order, the percentage of worlds with radio communication would be extremely tiny compared to the worlds with some kind of life, maybe even intelligent (like we were before radio)

[gregtheapostle]

awesome video, thanks google

[avitalconnection]

He is acting ignorant, but truly he is only telling in a poor way, thy have had contact . This is fact, and he does not tell a good lie to tell the truth. He knows way more and cannot tell! It is classified and he would lose his pay. (Military--he must not have known Phil schneider..) All the bases underground and experiments.

[ajg5]

@sameer137 why when it is all privately funded?

[sameer137]

Boring talk. SETI is a huge waste of money and should be shut down.

[benthemiester]

@ceboym

There are organism here on earth that can go without even less food and water, and have no heart or lungs

We can try to imagine other life forms that are not bound by the same processes, but this is imagination, not science.

"DNA RNA have nothing to do with other being beyong this planet"

This is speculation.

"perhaps they dont need water"

Water is much more precious and necessary for life than you think. No Astrobiologist- Exobiologist believes that water is not necessary.

[ceboym]

@benthemiester DNA RNA have nothing to do with other being beyong this planet does it not occur to everyone that perhaps they have no lungs or hear? or they require only a gram of food per week ? why they are assuming that any being a million of million miles away from earth with a very advance technology pehaps a millions and million of years ahead of us? just think perhaps they dont need water at or maybe just a gram per or year who knows, space travel for humans needs what what need