Should SETI Call it Quits?

Here's an article that proposes the question "Should SETI give up?" I personally don't think so, since they've only searched a small percentage of the stars. Plus, we're not even sure they're searching for the right kind of signal. I say keep going and try to think outside the box as to the type of message carrier to look for.

Anyway, here's the link:
www.space.com...

Yes, waste of money. No need for a reason, they have never found anything and we already know there is ET life.

If they ever found anything it would be hidden by are government. SETI was a noble example of at least we tried.

Well, part of the reason that they haven't "hung it up" is because I think it's been much more fruitful than anyone even realizes. I often talk to people who say, "Ah, there isn't anything out there. We should just shut NASA and the whole space institution down." Really?

Here is how I feel. Despite the fact that there is a lot of pork barrel spending going on, I don't think that space exploration is one of them. I don't think we are spending billions of dollars on space exploration for no reason. I think that our government is quite aware that there are other civilizations out there. Alas, they never will tell us... The only way we will ever know is if these other civilizations decide to reveal themselves to us.

Kepp fighting the good fight with SETI, its things like SETI that have the potential to change the world. Little inovated steps like this is showing us things, in the last 10 years weve made great progress with all space projects and other things to do with it.

keep with SETI, the day you close it is the day it could have been the day before we made contact.

ProTo

Kill Ronald McDonald and divert his advertising budget to SETI!

Vive SETI, and all who's career's may of been overlooked.. They are a hard working bunch.

No way! SETI needs to improve. We shouldn't just shut it down. And there's always a chance that they've discovered things and kept quiet about it (for whatever reason).

[edit on 6-3-2008 by GrayFox]

Thats one of those deals where if you quit you will never know if there is a signal or not.

You just never know. I say continue, I like my seti screensaver.

I love Seti and will never give it up

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
Here's an article that proposes the question "Should SETI give up?" I personally don't think so, since they've only searched a small percentage of the stars. Plus, we're not even sure they're searching for the right kind of signal. I say keep going and try to think outside the box as to the type of message carrier to look for.

I say they should look for another 1,000 years, improving and developing their techniques, exploring new avenues. If at the end of the 1,000 years they don't find anything, I think maybe then they should vote on whether to either give up or keep looking for another, oh, 500 years. At which time they should vote again.

The point being, there's no deadline here.

I analyzed radio signals for SETI for about three years.
I thought it was a lot of fun. I stopped doing this about two years
ago. The thing about it is if I would just happen to be the one
lucky person to actually decipher a "real" signal from outer space,
I would get the credit for it, alongwith SETI of course.

I may start doing the data blocks again in the future, and I would
hope that SETI doesn't give up the ship. I hope they can continue
getting funding for their work, and would hope they get a lot more
for their efforts. However, we have to spend bazillions on wars and
bombs, so I won't hold my breath. Anyway, it was a log of fun
working for them.

ZOOMER

I for one want SETI to ba all it can be. With the advancements with the newer and more spacial covering arrays, with the advent of finding out that travellien the speed of light may have insight's to the speeds of radio transmitted sound on different frequency and bands, it deserves to be around for as long as it takes.

I read the article posted by the OP of this thread, there was one thing that really made the true sense of the whole ordeal of Seti existing and still remaing under operations:

Homo sapiens is the best the cosmos has to offer is egregious self-adulation.

There is more out there, and if there are civilizations that have only advanced as we have in the time we have been here, they are probably looking for us as well....IMHO....

"Long live SETI!!"....

SETI is a joke, how many times the Greys have landed and abducted Humans?
the Spacecraft are so advanced either they're "invisible" to radar or they're undetectable

Originally posted by antmax21
Yes, waste of money. No need for a reason, they have never found anything and we already know there is ET life.

"We"?

Speak for yourself there. I don't believe we've found or encountered extra terrestrials, so I'm all for the project continuing.

SETI shouldn't give up but they do need to re-evaluate their methods sooner than later. A good analogy of SETI is searching for an FM station with an AM radio. It ain't gonna happen Seth!

Until they change, it's just a waste of money!

i think they need better programing and new software to inhance the search for et and better satellite equip or update from old to new. then maby we will get somewhere

reply to post by SpeakerofTruth


I would be willing to bet that SETI gets covert funding from the Federal Government.Imo they have had contact and had to keep a lid on it for the funding.

Absolutely not. The percentage of funding going towards SETI is so insignificant that there is no gain in cutting it. Keep it going and throw some more money into the search for ET IMO.

Check out these figures...



2007 SETI@Home Budget

Back in 1991 SETI recieved $19 Million for funding now they only receive 4m.

This article quotes...

The White House requested $4.4 billion for the agency's science programmes in 2009 – $264.7 million less than the previous year.

$4 million is a huge amount of money to the average person, but NASA spent $4 BILLION in 2007, and none of it went to SETI. Not only that, but all funding for NASA in general is shrinking.

I think a lot of the problem is that there are so many limitations. If the SETI telescopes could analyze the entire spectrum of the galaxy at all times such that, if a signal is coming our way then they'll find it, then it's certainly worthwhile. But considering we could actually be in the process of being bombarded with signals as we speak and missing them, that's a problem.

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


I dont think they should give up, but they should expand their horizons, get more people involved, search more stars, use different techniques, because frankly, we might me the only ones shooting out radio waves.