Flip the point of view for a moment - what's the absolute best way we could try to say "hey, we're here" to the universe in the hope of detection from far away civilizations?
I like the idea of Contact's Prime Number signal but how would you do this on a large scale? I was thinking Dyson Sphere a star as a huge Flag Semaphore to send the message, but then what rate do you flip bits to make it optimal for the receiving end far far away?
Now flip it back... would the current SETI pick up this signal if this were happening somewhere close in the Milky Way? If not, then yeah maybe SETI should be wound down :(
>Now flip it back... would the current SETI pick up this signal if this were happening somewhere close in the Milky Way? If not, then yeah maybe SETI should be wound down :(
The problem is the other way around. An unintentional or broad signal is extremely unlikely to be picked up. However, it would be trivial to send out an intentional signal to a candidate planet that can be picked up without the locals having an equivalent of SETI, and there's no rational* reason not to do it if you decided to send. SETI's useless either way.
* The moment you get to irrational aliens, is the moment you need to consider the option they exterminate anyone who replies, so SETI for listening to irrational signals is also a bad idea.
Hmm maybe. If anything, I don’t think it would be killing for competition. Killing a planet is “easy” if you can expend the energy. The risk of accidentally offending another civilization is much easier, offending them to the point of them wanting to wipe you out isn’t that much harder (see Earth History). Thus, it almost makes sense to just wipe out any civilization preemptively.
Yep, I think it makes little sense for them to fear competition (if they exist). I suspect that intergalactic warfare is impractical and there is nothing to gain.
Reasons being: There is no stealth in space, there is no FTL, resources are abundant everywhere, destroying planets/megastructures is rather easy.
If an advanced civilisation was so advanced that it could hop around the galaxy on a whim, why would they come here to destroy us? It's not like the would possibly need any of our resources
It's not difficult to think of realistic (if not necessarily sensible) motivations if we try.
Maybe they're religious fanatics and there's no we can satisfy their tenants so.. Or maybe the local alien boss doesn't want to deal with their EPA equivalent and decides to deal with the problem before anyone notices. Or the Grand Poobah just acts whimsically and everyone must do as it says.
I like the idea of Contact's Prime Number signal but how would you do this on a large scale? I was thinking Dyson Sphere a star as a huge Flag Semaphore to send the message, but then what rate do you flip bits to make it optimal for the receiving end far far away?
Now flip it back... would the current SETI pick up this signal if this were happening somewhere close in the Milky Way? If not, then yeah maybe SETI should be wound down :(