Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to "If you listen right at the natural emission frequencies...."

A reasonable guess
Hank — (archived)

If they build radios, and if they are interested in astronomy, they will reason that other species with similar interests and capabilities will be studying natural radio emissions as part of their routine research, just like they are. So it will be logical to transmit beacons at frequencies similar enough to the ones they use, yet different enough to be quiet and noise-free. Of course, if their civilization has other interests or capabilities, radio telescopes would be of little use for communication. But like the man says, you look for your car keys near the lamppost first.

It is conceivable they might transmit at some natural frequency which is common and that they know a lot of others may be monitoring. But in that case, the distance at which that signal would be picked up would be limited because it would be drowned out by the natural static at that freq.

Critics of SETI strategies correctly point out that we have no way of knowing how ET psychology works, and that we may be assigning to them purely human characteristics and motives. There is some validity to this, but since the only way we now have of communicating with ETs is by picking up their electromagnetic radiation, we are forced to limit our search to those methods we understand. Perhaps ETs communicate by tachyon beams or telepathy or tentacle waving, but since we can't, and don't know how, we have to stick to what we might have in common.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (54 posts)