SETI stops search for alien life.

[techs]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9216189/SETI_hunt_for_alien_life_put_on_hold?taxonomyId=12

SETI hunt for alien life put on hold
Budget squeeze forces extraterrestrial-hunting telescope array into hibernation

Computerworld - The federal and state budget squeeze is affecting life here on Earth -- and beyond.

Astronomers at the SETI Institute in Northern California announced that it has been forced to stop operations at the Allen Telescope Array, a field of more than 40 radio dishes that scan the skies for communications from aliens.

The array began scanning for signals from extraterrestrial life in October of 2007, and SETI planned to eventually expand the project to 350 dishes, covering 90 square miles. But financial constraints are forcing the institute's astronomers to put the array into hibernation.

"Effective this week, the [Allen Telescope Array] has been placed into hibernation due to funding shortfalls for operations of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory where the [array] is located," wrote SETI Institute CEO Tom Pierson, in an open letter sent late last week to project donors. "Unfortunately, today's government budgetary environment is very difficult, and new solutions must be found."

Pierson did note in the letter that the institute is negotiating a potential partnership with U.S. Air Force to use the dish array to help track space debris, which might give the project the funding it needs to some day resume the search for alien life.

"This effort is ongoing and showing much promise, but near term funding has been delayed due to the same, highly publicized large scale federal budget problems we all read about in the news," wrote Pierson.




The alien invasion will begin shortly....

 

[BoberFett]

SETI has always been a complete waste of time and resources.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

But this will free up money for other government projects like medicaid. Rejoice.

 

[bfdd]

SETI has always been a complete waste of time and resources.

That it has. Such a waste of processing power.

 

[techs]

But this will free up money for other government projects like tax cuts for the wealthy. Rejoice.

ftfy

 

[Bateluer]

Utter crap. Projects like these are probably one of the few decent uses of taxpayer money.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

SETI has always been a complete waste of time and resources.

I recall recently the hypothesis that galactic civilizations may be subject to Darwinism, in that those who draw attention to themselves are more likely to be subject to predation by others. The winners survive by heeding the old maxim of "STFU". Hawking said something to this effect as well.

Happy Star Trek mentality is probably suicidal.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

ftfy

But this money is immediately available. Don't fear, it won't be given back to the taxpayer.

 

[techs]

I recall recently the hypothesis that galactic civilizations may be subject to Darwinism, in that those who draw attention to themselves are more likely to be subject to predation by others. The winners survive by heeding the old maxim of "STFU". Hawking said something to this effect as well.

Happy Star Trek mentality is probably suicidal.

Well, SETI is just listening, not broadcasting.

And, if we were to find a civilization just like our own, I would hope we were smart enough to nuke it from orbit.

 

[KK]

That it has. Such a waste of processing power.

yeah, it could have been put to better use. Porn.

 

[DrPizza]

Utter crap. Projects like these are probably one of the few decent uses of taxpayer money.

SETI makes a lot of assumptions about how a signal would be sent by aliens. More than a few people have suggested that those assumptions are probably wrong.

 

[Soundmanred]

SETI has always been a complete waste of time and resources.

Yup.

 

[Kadarin]

That it has. Such a waste of processing power.

Processing power and engineering talent that would be far better put to use designing and running high frequency trading algorithms.

 

[Doppel]

I recall recently the hypothesis that galactic civilizations may be subject to Darwinism, in that those who draw attention to themselves are more likely to be subject to predation by others. The winners survive by heeding the old maxim of "STFU". Hawking said something to this effect as well.

Happy Star Trek mentality is probably suicidal.

Probably. I watch The Event and in it there are aliens who look 100% like humans and appear to have their level of intelligence vs humans and you know what I realized very quickly that if it was us vs them we'd have no problem murdering the lot of them as we do cattle for our tables. Now, if an alien looked like some hairy mess with three arms, forget it.

 

[Doppel]

Processing power and engineering talent that would be far better put to use designing and running high frequency trading algorithms.

Exactly!

 

[ultimatebob]

Didn't I hear somewhere that they've already scanned the entire available radio spectrum several times at this point and they've found nothing? Sounds like a waste of time to me.

 

[Perknose]

I recall recently the hypothesis that galactic civilizations may be subject to Darwinism, in that those who draw attention to themselves are more likely to be subject to predation by others. The winners survive by heeding the old maxim of "STFU". Hawking said something to this effect as well.

Happy Star Trek mentality is probably suicidal.

Even scarier to me, in a certain way, is that we may be the smartest, most evolved beings in the universe. We may be the best that the universe has to offer. How sad is that?

 

[techs]

Even scarier to me, in a certain way, is that we may be the smartest, most evolved beings in the universe. We may be the best that the universe has to offer. How sad is that?

Universe ='s Fail?

 

[magomago]

bingo huge waste of time. maybe there is a use for it later one if/when humans do a much bigger push to expand into space.....

...but there could be a million things more worthwhile now even from a purely scientific perspective; imagine all of SETI crunching for F@H. Sure that is purely scientific as well as the results basically go into generating papers, but I have a gut feeling that it will produce more useful tangible results that trickle down a lot faster than SETI would.

 

[techs]

Even scarier to me, in a certain way, is that we may be the smartest, most evolved beings in the universe. We may be the best that the universe has to offer. How sad is that?

Here's a scarier thought. There are millions of civilizations out there, but humans are considered the "neckbeards" of intelligent life. Hence, we are on everyones "ignore" list.

 

[Fritzo]

"You know Belarglox, those Earthlings have been pretty determined. From their transmissions, I think they have now reached a level where there are ready to experience the galactic community. Let's initiate contact. "ATTENTION PEOPLE OF EARTH. WE COME IN PEACE AND WISH TO GIVE YOU THE TECHNOLOGY TO CURE DISEASE, STOP AGING, AND ACQUIRE SPACE TRAVEL TO REACH US. WE HAVE....UH...HELLO? ::tap tap tap:: IS THIS SUB-MICRON INTERGALACTIC SUB-SPACE TRANSCEIVER ON? HELLO???? IF YOU IGNORE US, WE WILL TAKE IT AS THE GREATEST OF INSULTS AND OBLITERATE YOUR PUNY ROCK WITH THE TOUCH OF A PANEL. YOU HAVE 24 EARTH HOURS TO REPLY."

 

[SSSnail]

So... when will we get them all to join the teAm?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I recall recently the hypothesis that galactic civilizations may be subject to Darwinism, in that those who draw attention to themselves are more likely to be subject to predation by others. The winners survive by heeding the old maxim of "STFU". Hawking said something to this effect as well.

Happy Star Trek mentality is probably suicidal.

Like someone else pointed out they are just listening. As far as Stfu it's too late. All of our radio signals are out there and there's nothing we can do about it.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Are you trying to say that Dave's life has no meaning anymore?

 

[bfdd]

Processing power and engineering talent that would be far better put to use designing and running high frequency trading algorithms.

Even then, that would still be a more productive use of cpu cycles.