Little green men, absolutely NAC!

[Mike Arman]

>To: Robert Myers <robert at s-cars.org>, s-car-list at audifans.com,
>	"Quattro list" <quattro at audifans.com>
>From: Brett Dikeman <brett at cloud9.net>
>Subject: Re: NAC
>
>Okay, I'll bite, even though I just got through complaining last
>weekend at the UrQ-fest about off-topic postings...
>
>At 5:56 PM -0400 6/3/03, Robert Myers wrote:
>>Has anybody seen this?
>>   Any experience with it?
>>
>>http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/
>>
>
>Yep, and it's probably responsible for millions of pounds of
>pollution every year from wasted electricity.
>
>Seriously people, turn off your computers(or put them into sleep
>mode) when you're not using 'em, rather than wasting energy on crap
>like this*.  There are no little green men, and if you think about it
>logically, even if there are, they might as well not be around, given
>the distances involved(think through all the problems of
>communications taking hundreds of years each way.)
>
>B
>*saves you money, too, turning it off.  Cost of running a 150W
>computer 24hrs, 365 days...at 15 cents kw/hr: $197(if I kept my units
>straight)
>--


Interesting topic, this, even if there is absolutely no Audi content here.

Chances are they aren't green or men, but chances are they ARE out there
somewhere.

Or were. Or will be.

Given the astronomical number of stars in the universe (and the word is
"astronomical" for a good reason), the chances of life in other places is
100%.

The chances of *intellegent* life (and remember, this is OUR definition - a
good case can be made that we are in fact NOT very intelligent here) are
also pretty good.

But there are several MAJOR problems with this.

1) Distance - everything is so goddamn far away - and our technology has no
answers for this. Probably won't in the forseeable future, either.

2) Synchronicity - sure, there was an intelligent civilization on Poobah
XVIII about the time Og was chasing mammoths here, but they blew themselves
up 30,000 years ago. We may never learn they even existed. Oh yeah, and we
blew ourselves up when Gorfitz was still chasing six legged somethings out
there, and 50,000 years from now, they'll develop radio.

3) "you takwin' ta me?" problem - we have no idea how these other
civilizations might be communicating, or if we can even listen in. "Hey
Sneeble, lookit those morons on Sol three - they've been listening to our
navigation beacon for ten years and keep trying to talk to it!" (Reverse of
cartoon of little green man standing in front of a fire hydrant and
demanding to be taken to its leader.)

4) Media hype - UFOs and "alien autopsies" get ratings, and therefore will
continue. Unfortunately, this kind of nonsense taints anyone who is
seriously considering alien life or alien intelligence.

However, I must say this - finding what this project is looking for is like
playing the lottery - if you *don't* play, the outcome is sure - you can't
win. If, however, you DO play, there is an infinitesimal chance you might -
and I'm willing to chance a few stray KW on this. Hell, I don't smoke or
drink, let me have at least ONE vice!

Unless of course tomorrow, the little green men show up waving rayguns and
demanding a Pentosin refill because their damn spaceship leaks it like a
sieve, whereupon all bets are off.

There's a pretty interesting part on a NASA website which talks about the
problems of interstellar travel. They are quite honest about it - they say
they don't even have the questions yet, let alone any idea of the answers.
Sorry, but I don't have the link.

Best Regards,

Mike Arman