SETI and the Grail

SETI, an acronym for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is
administered by the SETI Institute.  SETI(i) was founded in 1984 and employs
more than 130 scientists and staff.  Over its twenty year history, the
Institute has administered more than $200 million of funded research.  The
largest portion of that money goes toward searching the sky for radio
signals coming from distant stars.  There are hundreds of thousands of home
computers on line every day processing SETI radio telescopic data.  These
computers are arranged in a gigantic complex to provide the computational
ability to distinguish intelligence from background noise.  This article
does not take issue with the proposition that there is most likely
intelligent life on other planets circling distant stars.  But it does
question the methods employed to detect distant life.
A little background first: Two physicists at Cornell University, Philip
Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi, published an article (c. 1960) in the journal
Nature in which they noted the relative ease with which radio messages might
be sent between the stars.  Their paper eventually sparked the SETI
germination.  Credit goes to Mr. Thomas Pierson and Dr. Jill Tarter as SETI
co-founders.  Today's Board of Trustees include two Nobel Prize Laureates
and four members of the National Academy of Sciences along with many
prominent figures from industry including endowments from Paul Allen of
Microsoft fame.  NASA is one of the prime contributors towards SETI's
efforts and SETI actively seeks donations from private parties.
SETI bases their endeavor on the Drake Equation[1] which postulates the
probability of life on other planets within our galaxy:
N = R* . fp . ne . fl . fi . fc . L
N = the number of civilizations in The Milky Way Galaxy whose
electromagnetic emissions are detectable.  R* =The rate of formation of
stars suitable for the development of intelligent life.  fp = The fraction
of those stars with planetary systems.  ne = The number of planets, per
solar system, with an environment suitable for life.  fl = The fraction of
suitable planets on which life actually appears.  fi = The fraction of life
bearing planets on which intelligent life emerges. For more information,
please visit Dr. William Calvin's "The Drake Equation's fi"  fc = The
fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable
signs of their existence into space.  L = The length of time such
civilizations release detectable signals into space.
Reduction of the Drake Equation leads to the immutable proposition that
there is intelligent life out there somewhere.  The only thing left to do is
have SETI find it.
The method that SETI has chosen to find that intelligence is to listen in on
all the radio bands for their communications.  Recognize this fact and you
will see how complicated a task this can be.  There are millions of radio
bands from LF (low frequency) to microwave bands and beyond, all the way to
x-ray frequencies.  In addition there are many local stations transmitting
on the same frequency simultaneously thereby interfering with each other.
They may also swamp out the desired signals.  Compound this with the fact
that an ordinary antenna would be unable to pick up a signal from a distant
star because of the local interference and the fact that the power of a
signal decrease at the inverse of the distance squared Rp=1/d2  where Rp =
received power, d = distance from source of transmitter.  It therefore takes
extremely sensitive receivers coupled with high gain directional antennae.
In order to reduce local interference and help amplify the desired signal,
highly directional antennas are employed which have a limited area of scan.
The most sensitive antennas employed are only able to scan a few seconds of
arc at a time.  The radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico is a one
kilometer diameter dish antenna often used for this purpose.
SETI was popularized by Carl Segan's[2] classic book "Contact" in which a
female radio astronomer was the first to receive encrypted radio signals
from distant star intelligence.  The movie version (Jodie Foster archetypes
Dr. Jill Tarter[3] founder of SETI) further enthralled the public and the
race was on.
There are several problems with these scenarios.  Chief among them is the
length of time elapsed from the transmission to the reception of the signal.
Naturally enough the closest stars (within 100 light years of us) have
already been examined.  This means that any signals received will have been
sent hundreds if not thousands of years earlier.  If we are merely concerned
with detecting intelligence this is no problem.  It becomes insurmountable
if we wish to communicate back.  Who can wait hundreds or thousands of years
for a reply?
That's not the problem.  Here it is in a nutshell.  SETI relies on Drakes
Equation to determine the number of intelligent civilizations in (this)
universe.[4]  However the Drake Equation does not take into consideration
that there may be civilizations more advanced that our own.  These
intelligences may communicate using a more advanced method than radio waves.
Our planet is experiencing exponential technological growth.  We have had
radio communication for less than 100 years.  We have had television for
less than 60 years.  Given the assumption that an extraterrestrial
intelligence (ET) is searching for our signal, they have not yet detected it
and would be unable to respond to it for at least 100 years from today.
This does not address the possibility that an ET may be inadvertently
broadcasting their own radio and/or TV signals or actively broadcasting a
signal for ET pickup by our own SETI receivers.  Whatever the case may be
the Drake Equation does not take into account new science.
There are methods of communication which use faster that light methods.  In
1962, Bilaniuk, Deshpande, and Sudarshan, Am. J. Phys. 30, 718 (1962),
predicted a superluminal[5] particle called the Tachyon (aka bradyon).
There are many well developed Tachyon laboratories currently exploring
methods of detecting and using Tachyons in communications.
Recent advances in Physics and Mathematics show that there are infinite
arrays of Branes[6] which exist as parallel universes having an infinite
array of physical properties.  Many of these Branes have properties where
the speed of light is not a physical limitation on a particle or wave's
speed.  It is postulated that these Branes ripple or oscillate and are
extremely thin[7] and infinitely long.  Our universe is contained within in
a single Brane.  M-Theory accounts for the existence of Branes. M- Theory
expostulates that a string's space-time history can be viewed mathematically
by functions like X?(?,?) that describe how the string's two-dimensional
sheet coordinates (?,?) map into space-time X?.  The coordinates (?,?) are
functionally equivalent to a Brane where the thickness of the Brane is
ignored.
a.       Because the Branes behave as a wave[8] they have rippled surfaces
which may interact with the ripples on an adjacent[9] Brane's surface.
Where these ripples intersect in a Laplacian way they produce a resulting
effect. Where the net effect has a positive coefficient a big bang is
produced and creates a new universe without crowding the Branian[10]
continuum.  When the net effect has a negative coefficient a worm hole is
produced.
b.      Indeed because there is an infinite number of Branes any number of
big bangs can be produced without expanding the continuum.  There can also
be an infinite number of wormholes available at any given instant[11].
c.       Because six of the 11 dimensions of M-Theory are ridiculously small
they are difficult to detect.  Therefore the wormholes predicted by M-Theory
are yet undetected.  Undetected as they may be there is every likelihood
that they will be detected and explored in the not so distant future.  This
is not science fiction this is science fact.
What does all this prove?  First of all let us examine our planet's history.
Mankind is the genesis of four billion years[12] of development.  However
sentiency is, arguably, less than ten thousand years old.  Literacy is less
than four thousand years old.  Technology is less than three hundred years
old and modern technology is less than 100 years old.
A famous politician once espoused the notion of closing the patent office
because all the inventions had already been patented.  The idea that ET
civilizations would be bound by light speed radio communications is just as
na�ve.  Certainly our own planet will soon discover a method of superluminal
communication.  This will negate or at least modify Drakes Equation to
include the probability of superluminal communication via Tachyons,
wormholes and/or other methods yet un-theorized or developed.
This equation should include the percentage of civilizations possessing
superluminal communications expressed as M wherein M = L . S[13]. and S is
the length of time ET is capable of superluminal transmissions as a multiple
of L.  M can only be expressed as a number no less that L, by definition.
The equation should therefore be:
Nm = R* . fp . ne . fl . fi . fc . L . S  or:
Nm = R* . fp . ne . fl . fi . fc . M


Summary
In an earlier day Western Civilization had the egocentric version of the sun
and stars rotating above the earth.  Other versions were condemned as
heresies.
It is apparent that no ET source would consider communicating with a
demonstrably inferior civilization whose sole means of communication is
light speed limited radio frequency[14] waves.  The SETI goals and
objectives would best be served by adjusting its search method by
researching applicable methods of advanced communication more likely to
appeal to ET.  The available proceedings of the Physics and Mathematical
Societies are abundant, free and instantaneous[15] on the web.
As with NASA, SETI, well intentioned as it might be, has become moribund
with the bureaucratic paper shuffling and grant seeking necessary for
survival.  SETI, in the fray, may have lost the puissance to pursue the
Grail:

Find extraterrestrial intelligence.

Where is our Percival?  Come back Dr. Jill Tarter, find the Grail.


Robert Murray, Ph.D.
NOSPAM_physics@no.org

Remove "NOSPAM_" for any comments/replies.
Please do not reply to this post.




[1] Considerable disagreement on the values of most of these parameters
exists, but the values used by Drake and his colleagues in 1961 are: R* =
10/year, fp = 0.5, ne = 2, fl = 1, fi = fc = 0.01, and L = 10 years. The
value of R* is the least disputed. fp is more uncertain, but is still much
firmer than the values following. Confidence in ne was once higher, but the
discovery of numerous gas giants in close orbit with their stars has
introduced doubt that life-supporting planets commonly survive the creation
of their stellar systems. In addition, most stars in our galaxy are red
dwarfs, which have little of the ultraviolet radiation that has contributed
to the evolution of life on Earth. Instead they flare violently, mostly in
X-rays - a property not conducive to life as we know it (simulations also
suggest that these bursts erode planetary atmospheres). The possibility of
life on moons of gas giants (e.g. Jupiter's satellite Europa) adds further
uncertainty to this figure.
[2] Carl Segan (1934-1996)
[3]Dr. Jill Tarter

[4] an optimistic calculation of the number of intelligent civilizations in
our galaxy is 5,000 assuming that 10% of civilizations become willing and
able to communicate, and then spread through their local star systems for
100,000 years (a very short period in geologic time): R* = 20/year, fp =
0.1, ne = 0.5, fl = 1, fi = 0.5, fc = 0.1, and L = 100,000 years
[5] faster than light
[6] Short for Membrane which is the basis for "M" theory which has recently
replaced string theory as the underpinnings for the "theory of everything".
[7] Less than 10-10 mm.
[8] mechanically not mathematically.
[9] If the word adjacent can be applied to 11 dimensional space.
[10] A new word Branian coined here.
[11] Another inapplicable word instant for 11 dimensional space.
[12] 14 billion years if you include the time of the local big bang.
[13] S is an arbitrary coefficient.  The exact number can never less be than
one.  It can only be determined by finding and developing superluminal
communications.  However the probability of S > 10 is not exceptional.
[14] Yes, this includes light waves and laser beams.
[15] Well almost instantaneously for us sub-luminal critters anyway.