In article <dlif06$cts$1@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>,
 Russ Childers <childers.2@spamblock.osu.edu> wrote:

al wrote:

"Russ Childers" <childers.2@spamblock.osu.edu> wrote in message
news:dlg3fd$77n$1@charm.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu...

al wrote:

"catshark" <catshark101@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1132092937.672415.30210@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Added newsgroup, sci.astro.seti, alt.sci.seti

<snip>

After all, as SETI shows, scientists would love evidence of

extraterrestrial

life.

Aha SETI. What are they looking for exactly?

SETI is the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence.  SETI researchers
are currently looking for electromagnetic signals not produced by known
natural sources.

They are assuming that someone is out there tirelessly sending signals

that

will reach us after they are dead and maybe after their civilisation is

dead

Yes, some SETI researchers assume civilizations are sending out beacons,
to make their detection easy ... but there is the possibility of leakage
signals being detected, too.

In any event, SETI researchers are *assuming* that intelligent
civilizations *may* produce signals which can be discerned as
non-natural (military radar, for example).

and they are using a form of communication that is useless for

interstellar

distances.

Are you referring to the speed-of-light limitation on radio, optical,
and gravity waves?

A good start.

Until we can detect faster-than-light communication, we are stuck
with radio, optical, and gravity waves.

I think that the last thing SETI want is to contact ET.

The *first* thing SETI researchers want is to *detect* an
extraterrestrial civilization.  "Contact" will likely be
taken over by politicians once detection occurs.

Maybe you can enlighten me?

If we do not search, we will not find.  Plus, if "ET" is found,
SETI will not stop:  there may be millions of detectable civilizations
in the Milky Way, so SETI will continue after the first "ET" is found.

SETI researchers do not have *faith* that ET civilizations exist, for
if that were the case, why bother searching?  Instead, SETI researchers
*hypothesize* that ET civilizations may exist, and are looking for facts
to back that up.

I think that you should look to history and the people who have claimed to
have received contacts,

Tesla and Marconi for instance and a fair number of others. The trouble is
that Tesla used a different medium to SETI and Marconi used Tesla's
equipment.

Could you provide references, please?

If you do not look in the right place and with the right equipment you are
wasting your time.

How do we know what the "best place" is?  The Galactic Plane is a good
starting point, because of the density of stars.

We do not know what equipment an ET civilization will be using, so we
might as well use what we know about.

Also, what if we're looking in the "right place" with the "right
equipment", but at the "wrong time".  Are we still wasting our time?
The only way we are assured of not wasting our time is to not do
SETI at all.

The only reason that we don't use Tesla type equipment is because of greed.

What "Tesla type equipment" are you referring to?

*
How did Nicolai Tesla get tied up with the UFO, ET, Roswell, etc. 
idiocies?

Tesla was a helluv an engineer (I'm from Georgia Tech, so I know one 
when I see one!)

He had something over 700 patents and single-handedly put the world 
on to an AC power distribution basis, over the complaints of such as 
Thomas Edison.

At some point in his later career he demonstrated what could be done 
with very high voltages, which he generated with his "Tesla coil".  
Someone called this the "Death Ray" and proposed all sorts of bad 
things that could be done with it.

Was Tesla himself crazy?  Or just some of his followers (see above:
"The only reason that we don't use Tesla type equipment is because 
of greed."

earle
*