Fermi's Paradox.

[KrazyHorse]

Re: Fermi's Paradox.

Originally posted by Big Crunch
If there are inteliigent civilization's out there, why can't we detect them?

I figure everyone might just be whispering. You could have a million people on Earth, spread out every few miles, and they would not be heard, even if they shouted.

I hear a lot about radio and television signals being sent out in to space, and that aliens with 100 light years can now be watching and listening to our broadcasts. How true is this really? Firstly, can anyone tell me how powerful the first radio transmitters were and whether those signals were sent out into space (or just bounced straight back due to the ionosphere). Secondly, I can't even pick up radio or TV station transmission even when I get about 50 miles aways, let alone 50 light years away.

Anyone got any technical and historical knowledge on this stuff. For example, how far away can you pick up a fairly coherent (i.e you can tell what it is and maybe get a fuzzy picture) satellite TV signal assuming it is losing power intensity purely due to the inverse square law.

IIRC, with our current radio antennas we could pick out other civs putting out signals of the strength we do to a distance somewhat greater than 1000 light years (might have been ten thousand).

Earth puts out as much radio flux as a star.

[Whaleboy]

God have these people not heard of tachyons???

Superluminal particles, we cant manipulate them or detect them in an organised fashion yet, but when we can, FTL communication will be viable. If alien races are going to communicate, theyll use these.

[FrustratedPoet]

but when we can

IF we can.

[:) Smiley]

There isn't life off earth. There are supernatural beings though.

[realpolitic]

There is also the possibility of a coverup, such thanks are not unheard of, especially in the US.

[The Vagabond]

A pessimistic explanation is that the lifespan of any particular cosmic civilization (including our own) is finite, and small on the cosmic time scale. In other words, any intelligent life is eventually doomed to die due to some catastrophe. Thus, even if there has ever been any other intelligent life out there, we may well fail to meet each other in the time...

[Dauphin]

Rereading my first post, I'm sure that being in Australia is bad for my grammar.

[Poogas]

http://maddox.xmission.com/aliens.html

Right there is the single reason no alien species has tried to contact us.

But Yes I do beleive givin enough time, we will one day meet up with another group of intelligent beings.


But heres one this I always pondered. Every one says aliens are more intelligent than us with space ships, transporters etc... all that kind of stuff... Well think about this, they had to start from some where right, they had to evolve, so what if we ARE the first to reach that point, what if we are the aliens that are more intelligent than they are. they might not even exsist yet, but when they do and they get to our current level of technology we will have progressed far beyond them, and thus be the stars in all of their sci fi films!

I was joking about the sci fi films, but the rest is actualy how I kinda feel.