Here is an interesting idea I read about a while back:
http://www.economist.com/node/21556552
Essentially, it is a way to find gases like oxygen in a planet's atmosphere. If you see oxygen, you know it has some sort of life (could be only microbial,) because oxygen is so reactive that it needs to be constantly replenished.
I first read about this in another article about SETI. The guy's point was that SETI was probably looking for the wrong thing. His rationale is that even though radio is less than 100 years old on Earth, we are coming up with more and more ways of communicating which don't involve radio signals strong enough to go very far. Cell phones-for example, use very low power signals which would never make it to another planet. And more communications take place in "side channels" which are pretty much just the static between bands. Maybe in another 100 years, we will have moved past broadcast radio and TV technolgies altogether.
So-Maybe this radio thing is a very short chapter in the evolution of technology. Maybe SETI is missing far more advanced (or far less advanced) lifeforms by putting its eggs in the radio spectrum basket. Maybe there are more clever things to look for.
-Neat idea.
http://www.economist.com/node/21556552
Essentially, it is a way to find gases like oxygen in a planet's atmosphere. If you see oxygen, you know it has some sort of life (could be only microbial,) because oxygen is so reactive that it needs to be constantly replenished.
I first read about this in another article about SETI. The guy's point was that SETI was probably looking for the wrong thing. His rationale is that even though radio is less than 100 years old on Earth, we are coming up with more and more ways of communicating which don't involve radio signals strong enough to go very far. Cell phones-for example, use very low power signals which would never make it to another planet. And more communications take place in "side channels" which are pretty much just the static between bands. Maybe in another 100 years, we will have moved past broadcast radio and TV technolgies altogether.
So-Maybe this radio thing is a very short chapter in the evolution of technology. Maybe SETI is missing far more advanced (or far less advanced) lifeforms by putting its eggs in the radio spectrum basket. Maybe there are more clever things to look for.
-Neat idea.
