On May 9, 1:17Â pm, Ed
earthlink.net> wrote:> On May 8, 8:37Â pm, Sir Frederick
fuzzysys.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>>
>> By Seth Shostak
>> SETI Institute
>> posted: 08 May 2008
>> 12:30 am ET
>
>> A widespread and popular impression of SETI is that it's a worldwide enterprise. Well, it's not, and there's something modestly
>> puzzling in that.
>
>> The idea of communicating between worlds is at least 150 years old. Victorian scientists Karl Friedrich Gauss and Joseph von Littrow
>> are both reputed to have concocted schemes to establish rapport with Moon-men or Martians by signaling them with light. Gauss was a
>> German, and von Littrow was Austrian. But within a century, the important ideas about getting in touch with aliens were coming from
>> the western side of the Atlantic. The fundamental concepts for radio SETI were first incubated and hatched in America.
>
>> For three decades following Frank Drake's first modern SETI experiment in 1960, the American efforts had a strong and fertile
>> counterpart in the Soviet Union. The Soviet SETI work was frequently brilliant, occasionally nutty, and pursued by researchers who
>> were active and enthused.
>
>> That all ended with the Soviet Union's collapse. And for the last two decades, the large majority of all SETI effort has taken place
>> in the U.S. Yes, there have been commendable experiments in Australia, Argentina, India, and Italy. But only the Italians are active
>> today.
>
>> So what's the story? Why is SETI nearly exclusively an American game?
>
>> The oddity of this was brought home to me a few years ago when I held a colloquium on SETI research at the Dutch university in
>> Groningen where I was once employed. The room was full — overfull actually, with students and faculty braced against the walls. My
>> first question was, "How many of you think it's likely there are intelligent extraterrestrials out there in the Galaxy?" Virtually
>> every hand went up.
>
>> I followed with "and how many of you are willing to spend one guilder a year to look for it?" (That's the cost of one cup of
>> subsidized university coffee. One cup per year.) The hands all went down.
>
>> I was stunned. When, after my talk, I inquired of a faculty member why the Dutch were reluctant to mount a SETI program, his answer
>> was, "We're too sober for that." I didn't understand his comment, especially given the concordant opinion that there could be
>> something to find.
>
>> Let's be clear: it's not that the Dutch don't have the radio telescopes or technical smarts. They do. It's not because they don't
>> have the money. They do.
>
>> And so do the British, French, Germans, Canadians, Japanese and lots and lots of others.
>
>> So, as Gertrude Stein asked, "What's the answer?" What's so singular about Americans that only they are willing to spend a small
>> (very small) amount of money and a bit of time to try and answer a truly important question about life, the universe, and
>> everything?
>
>> My first, naïve thought was that this was the legacy of America's frontier history. Innovation and the occasional gamble on a long
>> shot were necessary and sometimes essential in an unsettled environment. So perhaps SETI sat more comfortably on American shoulders
>> than on others.
>
>> There's at least some support for this inexpert speculation. Professor Geert Hofstede (who, rather coincidentally, received his
>> doctorate in Groningen) has researched global cultural differences, and among his investigated traits is something he calls
>> "uncertainty avoidance." This is an index of a society's tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity, and its willingness to search for
>> new truths.
>
>> Looking at Hofstede's data, you'll find that when it comes to uncertainty avoidance, Americans score 15 percent lower than the
>> Dutch. In other words, they truly seem to be more disposed to take on ambiguous projects. Actually, the Dutch are closer to the
>> Americans in this regard then many of their European neighbors. The Greeks, French, Belgians, Italians, and Germans are even more
>> inclined to avoid uncertainty then residents of The Netherlands. (Only the British do substantially better: In fact, their score is
>> lower than the Americans'.)
>
>> Could this greater reluctance to take risks play a role in the fact that NASA's budget is three times that of the European Space
>> Agency's, despite the comparable populations of the U.S. and Europe? Does it help explain why venture capital investment in the
>> former is roughly twice that in the latter?
>
>> No doubt the social scientists can come up with the answer. Meanwhile, I note that both India and China score lower than the U.S. on
>> Hofstede's index. Maybe they'll join the search. SETI, after all, is one of the most provocative and exciting explorations of all
>> time. We could use some company in scouting out the final frontier.
>
> There are assumptions in current SETI efforts. Â One assumption is that
> it is likely that there are other intelligences "out there". Â I agree,
> I thinki it likely.
> Another is that they want to talk to others, this is less certain in
> my mind.
> A third is that advanced intelligences will use the radio spectrum to
> communicate across interstellar distances, maybe even across
> intergalactic distances. Â This assumption seems very weak to me. Â We
> have only had radio for a century and already are seeing the
> advantages of alternatives. Â Although we can't do it right now,
> modulating a neutrino beam seems likely to be much more immune to
> noise problems and masking problems. Â In another century or two it may
> be feasible for us; Â it may already be feasible for advanced
> civilizations elsewhere. Â Some application of quantum entanglement may
> become feasible. Â In short, there needs to be a justification for
> assuming that advanced races use radio for long distance
> communication.
>
> Ed- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
The answer lies in the movie Contact.
BOfL
