How Paul Allen Saved the American Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (vice.com) 48
dmoberhaus writes: Paul Allen died on Monday evening at the age of 65. Motherboard spoke with SETI researchers about how the Microsoft co-founder single-handedly saved the American Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence by building the first dedicated SETI radio telescope and its legacy one decade later. Less than a year after NASA's SETI program started, it was shut down by members of Congress who didn't want to spend money on the "great Martian chase." In order for the program to continue, it needed private funding. "Fortunately, one of the earliest SETI Institute supporters was Barney Oliver, who founded and directed Hewlett Packard laboratories," reports Motherboard. "So in 1993 Oliver called Bill Hewlett and David Packard of Hewlett Packard, Intel founder Gordon Moore, and Paul Allen to ask for their support." They supported Project Phoenix, a SETI program that ran from 1995 to 1998.
SETI astronomers then realized that they needed a dedicated SETI radio telescope, or array of small telescopes, if the search were to have any chance of success. Allen was able to foot the $25-million bill required to build this array of telescopes. The telescope array was built in northern California, "the first facility specifically built for SETI in the U.S.," Motherboard notes. "The cost of building a 350-telescope array ended up being far more expensive than anyone at the SETI Institute had anticipated, however. By the time the Allen Telescope Array came online in 2007, only 42 telescopes had been built and Allen's donation had largely been consumed." The report notes that the Allen Telescope Array "has analyzed 200 million signals from thousands of stars, studied unusual high-energy radio emissions, and even scanned the "spliff-shaped" Oumuamua asteroid for signs of intelligent life."
SETI astronomers then realized that they needed a dedicated SETI radio telescope, or array of small telescopes, if the search were to have any chance of success. Allen was able to foot the $25-million bill required to build this array of telescopes. The telescope array was built in northern California, "the first facility specifically built for SETI in the U.S.," Motherboard notes. "The cost of building a 350-telescope array ended up being far more expensive than anyone at the SETI Institute had anticipated, however. By the time the Allen Telescope Array came online in 2007, only 42 telescopes had been built and Allen's donation had largely been consumed." The report notes that the Allen Telescope Array "has analyzed 200 million signals from thousands of stars, studied unusual high-energy radio emissions, and even scanned the "spliff-shaped" Oumuamua asteroid for signs of intelligent life."
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Not finding something is a valid result in the pursuit of furthering science. It makes us ask more questions and come up with better theories.
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Not finding something is a valid result in the pursuit of furthering science. It makes us ask more questions and come up with better theories.
OK, but in this area we could achieve the same level of progress (or even more!) by not building anything. Just have a virtual experiment. "Okay, you didn't find anything, what do you try next?" At the point at which we have the technology to actually investigate an alien signal in a timely fashion, then we can start looking for alien intelligence. Unless you're expecting the plot of Contact to come true, with some alien intelligence sending us the instructions to build a machine that transcends what we cur
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A couple of strange things have been found by people just scanning the skies. None of them any sign of ET, but still interesting.
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Some of the greatest discoveries have resulted from finding nothing. The Michelson-Morley experiment for example. Often quoted in discussions on logic and reasoning is the instance of The Dog that did not Bark [americanthinker.com] in a Sherlock Holmes story.
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Often scientific experiments reveal something unexpected and yield advances not originally sought. Has the SETI project provided any such benefits?
Re: A total waste of energy (Score:1)
What litterly everything should be shut down to put all resources into global warming prevention? Presumably you are going to apply that philosophy to yourself? Here is a bolt gun you can use, dig your own grave first please, we wouldn't want to put extra resources into burying you.
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In the age of global warming, wasting resources should not be tolerated.
At any given time when you propose Project X, there is always some public expenditure that can be deemed more important than your own.
This is the primary reason why speculative and edgy projects not directly related to $HIGHEST_PRIORITY_PROJECT should be privately funded. Taking a project private makes the whole stupid 'priorities' argument go away.
His greatest creation (Score:1)
His greatest creation was still the FliipStart [wikipedia.org]. What mobile computing should have been
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His greatest creation was still the FliipStart [wikipedia.org].
Or his business card. It even had a watermark.
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He saved ? (Score:3)
People have been searching for evidence of other intelligent life in the universe pretty much as long as anyone has been able to conceive of the concept. There will undoubtedly be people looking as long as we haven't found any or ruled out their existence.
If you actually care, you can do it yourself.
21 cm Antenna and Receiver
https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~n... [harvard.edu]
If you want bonus points you can go through the design process yourself
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"People have been searching for evidence of other intelligent life in the universe pretty much as long as anyone has been able to conceive of the concept"
Except that the concept of the "universe" as you think of it is barely 100 years old. People thought the Milky Way (that thing in the sky you could see at night before cheap light everywhere) *WAS* the *ENTIRE* universe.
Then they figured out those little patchy clouds of light are other galaxies, millions of light years away.... Uh oh.
So it depends entirel
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Are you trying to say that they were looking for intelligences other than ours before they could properly frame the concept ?
If so I have to agree but I really didn't want to go there because. It just raises minutiae about terminology. While we would call them alien, and they would call them angels or heavenly visitors we are both talking about intelligences not of the earth, and the recurring desire to explore and find the new.
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If only people could keep their eyes on the prize; with ET comes great wealth.
He also.. (Score:4, Insightful)
"It's not religion. I swear." (Score:2)
Oh the amounts of money 21st century rich people will spend on an endless effort to prove they aren't religious.
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How is the belief in the possibility of alien life comparable to the belief that there is one/multiple gods?
They are two unrelated topics.
No evidence of God found? (Score:2)
Let's hope that they don't find the Trisolarans. (Score:1)
That would not be good.