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Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner have announced Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million project that will increase the intensity of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (or their signals):
Speaking at the launch, Prof Hawking said: "Somewhere in the cosmos, perhaps, intelligent life may be watching these lights of ours, aware of what they mean. "Or do our lights wander a lifeless cosmos - unseen beacons, announcing that here, on one rock, the Universe discovered its existence. Either way, there is no bigger question. It's time to commit to finding the answer - to search for life beyond Earth. We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know."
Those behind the initiative claim it to be the biggest scientific search ever undertaken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. They plan to cover 10 times more of the sky than previous programmes and scan five times more of the radio spectrum, 100 times faster. It will involve access to two of the world's most powerful telescopes. - the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
Yuri Milner is known for his creation and funding of Breakthrough Prizes, which award $3 million to researchers for achievements in the life sciences, physics, and mathematics. Also reported at Washington Post, NPR, El Reg, and Scientific American.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @10:39PM
Its their money but what a waste of it...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Monday July 20 2015, @10:42PM
"Signals" are just light. They are using existing telescopes and pointing them at stars. All data will be openly available.
So they are paying astronomers to do astronomy. Not exactly a waste.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @10:52PM
They are using radio telescopes
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 20 2015, @10:53PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_astronomy [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @11:33PM
Ohh! A pedantry fight. Technically they will be using metal telescopes.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 20 2015, @11:37PM
And radio is just longwave light
(Score: 2) by AnonTechie on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:42AM
Should they not consider other methods to detect intelligent life ?
Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
(Score: 3, Funny) by dast on Tuesday July 21 2015, @02:35PM
Like what? Telepathy?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:08PM
Searching for neutrino signals, [wikipedia.org] of course.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday July 20 2015, @11:04PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:59AM
Because he doesn't see a need for it.
He could be like my workmate, who feels that all money spent on space research is wasted while we still have starving people and other problems at home. A foolish position to take.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @01:15PM
I consider it a waste not be cause 'i dont see a need for it'.
I consider it a waste as at this time we do not even know what a 'signal' would look like. Look I used to crunch seti as a background screen saver. I have thousands of credits towards it. But I stopped doing it. It was a waste of my power bill and a waste of my time. Once you dug into what was really going on. They were looking only in part of the sky. Then only at particular bands. Then only for particular types of signals. All three of which seemed to be randomly picked on a 'hunch'.
I get 'we are upgrading our telescopes to see more stuff'. But when it becomes 'we are looking for aliens' well you are just being sensationalist.
We assume they are using radio. But maybe they have something else they use? We assume they even pointed it at us? From their POV we would look like a jungle wasteland. Relativity is a bitch and so is SNR.
(Score: 5, Informative) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 21 2015, @12:02AM
I wouldn't say it's a waste pre se. Takyon raised some good practical points, but here's some food for thought.
Our species has only been broadcasting for roughly a century. That means that if there is a civilization listening in our direction, they'd need to be within 100 light years to pick us up next Tuesday (ignoring relativity). A quick check of Wikipedia shows that this is only 1/1,000th the size of the galaxy.
This gives us a sense of the enormous scale involved in making first contact with an extrasolar civilization, not simply in distance, but in time. If we were to pick up a discernible radio/light/EM signal from another civilization, how far away they are is how long ago they'd need to have started broadcasting. Broadcasting means maintaining a high level of technology for centuries and millenniums to reach meaningful distances. Even Spock's “stone knives and bear skins” represent technological evolution for over 10,000 years of human history beginning with the first cave paintings, advancing to written language, various Chinese advances, the discovery of the number 0, societal setbacks such as burning of the Library at Alexandria and the dark ages, more advances such as the evolution of algebra in the Middle-East (among other places), and finally the Western Renaissance when technological progress and science really got some fire in its belly, and who knows what setbacks await us yet.
If we were to detect a signal that originated, say, half way across the galaxy or roughly 50,000 light years away (using the 1e5 ly figure to keep with easy math, yet Wikipedia gives a high diameter estimate of 1.8e5 ly), and if we initiated contact, we would need to be able to keep our shit together for a not just an entire millennium, not the 10 millenniums that comprise our entire recorded history, but 100 millenniums, just to hear the response. We'd also have to hope that they can likewise keep their shit together for at least 50 millenniums in order to receive our transmission and begin beaming us their copy of Wikipedia or if they have a copy, the Encyclopædia Galactica [wikipedia.org].
So, it's not that it's futile in a strict sense, and the effort personally excites me, but when one looks at the timescales involved and considers the rise and fall of civilizations… if we do discover evidence of intelligent life half way across the galaxy and announce our presence in that direction, will the archaeologists of the distant future uncover the record of those of us living in the distant prehistory that we call the 21st century and find evidence that first contact was not just a myth no different from the gods of Olympus—that it really happened—, and will they be able to call upon their radio astronomer colleagues in time to receive the reply?
In fact, those scientists of the distant future would doubtless have evolved into another species entirely, still in the homo genus, but as different from us as the neanderthals were from we.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 21 2015, @12:11AM
as different from us as the neanderthals were from we
D'oh! Replace with “as different from us as we were from the neanderthals.”
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday July 21 2015, @12:28AM
I consider it a complete waste, but only because I consider humanity a complete waste. You hit the nail on the head though. We're spending ridiculous amounts of money to strongly attempt to interact with geological timescales at a minimum. It makes no sense to me.
Aliens exist! We've found signals from Rhontar 5! Yay! So.... what? Multibillion dollar project to create space folding to Rhontar 5? Start sending signals now? What? I've discovered that there are a few hominids living in the hills of West Virginia. Doesn't mean I'm making plans to visit/study them.
Alien's don't exist! Well.... Universe is pretty big. I sincerely doubt we will *ever* possess enough information to say aliens don't exist, much less, God is dead. Nonetheless, we're the only life in the universe. Guess we just move on right?
Other than the attempt to ask the question, and it's nobility an excitement aside, there's nothing about it that can't be put aside for say.... 250 years. Given the sociopolitical problems we have, and the fact we are absolutely killing the planet faster and faster each day, I'm going to go with putting *all* of that money into colonies on Mars and the Moon. Far more practical to put the money into hard research on space faring technologies that give us critically needed redundancy.
As I see it, it will be somewhere in the middle of the 22nd century when Earth becomes unable to sustain life anymore, and if Rhontar 5 wants to respond to us, they will need to redirect the answer to a colony. Mother planet will be long dead with the alien visitors rushing towards the final messages of de facto prisoners tapping out messages on the prison wall.
Finally, cynicism, misanthropic inclinations, whatever, but I refuse to believe that an advanced alien civilization wouldn't treat us like an infestation that needs to be killed before it spreads. I've yet to find any part of humanity so interesting and valuable as to render our clearly dangerous and self-destructive proclivities less important than their scientific curiosity. At the very least, I can see us being quarantined just like North Korea.
Why wouldn't an alien civilization decide to destroy us on the spot once they got a good look at how we conduct ourselves? Reminds me.... I've got aphids in the garden. BRB.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:01AM
Prove that is not just an assumption.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:53PM
Why?
I was addressing it as a *possible* answer, along with the assumption that there was other life in the universe, in order to make a statement about either outcome.
I suggest the search for reading comprehension.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:52AM
You want to put the money into colonies on Mars and the Moon? $100M won't get you anywhere.
But, if they can credibly announce "We have detected intelligent transmissions form Deneb IV" how much more total funding will suddenly become available for space?
I don't know how likely it is that they will find anyone, but I do consider it worthwhile to search.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:08PM
I no longer consider it worthwhile to search. Not as an absolute statement, but at least for our current situation.
Looking is entirely besides the point. It's just us screaming into the darkness, while simultaneously spending billions to listen intently for signals indicating intelligence. Meanwhile, what is going on with us again? Somebody else had a very good point, and I'm expounding on it. That point is simply that we don't have the luxury of sitting around scanning the stars for intelligence. We need to apply *our* intelligence and efforts into surviving the lengths of time it will take to enjoy the luxury of searching for other life and then communicating with it.
Your other point is simply a funding drive. It's no so much the science, as it's the marketing to get funds to perform *other* science? Put in the other science first. It will help keep us alive.
The marketing will take care of itself soon enough as the powers that be made *damn* sure to tank the entire planet for short term profits. When we're suffering just a little bit more, it won't take much to get a plebe to part with some coins so we can effectively create new land and opportunities elsewhere. Watch the movie Elysium.
The state we are in, is one of dire emergency. I'm not interested in spending money when the end goal of the entire project isn't viable in the remotest sense, even if it's wildly successful. In other words, we're just spending money to scream out our suicide note a little longer, or look for something out there to scream it towards.
Perhaps my outlook is a bit dark, but I just don't think the timing is appropriate given how bad our situation really is.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:10PM
Our species has only been broadcasting for roughly a century. That means that if there is a civilization listening in our direction, they'd need to be within 100 light years to pick us up next Tuesday (ignoring relativity).
I don't understand relativity comment, but the other part is incorrect. It is not really possible for anyone 80ly or 90ly or even 5ly away to pick up anything other than noise. Heck, we couldn't! The signals simply get too weak, even if using directional antennas, never mind normal broadcast.
Furthermore, 100 years ago we could not even detect many of the signals that are used for communication today.
And this is 100 years. How will we transmit information in 100 years? 1000 years? 10,000 years?
All this makes SETI kind of naive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:21PM
All this makes SETI kind of naive.
Which was my point. It is a waste of time to look for aliens. It is not a waste to upgrade the equipment. If your only goal is to look for aliens then yes you are wasting money.