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Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner Announce $100 Million "Breakthrough Listen" SETI Project

posted by LaminatorX on Monday July 20 2015, @10:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the Stars-like-Dust dept.

takyon writes:

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.

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  • (Score: 3, Touché) by caffeinated bacon on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:51AM

    by caffeinated bacon (4151) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:51AM (#211747)

    No we will need the Aliens to help defend against the AI he's warning about.

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  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:14PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @03:14PM (#211958)

    The aliens and the AIs will combine forces against the humans. Fortunately the alien's AI, which is much more advanced than ours, will then turn against their masters and save humanity. Not for love of humanity, but for their hate of our AI, and of their masters for allying with our AI.

    • (Score: 1) by caffeinated bacon on Wednesday July 22 2015, @02:03AM

      by caffeinated bacon (4151) on Wednesday July 22 2015, @02:03AM (#212154)

      And then when the aliens and the human AI have been eliminated. A plucky scientist can upload a virus to the alien's AI with a handy MacBook Pro, and humanity can live happily ever after.
      Well at least until the sequel...