Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Good thing that stuff called "Technology" is.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
You know, if we're becoming undetectable due to all the digital signal transmissions, it makes you wonder if any aliens nearby are the same way. That would explain a lack of transmissions...
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
There is of course a 60 odd light year shell of powerfull emissions expanding around the earth.
But if we assume that we are a very average species in the universe that means that an inteligent species needs to be looking for the signals and also needs to be looking at a moment in time when that 60 year band of signals are intersecting their planet.
If we assume that civilisation has existed for about 6200 years (taken from the earliest recorded date I know of - 4241 BC, the first Egyptian callender), than only for 1/60th of civilisation have we been sending out these transmissions or had the ability to detect any from other sources.
So, the chances are lowered significantly of one inteligent civilisation detecting another, especially if the period of time which a species is detectable ends before the end of that civilisation.
Which of course will screw up the answer you get from the Drake equation.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I thought TV signals were far too weak to be detected more than a light year or so away because they're omnidirectional and therefore attenuate before they even leave the solar system?
Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged
quote:Originally posted by Fabrux: You know, if we're becoming undetectable due to all the digital signal transmissions, it makes you wonder if any aliens nearby are the same way. That would explain a lack of transmissions...
An equally likely scenario is that anyonr smart enough t signal is smart enough not to do so indiscriminately, lest they attract the wrong kind of attention.
A smart species is cautious.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
