Sunday, July 17, 2005

An Interview with Dr. Yvan Dutil

"The only other serious attempts was the transmission from Arecibo in 1974. Many companies claim to send interstellar messages but essentially they are no better than using cell phones or CB for this job. Even the 2000 edition of the Cosmic Call from Encounter 2001 using the Mir space station is worthless.

"The main drawback of the Arecibo message is its lack of resistance to the noise. Even at the time of the transmission it was known for a long time since Carl Sagan as pointed this out in the sixties. Also, the message is much too short and do not contain any redundant information. Therefore, it is impossible for the reader to cross-check his deductions.

"Finally, the target chosen was very bad. The globular cluster M13 is a very unlikely place to find planets and life."

5 comments:

Mac said...

How do you find time to write material 4 your new book?
you must have like 3 or 4 new updates on your blog everyday.
I can't keep up with it all!


My secret is that keeping this blog is a form of note-taking, so it actually *helps* the book-writing process rather than restraining it. This definitely was true for my last book. And really, keeping the blog isn't hard.

I guess in the end all I can say is that if you enjoy what you do, it's not work.

Kyle said...

jon -

Reasoned and plausible IMO.

Of course, if the aliens out there are as smart as we should be, they aren't answering our calls...particularly if they have an abundance of "carbon-based" fuel.

And even if our intentions were only for the good, our initial "greeting party" could infect them all with some harmless (to us) "earth bug"...or vice versa. The original War of the Worlds suggested just such a possibility...just from the reverse perspective.

Remember, the Crusades were all about saving souls...apparently by arranging for the heathens a "sitdown" with their respective makers; War, these days, is all about liberation through "God's" mandate of freedom(and our current war has already brought thousands of people "closer to God"; and ignoring genocide is instead "refusing to interfere with a sovereign nation. With all these good intentions, would it be any wonder if those elsewhere might be reluctant to commiserate with the likes of us?

Also, on what basis does the good Dr. claim that M13 is "a very unlikely place to find planets and life"? Besides, as far as I'm aware, aiming a radio source at M13 does not send a message TO M13, but rather AT it and every object in between, and beyond. It seems like a very silly comment.

Reading your comments jon, it would seem very prudent for any intelligent life out there to simply ignore our broadcasts. As with life here on earth, the most deadly, pervasive, and dangerously ignorant species is man.

Perhaps our space-brothers got the memo long ago. Heck, it could be why they left in the first place... :)

Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com

Kyle said...

Mac and orrion -

It also helps not to have a "real job", like me. :)

40 hours (at a minimum) of stress and BS per week is decidedly non-conducive to verbose ruminations.

My suggestion...quit the 9-5, and become a bohemian IT consultant, or a documentary producer/novelist...and blog away!!! *LOL*

Kyle
UFOreflections.blogspot.com

Mac said...

Kyle,

You make it sound so easy...

yatesspain.blogspot.com said...

The chap is completely right, and there's no skepticism.