Fermi paradox

Ah, well, I'm glad that I am unoriginal

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Well, certainly. But it seems easier and more cost efficient to send out a beacon, similar to ``Species'', where they encoded a message into EM radiation.

 

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Your argument is perfectly sound given our present understanding of the universe. But if a means is found to travel faster than light, hopefully a means would also be found to convey information faster than lite ("subspace" in Star Trek). So a species capable of travel betweent the stars might be using a method of communication we're completely unaware of.

 

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Sure, I agree 100%. But this way of transmitting information is probably best suited for long distance communications---that is, between a starship and its base. Or, if this is too big a leap, it seems reasonable to assume that any civilization probably ONCE used electromagnetic radiation. And any civilization we encounter is probably somewhere near the same level of technology as we are. (There is a hiding assumption that we are ``normal'' in the since that we are not too much more advanced nor are we too far behind any civilization we are likely to encounter.)

So, still, I think that we should be looking for EM radiation, as it is the most likely thing to find. Everything is a gambling proposition

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The world becomes so much clearer when you see it in that light!

 

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Ben, this is wrong. Cell phones, depending on the technology, transmit in the range of 900MHz to a few GHz. These frequencies are well below the infrared in the EM spectrum, they are no where near the wavelength of UV radiation.

The reason for so many cell phone towers: at the frequencies used, reception is strictly line-of-sight with the tower.

 

Ben:

Here's a direct quote from your reference:

"The good agreement between the observed value and the theoretically calculated value of the orbital path can be seen as an indirect proof of the existence of gravitational waves. We will probably have to wait until next century for a direct demonstration of their existence. Many long-term projects have been started for making direct observations of gravitational waves impinging upon the earth. The radiation emitted by the binary pulsar is too weak to be observed on the earth with existing techniques. However, perhaps the violent perturbations of matter that take place when the two astronomical bodies in a binary star (or a binary pulsar) approach each other so closely that they fall into each other may give rise to gravitational waves that could be observed here."

It is because we do not have "direct proof" of their existence that some people consider them to be strictly theoretical.