The nice thing about SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) projects is that it makes very little difference if we don’t find anything. It’s not as though any conclusion can be drawn from a failure to find anything. We will just indulge in another round of speculations as to why we don’t. It’s not always clear why this is a science and not a religion. But hey.
Extraterrestrial life
Wired’s take on the shutdown of SETI@home
We never found any aliens and Wired’s nostalgia piece can’t, understandably, address that. Of course space exploration will still be worthwhile but the central myth of our time—that superior space aliens will change everything for us—has come up empty.
SETI @ Home shuts down
Well, the state of computing has certainly changed but, after so many years of no Contact, the magic has probably also gone out of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. Also, to use the “Woke” approach that is becoming increasingly popular in popular science, why should SETI get to say what is and isn’t a valid search for ET? Why should SETI control the narrative? Can’t everyone have or be their own ET? Sow the wind…
Anti-ID neuroscientist is totally onboard with SETI. But whoops!
Only trolls truly disagree that the design inference is worth pursuing—as Dr. Novella demonstrates by not truly disagreeing, when it is something he cares about.
Harvard astronomer is back: Radio bursts could be aliens
The reader who sent this tip notes, “Consider me skeptical but it’s interesting that design inferences are fine so long as it’s just aliens…” Actually, reader, some science personalities will believe darn near anything about anything as long as it IS aliens.
Is Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) gaining respectability again?
Sarah Scoles: Proper science is now more willing to embrace SETI… Don’t just ignore all the outliers as outliers, in other words: Important truth, if not whole truth, can lurk inside of them too.
Some people think they can tell us what space aliens will be like
So if aliens exist, they must be just like us because… evolution. This is a religion. Didn’t say it was a bad religion. But definitely a religion.
First British astronaut: Aliens exist among us
It’s curious how space aliens are assigned to “science,” no matter what proposition is entertained with respect to them. Perhaps they reward sheer, blind faith.
Why DO we keep sending music to extraterrestrials?
At Slate: the artists use music as a way of conveying information, whether it’s about our aesthetic sensibilities, our technology, or our physiology—all topics that would presumably be of interest to an extraterrestrial recipient.
Philosophy prof: Our theories steer us away from finding ET
Every so often the people searching for extraterrestrial life that just never seems to turn up need a pep talk. It often takes the form of “You know, we could be on the wrong track”.
At Smithsonian Magazine: What space aliens must be like
Fascinating to be so sure when we have no evidence of any space aliens at all. A religion underlies this, you may be sure.
At New Scientist: Our puny human brains can’t imagine alien life
Not true! We humans more or less invented the whole idea of aliens. Without us, they probably wouldn’t exist even as a story. Just think: There would be no market for ET tales, films, and trade goods except for us humans. Don’t believe me? Try to get clams or termites interested in ET and see what happens…
Chipping away at the millions of habitable exoplanets…
By some mere cosmic accident, these sudden radiation problems don’t affect us, right?
Archeon life form eats fragments of meteorites
At ScienceAlerts: This particular mineral connoisseur loves to dine on far more exotic rocks – ones that come from space.
Early fossils may just be “chemical gardens”
Researcher: Findings suggest that structure alone is not sufficient to confirm whether or not microscopic life-like formations are fossils. More research will be needed to say exactly how they were formed…