• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CenterTao.org

taoism, taoist thought, buddha, yoga, tai chi, shakuhachi

  • Home
  • Tao Te Ching
  • Ways
  • Facebook Group
  • Blowing Zen

SETI… Quixotic SETI

Can_you_hear_me_nowAn article in Science News, Can you hear me now?, explored issues around the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) program. I see a Taoist twist on this, but first here is the editor’s take on this:

An intelligent ET would probably just stay home.

Apart from jokes about how hard it is to find intelligent life on Earth, let alone in the rest of the galaxy, the possible existence of extraterrestrial beings — and the lack of contact with them — poses a perplexing issue.

Because the galaxy is several billion years older than the Earth, planets around distant stars have had plenty of time to produce civilizations that would by now possess technology millions of years beyond current human capability. Presumably those advanced aliens would have built vessels permitting easy interstellar travel and so should be conducting regular tours to their favorite Earthly vacation spots. But as the famously sagacious physicist Enrico Fermi long ago observed, alien life is conspicuous in its absence. “Where is everybody?” Fermi asked. Ever since, people have sought reasons for why the best response to Fermi’s question is something other than simply concluding that no aliens exist.

Of course, proving alien life’s existence would not require an actual visit from Klaatu and Gort or those Witch Mountain kids. A text message or even a Morse Code telegram would be evidence enough. But as Elizabeth Quill points out on Page 22, human strategies for finding such a signal have probably been attuned to the wrong medium: the electromagnetic waves, basically radio, that represent a transient phase in Earth’s communication technology. Seeking signs of ET by listening to radio waves is like trying to watch ESPN on a TV with rabbit ears.

So searchers for extraterrestrial intelligence are now attempting to imagine other ways that more advanced societies might advertise their presence. It may be, though, that they are not advertising at all and would prefer to conceal their existence from other civilizations. Because if anybody has developed high-speed interstellar spacecraft technology, the galaxy is a very dangerous place.

Imagine a ship only the mass of the space shuttle — at a mere 20 percent of the speed of light, its kinetic energy would exceed that of 15,000 hydrogen bombs. You wouldn’t want to invite a visitor to aim such a ship in your direction.

In fact, realizing the potential weaponry power of an inter-stellar spacecraft might be just enough to persuade a really intelligent civilization not to build one. And so the answer to Fermi’s question might be that everybody decided to stay safe at home. —Tom Siegfried, Editor in Chief

Okay, the first thing that comes to mind is how the Tao Te Ching ends(1)…

Reduce the size and population of the state. Ensure that even though the people have tools of war for a troop or a battalion they will not use them; and also that they will be reluctant to move to distant places because they look on death as no light matter.

Even when they have ships and carts, they will have no use for them; and even when they have armor and weapons, they will have no occasion to make a show of them.

Bring it about that the people will return to the use of the knotted rope,
Will find relish in their food,
And beauty in their clothes,
Will be content in their abode,
And happy in the way they live.

Though adjoining states are within sight of one another, and the sound of dogs barking and cocks crowing in one state can be heard in another, yet the people of one state will grow old and die without having had any dealings with those of another.

If there are any civilizations thousands or millions of years ahead of us, you’d think they would have found greater contentment, settled down, returned to a way of life more in step with nature. That means, above all, not one bent on progress, at least as we define it.

A civilization so far ahead of us would have matured enough by now to realize the cognitive illusion that deceives thinking creatures, and adjust accordingly. We, on the other hand, are like infants who have just learned enough to get around. We still have thousands (if not millions) of years left of Circumstances to bring us to maturity, as chapter 51 puts it.

(1) Actually it ends one chapter later with, among other things, He who knows has no wide learning; he who has wide learning does not know. I can’t help but feel we are just at the bare beginning of beginning to know ourselves deeply and honestly, and that is how it should be. After all, our planet is young, relatively speaking, with a lot of evolution left to undergo. Humanity is still at the stage of setting it up, i.e., If you would have a thing laid aside, You must first set it up, as chapter 36 put it.

 

May 15, 2010 by Carl Abbott
Filed Under: Observations

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. carl says

    Jul 1, 2010 at 10:53 am

    You raise some good points to ponder. For me, they all boil down to symptoms of our species profound sense of disconnection. Thought puts up a wall of words and names between us and ‘them, that, those‘… everything else out there. The mind, and its beliefs, create an ‘objectivity prison’ which bars us from feeling the One. (i.e., When carrying on your head your perplexed bodily soul can you embrace in your arms the One and not let go?….

    As a whole, we are ignorant of this core dynamic. Never realizing why we are struggling. And so, like fighting fire with fire, we ironically struggle all the more to reconnect through understanding, knowledge, communication, investigation, etc. Don’t get me wrong, struggling is fine. However struggling in ignorance will lead to difficulty.

    I imagine that a hundred thousand years from now, we will realize where we are ‘coming from’ making us less intent on the ‘going to’. Perhaps truly advance civilizations have done so, and end up as the Tao Te Ching ends up, Bring it about that the people will return to the use of the knotted rope,…. How would earth people notice people on other planets if they had “return to the use of the knotted rope”?

  2. Keith says

    Jun 30, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    After thinking about this some more I think of the SETI project and “The Long Now” (since you mentioned 10,000 years) as performance art. The actual monitoring of signals from space or the building of a clock that could survive for 10,000 years isn’t really important. The point may be to simply stimulate thought.

    One of the interesting things to think about in the context of SETI is how you could possibly communicate with a completely alien species. Carl Sagan discusses this in some of his works. We’ve had enough problems dealing with ancient human languages and scripts, how could we possibly communicate with something completely alien? How is it that two humans can have a conversation and really understand each other? Anyone who has traveled has surely experienced difficulties communicating certain cultural concepts. Could you build up a universal language from fundamental physical constants and mathematics? Could a work such as the Tao Te Ching be translated into such a language 😉

    On a similar note there has been a lot of excitement about artificial intelligence. There are still strong believers – search for “technological singularity” for some information. Why are some people so motivated by the concept of creating an artificial intelligence? Is it the same thing that motivates SETI? As I get older I hope that it’s all an exercise in understanding ourselves a little bit better.

  3. carl says

    Jun 30, 2010 at 11:13 am

    Are you guessing that there wouldn’t be any signals to detect as a result?

    Oh no, that’s not really my point, though it may be a byproduct of the reality I picture. Briefly….

    We are to any civilization millions of years ahead of us, and the Homo Erectus is to us. Homo Erectus would be looking for our ‘smoke signals’ as signs of intelligent life. Our cell phones and what not would be to them as smoke signals are to us. Meaning, that technology would have become obsolete many thousands of years ago.

    Also, the idea that a civilization millions of years ahead of us would still be so insecure and lonely as to reach out to make themselves known to others, or find other sentient life out there, is improbable. We are an profoundly young species and incredibly recent practitioners of technology (other than stone tool). We are as insecure as infants, both literally and figuratively. We want ‘mommy’. But, we left her (Mother Nature) when we started thinking we could beat her at her own game.

    I expect every truly advance civilization out there would have gone through that insecure ‘looking for mommy’ phase. To imagine they would still be stuck there is simply project on our part. Just imagine where our species might ‘be’ a very short 10,000 years from now.

  4. Keith says

    Jun 29, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    >If there are any civilizations thousands or millions
    >of years ahead of us, you’d think they would have found
    >greater contentment, settled down, returned to a way of
    >life more in step with nature.

    Are you guessing that there wouldn’t be any signals to detect as a result?

    Even if assume that they have continued developing technologically and are using radio for communications, then it’s likely SETI will still only detect them if they want to be detected. Some radio engineers that I know think that SETI is completely flawed.

    SETI addresses this in a FAQ:

    “Are SETI researchers looking for the wrong type of signal? (I.e., why not spread spectrum?)

    As described in the previous section, SETI researchers look for narrow-band signals, the type that are confined to a small (usually 1 Hz or less) spot on the dial. But if you have a cellular phone, you may be aware that a lot of communications on Earth are now done using a technique known as “spread spectrum.” The broadcast signal is dispersed over a wide range of frequencies. What if ET is also engaged in spread spectrum broadcasting? Would our searches pick up his call?

    That depends. If the signal is strong enough, it might still be detected with current SETI equipment, although weak broadcasts will be missed. There’s little doubt that in the future, with greatly increased computer capability, our search will encompass these other types of communications. Nonetheless, it’s good to keep in mind that any civilization will realize that narrow-band broadcasts are the most efficient in terms of producing a detectable signal at the receiving end. If they wish to get in touch or, for example, simply have high-powered radars for finding incoming comets, they will generate the type of signals our experiments can find.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Monthly Chapter 75 (pandemic era)

See previous chapter postings

Search

Overview

Is Taoism a Religion?   Read more...
What is Taoist thought?   Read more...
What is the root of thought? Read more...

Who is CenterTao?

CenterTao is a non-profit corporation founded in 1982.     Read more...

Subscribe via Email

Tags

addiction balance belief bio-hoodwink Buddha children civilization consciousness desire ego emergent property emotion expectations fairness instinct family fear food freedom freewill future happy hunter gatherer imagination independance instinct knowing language learning mind mysterious sameness need parents pleasure v pain religion responsibility science stress symptoms point of view tai chi tao thinking understanding what is tao worry yoga

Recent Comments

  • Carl Abbott on Is Rock Conscious?
  • MosesK on Is Rock Conscious?
  • Carl Abbott on Alleviating the Hoarding Disorder
  • Carl Abbott on Instinctive Free Will
  • Erin on Alleviating the Hoarding Disorder
  • Carl Abbott on Small ‘t’ Taoists
  • J on Small ‘t’ Taoists
  • Carl Abbott on Buddha’s Truths Pertain To All Life
  • NoahPayne95 on Trump and the Mandate of Heaven
  • Peter on Buddha’s Truths Pertain To All Life

Past Observations

  • Taoist Thought
  • The Tradeoff
  • Buddha’s Truths Pertain To All Life
  • Trump and the Mandate of Heaven
  • Refreshing Redundancy
  • The Year Is 1915
  • We All Know We Don’t Know
  • Who are you? (Part V)
  • Who are you? (Part IV)
  • Who are you? (Part III)
  • Who are you? (Part II)
  • Who are you?
  • The Word Trap
  • Stressors of Comfort and Security
  • “Right state of peaceful mind”
  • What Climate Catastrophy?
  • Straight Poop on the Paleo Diet
  • Fear & Need Born in Nothing
  • Science Proves Buddha Right!
  • Alleviating the Hoarding Disorder
  • Amazon mother
  • Cultivating Character
  • Cultivating Ego
  • Passing judgment is healthy if…
  • Necessity is the Mother
  • Practice what you preach
  • Of Mountains, Molehills and the Supernatural
  • Civilized Insanity
  • Ancient Signs Of Modern Behavior
  • The Good Old Days
  • Modus Operandi
  • Alone with Thought
  • A proper sense of awe
  • CenterTao Group Anyone?
  • Loving Your Eco-System
  • Where does the fault lie?
  • Taoist secrets
  • Laws as Symptoms, not Solutions
  • Loss Aversion Management
  • Mind Over Milkshake
  • Flow Triggers
  • Naturally Racist
  • BRAIN
  • Managing Our Disorders
  • Bono & Musk on Creativity
  • The Harmless People
  • Born Again Taoist
  • Free Willers Anonymous
  • Instinctive Free Will
  • Stupidly Intelligent
  • The Proof is in the Pudding
  • A Wealth of Happiness
  • Natural Happiness
  • Is Happiness In Your Choices?
  • Profound Connections Enlighten
  • Religion… an Opiate?
  • Is Gen Y Unhappy?
  • Remember the Disease
  • The Pendulum Swings
  • You are Immortal!
  • A Rose By Any Other Name
  • Emotion Speaks… Literally
  • I Look, But Do I See?
  • Just like Us, Just like Them
  • Science’s Baby Steps
  • Worthy of a Noble Life?
  • Who says chickens are stupid?
  • Seeking Out Untruth
  • Earn It to Learn It
  • Counterbalancing I.Q.
  • Mind Run Away; Run Away Mind
  • “The rich suffer in comfort”
  • Self-Predation
  • Finding Your Original Self
  • Feeding the Worry Gene
  • Hold the Knowable
  • Good Enough Is!
  • Ponder Between the Lines
  • Soaking in Inspiration
  • A Tao of Parenting
  • Buddha’s Work
  • Insatiably Curious at 70?
  • Breathe Into It
  • Tao of Government
  • Will-to-Live, Free or Otherwise
  • Begin New Years with a smile
  • The Why Of It
  • The Truth vs. The Middle
  • Dumbfounding
  • A Taoist Creed
  • Of Free Will, I Am
  • Discomfort and Pain
  • Undecided? You bet!
  • Siren’s Song of Politics
  • “It’s the Economy Stupid”
  • Networks of Networks of….
  • Can we pull the plug?
  • Yamaguchi San
  • “Fixation on same same”
  • Beware: the Blind Spot
  • And Then There Was Fire
  • Tao and Democracy
  • What’s Not the Elephant?
  • Upping the Ante
  • A Word to the Wise?
  • A Bee with Personality
  • Necessity, the Mother
  • Guilt, Shame and the Name Game
  • The Secret to Happiness!
  • It Began Now
  • I am foolish of human mind also?
  • Seat of Consciousness
  • What Follows Loss of the Way?
  • Placebo Effect
  • Imagining a Better Way
  • Who or What Do You Trust?
  • Giving Your Life a Gift
  • The Only Safe Escape
  • Use Non-Responsibility
  • Be Careful What You Wish
  • Jack of All Trades, Master of None?
  • We only understand what we know
  • Two Paths
  • The Trans Tribal Tao
  • Resistance is Futile
  • A Brother is a Brother
  • Really, Have We No Clue?
  • Why?
  • Gone Fishin’, Back Soon
  • Check One Off the Bucket List
  • Opiate of the Masses
  • The Wealthy Poor
  • Dreaming the Way
  • Sobering up!
  • Oh My Aching Bones
  • The Utility of Knowing What You Don’t Know
  • Naturally Unnatural, Naturally!
  • Naked Thought
  • Success Thru Failure
  • I, Amoeba
  • Why Man is King
  • Ethics as an Emergent Property
  • Loss is Gain; Gain is Loss
  • “… Strive On Diligently”
  • Is Pain the Constant?
  • Ants Are Us
  • Feeling Animal-ness
  • Pleasure Isn’t Well Being
  • Is Rock Conscious?
  • See No Evil
  • Keep ’em guessing?
  • Thou Shalt Not…
  • You Are What You Own
  • Priorities
  • We!
  • You Know
  • Who You Are Determines Who I Am, & Visa Versa
  • An Improper Sense of Awe
  • Thoughts and Ducks Quacking
  • The poetry of it all
  • So, I’d like to ask…
  • Don’t trust anyone under 60
  • Imagination knows no end
  • In Praise Of Nothing
  • It’s Simply Nature’s Way
  • The Truth About Lies
  • It’s Time We Changed Our Name
  • Fear Rules
  • Nothing’s Certain but Death and…
  • Reward, Fear & Need
  • He Who Conquers Self
  • Democracy as Myth
  • So, You Want Enlightenment, Eh?
  • When Is Attachment Good?
  • Let Sleeping Dogs Lie
  • The Story Trumps Truth
  • Water in Mind
  • Why God?
  • Playing With Dolls
  • Belief in Nothing is Dangerous
  • Illusions, Everywhere I Think
  • Wandering Mind Is Unhappy Mind
  • Love
  • Small ‘t’ Taoists
  • Beyond Spooky
  • My Battle With Tobacco
  • John Cleese, a ‘Taoist’?
  • The Nutty Things We Do
  • A Symptom’s Point Of View
  • Fear Is The Bottom Line
  • Change we can believe in?
  • Science, Religion, Truth
  • Children Know What Adults Forget
  • The Spirit of Yoga
  • The less I think, the more I know
  • Exquisite Balance
  • Skullduggery is rampant in nature
  • What Shapes How You Think?
  • Tao As Emergent Property
  • Balancing Difference With Similarity
  • Thinking clouds consciousness
  • Where Is Freedom?
  • Decisions Decisions
  • Poor Thais And Rich Swedes
  • Time’s Arrow
  • Desire and Contentment
  • Learning What You Know
  • We’re Not So Different After All
  • Chairs: One of Our Big Mistakes
  • Gossip, Hysteria, News
  • The Family Purse
  • Swarm Savvy
  • SETI… Quixotic SETI
  • The Worry Gene
  • Odds Are, It’s Wrong
  • Bathtub Tai Chi
  • How the Hoodwink Hooks
  • Omega-3 and Vitamin D
  • He Who Speaks Does Not Know, but…
  • Hunger: A Natural Stimulant
  • Know Truth, Live True
  • Why Not Protest To Raise Taxes?
  • Self Integrity, Slime, and Karma
  • A How-To for Extinguishing Self
  • Significant Others
  • Headstands and Apes
  • The Future Takes Care of Itself
  • Teachers and Students
  • Are You As Happy As You Should Be?
  • Keeping Birthday Happy
  • Why Do Idiot Savants Run Things?
  • Trust But Verify
  • Are You A Beliefaholic?
  • Sage Advice from Wall Street
  • Of Course It’s Alive!
  • What Am I Doing?
  • I understand, but do I know?
  • Just In: We’re All Nuts!
  • The Future is Now!
  • Peeking Through the Covers
  • Innately Ethical
  • Can You Believe What You See?
  • Suicide Just Doesn’t Work
  • A Hypochondriac’s Miracle Cure
  • An Essential Taoist Secret
  • Just How Big Is The Gap?
  • The Theory of God
  • Who is Right?
  • You Are Who You Are By Default
  • Cave Man Shakuhachi?
  • Into the Jungle?
  • Swimming Tai Chi Spermatozoa Style
  • Are you out of touch with nature?
  • It was a dark and stormy night…
  • Cease Treading Water and Just Sink
  • Enjoy What You Do – or – Do What You Enjoy?
  • The Glare Hides ‘Out There’ From View
  • The illusion of ‘moment’
  • Consciousness Physics
  • A Taoist Solution to Gay Marriage
  • Emotion Clear-cuts Perception
  • Right Mindfulness, Attentiveness, and Concentration?
  • The best tao? (road, way, principle, speak, think)
  • The trick lies in not believing, yet believing
  • What is ‘the Tao’ actually?
  • Think what you believe? Believe what you think?
  • Yin Yang, Nature’s Hoodwink
  • Public Tantrums
  • Understanding Understanding
  • Wealth plays out in odd ways
  • Peaches and Pleasure
  • Looking Through the Looking Glass
  • Even a little progress is freedom from fear
  • Religion: The best placebo?
  • Correlation’s ‘Prime Directive’
  • The Cost of Compassion
  • Can you say what you think?
  • Grinding Out Correlations
  • “Do you believe in angels?”
  • The Amazonian ‘Taoists’
  • Is Enlightenment Something or ???
  • Family Life
  • Who’s a Sage?
  • The Gifts Given – Paid In Full
  • King Kiwi
  • Blowing with the sea
  • In praise of kale
  • Always be a beginner
  • It’s Like Magic!
  • How do we know what is true?
  • Am I Bored or Just Content?
  • Do Good Christians Make Good People?
  • PS
  • The Decider
  • Peeking in on Nature’s Hoodwink
  • How to Know You’re Happy
  • It Is Spooky
  • Of What Is The Taoist Model Symptomatic?
  • Is ‘Free Will’ the Only Option?
  • Butterflies have wings; we have minds
  • Mind in Body in Mind in Body…xin
  • Such Synergy
  • Where There’s Passion (fire), There’s Blindness (smoke)
  • Seeing the world ‘out there’
  • Schrödinger’s cat
  • Tai Chi Video
  • Life Is Struggle, Happiness Is Contentment
  • What’s With All The Hair?
  • Tao Views of the Dow
  • Biology’s Blinders: WYSIWYG
  • Those Who Speak Do Not Know. So, Why Speak?
  • Welcome to CenterTao.org 2.0!

Postscript

Here is 2022’s Postscript.

My 80-year-old mind continues poking deeper; however, I’ll not be updating this website any longer… There’s enough already… who needs more?

For those seriously interested, see Taoist Thought (which sells at cost). I intend to continue updating this book with my latest observations and revisions until I draw my last breath.

2004-2015 Forum Archive

Click here to browse a read-only archive of all discussion that took place on this site between 2004 and 2015; over 3000 posts!

Copyright © 2023 Carl Abbott · Log in