From the ancient Greeks to the modern space age, we continue our cosmic exploration, forever hopeful that ET will answer our call. Cupertino TV Productions' Grace Trafton interviews the Deputy Director of the SETI Institute's Carl Sagan Center, Simon Steel.
https://www.space.com/ai-may-be-to-blame-failure-to-contact-alien-civilizations
Artificial intelligence (AI) has progressed at an astounding pace over the last few years. Some scientists are now looking towards the development of artificial superintelligence (ASI) — a form of AI that would not only surpass human intelligence but would not be bound by the learning speeds of humans.
But what if this milestone isn't just a remarkable achievement? What if it also represents a formidable bottleneck in the development of all civilizations?
Seven candidate Dyson spheres found from their excess infrared radiation could be a case of mistaken identity, with evidence for dusty background galaxies spotted close to three of them.
“They could be an astrophysical phenomenon such as extreme debris discs, or something more exotic,” says Ann Marie Cody, an astronomer at the SETI Institute in California who is not involved in Project Hephaistos, but has conducted her own Dyson swarm search.
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/85XbEPjKXUc
This month, two teams of astronomers announced the potential discovery of Dyson spheres in our galaxy. But have we truly found indicators of highly advanced civilizations? Join Dr. Franck Marchis and Dr. Lauren Sgro as they delve into these groundbreaking findings and their implications for SETI research.
The SETI Institute’s 2024 Drake Awards ceremony took place last Thursday at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, honoring significant contributions to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This event brought together experts in astrobiology, astrophysics, nuclear physics, and signal processing.
This year, the SETI AIR program is launching a series of new residencies, each focused on a discipline, or “territory,” of creative practice. The first residency off the starting block is Cosmic Consciousness, which interweaves language and the written word with the exploration of consciousness and intelligence.
#ICYMI: Dr. Andrew Siemion received the Drake Award Thursday night. Ahead of the awards reception, communications specialist Beth Johnson sat down at the SETI Institute offices and talked with him about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of SETI research.
Next #SETILive: TODAY, Thursday, May 16, 2:30PM PDT
The SETI Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Andrew Siemion will be honored with the prestigious 2024 Drake Award for his exceptional and pioneering contributions to SETI and radio astronomy and his leadership in the field. Ahead of tonight's awards reception, Beth Johnson talks with Dr. Siemion about his career so far, receiving the Drake Award, and his vision for the future of #SETI research.
https://nautil.us/how-whales-could-help-us-speak-to-aliens-559443/
On Aug. 19, 2021, a humpback whale named Twain whupped back. Specifically, Twain made a series of humpback whale calls known as “whups” in response to playback recordings of whups from a boat of researchers off the coast of Alaska. The whale and the playback exchanged calls 36 times. In their 2023 published results, McGowan, Sharpe, and their coauthors are careful not to characterize their exchange with Twain as a conversation.
https://www.space.com/can-alien-life-exist-planet-rings
One locale that few scientists have considered for life is the set of rings that crown Jupiter, outside the gas giant's atmosphere. These rings, like those that circle all of our solar system's gas giants, are actually belts composed mainly of water-ice particles, some as small as grains of sand, others as large as mountains. Might life exist there?
We’ve never heard a peep from aliens. But improved technology is speeding up the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI), so what happens if today’s silence suddenly gives way to tomorrow’s discovery of alien life? Would the world rejoice in the news that someone’s out there? Would euphoria engulf humanity, as Nobel Prizes are doled out like after-dinner mints?
Thinking about artificial general intelligence (AGI) calls to mind another poorly understood and speculative phenomenon with the potential for transformative impacts on humankind. We believe that the SETI Institute’s efforts to detect advanced extraterrestrial intelligence demonstrate several valuable concepts that can be adapted for AGI research.
In the latter half, astronomer Seth Shostak talked about his continued work in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), new ways to make contact with ETs, the importance of new planet discoveries, and all things astronomy and life in space. One intriguing new approach for SETI, beyond radio telescopes, is to piggyback onto other scientific studies in the radio part of the sky's spectrum to see if any of the sounds are not made by nature.
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/scientists-speak-humpback-whale-experiment.html
Scientists on the Whale-SETI team have successfully communicated with a humpback whale named Twain, having a 20-minute “conversation” with the aquatic animal. This historic experiment involved a recorded whale call that the team played into the ocean using an underwater speaker, which led Twain to circle their boat and respond using a “greeting signal.” The exchange lasted for 20 minutes, and Twain would match the interval variations from the team’s calls.
We're thrilled to share that undergraduate Param Joshi from NIT Rourkela, India, collaborating with Dr. Vishal Gajjar and a team of researchers at the Allen Telescope Array of the SETI Institute, has led the discovery of a Fast Radio Bursts with the widest bandwidth. After meticulously analyzing over 200 hours of observations with a specialized machine learning algorithm, Param successfully identified eight Fast Radio Bursts.