the delphic expanse

As many of you probably know, Seti has lost its funding. I hope they will be able to continue with private funds, but Io9 has published a nice series of articles on the search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence:

Farewell Seti

The director of Seti has said he feels with the recent discovery of so many exo planets that are Earth-like, that he feels that we could make first contact within his lifetime.

This is both eerie and cool.

I thouhgt I heard something about this. That is very sad. I really hope that they do get funding from somewhere.

What's really interesting is that this could turn out to be a good thing. Right now, we are moving away from analog signals (such as the one Seti searches for) and toward fiberoptics and digital signals and all that. So, it's possible that there are relative few radio signals to find out there because societies move beyond them very quickly. Scientists/futurists are proposing to look for other signs of life instead.

Thanks to Jodie Foster, SETI is operating again:

http://news.yahoo.com/jodie-foster-help ... 02490.html

Bravo Jodie Foster I saw the news on tv this afternoon.

Too cool!

So appropriate, given her role in Contact.

EntAllat wrote:So appropriate, given her role in Contact.

When I told my husband, his first reaction, "So yeah, Jodi Foster saved SETI in 'Contact.'" He totally didn't understand at first. No, honey, she did it in real life too.

I read that news story this morning. I thought that was awfully nice of her to do that.

The funds came from over 2,000 private donors...

Maybe I'm being overly-critical, but the sensation around this kind of creates an assumption that Jodie Foster single-handedly did this. Maybe not from this specific article but others about this. That appears to be the reaction I've seen on Twitter yesterday. Yes, it's nice that she gave them money and I'm happy that they get to operate until the end of the year, but over 1,999 other people helped, too. Jodie Foster is just the most famous on the list, yes, but for all we know she might've only given them $50 bucks. The only others with a big enough name they thought were worth mentioning were Larry Niven and Bill Anders -- people who those interested in sci fi and space exploration would know, but the general public might not.

Don't get me wrong. I think it's cool that celebrities get involved in something like this. But you know, people are going to be running around saying Jodie Foster saved SETI, and lots of others deserve credit.

Also, I'd like to know what happens at the end of the year. Do they get new funding?