WEBVTT - Selects: How SETI Works 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.680 M Hey, everybody, Chuck here, I saw a UFO last night. 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:06.320 Actually that's not true, but it would be a great 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:09.240 story if I were setting up this episode from March one, twelve, 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:19.640 How SETI works Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:28.280 You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.040 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:34.640 as always as Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.000 Stuff you should Know the podcast. Don't get it confused. 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:45.599 What is that? What was that? That was my instation? 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:50.800 That was burgess, Meredith. Okay, thank you, that's pretty good. Thanks. 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:55.960 It's a good Burgess Meredith. Chuck, you're in the mood 0:00:55.960 --> 0:01:00.400 for alien talk. Sure, this is the second time we've 0:01:00.440 --> 0:01:04.680 done something like this. Almost a year later, right at it? 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:07.680 We did? Uh how UFOs work live in Austin, Yeah, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.440 last March. So yeah, I guess once a year we 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:15.319 do aliens aliens? Yea um. But hey, before we get started, 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:17.440 may I take a second. Yeah, I want to just 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:25.440 say special high to my wife Umi, right, who made 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:30.039 me the happiest guy in February. Yeah, I could just 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.440 call her on February when we got married. Indeed, Yeah, 0:01:34.720 --> 0:01:37.240 any dats Are you just gonna no, that's all all right. 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.720 I was just wanting ever, I wanted to share my 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:42.480 happiness with everybody out there. Very well done, thank you 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:47.520 very much. Hey Umi, So let's get back to aliens. Okay, yes, okay. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.280 So we are doing this in honor of Are We Alone? 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.360 Month on Science Channel? Right, So the month of March 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.880 is are We Alone? Month? And Science Channel Every Tuesday, 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:03.480 I believe at Tan is having a premiere of, um 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.080 some new show that has something to do with the 0:02:06.080 --> 0:02:09.840 search for extraterrestrial life. Yeah, it's gonna be very cool. 0:02:10.240 --> 0:02:12.959 And I mean there's some like all shows are gonna 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:15.760 be awesome, but there's some that are clearly going to 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.400 be really awesome, like Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:25.160 I mean that in the context of an are We Alone? Month? Yeah, 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.600 it's big news. Also, um uh the Alien Encounters with 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.360 Nick Sagan got to be related to Carl Carl Pilkington, 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.440 yes uh. And then if you're in the mood for 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.280 a contest, what would a month be without one? There 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:45.000 is a set live contest where the prize is to 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.000 go visit cet no Way, go to the California to 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.600 the institute. Yes, pretty sweet. Yes, So this is all 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.760 going on on Science Channel all month long. And if 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:56.359 you want more details watch Science Channel pal yeah, or 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.720 hit him up on Facebook. I bet they have info there. Yeah. 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.720 And in honor of this month is very special month, 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.720 we are doing how study works, which is an acronym 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:11.919 study if you don't know, for to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Yes, 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.120 and I joked before we did this, are we Alone? 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.799 Month will be followed by yes We're Alone Day sort 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.200 of a joke. But they haven't really found a lot 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:22.799 of stuff yet. Well, I don't know. Let me let 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:26.200 me give you an example of something. Have you heard 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:28.200 of the wild signal? Yeah, we talked about this before 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.480 we did when I think it might have been one 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.800 of the webcasts. It definitely rang a bell that had 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:40.400 your stank on it. No, we talked about the Yosemite 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:42.520 Sam signal. I know, but I think we talked about 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.240 a couple of years ago. Okay, well, old webcast, let 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:47.040 me tell you again. Let me refresh your memory, because 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:52.280 you clearly don't remember. August fifty seven, a guy who's 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.640 now known as Dr Jerry or Aman e h m 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.360 A N I keep wanting to call him ermine. Yeah 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:03.520 he uh. He was manning the Big Year Radio telescope 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:08.840 at Ohio State University UM and was analyzing some data 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.720 from it, and so basically saw, this is what it 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.840 looks like. It's a it's a bunch of numbers and letters. 0:04:14.920 --> 0:04:18.920 It looks like the matrix scroll very much. So, yes, Um. 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:24.400 But what that is is a burst of radio activity 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.360 transmitted on the one four, two oh point four or 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:32.400 five six mega hurts frequency for seventy two seconds W 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:38.840 A L N right right um. And it was basically 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.040 the closest thing we've ever gotten to hard evidence of 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.200 a radio transmission from an alien civilization. It meant like 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.880 all of the criteria that set he follows, which will 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:55.920 talk about later UM for um radio transmissions from intelligent life. 0:04:56.320 --> 0:05:00.279 Right Um. The problem is is after searching for for 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.880 like fifty times, specifically, it's never been found again. And 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:08.279 the reason it's called the wow Um transmission is because 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:11.600 Jerry Ahman Um circled it and wrote wow with an 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:15.279 exclamation point, and that's that's why it's called that. So 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:20.040 although since that time, nothing else has come up in 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:22.960 that same area and we haven't had anything even remotely 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:27.839 close to it. Set still continues, right, Yeah, and CT 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:32.119 is both a a movement and a group of people. 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:36.000 It's an institute. Yeah, well there's the SETI Institute and 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:41.200 there's just independent Set Operations. Yeah. I mean you can 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.919 use SET as a would that be an down because 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.599 it is a search? Yeah, yeah, you're right, just a 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.880 funky nown right, But let's talk about it, Chuck, let's 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:55.440 talk about set the challenges that has. Uh. Well, first 0:05:55.440 --> 0:05:57.479 of all, if you've seen the movie Contact I have 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:02.080 apparently it's not two and accurate from the writer of 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.039 this article who was Freud and Lake, wasn't it, He 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.160 said that that movie, if you want to watch that one, 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.200 is fairly accurate and on track. Well, it was based 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:13.400 on a book written by Carl Sagan and he definitely 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.120 knew his stuff. Yeah, he was like, the Sagan Institute 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.039 is one of the parts of CET Institute, very nice 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.800 or the second Research Center, I think. So go ahead, 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:28.040 and you're saying, oh, well, so let's talk a little 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.320 bit about the origin of it. Um SET came about 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.520 in a time when there was a large intellectual push 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.800 towards searching for alien life. A lot of very very 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:44.679 smart people suddenly started postulating that there's probably other people 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:48.919 out there. Yeah, there's gotta be two guys, um Philip 0:06:48.960 --> 0:06:54.920 Morrison and Giuseppe Cony I wrote wrote a paper in 0:06:55.000 --> 0:07:01.960 Nature and they basically said, look, if we look, we 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:05.719 may very well not find anything. But if we don't look, 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:09.200 we're definitely not going to find anything. Point. And that 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:11.320 came at a time when a guy named Frank Drake, 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:17.600 an astrophysicist an astronomer, was um trying to start his 0:07:17.640 --> 0:07:21.440 own search, and he eventually founded CET I think in 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:26.480 nineteen sixty founded the ct Institute or just set said 0:07:26.640 --> 0:07:30.800 he well, he conducted the first st search. Yeah, Frank 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.160 Drake did, and it was based on something called the 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:38.080 Drake equation, which I find just utterly fascinating and refreshingly 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:43.200 understandable as far as like theoretical math equations go. Yeah, 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.440 and and is the number of civilizations in the Milky 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:51.360 Way whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable. So in equals are 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.559 times FP times in A, times FL times five times 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:58.440 FC times L. And then there's the R is the 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.800 rate of formation of ours over the lifetime of the galaxy. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.960 And that's anywhere from like ten to forty a year. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:08.000 Yea stars suitable for development of intelligent life. That narrows 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:10.920 it down. Um. Then there's the fraction of those stars 0:08:10.920 --> 0:08:16.400 with planets. Then there's the average number of those planets 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.520 that are Earth type, meaning suitable for life as we 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:25.840 understand it. An, that's about of the fifty of stars 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:29.800 with planets, but we're starting to whittle down pretty quickly. Um. 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.960 And then there's the fraction of those planets where life 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:36.280 develops that's estimated at and as much as a dent. 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.439 And then there's the fraction of life that develops intelligence. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:42.160 So it's not just enough to be in am but 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:48.000 you have to be an amiba capable of creating a radio. Right. Um, 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:52.920 that's pretty low as well, um about ten percent um, 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:56.240 and then another ten percent as the fraction of planets 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:01.600 where intelligent life develops technologies such as radio. Okay, So 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:07.320 you've got life and then l intelligent life and then technology, 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.280 and then you have the lifetime of that communicative civilization 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:15.600 in years. So boom, multiply that on out. You got 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:18.240 your Drake equation and you have as little as one 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:24.520 as much as billions, well plus it's it's as little 0:09:24.559 --> 0:09:27.120 as one or billions because it you know those are 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:29.600 it depends on what value put in there, and everyone's 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:31.640 gonna put in different values, So the Drake equation is 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:36.959 going to have a wide swath. Yes, it makes sense. Um, 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.439 so you've got this. This is the framework. Then, the 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.200 Drake equation created by Frank Drake, the founder of CT. 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:48.080 This is the framework that CD conducts its research with. 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:49.800 Like one of the things they do is try to 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:54.240 figure out exactly how many stars out there have planets 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.400 with that are suitable for life. Um, to really kind 0:09:58.400 --> 0:10:01.640 of plug in the best possible data into the Drake 0:10:01.679 --> 0:10:04.200 equation and to help them figure out where to look. 0:10:04.480 --> 0:10:08.679 Because there's three main challenges for SET that they face 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:14.520 just as a concept and an organization, and they are, Um, 0:10:15.000 --> 0:10:18.680 you have a really big sky out there, right, you 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.600 have a lot of frequencies that could that. You have 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.120 a lot of radio frequencies, and um, you have a 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.679 limited amount of telescopes, not much equipment. No, Because it's 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:35.199 very expensively and while CT is funded to a large degree, 0:10:36.120 --> 0:10:38.679 it's not funded to a large degree compared to like 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.520 like when it was part of NASA. I think it's 0:10:40.559 --> 0:10:43.680 only like one percent of their budget. Even still, that 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.920 was like the most money cet He has ever had. 0:10:46.679 --> 0:10:48.800 But they're they're pretty well funded, the SETI Institute is. 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:51.880 So as far as private funding goes, they're doing okay. Yeah, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.800 I mean they're nonprofit obviously, so they're not getting rich, 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:56.319 you know what I mean. No, they're they're kind of 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.640 hurting right now. All thought they were doing all right. No, 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:03.319 the they also received federal funds and that's all but 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.280 dried up right now because of the economic downturn. Yes, said, 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.040 he's the first to go, isn't it all right? So 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:13.920 you proposed the three problems. Um here a couple of 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.840 approaches for the large sky problem. A lot of area 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.000 out there, so they have two approaches there. The wide 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:26.400 field search basically casting a wide, non specific net over uh, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:30.200 you know, a low resolution over a long period I'm sorry, 0:11:30.200 --> 0:11:33.360 a short period of time over a wide area could 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.520 get you some nibbles if you were fishing, let's say, 0:11:36.559 --> 0:11:38.880 but it's going to be difficult to find out exactly 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.560 like where this stuff is coming from, right, Or a 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:44.000 targeted search, which is what my money would be on, 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:50.840 which are limited to sun like stars like they basically 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.320 factor in more of Drake's equation in this one, say, 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.800 let's look at places where we might find uh, you know, 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.560 target these things where we might find E. T. S. UM. 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:04.080 And they do both of those depending They have various 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:09.000 projects going on ongoing UM. And some are targeted, some 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.640 are wide field search. UM. So they're kind of covering 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.120 their bases as much as possible. UM. The next challenge 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.559 was you know what frequency to listen for to listen 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:22.480 to you know, like it's not a radio no, but 0:12:22.600 --> 0:12:25.200 even with a radio, even with like a walkie talkie, 0:12:25.280 --> 0:12:28.120 Like if you've ever used one of those, if you're 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:30.720 not on the right frequency, you are going to miss 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:36.000 everything that's being told to you. So there's like you said, 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:37.800 it's not a radio dial. It doesn't go from like 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.360 eight eight point five all the way to one or 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:45.040 seven point five. They're billions from alternative to country exactly. Um, 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:50.640 there are billions of radio frequencies and they UM, I mean, 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:52.440 which one are you gonna listen to? You? You can 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:56.040 listen to them all, but again you're cycling through them. Uh, 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:57.959 You're not able to spend a lot of time as 0:12:58.040 --> 0:13:01.480 much like the same dilemma with the sky you have 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.520 with the radio. Frequencies plus are full of noise. Yep, 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:10.240 that's another problem occurring stuff right. Um, But there is 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.720 a window in the radio frequency that's called the water hole, 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.800 which is pretty cool. UM. It's a natural place in 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.280 the radio frequency spectrum. UM. And by the way, radio 0:13:21.480 --> 0:13:25.760 is their light waves. It's a type of light wave UM, 0:13:25.800 --> 0:13:28.960 but they're very specific. They exist on a specific frequency. 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:33.800 But UM, in this the spectrum, the band, there's this 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:37.040 thing called the water hole UM, which goes from the 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:41.360 one to tend giga hurts range and it has very 0:13:41.400 --> 0:13:46.320 little UM natural background noise, like very few things you 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.000 know broadcast on this frequency. And the reason being, UM, 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:55.520 they these frequencies are caused by hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl ions, 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:57.679 both of which are constituents of water, which is why 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:01.720 it's called the water hole. And they suspect that for 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.920 a couple of reasons, alien civilizations would be aware of 0:14:04.920 --> 0:14:09.679 this one, that it's just so profoundly unique in the 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.800 radio spectrum that if you had any kind of awareness 0:14:12.800 --> 0:14:15.560 of the radio spectrum, you would stumble upon this, and 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:19.320 that you would intentionally broadcast in a low noise frequency 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:22.160 exactly because you want to be heard. Yeah, I mean 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.280 anybody who broadcast on the radio wants to be heard, 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.360 right um. And then the other reason they think that 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:30.920 alien civilizations would know about it is because water, with 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:35.520 which it's associated um, is considered a an essential to 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:39.720 life and therefore universal among intelligent life. It's not geocentric. 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:43.360 The concept of water is so aliens would be familiar 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.000 with water and would thus be familiar with the water 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.000 hole in the frequency spectrum as well, So that this 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.000 is probably where they're putting most of their research or 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.200 their effort into this waterhole band of frequencies. Yeah, I 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.840 mean they search all over, but pretty much all set 0:14:59.400 --> 0:15:03.800 operation will search the water hole as part of their problem, 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.920 as part of their ops. Then there's magical frequencies to 0:15:07.440 --> 0:15:10.240 like basically, they're saying, like, where on this band of 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:14.000 billions of frequencies is there some sort of universal pattern. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:15.960 And one of the things that they figured out is 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.600 prime numbers might be a good place to look because 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.240 prime numbers are part of math and their universal constant. 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.160 So an advanced civilization might be aware of prime numbers, 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.760 and if they're trying to communicate to another advanced civilization, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.600 they may be broadcasting on prime number channels. That's a 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:35.400 magical frequency. I wonder if they've searched pie the Pie station. 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.480 So so far we've got to We've got two of 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:44.720 the big problems tackled. Yes, generally. The third one is 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:49.360 the most down to earth problem. Yeah. No, no equipment. Basically, 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:53.920 these radio telescopes are expensive to build and so there's 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.680 not a whole lot of them. So they said, you know, 0:15:56.760 --> 0:15:58.960 there's a few ways we can handle this. We can 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:03.320 UH conduct limited runs on ones that are already out there, 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:08.240 basically rent space from other dudes. Uh. We can conduct 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:13.480 analysis of data are already acquired by other dudes, so like, hey, 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.440 you've been listening in on all these frequencies, let us 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.560 see your data and we'll just work from that. Or 0:16:18.760 --> 0:16:24.480 we can build SETI dedicated radio telescopes, which is clearly 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:28.600 the least popular because it's so expensive and it's the 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:32.560 most popular but least feasible. Yeah, and like the UM, 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.400 like the projects that they have ongoing for wide target 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.920 search UM or wide field search or targeted search. They 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:43.680 have different projects dedicated different types of radio use, like 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:48.320 UM Project Phoenix. UH rents time at some of the 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:54.320 better radio telescopes around the world, Australia, Aricibo, Yeah, in 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:58.000 Puerto Rico, U. The one in West Virginia, Green Bank, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.600 West Virginia has a huge radio telescope. But that's where 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:05.880 the first city conference was held over teen sixty, I believe. Yeah. Um. 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:10.879 And then there's the serendip project, which piggybacks cracks me 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.800 up for some reason. Why serendip I don't know, just 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.520 because it's short for serendipity. It sounds like your friend 0:17:18.520 --> 0:17:21.000 Adam that shortens everything, like he would say, yeah, we 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:22.879 met up. It was a bit of serendip Yeah, he 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:28.480 would say that, total serendip um. Yeah. So they piggyback 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.639 by basically saying like hey, like you said, let me 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:33.320 see your dad, and once you're done with it, we 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:36.520 want to go over it too. Yeah. It's like, hey man, 0:17:36.640 --> 0:17:40.399 it's like the hippie rob version of Astronomy Boy. He 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:42.119 had made an appearance in a while, he just did. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:45.280 I didn't expect him to pop up in set if 0:17:45.280 --> 0:18:17.200 he didn't pop up in Magic Mushrooms, you know. Uh 0:18:18.200 --> 0:18:21.440 So Project serendip like you said, it takes um, takes 0:18:21.440 --> 0:18:24.879 advantage of a lot of telescope time, but they don't 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.280 have the control to say, hey, pointed over there, So 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.720 they have a lot of hours, but they're just basically 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.560 that's the wide search being cast. And then you said, 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:38.360 like the most desirable one was having their own telescope. Well, yeah, 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.480 that'd be great, staid he figured out something. Rather than 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:47.120 making a huge or paying for a huge radio telescope. Um, 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:49.560 they figured out that they can take a bunch of 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.560 backyard satellite dishes, which I'm sure are really easy to 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:55.800 come by these days. Um, you know the kind like 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:59.200 from the eighties. Oh yeah, put a bunch of those together. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.760 They're like eight eat wide right. Yeah, you put a 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:04.320 bunch of those together and connect their signals using a 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:09.200 process called interferometry. Nice, thank you dude, well done. First 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:14.320 try and uh, you can basically simulate a huge, large 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.919 telescope for a fraction of the cost. Yeah, it's like 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:21.080 linking a network of computers, which, um is actually something 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.240 also being done. We might as well get into that 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:29.440 the cet at symbol at home project and uh, that's 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:32.920 actually the SETI Institute, isn't it. Yeah, So they decided 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.359 that hey, instead of building a couple of supercomputers to 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:38.600 analyze this data, because that's one of the big problems 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:40.560 is there's so much data. It's not like you can 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:43.040 just plug it into your laptop. But you can plug 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.240 a tiny chunk into a laptop and network a bunch 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:49.640 of laptops together to do the power of the supercomputers. 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:52.400 And that is what they've done, and you can participate. Yeah, 0:19:52.400 --> 0:19:55.960 it's pretty ingenious UM. And there's there's other things that 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:58.000 I think Seti at home started it and now there's 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:01.880 things like folding at home really to UM simulate protein 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:05.960 folding for cancer research. Same thing UM. And I'm sure 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:07.800 there's other ones that I didn't get a chance to look, 0:20:07.800 --> 0:20:10.480 but Setty at home started it. Where you it's a 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.680 screen saver UM, but it's also a program and while 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:18.720 it's running, it's it downloads a chunk of UM data 0:20:19.359 --> 0:20:23.119 from the air CBO radio telescope and that's like your 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:26.040 little assignment And it's like a hundred second chunk maybe 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:27.840 something like that. It doesn't seem like much, but it 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.120 takes like ten to twenty hours for the normal UM 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.640 computer to process it. But like you said, if it's 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:37.439 if you have thousands of computers doing this, you have 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.359 a thousand times the processing power. All of a sudden 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.960 for free. Pretty cool. Uh, And while your computers analyzing it, 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.680 it's making notes of all this stuff using studies algorithms, 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.360 and then it uploads the results to set and then 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.560 downloads another chunk for an analysis. And dude, I bet 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:59.480 this is a very popular thing to do for stargazers, 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:02.760 for stargazing nerds of the world. There's a guy I remember, 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.280 um who was in Arizona I think, and he uh 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:08.760 was fired from his job as like the i T 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:13.560 head for the Department of Education in this one community. Um, 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:17.680 because he he booted, said he at home onto all 0:21:17.680 --> 0:21:21.639 the computers without asking. But I mean it's not a 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:24.199 big deal. It doesn't take that much processing power and 0:21:24.280 --> 0:21:27.399 it just kind of runs in the background. Um. Well, 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:30.000 he was made a mockery of by the local news 0:21:30.160 --> 0:21:33.280 like that he was fired because of his search for aliens. 0:21:35.400 --> 0:21:38.360 Yeah it was pretty bad. But yeah, some poor guy 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.760 got fired for that. Said he at home got him fired. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:45.640 I bet he got a job with STI or something, though, 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:49.479 I'm I don't bet that, you don't think so they 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:54.280 just said sorry thanks anyway pretty much. Um, well, you 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.160 talked about building your own and the alien telescope array. 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:01.080 I'm sorry the Allen Telescope Array. Yeah. I kept taking 0:22:01.080 --> 0:22:03.080 it like that until I found out it's named after 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.880 Paul Allen, the co founder of Microsoft, who donated all 0:22:06.880 --> 0:22:10.800 of the money for it. Well, that is still underway. UM. 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:13.360 As far as its construction, I think they they were 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:15.320 down for a little while because of a lack of funding, 0:22:15.480 --> 0:22:18.600 and it's a twenty six million dollar deal. But I 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:22.159 think as of two thousand eleven they were up and 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.120 running again and part of it is complete to the 0:22:25.200 --> 0:22:28.000 extent I think where they can use it for for 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:30.359 things right, But they're still not finished with them. No, 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:33.280 they're not. They have enough money to construct it, but 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:35.840 they didn't have enough money to run it, so they 0:22:35.920 --> 0:22:38.240 have like a skeleton crew on it right now. But 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:41.040 it is operational. I think it is UM. They're hoping 0:22:41.119 --> 0:22:42.879 that they're they're going to be able to fund it 0:22:43.040 --> 0:22:46.160 by UM releasing some time on it to the Air 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.480 Force who was interested in using it. They should try 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.040 a bake sale. I don't know, you know, you know, 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.600 it'll be a great day when schools have all the 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.240 funding they need and the Air Force has to hold 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:00.760 a bake sale to buy a stealth bomber. That'll be 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:02.760 the day, somebody should put that on like a bump 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:08.760 or stick or something that's we could shorten it. But yeah, agreed, Uh, 0:23:09.040 --> 0:23:12.800 should we mention the Fermi paradox? Yes, as good a 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:14.840 time as any. I mean. One of the things that 0:23:15.280 --> 0:23:18.520 happens to set is that they're constantly pummeled by critics 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.040 and a lot of them cite the Fermi paradox too. Well, 0:23:22.040 --> 0:23:25.480 here's what SETI Institute says, because I dug into their 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:27.879 f a Q a little bit on one of the 0:23:27.920 --> 0:23:29.679 questions is why do we think that there might be 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:33.639 life out there? Quote? And SETI said, you should keep 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:37.080 in mind that we are one planet around a very 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.800 ordinary star, and they're roughly four hundred billion other stars 0:23:41.160 --> 0:23:44.920 and nearly one billion other galaxies, and they think it 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:47.960 would be extraordinary if we were the only thinking beings 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:54.919 in all these enormous realms. Faremi Enrico Faremi said that, Uh, 0:23:55.320 --> 0:23:58.080 if it takes life billions of years to develop intelligence 0:23:58.680 --> 0:24:01.400 and signal or travel to the stars, and there are 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:04.199 billions of the worlds in the universe, and the universe 0:24:04.280 --> 0:24:07.679 is thirteen billion years old plus, then why haven't we 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:10.399 been visited yet? Yeah, when you look at it, like 0:24:10.400 --> 0:24:14.119 that the odds are makes sense. They just increase exponentially. 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:17.280 It's kind of like a perverted version of the Drake 0:24:18.000 --> 0:24:25.080 equation used to disprove the existence of life, the anti drake. Yeah, interesting, 0:24:25.119 --> 0:24:56.040 anti Drake. So what happens if we get a signal? 0:24:57.080 --> 0:24:59.920 What happens if they're sitting around one day and they 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.080 your phone home come over the radio waves. Well, they 0:25:03.080 --> 0:25:07.160 have a a strict set of protocols that start with, 0:25:07.560 --> 0:25:11.160 you know, the first person who finds it, to the 0:25:11.280 --> 0:25:15.800 um the you know who gets told first, what what 0:25:15.880 --> 0:25:20.119 agencies learn of it? And um, it's pretty cool. Apparently 0:25:20.160 --> 0:25:25.080 contact follows the course of it pretty pretty um accurately. Yeah. 0:25:25.440 --> 0:25:28.399