WEBVTT - How SETI Works 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:07.560 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:16.439 from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.160 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:22.880 Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is stuff you should 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:28.920 know the podcast. Don't get it confused? What is that? 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:36.840 What was that? That was my burgess? Meredith? Okay, thank you, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.560 that's pretty good. Thanks. It's a good burgess, Meredith, Chuck, 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:45.479 you're in the mood for alien talk. Sure, this is 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:49.640 the second time we've done something like this almost a 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.120 year later. Yeah, right at it? We did? Uh how 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.440 UFOs work live in Austin? Yeah, last March? So yeah, 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:01.400 I guess once a year we do aliens aliens? Yeah? Um, 0:01:01.480 --> 0:01:04.280 but hey, before we get started, may I take a second. Yeah. 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:11.920 I wanted to say special high to my wife Umi, right, 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:17.200 who made me the happiest guy in February. Yeah, I 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:22.680 could just call her on February when we got married. Indeed, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.440 are you just gonna no, that's all I was just 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:28.400 wanting every I wanted to share my happiness with everybody 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:33.160 out there. Thank you very much. So let's get back 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.679 to aliens. Okay, okay, So we are doing this in 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:41.039 honor of are We Alone? Month on Science Channel? Right, 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:43.880 So the month of March is are We Alone? Month? 0:01:44.000 --> 0:01:48.000 And Science Channel every Tuesday, I believe at ten it's 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.600 having a premiere of um some new show that has 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:56.320 something to do with the search for extraterrestrial life. Yeah, 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.960 it's gonna be very cool. And I mean there's some 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.040 like all those are going to be awesome, but there's 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:05.040 some that are clearly going to be really awesome, like 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:09.200 Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman. I mean that in 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:14.280 the context of an are We Alone Month, it's big news. Also, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.760 um uh the Alien Encounters with Nick Sagan got to 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:23.799 be related to Carl Carl Pilkington. Yes uh. And then 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:26.400 if you're in the mood for a contest, what would 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.320 a month be without one? There is a steady live 0:02:30.440 --> 0:02:34.280 contest where the prize is to go visit Sad no Way, 0:02:34.360 --> 0:02:38.320 go to the California to the Institute. Yes, pretty sweet. Yes, 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.480 So this is all going on on Science Channel all 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:43.720 month long, and if you want more details, watch Science Channel. Pal. Yeah, 0:02:43.760 --> 0:02:45.320 we're hit him up on Facebook. I bet they have 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:49.600 info there and in honor of this month is very 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:53.640 special month. We are doing how steady Works, which is 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:57.040 an acronym study if you don't know, for to search 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.800 for extraterrestrial intelligence. Yes, and a joke before we did this. 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.240 Are we Alone? Month will be followed by yes We're 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.160 Alone Day? Sort of a joke. But they haven't really 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:09.760 found a lot of stuff yet. Well, I don't know. 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:11.680 Let me let me give you an example of something. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:15.079 Have you heard of the wild signal? Yeah, we talked 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.560 about this before we did WIN. I think it might 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:21.240 have been one of the webcasts. It definitely rang a 0:03:21.280 --> 0:03:25.960 bell that had your stank on it. No, we talked 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:29.560 about them, you submity Sam signal. But I think we 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:32.480 talked about a couple of years ago. Okay, well, old webcast. 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:34.320 Let me tell you again. Let me refresh your memory 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:39.440 because you clearly don't remember. August fifty seven, a guy 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.960 who's now known as Dr Jerry or Aman e h 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.480 m A N. I keep wanting to call him ermine 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:51.040 he uh. He was manning the Big Year Radio telescope 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:56.360 at Ohio State University UM and was analyzing some data 0:03:56.400 --> 0:03:59.240 from it and so basically saw this is what it 0:03:59.280 --> 0:04:02.360 looks like it's a it's a bunch of numbers and letters. 0:04:02.440 --> 0:04:06.440 It looks like the matrix scroll very much so, yes, um. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:11.880 But what that is is a burst of radio activity 0:04:12.800 --> 0:04:15.920 transmitted on the one four, two oh point four or 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:19.919 five six mega hurts frequency for seventy two seconds W 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:26.320 A L N right right um. And it was basically 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.560 the closest thing we've ever gotten to hard evidence of 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.720 a radio transmission from an alien civilization. It meant like 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:37.560 all of the criteria that SETI follows, which will talk 0:04:37.600 --> 0:04:43.400 about later um for um radio transmissions from intelligent life. 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:47.599 Right Um. The problem is is after searching for it 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:51.279 for like fifty times, specifically, it's never been found again. 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:55.440 And the reason it's called the wow Um transmission is 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.960 because Jerry aman Um circled it and wrote wow with 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:02.200 an exclamation one and that's that's why it's called that. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:07.360 So although since that time, nothing else has come up 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:09.960 in that same area and we haven't had anything even 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:15.040 remotely close to it, set still continues, right yeah. And 0:05:15.080 --> 0:05:19.640 SETI is both a a movement and a group of people. 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:23.520 It's an institute. Yeah. Well, there's the SETI Institute, and 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:28.719 there's just independent set operations. Yeah, I mean you can 0:05:28.880 --> 0:05:33.520 use steady as a with it being down because it 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:36.720 is a search. Yeah, yeah, you're right, just a funky nown. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.240 But let's talk about it, Chuck, Let's talk about Set, 0:05:40.480 --> 0:05:43.360 the challenges that has. Well, first of all, if you've 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:47.920 seen the movie Contact I have, apparently it's not too inaccurate. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.160 From the writer of this article who was Freud and Lake, 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:55.000 wasn't it, He said that that movie, if you want 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:58.120 to watch that one, is fairly accurate and on track. Well, 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:00.240 it was based on a book written by Carlson Slegan 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.800 and he definitely knew his stuff. He was like, the 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.760 Sagan Institute is one of the parts of Set Institute 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.800 very nice or the Second Research Center, I think. So 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:15.240 go ahead, and you're saying, oh, well, so let's talk 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.640 a little bit about the origin of it. Um. Set 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:21.279 came about in a time when there was a large 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:25.800 intellectual push towards searching for alien life. A lot of 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:31.120 very very smart people suddenly started postulating that there's probably 0:06:31.640 --> 0:06:36.039 other people out there. There's gotta be two guys Um. 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:42.120 Philip Morrison and Giseppe Cony wrote I wrote wrote a 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:49.039 paper in Nature, and they basically said, look, if we look, 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.680 we may very well not find anything. But if we 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.480 don't look, we're definitely not going to find anything. And 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:58.799 that came at a time when a guy named Frank Drake, 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:05.000 an astrophysicist, UH, an astronomer, was um trying to start 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.840 his own search, and he eventually founded CET I think 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:14.000 in nineteen sixty founded the CET Institute or just set seat. 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:18.320 He well, he conducted the first set search. Yeah, Frank 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:20.680 Drake did, and it was based on something called the 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:25.600 Drake equation, which I find this utterly fascinating and refreshingly 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:30.720 understandable as far as like theoretical math equations go. Yeah, 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.960 and and is the number of civilizations in the Milky 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:38.880 Way whose electromagnetic emissions are detectable. So n equals are 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:42.680 times FP times in A, times f L times FI 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.800 times FC times L. And then there's the r is 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.720 the rate of formation of stars over the lifetime of 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:50.920 the galaxy, and that's anywhere from like ten to four 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.560 to a year. Yea stars suitable for development of intelligent life. 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.920 That narrows it down. Um, then there's the fraction of 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:02.320 those stars with planets that be Then there's the average 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:06.040 number of those planets that are Earth type, meaning suitable 0:08:06.080 --> 0:08:11.720 for life as we understand it, that's about of the 0:08:11.960 --> 0:08:15.360 fift of stars with planets, so we're starting to whittle 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.520 down pretty quickly. Um. And then there's the fraction of 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:22.600 those planets where life develops that's estimated at and as 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.800 much as a And then there's the fraction of life 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:29.200 that develops intelligence. So it's not just enough to be 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.640 in a me, but you have to be an amba 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:36.760 capable of creating a radio. UM. That's pretty low as well, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:42.240 UM about ten percent UM. And then another ten percent 0:08:42.559 --> 0:08:45.680 is the fraction of planets where intelligent life develops technologies 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:51.120 such as radio. Yeah, so you've got life and then 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:56.120 l intelligent life, and then technology, and then you have 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:01.240 the lifetime of that communicative civilization in years so boom, 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.400 multiply that on out. You got your Drake equation and 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.599 you have as little as one as much as billions, 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.960 well plus it's it's as little as one or billions 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:15.960 because it you know, those are it depends on what 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:18.199 value put in there, and everyone's gonna put in different values. 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.880 So the Drake equation is gonna have a wide swath. Yes, 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:25.720 that makes sense. Um. So you've got this. This is 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:28.800 the framework different the Drake Equation created by Frank Drake 0:09:28.840 --> 0:09:33.160 for the founder of CT. This is the framework that 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.600 CD conducts its research with. Like one of the things 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.800 they do is try to figure out exactly how many 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:45.240 stars out there have planets with that are suitable for life, um, 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:48.400 to really kind of plug in the best possible data 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.120 into the Drake equation and to help them figure out 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:55.160 where to look. Because there's three main challenges for CT 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:59.200 that they face just as a concept and an organization, 0:10:00.160 --> 0:10:03.720 and they are, um, yeah, you have a really big 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:08.479 sky out there, right, you have a lot of frequencies 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:11.600 that could that we have a lot of radio frequencies, 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:16.560 and um, you have a limited amount of telescopes, not 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.560 much equipment. No, because it's very expensive. And while CET 0:10:20.760 --> 0:10:24.520 is funded to a large degree, it's not funded to 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.640 a large degree compared to like like when it was 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.920 part of NASA. I think it's only like one percent 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:32.240 of their budget. Even still that was like the most 0:10:32.320 --> 0:10:35.400 money city has ever had. But they're they're pretty well funded, 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:37.880 the Seti Institute is so as far as private funding goes, 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.559 they're doing okay, yeah, I mean they're nonprofit obviously, so 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:43.080 they're not getting rich, you know what I mean. Now 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.360 they're they're kind of hurting right now. They all thought 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.600 they were doing all right. No, they they also receive 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:51.720 federal funds and that's all but dried up right now 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:55.480 because of the economic downturn. Yea, he slippers to go, 0:10:55.520 --> 0:10:58.920 isn't it all right? So you propose the three problems. 0:10:59.160 --> 0:11:03.559 UM here a couple of approaches. For the large sky 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.320 problem a lot of area out there, So they have 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:11.199 two approaches there. The wide field search basically casting a wide, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:15.800 non specific net over uh you know, a low resolution 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:18.720 over a long period I'm sorry, short period of time 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.679 over a wide area could get you some nibbles if 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:24.840 you were fishing, let's say, but it's going to be 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.240 difficult to find out exactly like where this stuff is 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.520 coming from, right, Or a targeted search, which is what 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:36.480 my money would be on, which are limited to sunlike 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.760 stars like. They basically factor in more of Drake's equation 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.000 in this one. Say, let's look at places where we 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.360 might find uh, you know, target these things where we 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:49.800 might find E. T. S. UM. And they do both 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:53.359 of those depending They have various projects going on ongoing 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:58.760 UM and some are targeted, some are wide field search. Um, 0:11:58.880 --> 0:12:02.520 so they're kind of bring their bases as much as possible. Um. 0:12:02.800 --> 0:12:06.160 The next challenge was you know what frequency to listen 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.240 for to listen to you know, like it's not a 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.880 radio no, but even with a radio, even with like 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:14.480 a walkie talkie, like if you've ever used one of those, 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:17.480 So if you're not on the right frequency, you are 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:20.960 going to miss everything that's being told to you. So 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:24.600 there's like you said, it's not a radio dial. It 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.480 doesn't go from like eight point five all the way 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.720 to one or seven point five. They're billions from alternative 0:12:30.760 --> 0:12:35.400 to country exactly. Um, there are billions of radio frequencies 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.960 and they um, I mean, which one are you gonna 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:41.160 listen to? You? You can listen to them all, but 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.400 again you're cycling through them. Uh, you're not able to 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.920 spend a lot of time as much like the same 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:50.240 dilemma with the sky you have with the radio frequencies. 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:54.560 Plus you're full of noise. Yep, that's another problem occurring 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:58.920 stuff right. Um. But there is a window in the 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:03.439 radio frequency. It's called the water hole, which is pretty cool. Um. 0:13:03.480 --> 0:13:07.560 It's a natural place in the radio frequency spectrum UM. 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:11.120 And by the way, radio is their light waves. It's 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:14.320 a type of of light wave UM, but they're very specific. 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:18.760 They exist on a specific frequency. But UM. In this 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.120 the spectrum, the band, there's this thing called the water 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:25.559 hole UM which goes from the one to tend giga 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:31.920 hurts range and it has very little UM natural background noise, 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.840 like very few things you know broadcast in this frequency. 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:40.400 And the reason being UM, they these frequencies are caused 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.720 by hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl ions, both of which are 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:46.240 constituents of water, which is why it's called the water hole. 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.680 And they suspect that for a couple of reasons, alien 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:55.080 civilizations would be aware of this. One that it's just 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.560 so profoundly unique in the radio spectrum that if you 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.240 had any kind of aware irness of the radio spectrum, 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:03.960 you would stumble upon this, and that you would intentionally 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.079 broadcast in a low noise frequency exactly because you want 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.800 to be heard. Yeah, I mean, anybody who broadcast on 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.720 the radio wants to be heard, right UM. And then 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.440 the other reason they think that alien civilizations would know 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:20.320 about it is because water with which it's associated UM 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:24.640 is considered a an essential to life and therefore universal 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.280 among intelligent life. It's not geocentric. The concept of water 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.200 is so aliens would be familiar with water and would 0:14:32.200 --> 0:14:34.560 thus be familiar with the water hole in the frequency 0:14:34.600 --> 0:14:38.160 spectrum as well, So that this is probably where they're 0:14:38.240 --> 0:14:41.600 putting most of their research or their effort into this 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.720 waterhole band of frequencies. Yeah, I mean they search all over, 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:48.760 but pretty much all CET operations will search the water 0:14:48.840 --> 0:14:52.200 hole as part of their problem, as part of their ops. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.280 Then there's magical frequencies to like Basically, they're saying, like, 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.880 where on this band of billions of frequencies is there's 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:02.560 sort of universal pattern. And one of the things that 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.000 they figured out is prime numbers might be a good 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.000 place to look because prime numbers are part of math 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:11.720 and they're universal constant. So an advanced civilization might be 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:13.880 aware of prime numbers, and if they're trying to communicate 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.120 to another advanced civilization, they may be broadcasting on prime 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:21.440 number channels. That's a magical frequency. I wonder if they've 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:24.640 searched pie the Pie station. So so far we've got 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:30.760 to we've got two of the big problems tackled. Yes, generally, 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:35.640 the third one is the most down to earth problem. Yeah, no, 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:40.200 no equipment. Basically, these radio telescopes are expensive to build 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:42.600 and so there's not a whole lot of them. So 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.200 they said, you know, there's a few ways we can 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:49.960 handle this. We can UH conduct limited runs on ones 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:54.560 that are already out there, basically rent space from other dudes. UH. 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:59.280 We can conduct analysis of data are already acquired by 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:02.200 other dudes, so like, hey, you've been listening in on 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:04.800 all these frequencies, let us see your data and we'll 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:09.320 just work from that. Or we can build set dedicated 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:14.200 radio telescopes, which is clearly the least popular because it's 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.840 so expensive and it's the most popular but least feasible. Yeah, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.200 and like the UM, like the projects that they have 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.120 ongoing for wide target search UM or wide field search 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:29.960 or targeted search. They have different projects dedicated different types 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:35.400 of radio use, like UM Project Phoenix. UH rents time at. 0:16:35.440 --> 0:16:39.240 Some of the better radio telescopes around the world Australia 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:44.120 are Cebo YEA in Puerto Rico, U the one in 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.120 West Virginia. Green Bank, West Virginia has a huge radio 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.880 telescope and that's where the first city conference was held 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.080 at ten sixty I believe yeah. Um. And then there's 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:59.200 the serendip project, which piggybacks cracks me up for some reason. 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:04.400 Why erendipp I don't know, just because it's short for serendipity. 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:07.800 It sounds like your friend Adam that shortens everything, Like 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:09.119 he would say, yeah, we met up. It was a 0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:13.800 bit of serendip he would say that, total serendipd um. Yeah. 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:18.240 So they piggyback by basically saying like hey, like you said, 0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:20.639 let me see your dad. I once you're done with it, 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:23.560 we want to go over it too. Yeah, And like, 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.800 hey man, it's like the hippie rob version exact of 0:17:27.040 --> 0:17:29.040 astronomy Boy. He had made an appearance in a while, 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:30.960 he just did. I didn't expect him to pop up 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.360 in steady if he didn't pop up in magic Mushrooms, 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:39.399 you know. Uh So Project serendip like you said, it 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.760 takes um takes advantage of a lot of telescope time, 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.080 but they don't have the control to say, hey, pointed 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:49.080 over there, so they have a lot of hours, but 0:17:49.200 --> 0:17:52.719 they're just basically that's the wide search being cast. And 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.280 then you said, like the most desirable one was having 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.119 their own telescope well, yeah, that'd be great. Study figured 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.879 out something rather than making a huge you're paying for 0:18:02.960 --> 0:18:07.959 a huge radio telescope. Um, they figured out that they 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.919 can take a bunch of backyard satellite dishes, which I'm 0:18:10.960 --> 0:18:14.120 sure are really easy to come by these days. Um, 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:17.480 you know the kind like from the eighties. Put a 0:18:17.480 --> 0:18:20.720 bunch of those together there, like eight ft wide. You 0:18:20.760 --> 0:18:23.160 put a bunch of those together and connect their signals 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:27.880 using a process called interferometry. Nice, thank you, dud, well 0:18:27.920 --> 0:18:33.119 done first try and uh, you can basically simulate a huge, 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:36.080 large telescope for a fraction of the cost. Yeah, it's 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.959 like linking a network of computers, which, um is actually 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:42.360 something also being done. We might as well get into 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:48.280 that the set at Symbol at Home project and uh, 0:18:48.520 --> 0:18:52.520 that's actually the SETI Institute, isn't it. So they decided that, hey, 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:56.600 instead of building a couple of supercomputers to analyze this data, 0:18:56.720 --> 0:18:58.240 because that's one of the big problems is there's so 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.320 much data. It's not like you can just plug it 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:03.040 into your laptop. But you can plug a tiny chunk 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.520 into a laptop and network a bunch of laptops together 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:09.359 to do the power of the supercomputers and that is 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.720 what they've done and you can participate. Yeah, it's pretty ingenious. UM. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.040 And there's there's other things that I think Setting at 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:18.520 Home started it. And now there's things like folding at home, 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:22.880 which you simulate protein folding for cancer research, the same 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.000 thing UM. And I'm sure there's other ones that I 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:27.840 didn't get a chance to look, but SETI at home 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:31.879 started it. Where you it's a screen saver UM, but 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.439 it's also a program. And while it's running, it's it 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:40.440 downloads a chunk of UM data from the air CBO 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.600 radio telescope and that's like your little assignment and it's 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.040 like a hundred second chunk maybe something like that. It 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:47.760 doesn't seem like much, but it takes like ten to 0:19:47.800 --> 0:19:52.000 twenty hours for the normal UM computer to process it. 0:19:52.800 --> 0:19:55.200 But like you said, if it's if you have thousands 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:58.000 of computers doing this, you have a thousand times the 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:01.400 processing power all of a sudden, for pretty cool. Uh. 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.199 And while your computers analyzing it, it's making notes of 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:08.320 all this stuff using statis algorithms, and then it uploads 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.919 the results to city and then downloads another chunk for analysis. 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:16.200 And that this is a very popular thing. To do 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:21.160 for star gazers, for stargazing nerds of the world. There 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.600 was a guy I remember who was in Arizona, I think, 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:27.560 and he uh was fired from his job as like 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:30.840 the I T head for the Department of Education in 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.959 this one community. Um, because he he booted SETI at 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:40.280 home onto all the computers without asking. But I mean 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:42.600 it's not a big deal. It doesn't take that much 0:20:42.640 --> 0:20:46.679 processing power and it just kind of runs in the background. Um. Well, 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.320 he was made a mockery of by the local news 0:20:49.400 --> 0:20:54.840 like that. He was fired because of his search for aliens. Yeah, 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.840 it was pretty bad. But yeah, some poor guy got 0:20:57.840 --> 0:21:02.000 fired for that. So the at home got him fired. 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.680 I bet he got a job with CT or something, 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:08.760 though I don't bet that, you don't think so they 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:13.760 said sorry, thanks anyway pretty much. Um well, you talked 0:21:13.760 --> 0:21:17.200 about building your own and the alien telescope array, I'm sorry. 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:20.600 The Allen Telescope Array. Yeah, I kept taking it like 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.000 that until I found out it's named after Paul Allen, 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.120 the co founder of Microsoft, is it who donated all 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:29.639 of the money for it. Well that is still underway. 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.439 Um as far as its construction. I think they they 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:34.040 were down for a little while because of a lack 0:21:34.080 --> 0:21:37.280 of funding, and it's a twenty six million dollar deal. 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.000 But I think as of h two thousand eleven they 0:21:41.040 --> 0:21:43.600 were up and running again and part of it is 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:46.520 complete to the extent I think where they can use 0:21:46.560 --> 0:21:49.119 it for for things, right, but they're still not finished 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:51.840 with them. No, they're not. They have enough money to 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:54.119 construct it, but they didn't have enough money to run it, 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.080 so they have like a skeleton crew on it right now. 0:21:57.440 --> 0:21:59.880 But it is operational. I think it is. UM. They're 0:22:00.040 --> 0:22:01.920 hoping that they're they're going to be able to fund 0:22:02.000 --> 0:22:05.200 it by um releasing some time on it to the 0:22:05.240 --> 0:22:08.600 Air Force who was interested in using it. They should 0:22:08.600 --> 0:22:11.280 try a bake sale. I don't know, you know, you know, 0:22:11.320 --> 0:22:14.840 it'll be a great day when schools have all the 0:22:14.880 --> 0:22:17.480 funding they need and the Air Force has to hold 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:20.040 a bake sale to buy a stealth bomber. That'll be 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:22.119 the day. Somebody should put that on like a bumper 0:22:22.160 --> 0:22:28.000 stick or something. That's we could shorten it, but yeah, agreed, Uh, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:31.960 should we mention the Fermi paradox. Yeah, it's as good 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:33.920 a time as any. I mean. One of the things 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.800 that happens to set is that they're constantly pummeled by critics, 0:22:38.359 --> 0:22:41.280 and a lot of them cite the Fermi paradox too. Well, 0:22:41.320 --> 0:22:44.719 here's what Seti Institute says, because I dug into their 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.119 f a Q a little bit on one of the 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:48.919 questions is why do we think that there might be 0:22:49.000 --> 0:22:52.920 life out there? Quote and Setti said, you should keep 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:56.360 in mind that we are one planet around a very 0:22:56.480 --> 0:23:00.439 ordinary star, and they're roughly four d billion other stars 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:04.199 and nearly one billion other galaxies, and they think it 0:23:04.200 --> 0:23:07.240 would be extraordinary if we were the only thinking beings 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:12.480 in all these enormous realms. Fare Me Enrico fare Me 0:23:13.400 --> 0:23:16.280 said that, uh, if it takes life billions of years 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:19.840 to develop intelligence and signal or travel to the stars, 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:22.520 and there are billions of the worlds in the universe, 0:23:22.840 --> 0:23:26.320 and the universe is thirteen billion years old plus, then 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:29.280 why haven't we been visited yet? Yeah, when you look 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:31.760 at it like that, the odds are makes sense. They 0:23:31.840 --> 0:23:35.920 just increase exponentially. It's kind of like a perverted version 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:41.439 of the Drake equation used to disprove the existence of life, 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:46.760 the anti Drake. Yeah, interesting, anti Drake. So what happens 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:49.960 if we get a signal. What happens if they're sitting 0:23:49.960 --> 0:23:53.120 around one day and they hear phone home come over 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:57.080 the radio waves. Well, they have a a strict set 0:23:57.119 --> 0:24:00.560 of protocols that start with, you know, the first person 0:24:00.640 --> 0:24:05.600 who finds it to the um the you know who 0:24:05.680 --> 0:24:10.120 gets told first, what what agencies learn of it? And um, 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:13.840 it's pretty cool. Apparently contact follows the course of it 0:24:13.880 --> 0:24:18.879 pretty pretty um accurately. But so its signals detected. Right. 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:22.040 The first thing they do is they move the radio 0:24:22.040 --> 0:24:25.119 telescope away from the signal, and then they move it back. 0:24:25.320 --> 0:24:27.639 I bet that's nerve wracking. I'll bet too, because you 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:29.239 probably just want to stay locked on it. You know, 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:31.359 right you're gonna lose your signal. But you can't do 0:24:31.359 --> 0:24:35.160