SETI paradox
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The SETI paradox was formulated by Alexander Zaitsev and deals with two opposing tendencies paradoxically coexisting in terrestrial consciousness – the insistent quest for intelligent signals from other civilizations and the persistent aversion to any attempts to transmit such signals from Earth toward probable fellow intelligent beings. If typical for our entire Universe, such manifestations of intelligence would make the search for other civilizations totally meaningless.
A simple counter-argument is that there is no paradox: very new civilizations (on cosmological timelines) will find it prudent to spend most of their time listening, due to a lack of information about the domain, while older more established civilizations may be expected to produce significant traffic as a matter of course, which may be detected from earth as and when sufficient resources are focussed on detection.
The short form of the SETI Paradox: “Searching is meaningless if no one feels the need to transmit…” In other words: “SETI makes sense only in a Universe with such properties that it develops Intelligence that realizes the need not only to conduct searches, but also to transmit intelligent signals to other hypothetical sites of self-consciousness”.
Corollary, implied by the SETI Paradox: “Solely that who is overcoming the Great Silence deserves to hear the voice of the Universe”, see p. 6 in The SETI Paradox. 2nd Corollary, implied by the SETI Paradox: “If we are the only ones transmitting, we will still hear nothing: therefore, transmitting achieves nothing”. (This is not a consistent corollary, since no civilization can know that they are the only one transmitting)
3rd Corollary, implied by the SETI Paradox: “Even if we heard something, prudence would still suggest silence: therefore, transmitting achieves nothing.” (This is also not a consistent corollary, since if we heard something (transmitting), it does not follow that transmitting achieves nothing)
[edit] References and External Links
- Zaitsev, Alexander. The SETI Paradox, Bull. Spec. Astrophys. Obs., 60 (2006).
- The SETI Paradox, as above, Russian.
