http://fora.tv/2009/03/31/Seth_Shostak_Confessions_of_an_Alien_Hunter#chapter_01

By Michael Schirber

for Astrobiology Magazine

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Mar 24, 2009

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, turns 50 years old this year. By scanning the cosmic radio dial, it has forged a scientific beachhead into the mystery of whether we are alone in the universe. One of its main disciples has written a book chronicling the history and offering an apologia as to why it is a worthy cause.

As senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, Seth Shostak spends a good deal of his time publicly championing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He writes popular articles, gives presentations and even offers technical advice on movie sets (showing Keanu Reeves, for example, how to write the Greek letter “mu” on a blackboard).

In his new book Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Shostak provides an insider’s account of the SETI universe.

Shostak defends his choice of work from detractors that would say he and his companions are tilting at windmills. He is neither bitter nor strident – instead he weighs the opposing viewpoints very carefully (sometimes obscuring his own convictions).

FUll article here:

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Confessions_Of_An_Alien_Hunter_999.html

Back when von Braun was planning manned missions to the Moon
and Mars, his spaceships were full of dozens of men (and yes,
they were men, no women allowed) performing tasks that made
sense in his era when computers were the size of rooms and could
do little more than calculate big numbers. They did not even
consider sending automated probes to those worlds first because
the foresight and technology was not there.

Of course the reality became that robot probes were first to visit
other worlds and humans only went to the Moon in small numbers
and at great expense for mainly geopolitical reasons. This is still
the case with space exploration as machines are overall better
and – most importantly – still cheaper than sending humans out
there.

So why are we still going on with the 1950-60s Star Trek way of
thinking about exploring other star systems? The main and likely
ONLY reason we will ever send humans to Alpha Centauri is
because we are still around in our current form and we need to
get off Earth in a hurry for our survival. Of course another reason
could be a group of people disatisfied with the way things are going
here and want to live life their own way in a place that Earth
authorities or society cannot reach them.

But if you want to EXPLORE other star systems, then using machines
is the way to go. Imagine what we will have 50 to 100 years from
now in terms of AI, to say nothing of propulsion technology. Does
it not make more sense to send a largely self-sufficient machine
probe into the galactic neighborhood rather than a group of humans
who will need all sorts of resources just to survive the trip.

Regarding the “beaming” of a human mind to a destination system
and have an Artilect waiting at the other end to reconstitute them in
an android body – android in this case meaning its intent of a robot
in human form – even if one did bother with so many extra steps to
put a person out there (again, why other than survival, and if you
already have the proper machines there, how does that help in
terms of exploring the alien star system?), why chose to look and
be like a human when there are probably far more efficient and
interesting different forms to be?

While I don’t want to see going off into fantasy land and having
nothing good come of our ideas for interstellar travel and exploration,
I worry that being mired in these dated paradigms will also bog us
down from reaching another star any time soon. If we focus on
fast machines with AI, then we could have a probe to AC on its way
well before the end of the 21st Century. That would be a very nice
gift to our children.

If we keep trying to build the Starship Enterprise, then starships will
remain film fantasies for centuries to come.

I am pretty sure our ability to manipulate a human brain will be far more advanced by the time we can teleport people across the planet, let alone across interstellar distances.

My comment here is in response to your last two posts, which tie nicely together. I also like that your readers and yourself have considered nanotechnology, and the potential for “uploaded” minds to help make the journey. Here’s my take:

Within the next 50 years we are likely to finally see some kind of bootstrapping intelligence take hold. This event will be the single most important event in the history of evolution, simply because a greater-than-human intelligence will be able to increase its own intelligence at an ever faster rate. Regardless of whether functionalism or physicalism is true, nanotechnology would allow us to increase the speed, density and functionality of current human brains. Whether this H+ intelligence is us (Intelligence Augmentation) or AI (Artificial Intelligence) is doesn’t matter for this argument.

One radical intelligence increase enters the picture, the exponential advancement of space faring technologies should happen just as rapidly. Once the basic regenerative and self-sufficient space-faring systems for making anything from base space materials (asteroid, Oort and Kuiper materials), I can’t imagine why there would not be a myriads of “ships” of various kinds traveling to every “interesting” star/planetary system discovered the ever increasing “telescopes” that come on line. Whether these “ships” are capable of FTL or not, shouldn’t change this basic scenario.

Personally I think something like Alcubierre’s warp drive or some other loophole to c will be found by this Hyper-intelligences before too long.

Just my two cents on what is bound to be a VERY exciting time for exoplanetary astronomy in the coming years, no matter how conservative the technological outcome will be.

Thanks for the above response.

I have from time to time had the tendancy to reify abstract mathematical and logical entities in a manner in which Plato did in his ancient theories of Eternal Forms. The idea that such trancendent entities might exist as essence wise reified forms intrigues me. If it turns out that information is more fundamental and the substrate is less important, that would be good news for me.

Thanks;

Jim

I incline more to the view that information is more fundamental and that the substrate is less important. But I think our physics is still too primitive to know one way or the other.

I rather like your reference to the idea of beaming a ship, transport, and/or a person’s body and brain in the form of bosonic mattergy.

Obviously, there is the usual idea of breaking the person’s body down into electromagnetic energy then beaming it to subsequentially have it re-assembled over a stellar or galactic scale distance.

Perhaps breaking the ship, transport, and/or a person’s body down into gravitons or gravity waves could be another way in which a persons identity could be transmitted.

Note that the force of gravity, was the first force to branch of from the gravatic-strong-electroweak super force or super-gravity force during the first symmetry breaking event that occurred during the Big Bang. Also, gravitation seems to be the primary force by which all known and still theoretical particles interact within our universe and perhaps within our entire multiverse. These still theoretical partilcles include the supersymmetric mattergy particles as well as socalled mirror matter or shadow matter.

The point that I am trying to convey is that perhaps gravitational radiation could be the perfect medium in which to transmit someones conscious identity after the physical underpinnings of such identies or parallell subsisting mattery to which the conscious identity would be attached, even if not dependant on matter for its existence, would be broken down into, and beamed in the form of, gravitational energy.

If at some level, all individual particles are distinguishable, an idea involving hidden quantum variable perhaps or otherwise which is an anathema to modern quantum mechanicists, then perhaps merely assembling a body which is identical to that of a given human’s body on Earth even if the quantum mechanical information of the body would be quantum mechanically teleported with perfect fidelity, might not result in the transportation of the actual personality and/or for lack of a better word soul, of the person back on Earth.

However, breaking the persons body down into gravitational energy might circumvent this problem since gravitational energy is a more, for lack of better word, primitive force, being that it was the first force to branch off from the superforce and also since gravitational energy, fields, and radiation is related to the very nature of curved space time. Perhaps psychodynamic elements or aspects of the human conscious states in this life are instilled in a somehow differentiatable unique mattergy.

Thanks;

Jim