Back in the 1980’s, I was active as a shortwave listener. I was, in radio jargon, an SWL and not a ham, meaning I only listened and didn’t transmit. It was great fun to tune in distant stations, and the more challenging the better, which is why the Falkland Islands were always high on the list (I never received their station), and Tristan da Cunha was the ultimate catch (all but impossible here on the US east coast).
It wasn’t long before I drifted into utility DXing, listening for non-broadcast stations in remote places, everything from low-frequency aviation beacons to ship-to-shore communications, and I got a kick out of monitoring radiotelephone traffic from places like Little America (Antarctica) back to the States. Finally my interests converged and I started thinking about the ultimate DX — receiving a signal from the stars.
SETI efforts were in their early days then, but I began to wonder whether an amateur receiving rig could hope to snag some kind of extraterrestrial utility beacon. I joined SARA, the Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers, but finally realized that my talents lay in writing, not wiring, and that I didn’t have the skills to put together the equipment I needed. It’s a pleasure, though, to see that SARA is still active and that the SETI bug has now become more broadly established within the organization.
Now affiliated with the SETI League, SARA will be holding its annual technical conference at a storied place, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, WV. This is where Frank Drake first turned human receivers on specific stars, choosing Epsilon Eridani and Tau Ceti as his targets and more or less inventing the modern discipline of SETI (interesting earlier ideas stretching back considerably farther in time also figure in to SETI’s lineage, about which more some other time).
The conference, to be held July 1-3, covers everything from gamma ray burst detection to astro-chemistry with a fine array of speakers you can see here along with abstracts of their talks. The SETI League itself is an attempt to privatize SETI work, reminding us of the contributions of amateurs as well as interested professionals in carrying on the search. And that reminds me of something Freeman Dyson said in a recent interview about the role of amateurs and the scientific hierarchy.
I like to remind young scientists of examples in the recent past when people without paper qualifications made great contributions. Two of my favorites are: Milton Humason, who drove mules carrying material up the mountain trail to build the Mount Wilson Observatory, and then when the observatory was built got a job as a janitor, and ended up as a staff astronomer second-in-command to Hubble. Bernhardt Schmidt, the inventor of the Schmidt telescope which revolutionized optical astronomy, who worked independently as a lens-grinder and beat the big optical companies at their own game. I tell young people that the new technologies of computing, telecommunication, optical detection and microchemistry actually empower the amateur to do things that only professionals could do before.
Dyson himself is an example, a man who simply became too busy to find time to get the standard degree (he had joined the Cornell faculty in 1951 as a physics professor without a PhD), and whose contributions have kept him similarly engaged ever since. In a 2005 commencement address at the University of Michigan, Dyson said he had “…fought all my life against the PhD system and everything it stands for.” While he is hardly an amateur, this remarkable scientist reminds us of the range of technologies that open up research to people wherever they stand in terms of formal credentials.
Sometimes I chuckle at the folly of my own preconceptions. I had thought until about ten years ago that I had missed out on the great era of amateur radio, assuming it to have occurred back in the 1920’s and 30’s, when people built their own equipment in their basements and television had yet to invade the home. But we’re in a golden age right now, in radio and much else, and looking at the resources available with a touch of my keyboard sometimes makes my head spin. It’s great to see the continuing efforts of the good people at SARA and the SETI League as they push the state of the art with their own work.
Handbook of Frequency Allocations and Spectrum Protection for Scientific Uses
http://books.nap.edu/catalog/11719.html
I did not realize that Dyson did not have a PhD. I don’t feel so bad now about my own lack of that sheepskin.
I have been besieged with more amateurs than I can deal with, some good and some, well, not. I thought that the amateurs out there reading this might like to know a key distinction that I found between the useful amateurs and the rest: The ability to be rigorous and learn from mistakes. This is even more important than intellect.
I know that “rigor” sounds like an exhausting and disenchanting thing (yes, it is hard), but I mean this more from an attitude point of view. The quality amateur is willing to be careful with their steps, to make sure that they’ve done their homework and got their facts right. They are able to respond to criticism by substantiating their assertions or to fix their errors. Their emphasis is on the learning and discovery, whereas the ineffective amateurs are intoxicated on delusions of grandeur.
And when it comes to critiques from those “mainstream” scientists, take heed. Everyone – professionals and amateurs – gets critiqued. It’s just part of the process of digging into the details to make sure we all have our facts straight. Granted, sometimes tones of human nature taint the process, but challenging all ideas is necessary to filter out the errors from the discoveries.
If you’re an amateur explorer, enjoy the real discovery process – learning how nature truly works (rather than how we might want it to work). If you do that well, you will make useful contributions.
Nature is fascinating and its lingering unknowns stimulating. Enjoy.
I agree entirely, Marc. Rigor is built into the process — in science, it’s the nature of the beast. For that matter, it is in any scholarly endeavor worth the name.
just had to ad something i saw in cosmos the other day…i own the entire series on dvd. – milton humison who helped hubble discover the expanding universe only went as far as the 8th grade!! we will all seriously continue trying in this area thinking working talking together and we will make a contribution. no doubt. thanks george
Marc et al,
Professionally, I work with people of varying technical talent everyday. The good ones are indeed willing to learn, even if sometimes grudgingly. They are also willing to admit a lack of understanding or a mistake without laying blame or making excuses. They understand that it is the human condition to err. It really is those that think they have all the answers that are the least to be trusted in properly carrying out a task. Funny thing, it is often the more “educated” ones that fall into the latter category.
A lighthearted look at the legacy of the BPP program:
Like many technically minded people, I too found inspiration in your BPP website. I thought and thought about the possibilities. I educated myself into the theories and practical applications of Newton, Einstein and Noether. I examined every crackpot idea on “propellantless propulsion” I could find, always trying to discern the failings of the particular device in question. I found fault with every single one, not only on the merits of the broad application of the physics laws as described by science, but by actually understanding the flow of force from one point to another in their invariably cyclical permutations. I created many experiments myself. Each more disastrously less successful than the last (but lots of fun).
Along the way, I even developed a fun critique of Einstein’s General Relativity Equivalence Principal wherein my observer in the room can distinguish between gravity and acceleration without peering outside of the room (it’s a fun thought experiment, but it’s not a scientific breakthrough).
Finally, I gave up. I decided on a new approach. I decided to see if there might be any breach of conservation of momentum in any form. I focused on angular momentum because I reasoned that the net momentum of a rotating object that is stationary with respect to the observer is actually zero. I reasoned that the net force applied to create angular momentum is equal and opposite except for the torque radius. I wondered if there might be a way to diminish or eliminate the torque radius in isolation, resulting (of course) in a condition of equilibrium.
Lots of interesting thinking went into it. Also, a number of interesting experiments. Finally, I began to be successful. I doubted my successes and tried to thwart them. They still worked. Nonetheless, I still doubted them. So, I decided to seek assitance.
I tried to bring my ideas to the attention of a number of scientists and academics. None would take even a passing interest. Each seemed eager to educate me on the impossibility though. I began to doubt my results even more. Experiment after experiment inexplicably worked as designed. I knew I must be misinterpreting the results. I gave up again. I threw my experiments in the trash.
I no longer discuss the subject with anyone, not even my doctor. Oh well. Maybe I’ll try to write a sci-fi book about my experiences. Maybe in my book, I can fly. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Maybe I can fly to other planets! Maybe little green aliens will take me from this padded room and take me away! Yeah (giggle) little green men smoking cigarettes. (Giggle) Smoking cigarettes and cracking dirty jokes (uncontrolled giggling continues…).
Such is the legacy of the BPP program. ;)
Ah man! No one liked my little story? Bummer. :(
Happy little story to you.
Happy little story to you.
Happy little story to you, dear Eric,
Happy little story to you.
I liked it. On a spirituality message board where I post, I’ve been writing about “doubt,” and your frustrations are typical in today’s mundane world too, and I think it’s getting worse “on purpose.” You and that guy with the $20,000 entanglement experiment are in good company — welcome to the club — that would be the billions of us without political “pull” or other “in routes” into establishments of every sort. Try to get your kid into a private school in New York City, for instance, and you’ll see how doubt can be used like a cudgel.
If the Bush admin has shown the world anything, it’s the concept — a political tool — that any fact can be disputed and made into a Gordian knot that scares off most thinkers, and that the veracity of any claim can be dragged through the courts for the entire length of a political term and then delayed even more to carry the next election. The idea is that “we’re still trying to decide the truth, so cut us some slack while we’re getting to the bottom of this.” The Democrats are now doing what? They’re investigating — read that as “delaying.” They should be legislating instead, right?
This is a very deep harm to our American way of life, methinks. It has given tiny little minds a chance to stand up against a whole scientific community and spew lies, and the media covers the twerps with the same amount of camera time that the professional spokesperson for a body of scientists gets. Keeping score we find that, for instance, ONE scientist who’s received $200,000 from BigOil can get as much “air time” to bad-mouth global warming as that given to Al Gore and his crew of PhD’s. We find that the Hubble project lives or dies by the hands of those who don’t know that our sun is a star. Even Bussard, with all his clout, hit the wall of indifference and obfuscation and probably BigOil and BigCar who would be very much harmed by fusion energy production.
See? BigMedia is now the arbiter of truth. And, ick, that would be the same BigMedia that exaggerates anything if it makes more money. Elvis had a baby with a space alien, right? Global warming is a liberals-in-with-the-terrorists plot. Can’t go green overnight — gotta use up all the oil first, right? No one should get emotional that one head of an oil company made, no kidding, $500,000,000.00 as his yearly salary. Media sells these ideas as “normal” to the masses like Mao sold his little red book to China. Remember dear readers out there, that in the USA alone there’s 150,000,000 people with an IQ lower than 100.
No matter what anyone says, it can be denied almost endlessly. Our nation churns with utter turmoil with the vast majority crying for relief, and the administration can just keep on doing whatever it wants to do that will line the coffers of BigOil and globalism. All they had to do was to institutionalize BIG DOUBT. They know that the lower half of the bell curve can be spoon fed ANYTHING — Elvis babies in space, right? So no problem keeping the masses in uncertainty and willing to let the leaders figure out all that “big brain stuff.”
We get 24/7 coverage about a baby in the Bahamas, but ask CNN how many burned out villages in Dafur were shown on national television in the last many months? If it weren’t for George Clooney and his Dad, the very word Dafur might not be known by most teens today. Ten years ago, the press thought Bill Clinton’s blow job in the closet was more important to cover than the fact that he did exactly nothing to stop the slaughter of half a million people in a couple months time. And Bush, getting head from BigOil in a smoke filled backroom, continues to ignore Dafur.
I’m retired, but I used to make my money by taking my ideas to big companies. I’ve invented many electronic gizmos, puzzles, toys, games, unique services. And every one of them had to be presented to a very skeptical small group of “deciders” in a company — VP new products and a couple pals usually. But, I’ll tell ya, in today’s world, I’m betting that I would be much less successful — our culture is being brainwashed to doubt EVERYTHING, to be uncertain and suspect first and never take a chance. An idea is no longer good or bad; instead, it is about the holder of the idea — Shakespeare said it first — Hamlet, “There is nothing neither good nor bad. But thinking makes it so.”
Having a good idea, Eric, is such a small thing nowadays. It takes someone with charisma, position, acumen, chutzpa, and a whole lotta other dynamics to make something “take off and fly” in another’s mind. It was very long ago now that an idea by itself could attract the support it needed to manifest in this world. An idea, back when, could “infect” a community, and you’d have the belief necessary to attempt a project. But, today, our very children are being trained in our public schools to always put the “finding of truth” into the hands of “superiors.”
And none are without blood on their hands. Elitism is a most subtle form of evil. With so many BigHands grabbing everything in sight, when someone gets any kind of power in today’s world, it’s like an instant addiction. We see the group moderators on message boards getting their jollies by banning posters and suchlike. Any power at all is clung too by the ego. Bureaucrats holding onto a government paycheck are the typical example of this “cry for potency” in today’s world.
So dust off that idea of yours, and get out there and knock on a few doors and try try try again. Why? Well, hell, DOUBT ME! Don’t take my word for how bad off the world is. See for yourself if everyone out there has been trained to dwell in confusion rather than take a risky leap that might lead to clarity. Report back to me on this, okay?
;-)
Edg
Edg,
Thanks for the pity. You’re right to recognize that my story is largely based in fact. I don’t really reside in a padded room though. Wait a minute… Hey! My office cubicle IS essentially a padded room! What a horrifying coincidence!
It’s neat that you’re a toy inventor. My dad was just such an inventor. He even won a “Toy Design of The Year” award once.
As for me, I’m more of an abstract thinker. I’ve created some successful inventions but didn’t bother to retain the rights (other people commercialized them).
I think you’re sort of right about elitism. But it’s not really elitism so much as it’s self preservation.
Most academics work for, or work closely with government entities. In government service, it’s all about obtaining position, prestige, and power (called “Empire Building”).
There’s a sort of subtle dance that everyone plays while they bide their time, waiting for career advancement opportunities to open up. When someone higher up retires, the musical chairs game begins. Some move up, some are left behind.
The point is that it’s a very subtle process. Your career is dependent on the perception your superiors have of you. It’s paramount that you not embarrass them. To do so is career death. Therefore, highly innovative ideas are seldom beneficial or welcome. To advocate for highly innovative concepts is to ostracize yourself in the eyes of “Senior Management” (also commonly referred to as; The Establishment,” or “The Good Old Boys Network”). They don’t like risk. Highly innovative concepts are inherently loaded with risk. In essence: Heads roll when innovative rocket designs explode on the pad.
This is why so much of our technology is developed incrementally, rather than exponentially (a process the NIAC and the BPP programs were trying to circumvent). It’s little wonder they’ve lost their funding.
Anyway, I’ve had some interesting ideas that seem to be percolating out:
I’ve long advocated that by virtue of the conservation of momentum laws, dark matter must congregate at both the outer rim of the galaxy (as is broadly suspected) and at the galaxy’s central core (perhaps forming the bulk of our central blackhole). It’s recently come to my attention that papers are starting to appear in publications in this regards (although not necessarily as a result of any influence from me).
I discovered that CERN’s argument that the LHC is safe because cosmic rays hit the earth all the time is an irrelevant argument that ignores the conservation of momentum laws (not yet readily accepted, but I’ve made a few strong impressions).
I really did figure out how to tell if I’m in an accelerating room or one sitting on a gravitational body without looking outside or measuring for gravitational divergence (supposedly impossible).
I even figured out (independently) some time ago that quantum entanglement might potentially lead to a form of FTL digital communication – by using multiple, individually isolated particles. I think it’d only be good for one shot though.
There’s more, although most of it’s generally of a more speculative nature at this point in time.
I also really did experiment with the conservation of angular momentum. I think I may have figured out that angular momentum is not necessarily conserved. It’s a neat trick (if I’m right), but it hasn’t any currently practicable application. Maybe for terraforming it might come in handy for modifying a planet’s angular moment someday…
By the way, the earth has an ever so slight spin that it didn’t have before (I think). I’ve wondered if it might lead to other conservation violations, but I haven’t verified any. I’ve tried experimenting with force/energy conservation in gravity a bit, but I haven’t had enough time to get very far.
Unfortunately, I’ve become so busy at work that I just haven’t had the time to pursue the bulk of my ideas for awhile. Maybe when I retire…
You might have to wait a couple of decades for that report. ;)
Online article from the June-July, 2007 issue of Air & Space
Smithsonian magazine:
Seti Institute
Can We Hear Them Now?
Speak up, space aliens. These 42 new radio telescopes are all ears.
By Tony Reichhardt
IN The Cascade Mountains of northern California, within sight of Mt. Shasta’s snow-topped, 14,000-foot peak, lies the high valley of Hat Creek, where they say the fishing is good. People come here in the summer for a little R&R among the tall trees, away from modern technology and its discontents. Strange, then, that the valley should also be home to one of the most futuristic projects on the planet—the Allen Telescope Array, the first radio observatory built expressly for the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
The late physicist Philip Morrison, one of the founding fathers of SETI, called the search “the archaeology of the future,” an attempt to learn whether civilizations more advanced than ours exist. Some might call that possibility unlikely. Then again, so may be the long-term survival of humanity. And we still hold hope in that.
Full article here:
http://www.airspacemag.com/issues/2007/june-july/Seti.php