Any viable alternatives to SETI?

Question

Sweeping the universe listening for radio waves seems like such an archaic tactic. Presuming we are looking for intelligent life forms (perhaps intellectually superior?) - why radio waves? There would be such a small window of time in the aliens' history where radio waves were actually used, so aren't we being a little narrow minded? What other methods are there?

Answer 1

1) You must first of all be aware that radio waves, light, infrared, x-rays, all these are electromagnetic radiation, only with different frequencies; they are pure energy, without mass, transmitted through space by photons at the speed of light. That is the fastest way of communication there can be in the universe, assuming that nothing travels faster than the speed of light.


2) Radio waves were chosen from the electromagnetic spectrum because they include the Water Hole, which is the band of electromagnetic frequencies between 1420 MHz and 1640 MHz. This is the band between the hydrogen line and the strongest hydroxyl spectral line, and is notable because it is a quiet region between two notable frequencies; The combination of hydrogen and hydroxyl yields water (the "water" part of the name); the "hole" part refers to the sudden drop in radio noise (the universe background radiation) within this band. Several SETI programs, including SETI@home search in the Water Hole.


3) It has been proposed that higher frequency signals, such as lasers operating at visible light frequencies, may prove to be a fruitful method of interstellar communication; at a given frequency it takes surprisingly small energy output for a laser emitter to outshine its local star from the perspective of its target.

Other more exotic methods of communication have been proposed, such as modulated neutrino or gravitational wave emissions. These would have the advantage of being essentially immune to interference by intervening matter, but are very difficult to generate or detect with current technology.

Sending physical mail packets between stars may prove to be optimal for many applications. While mail packets would likely be limited to speeds far below that of electromagnetic or other light-speed signals (resulting in very high latency), the amount of information that could be encoded in only a few tons of physical matter could more than make up for it in terms of average bandwidth.Starting in 1979, Robert Freitas advanced arguments for the proposition that physical space-probes provide a superior mode of interstellar communication to radio signals, then undertook telescopic searches for such probes in 1979 and 1982.

Answer 2

Telepathy.
It is an ancient technique.
You get on your knees and talk and God can hear you from wherever he happens to be at the moment.
After all God is an advanced alien right?

Answer 3

yes, havent you ever recieved a call, and the only sound was beeps, and chirps? i think it's them calling. seriously light wave/beam analysis would be more appropriate as a carrier wave.

Answer 4

No.Not till now.
Try dese links;
http://www.seti.org/site/pp.asp?c=ktJ2J9MMIsE&b=178025
http://www.setileague.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SETI
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/