Why does SETI seek radio signals when advanced civilizations would surely not use them to communicate?

Question

Truly advanced civilizations would have unravelled the mysteries of quantum physics and communicate over that medium, not using primitive radio signals. The chances that we would happen to catch another civilization which happens to be in the few hundred years of their evolution where they are using radio signals are very slim indeed.

No wonder we hear nothing. If we had a device however that could hear transmissions over the quantum medium, we would likely hear endless chatter and be able to watch alien TV shows.

Thoughts?

By request:

When I refer to communicating through the quantum media, i am referring to the ability of quantum particles to experience entanglements and strange interactions where a quantum particle here may affect a quantum particle a million miles away as if they are adjacent. In this way, quantum particles can interact outside of our physical universe - as if interconnected by impossibly small wormholes.

If one could master this in a communication device, one could allow communications over vast distances instantaneously instead of limited by the speed of light through the physical medium of space.

A civiliation 3 million light years away could communicate with us instantaneously, in real time rather than taking 3 million years for the signal to reach us.

To them, communicating via radio waves would seem as practical as taking a covered wagon to California.

Truly advanced civilizations would most likely NOT be completely biological. They would be (hate to say it), "Borg-like" - a combination of robotics and biologic material.

As robotics become more pervasive and attain consciousness (within 50 years), in order to compete, biologic humans will have to take the best of these robotic abilities, probably using nano-technology, to compete.

It is quite possible that "humans" of 1 million years hence will have quantum-based nanotic computers within their brains that would allow them to communicate through the quantum media using only "telepathy" and no outward devices.

Answer 1

Well, when you figure out how a "truly advanced" civilization uses "quanta-com", you can use it to look for them. In the mean time, us Cretans will look at what we know.
I am actually more critical of the frequency range chosen by the S.E.T.I. The so called "Water Hole" of frequencies are used with limited power here at home and tend to attenuate fairly easy. I don't suspect they get out of the atmosphere with too much strength. I would focus more on the 30MHz to 400MHz range. Our first RF transmit ions used this range because it were fairly simple to propagate. Physics being Universal, the same facility would be true for other civilizations. These signals are sent with high power from omni-directional antennas. Again, we should look for what we know.
Now there is some buzz going around about a few positive finds with the S.E.T.I. search. It seems that we have picked up modulated signals from near Pegasi51 and from the vicinity of Sirius. After S.E.T.I. reviewed the data, they claimed it to be of terrestrial origin, but the received direction was verified from multiple global sites. There are some who claim a conspiracy to hide the data. I am not sure, but based on the Drake equation, I am surprised we haven't been overwhelmed with RF evidence.
RF has safe and advantageous applications, perhaps not on the side of your head or in the family kitchen, but no observable il-effects from TV & Radio Broadcast. Again, we con only look for what we know.

P.S. Good luck on that "Quanta-Com" thingy! :-)

Additional - If you want to discuss quantum entanglement, you should place it in it's own question. Of course the first thought any communications field person had with the anouncement of Q.E. was "can it be modulated?". The current answer is "no". The particles' relationship is severed when one of them interacts with another. It makes the most sense that the sum of the severed particle's peices must equal that of the particle. What this new branch of Mechanics is teaching us has more to do with the complex relationship between the pieces and not really the interaction of separated peices. Before Q.E. was discovered, it had been assumed that the severed particles fluxuated randomly, but we now know that the fluxuations are syncronised.

As for S.E.T.I. is will stick to my previously stated point, we must look for what we know. If Q.E. somehow or another provides us with a communication technology, then I would extend to you a challenge to figure a more effective means to identify Extra Terrestrial Intelligent life, Borg or not.

Answer 2

Intergalactic communication by radio would involve 10^7+ year time lags. Even such short range INTRAgalactic communication would only lower the lag into the 10^2+ or so range for most of the Galaxy. The purpose of SETI is to search for other intelligent life but any communication is likely to be of the 'letter in a bottle' variety, reaching out in the hope of doing some good, somewhere, with long term communication with a nearby entity, only a faint possibility. Note that if we do capture a stray signal, there will be a question of whether it is safe to open a dialogue.

Answer 3

Advanced technological societies like ours are probably very short lived. Well under 500 years. this would explain the absence of communications.
Space is the quantum medium, the range of electro-magnetic radiation is well known to us.
The longer radio waves have the best chance to penetrate any obstacles between us and a possible transmitter.
Radio waves are not really primitive. Gamma, x-ray or light waves would be a very poor choice.
I"m sorry to disagree with you, but maybe I"m missing something.

Answer 4

Well, as far as radio waves go, they are simple and easy to construct and as such a lesser civilized society could produce them. The main thing to remember is that radio waves do not travel as quickly as some other waves (light, etc..) so it takes a really long time to travel the cosmos. With the nearest star being alpha centauri (or one of a few in that region) at approximately 50 lightyears away... it would take 50 years for light to travel that distance and SIGNIFICANTLY longer for radio waves to travel that distance so if we were to recieve these waves, it would be a snapshot of that civilization at the time the radio waves were produced. Just as somewhere our signals could be recieved (imagine "I Love Lucy" being an alien iconic television series that they use to define our civilization hundreds of years from now). This is basically an essential step in wavelength education and progression and is one we can assume most carbon based societies would develope, so this way we can search for civilizations equal to as well as more advanced where as quantum mechanics would be an even smaller window... I'm sure if they had the funding and abilities they would do both however, radio waves are much cheaper and easier to recieve (as well as creating a larger window of receptive opportunity)... at least at this stage of our evolution.

Answer 5

You are probably correct that advanced civilizations would probably not use any form of radio waves for communication but, like us, would understand that radio waves would be a good way to give notice of their existence. They might well build a transmitter just for that purpose. On the other hand it might not be a good idea to announce one's existence in case there was a "civilization" of Osama bin Ladens out there.

Answer 6

even if the aliens were using another form of emission like visible light or microwaves or gamma rays even the energy from those different frequencies would still cause trace radio emissions.

however, we are looking for an on off pattern or variables of that. maybe they aren't sending a signal that way, even if they are using radio, plus they might also be sending patterns so slow, that we would scan over them, before we would see an on and off in that pattern.


you have a good point

Answer 7

You are offering opinions without any evidence to support your conclusions. Not all extraterrestial civilizations will have attained space travel. SETI not only searchs for radio waves but also radiation, stars emit radio waves as do other celestial phenomina.
Perhaps there is truly nothing out there.

Answer 8

What's wrong with radio? Why would we abandon it, just because we had something better? It still would work, but might become more specialized.

Your hypthesis of the radio era lasting less than 1,000 years is based on a sampling of how many advanced civilizations?

Answer 9

we can only guess to assume that other "life" out there will even be of an organic composition such as we. divergent paths of organic life form evolution leave countless possibilities that might lead us (or anything) to where we are today.

chunk in a healthy measure of certainty that we are not really that far along in the evolution of communication skills and then consider that "life" may exist way out of what we consider the 'organic fringe' then you have a mighty huge dart board and we are only striking into very tiny areas hoping for a score.

a statistical certainty isn't a guarantee.

Answer 10

Your assessment about advanced civilizations is sound. However, SETI isn't looking for advanced civilizations exclusively. Any artificial radio signals would be a sign that we're not alone in the universe, and that's the main thrust of SETI.