Extraterrestrial life debate

This is a discussion question and a response from my extraterrestriallife course. What the prof wrote is below and I'll copy and paste a few responses to choose from. In this week's lecture, we discussed SETI. Maintaining SETI as a scientific enterprise has not been easy since government funding of the project has met with opposition. As early as 1978, Senator Proxmire argued against federal funding of SETI, arguing that it was a waste of tax-payers money. While SETI funding was temporarily restored in early 1990s, it was permanently cut by the budget amendment introduced by Senator Richard Byron's in 1994 who famously stated: " "As of today millions have been spent and we have yet to bag a single little green fellow. Not a single Martian has said take me to your leader, and not a single flying saucer has applied for FAA approval." If the Canadian Federal Government were to fund SETI, as a tax-payer, would you support or oppose this initiative? Why? Explain your position in a post of 250-300 words and then post a 100-word response (not exceeding 150 words) to one of your classmates contributions. As always, make sure you are polite and respectful towards other members of this forum. Discussion 5 - Thomas Silvaggio by Thomas Silvaggio - Monday, 3 June 2024, 9:41 PM Number of replies: 1 If the Canadian Federal Government decided to fund the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), I'd be all in as a taxpayer. Here's why. First off, SETI isn't just about trying to find "little green men." It's about pushing the boundaries of what we know and exploring the big question: Are we alone in the universe? Sure, the odds of picking up a message from aliens might be slim, but the journey itself is worth it. The technology and methods developed for SETI have all sorts of other uses—better data analysis, more advanced signal processing, and improvements in radio astronomy. These innovations can spill over into other fields and make a real difference in our everyday lives. Then there's the fact that Canada has a solid track record for supporting science and research. By funding SETI, we'd be showing the world that we're committed to being at the forefront of scientific discovery. It's an investment in our future scientists and researchers, sparking interest in STEM fields and encouraging a new generation to dream big. Think about the implications if we did find something. It would be one of the most significant discoveries in human history, changing how we see ourselves and our place in the universe. Even the search itself can bring us together, fostering international cooperation and a shared sense of purpose. It's a unifying mission that transcends borders. Now, I get why some people might be skeptical. Funding SETI could seem like a gamble, especially with no guarantees of immediate results. But that's the nature of exploration. It's about venturing into the unknown, and the potential rewards far outweigh the risks. Every major scientific breakthrough started with someone willing to take that leap of faith. In short, supporting SETI is a no-brainer for me. It's about curiosity, innovation, and the quest for knowledge. It's about investing in something bigger than ourselves and aiming for the stars. Therfore, if the Canadian government decides to back SETI, let's go for it. Discussion 5 - Sarah Mohammed by Sarah Mohammed - Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 6:37 PM Number of replies: 1 If the Canadian Federal Government were to fund the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI, I would be willing to support this research. I will begin by saying it is only a matter of time before SETI or something similar will be launched since we as humans have always been infatuated with discovering life beyond our planet. So I think it makes sense to get a head start on trying to detect ET life because regardless, this research is going to be done anyway. I would support the initiative now since I do see it as an investment for the future. There is no such thing as ‘bad research’ since it is predominantly based on trial and error. For example, if we approach the search for ET life in one way and it fails, we know for the future to try something else. The use of SETI can also benefit us in other ways, not just in looking for aliens. Perhaps a few years down the road, we have not discovered ET life yet. We still learned along the way and we have gained knowledge on what the universe is like. The end goal of SETI is to find ET life, however, there is still so much we can learn about what is beyond Earth, and SETI is just another means of doing so. I understand why people might not be keen on funding SETI since there are no quick results. This is a long-term investment that will allow us to gain knowledge of the universe over many years, however, I do think it is only a matter of time before we gain concrete evidence of the existence of life beyond Earth. So why not get a head start on the research now? Tina Abdelbasit - Discussion 5 by Tina Abdelbasit - Tuesday, 4 June 2024, 9:09 PM Number of replies: 0 If the government were to fund SETI, I would probably not support it. One of my main reasons for this is that space exploration is extremely expensive. Using tax dollars to pay for SETI would take funding out of more important issues that human beings are dealing with. This is already an issue with world leaders spending money on things that don't benefit most people yet things like world hunger or homelessness run rampant. In my opinion, funding going towards finding ET's that we will probably not reach within our lifetime is irresponsible. I think the fact that it would take so long alone is reason enough to not do it. Funding SETI would essentially mean spending tax dollars on a cause we will not see the benefits of in our life time. In fact we may never see the benefits at all. ET's may be so far away that it would take an incomprehensible amount of time to reach them. And who's to say that reaching them will even have benefits? ET's might not like that there are other intelligent life forms, how do we know that they will not want to attack us once we do reach them? There are so many areas when talking about ET's that we are clueless in, it wouldn't make sense to spend all that money on it, when we don't know if it will do harm or good or anything at all.