Phew! It all works out (kinda)

Well, leave it to Carl Sagan to smooth things over.  It seems that both he and Senator Proxmire were both worried about nuclear technology. Carl brought up the L in Drakes equation and the senator realized that if there is an advanced civilization, that they have survived without blowing each other up and that maybe we could learn from them.

While reading this I recalled a book that mentioned how Jane Goodall would talk to people about their viewpoints and see  how she could help them meet their concerns without harming animals.  Blessed are the Peacemakers :-)

Chapters 18 discusses about how alot of the people on the SETI project, now that it was funded, were technologically advanced but didn't really have the passion. Basically they were engineers trying to solve interesting problems, not that they believed in the extraterrestrial being.

I also thought that this entire book talks about how we were looking for aliens.  However, I haven't heard anything about what we are doing to contact them. Are we sending signals as well? I hope that it least mentions this in the book at a later point.  Of course their was a section in Codes and Ciphers about this as well.

OMG

Chapter 16 starts out with Senator Proxmire You Can Do It! Senator Proxmire's Exercise, Diet, and Relaxation Plan

proposing that we elimated funding for the project of SETI in 1981 because of funding issues. I am sure that the government used that funding for much more necessary items because we always fund welfare and Hud and we all now how successful THOSE programs are!!!

Back then NASA was able to look to the space shuttle program for solace. Unfortunately, where can the space shuttle scientist turn to now?

However, Drake added a new element to his theory in honor of the senator

P= How many elected office does an advanced technological civilization have that are scientifically ignorant?  If the answer is P=1, no need to waste your time :-)

Oh well. Maybe Chapter 17 will be more enjoyable.

Chapter 15

This chapter begins with defining some of the rest of the terms of Drake's Equation
Fl= the planets that develop life
Fi=planets that have intelligent life

It points out that man is not the ONLY intelligent life on this planet
It also mentions that pressure is good, kind of like the Nike commercial :-) If organisms don't feel the pressure of predators or lack of food, they never have a reason to evolve into something else.

Fc= planet with life that have the ability and desire to communicate.

They use the examples that creatures may have the desire to communicate and are intelligent like dolphins, but can't build a radio telescopes, because they may not biologically be able to (i.e. flippers) Then again, who know how long and far a dolphins clicks can be heard?

L= how long the civilization capable of intersellar communication last

Chapter 14

In Chapter 14, I learned that Carl Sagan was a member of the Order of the Dolphin. Pretty Cool huh. They got  their name, allegedly, because one of the scientists noted the fact that dolphins were highly intelligent beings here on Earth and we can't communicate with them. Therefore, should we be able to communicated with more advanced beings?

It also mentions the Drake Equation which is N=R* x Fp x Ne x Fl x Fi x Fc xL

N is the number of technologically advanced civilazations.

R* is the rate of star formation

Fp is the faction of starts with planets

Ne is how many planets orbits the stars have an environment for life

I enjoyed the last paragraph because it put into perspective about how precious life is. Just one or two degrees of difference in the Earth's rotation and we would never have developed.

Back again

Chapter 13 introduces us to Drake of the famed Drake equation. ( I even heard of it on the Big Bang Theory) It was pretty interested and mentions that they did hear some noise from a star that may have been from ET but it couldn't be confirmed because they also heard it with another instrument which meant it could have been a man made noise.

Glad I am back to reading these books. I hope this helps me complete my project.  Like Winston Churchill said "Never, Never give up"

Oh yeah, one really neat thing is that while I was visiting my brother in Blue Ridge, I watched the movie Horton Hears a Who and it seemed appropriate.  Horton is the only one that can hear the whos. Kind of like these scientist trying to hear alien life. Only they can hear it, but will people believe them. Don't know if that was Dr. Seuss' intention but thought the correlation was pretty interesting.