Question About SETI & Time Chauvinism

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on the challenges of detecting extraterrestrial signals, particularly regarding the timing of potential communications, such as sequences of prime numbers. Participants highlight the concept of "time chauvinism," where human expectations about the speed of communication may hinder our ability to recognize signals from civilizations with vastly different lifespans. The discussion emphasizes that radio astronomers do consider the time intervals between signals, and that advanced civilizations would likely transmit data quickly, using efficient modulation techniques like FM. The Arecibo message is cited as an example of a narrow-band transmission, contrasting with the slower rates suggested in the original post.

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  • #31
mfb said:
For long distances everything is a point source, and even with non-isotropic emission the intensity drops with the inverse distance squared. You can't focus signals over a distance of more than (emitter diameter)2/wavelength (order of magnitude estimate).
You can regard what happens as the directive antenna (or light projector) illuminating a portion of a sphere. This would be the equivalent (as far as an on-beam receiver as what you would get from an isotropic radiator with a power of 1/(illuminated area). In antenna spec they use a term Max EIRP or Maximum Effective Isotropic Radiated Power. A receiver wouldn't know the difference between a 1kW isotropic source and a 1W source with a directive antenna with Gain of 30dB.
 
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  • #32
Thank you.
 

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