Cool Stars 14 - Submitted Abstract # 373
This version created on 05 October 2006

Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence


Jill Tarter, SETI Institute

In his book "Many Worlds", Steven J.  Dick has chronicled the
millennia of discourse about other inhabited worlds, based upon deeply
held religious or philosophical belief systems.  The popularity of the
idea of extraterrestrial life has waxed and waned and, at its nadir,
put proponents at mortal risk.  The several generations of scientists
now attending this meeting at the beginning of the 21st century have a
marvelous opportunity to shed light on this old question of habitable
worlds through observation, experimentation, and interpretation,
without recourse to belief systems and without risking their lives
(though some may experience rather bumpy career paths).  We are
dealing with the big picture questions:  "Where did we come from?" and
"Are we alone?" These are questions that the general public understand
and support, and these are questions that are attracting students of
all ages to science and engineering programs.  These questions also
push the limits of instrumentation to explore the cosmos remotely
across space and time, as well as to examine samples of interplanetary
space returned to the laboratory and samples of distant time teased
out of our own Earth.  In theory, the potentially habitable real
estate beyond Earth has recently been greatly expanded and within the
next few decades it may be possible to detect the biosignatures or
technosignatures of inhabitants on distant worlds, should there be
any.  This talk will focus on the techniques and tools of SETI;
techniques that seek out mathematicians (or the machines designed by
them) rather than microbes.  

----------------------------------