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From: REM@MIT-MC@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: SETI
Message-ID: <3346@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 22-Jul-83 11:43:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3346
Posted: Fri Jul 22 11:43:00 1983
Date-Received: Sun, 24-Jul-83 02:25:54 EDT
Lines: 29

From:  Robert Elton Maas 

Here's my view on this. We certainly can't prove life elsewhere
impossible until we've examined every little nook and cranney in the
Universe, which makes the question moot since at that point we've
filled every nook and cranney with our own stuff and probably dumped
contamination around which has evolved in strange ways. What we can do
is set an upper bound on the extent of life elsewhere, the same way we
set upper bounds on other quantities such as deviation from
inverse-square law (last I heard F=m1*m2/r^k where k=2.0000000000000
plus or minus some small number in that last place, or somesuch). So
far we have shown ETI hasn't conquered Earth in any gross way or
jammed our communications. With our next series of experiments we hope
to either **FIND** intelligent life elsewhere or set a new upper-bound
that on hundreds of nearby stars no major broadcasting such as TV or
radar is occurring presently. As years go by we will continue to crank
down the limit on life elsewhere or actually discover some out there.

It's literally we can't refute the hypothesis "there is life
elsewhere", thus that literal hypothesis isn't scientific. But we can
refute "The Galaxy is teeming with civilizations as advanced as hours"
within the next 50 years, and "The Galaxy is teeming with microscopic
life on every little planet that happens to be at the right
temperature" within the next few hundred years, or sooner if we get
those Alpha Centuri and Epsilon Eridani probes launched in time.
Therefore statements about specific amounts of "teeming with life" are
indeed scientifically valid. In particular, Sagan's major question,
whether there are billions of advanced civilizations in this galaxy or
just a handful, can be decided within the next 50 years.