The Existence of Intelligent Life Essay -- Extraterrestrial Intelligen

The Existence of Intelligent LifeBertrand Russell wrote, There argon two possibilities. Maybe we ar al peerless. Maybe we are not. Both are equally frightening (Jakosky 1). The question of life in the universe is one that leaves many in a state of bewilderment. It becomes even more provoke when it leads to an other question -- that of intelligent life in the universe. Finding other intelligent civilizations among the interstellar space would greatly affect every horizon of our existence. Conversely, not finding such a civilization would force us to examine the purpose of our own existence. To help answer the question, astronomers and scientists peck up a program in search for unknown intelligence. This program, or SETI, was set up to verify, by observation that extraterrestrial life does exist. SETI tries to prove this by picking up and analyzing radio signals by means of satellites and advanced computers (Heidmann 116).The archives of the SETI program is quite interes ting. It started back in 1959 with the help of two storied Cornell University physicists, Guiseppi Cocconi and Phil Morrison. Both claimed that it would be possible to communicate with other potential extraterrestrial life in space by the use of techniques used in radio astronomy (Heidmann 112). Together, they voiced their belief that if other alien astronomers elsewhere in the universe possessed radio telescopes, that it would be possible to converse between the two (Heidmann 112-113).A young astronomer by the tell apart of Francis Drake agreed with the theories of Cocconi and Morrison. He proposed building a radio receiver in order to listen for waves of sound being transmitted through space. It wasnt until the ring of 1960 that Dra... ...sity Press, 1992.2.Jakosky, Bruce. The reckon for Life on Other Planets. New York Cambridge University Press, 1998.3.Kahney, Leander. A Search for Intelligent Searchers. Wired News (1999). 29 January 2000 *http//www.nitehawk.com/ra smit/*.4.Hipschma, Ron. The Problem -- Mountains of Data. How SETI Home flora (1999). 29 January 2000 http//www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/.5.Project Omar. SETI Institute. 1999. SETI Institute. 28 January 2000 http//www.seti.org/science/ozma.html.6.History of SETI. SETI Institute. 1999. SETI Institute. 29 January 2000 http//www.seti.org/ widely distributed/history.html.7.The Optical SETI Resource for Planet Earth. The Columbus Optical SETI Observatory. 1999. Columbus Observatory. 27 January 2000 http//www.coseti.org/.8.Ward, Peter. Interview with Lori Stokes. The Debate Over Life Beyond Earth. MSNBC. 10 Feb. 2000.