Friday, October 28, 2005 A good alien is hard to find Ours will be the generation that discovers EL or so Seth Shostack of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute said yesterday at his talk at the Reed Union Building. What is "intelligent" life? According to Shostack, "From the standpoint of SETI. "intelligent" Attention Seniors Senior Salute Days Purchase your Cap and Gowi W.cep Order your Class Ring Order Commencement c. 7 - Announcements Purchase Diploma Frames Pick up Tickets for the Commencement Ceremony Stop by the Alumni Table HEN: Monday, Oct. 31 ---10 a.m. - 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1 ---- 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. HERE: Reed Wintergarden or more information stop by the bookstore COMING TO PENN STATE BEHREND NEW OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT LIVING COMMUNITY Construction Begins this Fall! Located directly across from the entrance to Penn State Behrend The New apartments will also offer: Furnished Bedrooms & Living Room Kitchen, Living Room & 2 Full Baths High Speed Internet in Every Bedroom (814)899-5160 or E-mail: univers4ygate@jamesproperties.corn Call By Logan Stack staff writer UNIVERSITY GATE APARTMENTS Now Pre-Leasing 3 & 4 Bedroom Apartments Featuring ALL PRIVATE BEDROOMS CALL NOW to reserve your apartment for next year I (a rqi.edu FOR FALL 2006 ~" , CI l'i means that they can build a radio transmitter. So turn to your neighbor and ask them if they can build a radio transmitter, and judge than accordingly." But how likely is it that there's anything out there worth looking for? There are I(X) billion stars in our galaxy and about 100 billion galaxies in our universe. "About one in ten of these stars is very much like our sun." Shostack said. And there's nothing special about our solar system. "If there's anything we've learned from astrono my in the last 500 years. it's that every time we thought we were special, we were wrong, - said Shostak. The SETI project looks for intelligent life by looking for radio signals in the microwave hand of the radiation spectrum. There is very little noise on the microwave band so signals stand out. They're listening to 60 million channels, looking for any sort of transmission. Asking if they're close to finding something is like asking Christopher Columbus if he's close to finding China. There was water today and more water for the last week. But maybe tomorrow he'll see land, maybe not; there's no way to know. Shostack explained it with a common metaphor: "We're looking for a needle in a haystack. We know how big the haystack is - the number of stars in the Universe. We don't know how many needles there are.- There is good news though: we use computers to analyze the data. Shostack explained. "The speed of the search for ET is doubling every 18 months. It will continue to do that unless the money runs out. - Even by conservative estimates, there are about 10,000 intelligent societies in this galaxy. That means we will find one in the next 30 years. So, if we'll he tuning in to ET's radio within our lifetimes, what will we he hearing? Unfortunately. we don't know anything about who we're listening to. Shostack predicted that we may never figure it out. Shostack had an interesting prediction for what we'd find when we got there: "The real ET is likely to he machines. not soft squishy guys." If humans are able to build an intelligent machine, the first thing we would tell it to do would be build a better machine. These machines arc able to evolve much faster than we can. They arc also theoretically immortal, so a 10,000 year rocket trip to Earth is not so onerous as it would be to the squishy sort, like us. Shostack will go hack to the SETI observatory, hoping he lives long enough to open the cel ebratory bottle of champagne lying in the refrigerator. "I notice that every time we go to the observatory ... it's a different bottle of champagne," he said. Behrend Briefs The Celebrate Bchred event will be held on Monday Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. outside of Bruno's, Sophomores will have the opportunity to declare their Behrend Major a semester early and all students will he able to explore hundreds of financial aid options and schol arship opportunities. Students attending will discover how to build resumes and learn about internships. employment, campus involvement and leadership. Paving will he taking place on Saturday, Oct. 29 beginning at 7 a.m. Areas to be paved include the main road from Erie Hall, past the Glenhill Farmhouse to the Behrend Building walkway. Vehicular passage beyond that point will not he possible. Construction will take place as long as the weather cooperates. • Free Parking • On-site Office & Laundry • Walking Distance to Class The Behrend Beacon I
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