SocraticGadfly: Why aren’t Europeans searching for aliens?

May 09, 2008

Why aren’t Europeans searching for aliens?

More specifically, why is almost all the sky-scanning, etc., of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI done in American?

My thoughts?
Europeans have done a more realistic calculation of the Drake numbers and, from that, made a better prioritization of resources.

You don’t see any of these individual countries, or the European Space Agency as a whole, talking about manned missions to Mars, either.

A number of other commenters noted that SETI is looking for radio waves precisely when we’re moving away from that area of the frequency spectrum.

Also, as far as the Drake equation numbers, the explosion in planets discovered may show that the estimates of how commonly life develops on planets, let alone intelligent life, is way overblown.

Instead, European countries are spending money on things like national healthcare.

Or, on using their satellites to examine Antarctic ice.

Finally, there’s a philosophical reason, I think. Even many scientists here in America appear unable to accept the existential realities of our ever-expanding, heat-death dying universe.

It’s like American exceptionalism is getting projected onto SETI.

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