Science fact and Science fiction

[Vincent Butler]

Maybe!
Actually the object was odd enough to attract the attention of SETI, and The Breakthrough Listen project is making an attempt to see if the object emits any radio waves:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...n-to-oumuamua/

Is it time to speculate wildly!? Why Yes! Yes it is!

I just hope it is not V'Ger.

In my opinion, SETI is a big waste of time and money, but whatever. My opinion is not going to change anything. It is interesting to wonder how many times in 6,000 years such a thing has come by and only now are we able to detect it.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I just hope it is not V'Ger.

In my opinion, SETI is a big waste of time and money, but whatever. My opinion is not going to change anything. It is interesting to wonder how many times in 6,000 years such a thing has come by and only now are we able to detect it.

One KC-46 costs the US taxpayer $147.4M, SETI costs $14M a year with only about half of that total being taxpayer funded. You may be able to ding them on RoI, but it is not a budget buster.

[Vincent Butler]

One KC-46 costs the US taxpayer $147.4M, SETI costs $14M a year with only about half of that total being taxpayer funded. You may be able to ding them on RoI, but it is not a budget buster.

Doesn't matter who is paying, it is still a waste of money, but I can't do anything about it anyway so I just complain about it. Frankly, I would rather see it going to that than some other things. And we may learn some stuff that we did not know, even if we never get to meet any Togrutas or Twileks.

Oh, seeing as this is the Frontroom, please nobody try to correct me on the 6,000 year age of the earth I mentioned. I respect the views of those who think it is older and was simply speaking from my point of view.

[Ibrahim]

Doesn't matter who is paying, it is still a waste of money, but I can't do anything about it anyway so I just complain about it.

It cannot be considered a waste of money, since the tech that goes into this can (and perhaps does) have applications in fields where it may matter to us from day to day, or in other fields of science. Thus while I can't say SETI itself will have any luck in its primary goal, I'm sure the tech dedicated to it, and innovations appertaining, can be applied elsewhere.

Frankly, I would rather see it going to that than some other things. And we may learn some stuff that we did not know, even if we never get to meet any Togrutas or Twileks.

Well, that's not for you or me to determine purely by purpose alone; That's because we simply DON'T know what we might get out of it. It's something I've experience first-hand when I worked on Cambrian Nevadan exposures: No one could have expected what I found.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Oh, seeing as this is the Frontroom, please nobody try to correct me on the 6,000 year age of the earth I mentioned.

I won't, but not because a correction is not Frontroom material.

But if you didn't want to catch grief over it, you probably shouldn't have posted this here to begin with. Because frankly, it comes across as you looking to bait someone as it is, even with the disclaimer you give later.

[Beskar]

I wonder how many times this has happened from the view from earth over 4.54~ billion years. The potential is simply amazing.

[Ibrahim]

That would assume we aren’t the only sapient life, and right again that one of them achieved interstellar flight. I’m optimistic about this, but I do wonder how we would be able to detect such a thing. Do we even know what to look for?

[HopAlongBunny]

They seem to think that our visitor was interesting; like a piece of driftwood, but it's interstellar driftwood!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/ou...itor-1.4454180

[Vincent Butler]

That would assume we aren’t the only sapient life, and right again that one of them achieved interstellar flight. I’m optimistic about this, but I do wonder how we would be able to detect such a thing. Do we even know what to look for?

A civilization that has mastered interstellar flight, yet has not mastered a cloaking device. Unless they are trying to get our attention (as stated before, I don't actually believe in extraterrestrial life, but am playing along with the thread.)

By the way, has anybody read the "Conquerors" series (I think that is what it was called) by Timothy Zahn? It would be along these lines.