Bernard M. Oliver’s Analysis of the Role of Active SETI Strategies in a Diversified Approach to Interstellar Communication
- Paper number
IAC-07-A4.1.04
- Author
Prof. Douglas Vakoch, SETI Institute and California Institute of Integral Studies, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
During the final months of his life, the primary intellectual activity of SETI pioneer Bernard M. Oliver was to evaluate the reasonableness of shifting from an exclusive reliance on passive search strategies in SETI to a dual strategy of both listening for signals and transmitting intentional signals of our own. This paper examines the scientific rationale for his arguments, tracing the development of his ideas from recommendations of Project Cyclops, for which he was first author of the final report that recommended “if our first search of the nearest 1000 target stars produced negative results we might wish to transmit beacons to these stars for a year or more before carrying the search deeper into space,” through later writings examining the value of developing search systems capable of both transmitting and receiving radio signals.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-07-A4.1.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.