I think this is a good idea. I commiserate with you, that it is a plan we must consider, but agree, that yes, we must consider these types of plans.
I dedicated an hour of thought to this last night. But couldn’t come up with anything better than radio shot at precise locations. All my other ideas, were either based on theory, caused more risk than they’d be worth, or were more costly than radio waves.
The main problem with Radio Waves, is the inverse square law. Which can be fixed, as suggested, by beaming in certain directions, instead of as a sphere. But, that greatly decreases the probability of the message ever being received.
The ideal tech-I think-would have these properties:
Expands in 3 dimensions
Is encoded as an oscillating signal
Is powerful enough to be readable, further than “I Love Lucy”[1] (~2 light-years)
Works more like Ripples in a pond, than a scatter shot of photons
The only option that sounds better than radio waves to me, would be gravitational waves. But I know basically nothing about them, and my understanding is that they are theoretical.
As of about ten years ago, gravitational waves are no longer theoretical. That said, I think that given the profound relative weakness of gravitational force, the technology to be able to generate waves is far out of reach; naively, I’d expect we’d have to be able to wiggle multiple-stellar-mass objects around in a controlled way.
I think this is a good idea. I commiserate with you, that it is a plan we must consider, but agree, that yes, we must consider these types of plans.
I dedicated an hour of thought to this last night. But couldn’t come up with anything better than radio shot at precise locations. All my other ideas, were either based on theory, caused more risk than they’d be worth, or were more costly than radio waves.
The main problem with Radio Waves, is the inverse square law. Which can be fixed, as suggested, by beaming in certain directions, instead of as a sphere. But, that greatly decreases the probability of the message ever being received.
The ideal tech-I think-would have these properties:
Expands in 3 dimensions
Is encoded as an oscillating signal
Is powerful enough to be readable, further than “I Love Lucy”[1] (~2 light-years)
Works more like Ripples in a pond, than a scatter shot of photons
The only option that sounds better than radio waves to me, would be gravitational waves. But I know basically nothing about them, and my understanding is that they are theoretical.
This is me saying “Ambient TV and Radio broadcasts”, in a tongue and cheek way.
As of about ten years ago, gravitational waves are no longer theoretical. That said, I think that given the profound relative weakness of gravitational force, the technology to be able to generate waves is far out of reach; naively, I’d expect we’d have to be able to wiggle multiple-stellar-mass objects around in a controlled way.