Is the discovery of ET intelligence a priority?

I think it's far more important to research technologies which will help improve humans before we start looking for other intelligence. SETI is working on finding extraterrestrial life right now, but so far they haven't found anything at all. It would be great to find ET intelligence, but there's much to do before we can spend a ton of time on those sorts of things

I think it's far more important to research technologies which will help improve humans before we start looking for other intelligence.

I take issue with this attitude. All areas of scientific enquiry benefit humanity, and if science was decided on "useful" it is nothing would get done.

SETI is working on finding extraterrestrial life right now, but so far they haven't found anything at all.

A negative result is still a result. But with advancing technology, and very big universe, there is still a possibility that the result will change.

It would be great to find ET intelligence, but there's much to do before we can spend a ton of time on those sorts of things

A paltry amount of time and money goes into the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Far more is wasted on that elephant in the drawing room, "defence" which arguably increases the sum total of human suffering as opposed to merely delaying the increase of the sum of human happiness which "useless" scientific research supposedly does.

I heard a long time ago that SETI was running low on signals for users to analyze.

Is the discovery of ET intelligence a priority?

Yes. We should search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and try to harness anything we can learn from it. If it turns out to be both non-hostile and of such type -- purely physically speaking -- that contact is possible (or even desirable), we should establish relations.

Otherwise, observation from distance is preferable.

Given the enormous size of the universe, it is a statistical probability that such intelligence does exist, and that if we stick around long enough and become advanced enough to make contact with it, we will succeed. The main reason this hasn't yet occurred is of course our inferior technology level preventing us from traveling even to the closest planet in our own Solar system, not to mention interstellar travel.

So far, it has been up to the 'extraterrestrials to first find us, and then find us worthy contacting. I don't find it unlikely at all, that we might have been observed in the past, and rejected as a too primitive species -- think of aliens or alien droids observing cro-magnon cave men, or even religious zealots on a 'pilgrimage' or 'crusade' in the middle ages..

Times have changed, however. The human species is now in a period of accelerating technological development, the first attempts at creating an egalitarian society have been made.. And we have sent out the signals to make our presence and intelligence known, for anyone to find! We have already taken the first steps on the path, by sending information about our species into outer space, for anyone to find, such as the Arecibo Message.

It was a radio message containing very sensitive and revealing information about our location, species characteristics, and technological level at the time the message was sent. It is estimated to reach the so called globular star cluster M13 25K years after the year 1972, but of course someone could snap it up on the way.. We have also sent out two unmanned spaceships back in 1972, Voyager I and Voyager II, which even contain pictures and sounds from Earth.

They have exited the Solar system by now.

I think it's fairly safe to say, at the very least, that the Human civilisation has so far already left a long lasting trace of itself, which is likely to at some point be found and noticed by extraterrestrial intelligence. I'm also relatively optimistic of the possibility of humanity one day finding at least the remains of, but hopefully a still active, extraterrestrial civilisation.

The trend is in the left to criticise scientific endeavours of high expenditure, by which i specifically mean deep space astronomy and space exploration

If by the left you mean petty-bourgeois reformists, or inane green morons, then yes. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, sent the first human being into space. Also, the western left probably criticised american attempts during the so called Space Race much because they wanted their 'own horse', socialism, to win it.

It would shatter the arrogance of the religious right regarding man's 'divine nature' and a different social system presented by a more mature species would certainly spell the death of capitalism.

I definitely agree, with the reservation that it's definitely far from certain, that even an advanced alien social system would be preferable for humans. For all we know, they could have a system where the female devours the male after copulation. Seriously speaking, there is no guarantee that extraterrestrial intelligence has to be humanoid, or even organic.

I would also bet, that mankind is likely to have reached communism by the time we make contact with other civilisations.

i am not so sure we should be trying to get contact with aliens.
we have absolutely no reason to believe they would be friendly and if they are capable of getting here its safe to say we would have no hope of matching their technology.

fortunatly i dont think we will be able to contact them with our current technology because our signals are limited to light-speed it would be century's before it reached anyone.
that ofcourse makes it so unpractical that its unlikely that any alien civilisation would use such methods for interstellar communications and because of it far more unlikely they would notice us.

I'm not sure what exactly is meant with 'priority' here. I'm of the opinion that mankind definitely should search for extraterrestrial life, but obviously we can't count on it, and must see to more pressing issues 'back on earth' first.

A socialist society should seek to push scientific endeavours in all areas, including space exploration. A highly technology-evolved human society could mean that humans have a practical limitless lifespan (using bio and cybernetic technology) as well as making other space bodies such as planets, moons, asteroids fit for human habitation.

If humans are in this universe alone or beyond the plausible reach of any advanced alien civilisation, then humanity should explore, settle, and populate worlds, systems and galaxies. We may or may not meet ET along the way, if we do then we shall seek to interact diplomatically with them.

Judging from our own history, when advanced civilizations come into contact with less advanced civilizations, the results were often pretty shitty for the less advanced civilizations. If we happen to have something they want, we are screwed. Just ask Saddam Hussein.

Rather than hoping that a benign, enlightened race of super-beings give us the elixir of youth or warp space travel, we should keep our attentions at home working on these improvements.

So far, it has been up to the 'extraterrestrials to first find us, and then find us worthy contacting. I don't find it unlikely at all, that we might have been observed in the past, and rejected as a too primitive species -- think of aliens or alien droids observing cro-magnon cave men, or even religious zealots on a 'pilgrimage' or 'crusade' in the middle ages..

=

or even seeing Bush being re-elected
It should also be noted that it's very likely that the first thing the Aliens would see from our TV signals would be Hitler and the war so that doesn't paint a great picture of us

I have a hard time believing that even if we came into contact with an extraterrestrial life form, we would even be able to communicate with it in any meaningful way. Just look at the biodiversity that arose on Earth, in exactly the same conditions. Now imagine what an organism that evolved in a completely different chemical atmosphere and environment. They may not even be carbon based. They could be microscopic. They could be any number of things. I sincerely doubt that anything meaningful (except the possible destruction of humanity) would come from meeting extraterrestrials.

I have a hard time believing that even if we came into contact with an extraterrestrial life form, we would even be able to communicate with it in any meaningful way.

To be fair, the question was about "intelligent" life in the universe.

Judging from the movie "Contact", we could try communicating through prime numbers...

I think it's highly likely that there's intelligent life somewhere in the universe that has a high level of technology. But I still don't think we'd be able to communicate with them. Just because they're intelligent, that doesn't mean that they would have anything whatsoever in common with humans. I'm not saying that we couldn't communicate with them because they're a lesser form of life or anything like that, just that our biology and psychology would be prohibitively different. For example, if they were a hive mind (and I realize I'm borrowing from Ender's Game here, yes Orson Scott Card is a tool, etc. etc., but it's still a valid idea) their idea of communication could be to kill thousands of people.

My point is that our idea of intelligence in human-centric (obviously), as it is based in our human experience, which has to do with our biology and our societal experience. That would all very likely be completely irrelevant, foreign, and incomprehensible to an entity which shares none of these with us.

If a being is intelligent, it can parse abstract data. Whether this be through chemical, electromagnetic, kinetic means or otherwise, but the ability to parse data natrually confers the ability to communicate that data in some way. Now, the specific means of data transmission may make things more difficult, but it wouldn't make communication impossible.

Also, any technological civilisation would have to use electromagnetism in some way. That is a common ground through which common understanding could pass through.

I think the priority should be sorting out the problems within our own species, before we go looking for others out in space.

I think the priority should be sorting out the problems within our own species, before we go looking for others out in space.

If we held true to this old saw for every potential development, we'd still be living in caves. Science is not an evenly progressing field of knowledge - sometimes advances in one field of science have to wait for a long time until a new discovery is made in another field.

I'm going to agree with JDL. I think our own problems as a species are the thing we should be spending the most time on, however the discovery of extra terrestrial life in any form could mean some great things for the human race - although I couldn't tell you specifically what those are, right now. And I don't mean specifically life forms as intelligent, or more so, than us human beings, which I don't think is entirely likely in the near future.
I don't think that the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence should be pushed down the ladder when it is far more worthy a cause for human efforts than others which we spend far more resources on.

Judging from the movie "Contact", we could try communicating through prime numbers...

How did that work??

The problem, RNK, is that is is compltetely unknown how many alien civilisations there are in our galaxy and if that number is small then we might take a very very long time to encounter them, if ever. What is there is only one other in the galaxy and it is on the opposite side? How would it send the information past the black hole in the galactic cente?

Personally, while the rewards of meeting ET might be great, I cannot think of it as a priority due to the low probability of encountering them in the near future and the fact that (even under Communism through the attentions of scientists and the general public) resources devoted to looking for ET are necessarily diverted from other things that might help people more in the here and now.