If SETI succeeds, then it's very likely the civilization we discover will be much older than our own. The reasoning is simple. The only way we are likely to detect ET is if alien civilizations are much older than we are. If the typical civilization has the capacity to communicate by radio for only a few decades before it self-destructs, then it's very unlikely that we and they will happen to co-exist in the long lifetime of our galaxy. That disparity of age explains why current SETI programs merely listen for signals from other civilizations, rather than transmit. Transmitting requires greater patience and more resources than listening, so shouldn't we expect our cosmic elders to shoulder the burden?

Besides, what could a young civilization possibly have to offer in an intellectual exchange across interstellar space? Surely advanced aliens would have little to gain from our understanding of astronomy or physics, chemistry or mathematics. What then might we say to hold up our end of an interstellar conversation?

 Source : Live Science

Humans could marry robots within the century. And consummate those vows.

"My forecast is that around 2050, the state of Massachusetts will be the first jurisdiction to legalize marriages with robots," artificial intelligence researcher David Levy at the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands told LiveScience. Levy recently completed his Ph.D. work on the subject of human-robot relationships, covering many of the privileges and practices that generally come with marriage as well as outside of it.

At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, "but once you have a story like 'I had sex with a robot, and it was great!' appear someplace like Cosmo magazine, I'd expect many people to jump on the bandwagon," Levy said

 Source : Live Science

Although the array was used to capture radio images of galaxies, one of its primary roles will be to search for communications from extraterrestrial civilizations. It works on the idea that many smaller radio telescopes working together are more powerful and cheaper than a single large dish.

 Source : Universe Today

The festival, which began Thursday, is a mixed bag that includes live concerts (one headlined by a band with a computer-generated 'alien' drummer), costume contests, a Main Street parade and a slew of lectures that ponder everything from body snatchers to "What Does NASA Really Know?"

The festival emerged in the 1990s to spark debate about the purported flying saucer crash, which the government says was a top-secret weather balloon. Believers in the Roswell Incident say the government is conspiring to hide the truth about the events of that day and, more broadly, the existence of extraterrestrial life.

 Source : Live Science

Aliens are alive and well - and could be tuning into vintage human radio broadcasts, according to scientists.

Experts involved in the study of alien worlds told the Government they were convinced that life exists elsewhere in the universe. They gathered at the Department of Trade and Industry in London to meet the Science Minister, Malcolm Wicks, reports the Daily Telegraph.

They told him that there have been remarkable advances in looking for stars with planets and said they are beginning to find Earth-like planets that might have water. Prof Glenn White of Open University said a European Space Agency mission called Darwin, a flotilla of telescopes due for launch in 2018, will scan 500 stars over five years within a distance of 60 light years.