Economics and the Fermi Paradox

[DonPMitchell]

I've read that in the radio spectrum, the Earth is 1000 times brighter than the Sun, and this due to man-made broadcast.  Thermal sources just don't radiate that much blackbody energy at such long electromagnetic wavelengths.

If you think about it, that has to be true.  We just would not be able to use radio waves to exchange substantial amounts of data with probes at other planets if the cosmic and solar background was that strong.  Think about how weak the signal from Cassini is when it reaches Earth, people using liquid-helium cooled masers to amplify it.  That only works because the background noise is even weaker.

[ijuin]

Of course, the earliest high-power TV broadcast from Earth was the 1936 Olympics . . .

[Homo bibiens]

Of course, the earliest high-power TV broadcast from Earth was the 1936 Olympics . . .

Yes, but it wouldn't have the same significance to aliens as it would to us.  All they would know is, he's some guy with a silly mustache . . .

[Johno]

"Silly mustache?  I believe that he is insulting us.  Look, he has the horns of Orgoth on his upper mandible.  INVERTED, by all 12 gods of B'4sheth Major!  It really gets on my zunga, it really does.  If we were close enough, by Zgragg wouldn't I give him such a norrg up the lweegs with my rajjj!"

[DonPMitchell]

In college, around 1976, I saw Leni Reifenstahl's film on the 1936 olympics.  Pretty controversial, but as sports cinematography goes it was pioneering and brilliant.

You can buy it on DVD now, but Reifenstahl kept editing it and editing it to remove any "embarassing" references to Nazism.  That's sort of unfortunately, because some very famous history is gone in the version you buy now -- Hitler walking out of the stadium in anger when Jesse Owens won the gold medel.  I think it's important for people to realize, you know, Hitler was a racist.  Also the scene of the Hindenberg hovering over the stadium was one of the most iconic images from that film, and its gone today, because Reifenstahl didn't want that big schwastika on the screen.

[Homo bibiens]

In college, around 1976, I saw Leni Reifenstahl's film on the 1936 olympics.  Pretty controversial, but as sports cinematography goes it was pioneering and brilliant.

You can buy it on DVD now, but Reifenstahl kept editing it and editing it to remove any "embarassing" references to Nazism.  That's sort of unfortunately, because some very famous history is gone in the version you buy now -- Hitler walking out of the stadium in anger when Jesse Owens won the gold medel.  I think it's important for people to realize, you know, Hitler was a racist.  Also the scene of the Hindenberg hovering over the stadium was one of the most iconic images from that film, and its gone today, because Reifenstahl didn't want that big schwastika on the screen.

Never saw Riefenstahl's Olympic film, but just found the following on one of her other films:

The Spanish director Luis Buñuel also tried to rework in 1941 Triumph of the Will. He showed his results in New York to Charlie Chaplin, who couldn't stop laughing.

 

Here is the link.