LogFAQs > #964780024

Metalsonic66 posted...

Depends on how common life actually is in the universe

Not just how common life is, and not just intelligent life, but life that has begun transmitting radio signals.

The first experimental radio broadcasts on Earth began around 1895, with the first commercial broadcasts beginning in 1920. So our radio signals have now traveled over 100 light years and encompasses a volume of over 4 million cubic light years. There are at LEAST 59,722 visible stars within this range. There are at least 34 planets in this area discovered so far, 11 of which are within the habitable zone. And this does not consider the possibility of an alien ship or probe passing through this modest sphere of space picking up one of our signals.

(This is actually part of the plot of Robert Reid's novel Year Zero, in which aliens discovered human music through radio signals in 1977 and begin sharing it, unknowingly racking up a copyright fine that will bankrupt the entire known universe.)