SETI Reboot: Project Dorothy & Watching Outer Space TV Broadcasts

Everyone has heard of SETI. This project aimed at scanning distant stars for radio signals that could be held as evidence of extra-terrestrial intelligent life. Today, I learned that Project Dorothy will start re-scanning distant stars that have already been scanned by project SETI as a renewed effort to try and find intelligent life outside of our planet. I can't help but wonder how fascinating and at the same time odd it would be if we were to find evidence that we are not alone in the universe.
Let's be optimistic and imagine we were to receive and decode radio-signals such as audio-video signals emanating from a distant planet. Assuming intelligent life and the tendency to become a couch potato are related, let's go even one step further and imagine these observed intelligent beings had some kind of TV equivalent and that we were able to watch their TV broadcasts coming directly from outer space. Wouldn't it be cool to flip channels and watch soap operas from the other side of the galaxy featuring 4-legged aliens and being able to understand them thanks to instant YouTube/Google translations? Outer space channels would surely be a hit! Discovering an alien world through its TV broadcasts would change everything in our world and in the way we perceive the universe.
If the broadcast came from a a very distant star, direct communication wouldn't be possible due to the limitations of our current understanding of physics and namely the speed of light barrier. We would, however, be able to watch a time-projected broadcast of their maybe-extinct culture, learning something new on a daily-basis or looking forward to the release of the next outer space blockbuster.
My main concern would be: how frustrated would it be not to be able to buy whatever would be featured in outer space commercials such as Double Space Burgers?
If we look at things the other way around, imagine if aliens were to receive and watch our current TV broadcasts? Shouldn't we be ashamed of the image of our world that we are sending everywhere in the Universe?

I Was Abducted By Aliens In My Sleep

I had the greatest idea of all ideas last night as I decided to watch The Fourth Kind, a horror movie about alien abductions. What better way to find sleep on a Sunday evening than to be thinking about alien abductions? Evidently, I had one of the best nights of sleep ever and I would advise anyone to watch this movie alone in the dark at night. Although it is supposed to depict real events that occurred in Nome, AK in 2000, I find it far-fetched and hard to believe. Main character, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler, was supposedly abducted by aliens in her sleep. Doesn't this sentence say it all? In my dictionary, being abducted in one's sleep equals to dreaming of being abducted. In addition, the main proof of alien abductions is given through Recovered Memory Therapy, a practice known to be non-scientific and unreliable. The most dramatic and scary scene is that rumored abductees speak Sumerian under hypnosis and trance. Well, Dr. Tyler has books about Sumerian on her desk. So it does not surprise me at all that her unconscious mind is familiar with some of its vocabulary.


In summary, although I dreamt last night that I was being abducted by aliens, I doubt aliens would go through the trouble of abducting earthlings just to drill through their skins and poke them. Unless, they invented a sport whose purpose is to drill as many holes as one can in an earthling, it would just seem like an awful waste of time and resources on their part. And seriously, if aliens have already visited Earth, how come they never left any comment on my blog? I check my stats regularly and Google does not mention any connection from outer space. Wouldn't intelligent lifeforms from outer space at least try to friend me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter? The fact that they haven't done so yet makes it clear to me that they're either using AT&T or haven't visited earth yet.

Note: Once again, Hollywood shows that shrinks should not be taken seriously as most of them are mentally ill in the first place. It's such a classic that everytime I see a shrink in a movie, I can safely bet he or she is the bad guy!
Note 2: All the original documentary footage featured in this film was shot by the filmmakers. The whole movie is, of course, a clever hoax.

Will The Discovery Of Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) Change Our Faith?

The discovery of Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) is a ground breaking moment in human history. For the first time ever, we have reasonable proof that another Planet than earth in a not-so-distant Solar System could support human life. This only can lead to the conclusion that there probably is an astonishing amount of planets similar to earth in the Universe. Therefore, it must be very likely that life exists beyond our blue horizons.

Although I am thrilled by this discovery, I can hardly fathom the perhaps not-so-distant day when we discover life or, even better, intelligent life outside of our solar system. The world will be profoundly shaken and hopefully come to the realization that all our earthly conflicts have zero significance at the scale of the Universe. How will earthlings integrate this discovery with the religions they have believed in for centuries? How can we fight on earth over whose God is right when life is not limited to our planet?

Will we discover that Prophets visited other planets as well ? Or for the lack of such a fact, will we join our faiths and those of aliens in a common belief or understanding of an almighty essence in the Universe?

Can The Panspermia Theory (or as I like to call it: The Cosmic Bukkake Theory) explain a single origin of life in the entire Universe? I highly doubt it. So, if life emerged on different planets, at different times, under different (or why not the same) forms, shouldn't this come into conflict with our earthly faiths?

It certainly does not answer the question of God but it might bring us closer to it.