Burst 12 - Nick Nielsen on SETI as a Process of Elimination

Released: 13 February 2016
Duration:20 minutes, 35 seconds

Download the .mp3 audio file

Nick Nielsens's show notes:

In so far as SETI is a science -- and it aspires to be a science even as its critics argue that it falls short -- should its emphasis fall upon confirmation or disconfirmation? I argue that the falsification of narrowly formulated hypotheses about exocivilizations can both demonstrate the scientificity of SETI as well as refine our conception of exocivilizations, hence refining our idea of the exact nature of the object of our search.  

The origin of this Wow! Signal Burst (now revised and updated so that little remains of the original except the central idea) is a blog post that I wrote some time ago, SETI as a Process of Elimination, which was part of a series of posts about SETI, including Methodological Naturalism and the Eerie Silence, Why the Fermi Paradox Must be Taken Seriously, Addendum on the Fermi Paradox,  The Visibility Presumption, and Searching the Sky.

Credits

Written and Read by: Nick Nielsen
Producer and VO: Paul Carr
Music: Jason Robinson