What Is the Status of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

question 61

Multiple Choice

What is the status of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?

• A) The search must rely upon only small, inexpensive TV satellite antennas, and thus most astronomers believe it cannot succeed.
• B) We have received on several occasions repeated signals that appear to be from some intelligent source, but we are waiting to receive one from the vicinity of an Earthlike planet before declaring that SETI has made contact with an extraterrestrial race.
• C) Because of funding limitations, the entire program has been terminated and is no longer active.
• D) We have occasionally detected particularly strong or unusual signals from space, but they have not been repeated, so we do not believe they are from an intelligent source.

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Definitions:

Relative Price

The price of a good or service in comparison to the price of other goods and services.

Indifference Curves

Graphical representations of different bundles of goods among which a consumer is indifferent, showing levels of utility that are equivalent to the consumer.

Transitivity

In decision theory, the principle that if a person prefers option A to option B and prefers option B to option C, then the person should prefer option A to option C.

Intersect

The point at which two or more lines or curves meet or cross each other.