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[Heron TSG]

Well, we CAN pick up cosmic background radiation from the "big bang" in every direction spaced fairly evenly.

[ChairmanPoo]

OP: Again: TL, DR

But on the other hand: successful troll is successful. I bow to you sir.

[ChairmanPoo]

    Think of this- We're so far away from the next nearest star, that if we pick up their signals, they'll already be a million years+ more advanced than they were when they sent the message. If they're not extinct, of course.

actually, the nearest star is just 4 LY away, so it would only take 8 years to hear the answer.

[Rilder]

Can radio signals even travel 4 LY without dissipating into static?

[Heron TSG]

yes. A radio wave will never dissipate in space, because there's nothing to stop it. (no particulates or anything.)

@ chairman - I was talking about further away stars, not our neighbor.

[Aqizzar]

yes. A radio wave will never dissipate in space, because there's nothing to stop it. (no particulates or anything.)

Nope!  This is wrong.  Our old-ass but still working Voyager probes and so forth have proven that yes, even in the vacuum of space, a radio message will degrade.  It's partly natural radio interference, partly the signal petering out, partly the frequency lengthening, partly the broadcast thinning over it's angle, and partly just the infinitesimal gas and dust that makes up "vacuum".  I forget the exact postulation, but I think the idea was that even the radio signals we first sent through the ionosphere about 60 years ago would by now be nearly unintelligible.

[Heron TSG]

the radio waves we sent 60 years ago were almost unintelligible already, but you have a point.

[Ampersand]

The best possibility for communication over interstellar distances is probably high powered lasers, or manipulation of gravity.

[cowofdoom78963]

The best possibility for communication over interstellar distances is probably high powered lasers, or manipulation of gravity.

Or whatever dark matter lets off.

[Heron TSG]

Morse-code type lasers would be the most efficient. Possibly color-band lasers, reading the light wave's frequency like an AC sine wave.

[Aqizzar]

The best possibility for communication over interstellar distances is probably high powered lasers, or manipulation of gravity.

Or whatever dark matter lets off.

Gravity, coincidentally.

At any rate, I think a civilization that had the desire or need to use such specific communication protocol as color-rotating lasers would probably have a way of circumventing the multi-century time lag anyway.  The gravity-manipulation thing seems a lot more likely, because gravitational pull appears to be instantaneous.  Pity we don't have any way of recognizing it.

[Heron TSG]

Except gravity ISN'T instantaneous. It moves at the speed of light, I have been told.

[Aqizzar]

For some reason, I'm gonna bet we're both wrong.  Maybe stringing phone lines through artificial wormholes?

[Rilder]

What happens when the wormhole collapses?

[Heron TSG]

Wormholes both exist and don't exist, and therefore are both collapsing and not collapsing at the same time.

Color band lasers seem to be the only good idea I've got...