Radio Will Someday be as Antiquated as Tin Cans and String

By that I mean all RF (radio frequency) technology, from your bedside clock radio to your cell phone.

Scientists send a message 1KM with Neutrinos

I remember as young adult, even after college, reading articles about scientists looking for the neutrino with large underground tanks of water. (Neutrinos are nearly massless and travel light years without interacting with matter, so the tanks of water were isolated from interferences; the idea was that if scientists detected a collision with atoms in the water, it would have to be neutrinos that were responsible.).

A lot has apparently happened since then. They not only found the neutrino, they can send and receive them.

This little story has enormous implications for communications; if any scientific advancement deserves the term "quantum leap," this is it.

A sufficiently sensitive receiver would have no concern for towers or line of site or satellites. It would just have to know where the neutrino beam is coming from, which might be on the other side of the Earth, or moon, or solar system.

All RF communication would become as antiquated as tin cans and string.

I am not celebrating radio's future demise (I won't be around to see it). I do celebrate a magnificent scientific achievement. And RF technology will never disappear, since natural RF detection is necessary for understanding the world around us (it's what led to the Big Bang theory), and as long as that's the case, it will always be a place for hobbyists.

And what are the implications for SETI (the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence)?  We've assumed that any civilization communicating with each other or us would be using radio frequencies. But just perhaps, they'd be using neutrinos, or something else. Up until I read this story, it never occurred to me there could be a something else.

Started: 2012-03-15