Still think the Childhood's End middle ground is much likelier than the Star Trek and Independence Day extremes #thirdway
Astronomy & Space Exploration
- Thread starter MrMarcello
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They might be 100+ lightyears away though. There are advanced and there are 100+ lightyears travel advanced, I reckon that even if we as a species crack the AI code we still won't be able to overcome distances like that, you would literally have to defy physics.
There's also a theory that if a civilisation has achieved interstellar travel, they will be so advanced and alien civilisation would be so common that contacting us would be akin to you or I walking past a waspnest and stopping for a chat.
That's possible. I see several possibilities that could wind up true.
- Humans are alone in an actual physical universe.
- The Universe is teeming with life, but given distances and variations in time, we will never know about it. For example, life on billions of planets around the Universe could've happened and died millions and billions of years ago, or within slightly different time frames to where they were always incapable of realizing one another's existence. Or perhaps life recognized other life, but all of it died out.
-Due to the current evolutionary threshold of our brains, we are still extremely primitive and just don't have the technology or brain capacity to figure things out.
- Humans are attempting to ascertain whether life exists elsewhere by using rules of measurement that were invented by humans (in essence something similar to the Kochen Specker theorem), where the values/results of measurements are defined by the contextuality of measurement. Therefore no reality exists independent of choice of measurement and the concept of life elsewhere is an anthropocentric illusion.
Well, the most likely scenario is that we discover 'life' indirectly through the gases present in the atmosphere of certain exoplanets. If we actually come into contact the scenario of them helping us is no more or less likely than them hurting us.
I wouldn't bet on that being true. I think you're discussing the fermi paradox though which considers not just distance but also time (same thing, in space terms really) but the chances of civilisations meeting is slim, probably.
I suppose it would be good for Science if we find microorganisms in ice somewhere. Alternatively, it would be bad if we stumble upon aliens that want to wipe us out.
I think aliens wanting to wipe us out is science-fiction really, would be weird to travel time and space only to go around fecking shit up.
Reckon a race advanced enough to travel lightyears would study and observe us with the same amusement we study chimpanzees using tools.
The ability to bend space\time is so advanced that it would about equal the gap between us and the chimpanzees using tools to break up nuts etc.
The ability to bend space\time is so advanced that it would about equal the gap between us and the chimpanzees using tools to break up nuts etc.
Going back to that history of everything - never knew a naturally occurring fission reactor was a thing, weird as hell.
We have made a machine that recreate the immediate aftermath of the big bang, Chimpanzee's struggle to use sticks while eating termites, they might look at us more like we look at youth team players; we just need to bulk up.
Probably. I reckon I was really drunk and high when I saw it. It's the only state in which I can stand Brian Cox and his creepy smile.
We've already fecked the planet to such an extent that it's not worth it to any alien races we might meet. Hooray for global warming!
The theory is that the longer before we have any kind of first contact with aliens, the better it is for humans. Simply because it means we are more likely to be more advanced (comparatively) and therefore in less danger of a hostile alien species attacking us.
Essentially it is a good thing that aliens havent contact us, because if they have then they are clearly far more advanced than we are. The longer time goes on, the more likely to is that we are the ones who would make contact (implying that we are the more advanced species).
Essentially it is a good thing that aliens havent contact us, because if they have then they are clearly far more advanced than we are. The longer time goes on, the more likely to is that we are the ones who would make contact (implying that we are the more advanced species).
High and drunk and watching stuff like cosmos is the best!
Unless the we turn the earth's climate into something more suitable for the aliens.
Shit. They've already infiltrated our civilization, haven't they?
Don't forget it's Sheen-less sequel "The Arrival 2"
Planet is fine, we've only fecked ourselves.
Fixed that for you.
After seeing what Leicester and by default the planet has to done to Ranieri, they would now be justified.
That theory is inherently flawed IMO.
The major flaws are:
1) The cosmos is so vast even a more intelligent species might not necessarily be able to travel or even see our planet from where they are. They can be more advanced than us but still so many thousands of galaxies away its irrelevant how advanced they are.
2) That theory assumes a sufficiently advanced species would never keep itself hidden, which is crazy. Humans have already developed a scientific policy of "non-interference" in some biological observations of ecosystems. Its reasonable to assume a sufficiently advanced species would take a hands-off/observational approach and watch us from afar while remaining completely undetectable to our primitive technology.
EDIT: and others already mentioned both those points ha
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Also, communicating with aliens would be a lot like an indigious tribe sending smoke signals out and thinking they are alone, even as radio waves traveled right through them.
Only aliens within 100 light years could have seen us, and if any had tried to communicate, wed only see that from aliens within 50 light years.
But i think any aliens would wait to see how this humanity thing turned out, and probably not bother sending individual signals to species anyway
Only aliens within 100 light years could have seen us, and if any had tried to communicate, wed only see that from aliens within 50 light years.
But i think any aliens would wait to see how this humanity thing turned out, and probably not bother sending individual signals to species anyway
Could do with a less nerdy name.
Realise this is ironic coming from someone with a sci fi book for a screen name.
Realise this is ironic coming from someone with a sci fi book for a screen name.
This has just become clickbait fanaticism. No one knows exactly what the planets look like
Just makes the launch of the James Webb telescope even more exciting. If we find molecular oxygen on on one the planet's it really would change everything.
Friend of mine who works at a telescope in Hawaii did an interview about this on RT ( 
) yesterday.
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/378407-nasa-planets-discovery-exoplanet-space/
) yesterday.https://www.rt.com/op-edge/378407-nasa-planets-discovery-exoplanet-space/
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Have you tried this? It's fascinating, chatting and staring at these beautiful creatures that gaze back at you as if you're some kind of giant wasp god, while your neighbor looks on in disbelief thinking a retard lives next door.
Is it inconceivable that an alien species who are significantly more advanced than us can see us or perhaps a signature of life, from the other side of universe?
I would have thought we are not all that far off doing something like that now.
They reckon by studying the atmospheres of planets we can tell if there is a possibility of life.
Now imagine a species just a thousand years more advanced than us. Maybe they got a gadget that can do a kinda cosmic microwave background pic, but instead of temperatures they can see life signatures to detect areas that have abundant life signatures or something that can show them where they need to be concentrating the search... If they are actually searching.
1billion % conjecture and waffle, but an interesting possibility.
I would have thought we are not all that far off doing something like that now.
They reckon by studying the atmospheres of planets we can tell if there is a possibility of life.
Now imagine a species just a thousand years more advanced than us. Maybe they got a gadget that can do a kinda cosmic microwave background pic, but instead of temperatures they can see life signatures to detect areas that have abundant life signatures or something that can show them where they need to be concentrating the search... If they are actually searching.
1billion % conjecture and waffle, but an interesting possibility.
The fact is that we don't have a clue what an advanced civilisation would be capable of. It could be like trying to explain the concept of television to an orang-utan.
This is a great read on it:
http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html
Yep, it's perfectly plausible, though like you said, it's '1billion % conjecture and waffle' or even a bit loony. In the grand scheme of things, humanity is close to a Type 0.7 civilization on the Kardashev Scale (according to Carl Sagan) - we can harness energy from our planet in an inelegant way and are still in the infancy of space exploration - will take us another 100 to 200 years to become a fully integrated Type 1 civilization.
The leap from Type 1 to Type 2 might take another millennium (if not more):
Then Type 3:
All the way up to metaphysical Type 7:
Any hypothetical alien civilization that was done with the Stone-Bronze-Iron age sequence several millennia before us (and had maintained the same advanced rate) could well be a Type 2, or even 3 by now - so monitoring us is far from inconceivable. Post Type 3 civilizations are unlikely to be interested in us, though - just like we aren't interested in inconsequential organisms beyond some form of mild curiosity. For them, the universe itself is what the earth is to us in terms of scale, so they're more likely to be benevolent entities that go meh! and leave us be in our tiny, tiny, tiny niche - than aliens out to destroy puny humans. They have no use for our paltry resources or minimal intelligence - our cognitive levels won't even register on their minimum end of their scale.
4:00 onwards is really interesting.
Had a quick chat with Thayne Currie about Trappist last night (spoilered below). As suspected, we don't yet fully know what the planets look like, despite the well marketed hollywood looking pics that are being published by NASA and others. All we are seeing so far are the light curves - as opposed to the graphic illustrations which seem completely invented for marketing purposes.
Me: Thayne, there seem to be a lot of CGI renderings of the planets, often in pretty great detail. For example the individual planets each seem to have well defined colors and features. How accurate are all these graphical renderings we are seeing ? Are there any raw/unedited images available to compare to the cartoonish pics we're seeing ?
Thayne: They are kind of guesswork. We really don't know what these planets look like since we do not have images. Even if we had images, the planets would not be spatially resolved: they would appear just as point sources. We don't have a sense of whether or not the planets are habitable yet because we don't have spectra, though that may change in the next year.If you want to actually see the planets, you need direct imaging ... which is what I, Christian Marois , and others do.
Thayne: They are kind of guesswork. We really don't know what these planets look like since we do not have images. Even if we had images, the planets would not be spatially resolved: they would appear just as point sources. We don't have a sense of whether or not the planets are habitable yet because we don't have spectra, though that may change in the next year.If you want to actually see the planets, you need direct imaging ... which is what I, Christian Marois , and others do.
It is not like anyone believed they had actual photos of a planet 40 lightyears away.