The Space Thread

[Maury]

So frigging cool. My only thing with tracking Radio Waves, is would an advanced extra-terrestrial civilization really be using Radio Waves to communicate ... I mean we have reduced the amount of Radio Waves we emit drastically over the last couple decades, and expect that to continue .. would any sufficiently advanced civilization really use something so relatively primitive?

Conversely, I would expect that they've probably moved on the "mp3's" while we are still on "vinyl records", so I guess if their intent was to communicate, they'd have to dig out the pile of old records? Hence "Radio Waves"?

I can't wait for the future. Lol

Haven’t read the article but I’m assuming the signal was sent out a REALLY long time ago, so for all we know what ever sent it out could have been gone by now for a couple billion years or it has advanced so far that we couldn’t even comprehend it.

[Joey]

Haven’t read the article but I’m assuming the signal was sent out a REALLY long time ago, so for all we know what ever sent it out could have been gone by now for a couple billion years or it has advanced so far that we couldn’t even comprehend it.

That's a good point - I mean, radio waves do travel at the speed of light, but space is an awfully big place (depending on who you talk to, ~50 Billion Light years in Diameter).

Discussions like this, always come back to the Fermi Paradox (if Space is so god damned big, where is all of the life?)
This is an amazing breakdown of the Fermi Paradox, and I love this way of looking at our circumstances (read the article, as it gives a much better breakdown), but essentially, there are 3 possible scenarios:

We're Rare:


We're First:


We're Fucked:



This gives me hope though that we'll find something (or they'll find us):



Can you imagine Earth with a Billion Extra Years of Development??

[rocwell]

✨

Fascinating. Just watch, even if you have seen it before.

It changes your perspective ��pic.twitter.com/AYu0OGzVd2

— Alexander Verbeek �� (@Alex_Verbeek) August 11, 2018

[Joey]

✨

Fascinating. Just watch, even if you have seen it before.

It changes your perspective ��pic.twitter.com/AYu0OGzVd2

— Alexander Verbeek �� (@Alex_Verbeek) August 11, 2018

[Bendit]

Interesting... more terrestrial than usual in this thread ... but spacey

[SkywalkerAC]

That's a good point - I mean, radio waves do travel at the speed of light, but space is an awfully big place (depending on who you talk to, ~50 Billion Light years in Diameter).

Discussions like this, always come back to the Fermi Paradox (if Space is so god damned big, where is all of the life?)
This is an amazing breakdown of the Fermi Paradox, and I love this way of looking at our circumstances (read the article, as it gives a much better breakdown), but essentially, there are 3 possible scenarios:

We're Rare:


We're First:


We're Fucked:



This gives me hope though that we'll find something (or they'll find us):



Can you imagine Earth with a Billion Extra Years of Development??

Really doesn't seem like much of a paradox when you factor in how incredibly hard, if not impossible, interstellar travel is. The answer is because everyone is stuck at home.

EDIT - found this after https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...not-a-paradox/

[DanH]

Really doesn't seem like much of a paradox when you factor in how incredibly hard, if not impossible, interstellar travel is. The answer is because everyone is stuck at home.

My answer to this has always been the same: the technology required to communicate over long distances (never mind travel over them) is always rapidly followed by the technology required to wipe out one's own species/planet. So yes, there is/was/will be other intelligent life. The problem is the time span from the point where they develop the ability to communicate to the point where they don't exist anymore is infinitesimal on the span of the universe, so probabilistically speaking no two intelligent species will ever overlap to be able to interact with each other.

[SkywalkerAC]

Really doesn't seem like much of a paradox when you factor in how incredibly hard, if not impossible, interstellar travel is. The answer is because everyone is stuck at home.

EDIT - found this after https://blogs.scientificamerican.com...not-a-paradox/

My answer to this has always been the same: the technology required to communicate over long distances (never mind travel over them) is always rapidly followed by the technology required to wipe out one's own species/planet. So yes, there is/was/will be other intelligent life. The problem is the time span from the point where they develop the ability to communicate to the point where they don't exist anymore is infinitesimal on the span of the universe, so probabilistically speaking no two intelligent species will ever overlap to be able to interact with each other.

Sure...plus the vastness of space.

[DanH]

Sure...plus the vastness of space.

I think the vastness of time is the more definitive factor, but there is that too.

[rocwell]

The aliens have arrived! (Ok, ok, it's that guy... Elon Musk. lol ).

[RandomGuy]

The aliens have arrived! (Ok, ok, it's that guy... Elon Musk. lol ).

was it over Reno?

[SkywalkerAC]

Radio waves travel at the speed of light - it literally doesn't get any better than that!

[rocwell]

Hello!

Mysterious interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua could be a giant solar sail 'sent from another civilization to look for signs of life,' claim astronomers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ilization.html

[Miekenstien]

Hello!

Mysterious interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua could be a giant solar sail 'sent from another civilization to look for signs of life,' claim astronomers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ilization.html

Cigar shaped eh



I am firmly in the camp of kill them before they take our shit. If it isn't infinite there isn't enough for everyone.

[RandomGuy]

Hello!

Mysterious interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua could be a giant solar sail 'sent from another civilization to look for signs of life,' claim astronomers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ilization.html

Eh... DailyMail, only these folks and I fucking love science end up publishing these articles