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Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

theguardian.com

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Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#71

Post by Unbeliever69 »

swombat wrote: post #70
Unbeliever69 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dark Forest Deterence. I'd be interested to find out what % of HR readers HAVEN'T read this trilogy considering how much it comes up in conversation on these forums. I'm willing to bet it is a VERY high % compared to the average reading population.

I started reading it and found it fairly poor quality sci fi so I stopped somewhere in the first book. I think the bit where they slice a passing ship with newly invented nanowires smacked more of a comic book or 50s golden age sci fi than the sort of “proper” science fiction I’m used to these days. That and the way the characters seem to have such simplified motivations. It’s just not good fiction - and science fict…

It wasn't me! Personally loved the series! I'm always on the lookout for more "proper" sci-fi, so please share! I've been binge reading hard sci-fi this year and can't get enough. And yeah, HN is a tough crowd.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#72

Post by Aron »

ambrosite wrote: post #50
InclinedPlane wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's going pretty fast, but it'll slow down a lot as it crawls back out of the Sun's gravity well. It'll only be 100 AU away in 2034 and 1000 AU away in 2196. Which means that human made spacecraft absolutely will visit it in either the 21st or 22nd centuries. We could actually pull off a flyby mission within the next two decades or so if we dedicated enough resources to it. And as our launch technology improves over…

This is a good point. The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are only 141 and 117 AU from earth [1], and they were launched 40 years ago. I have always thought that the most likely fate of the Voyager spacecraft is that they will be stolen -- not by aliens, but by humans of the future. Their positions and trajectories are a matter of public record; everyone will know exactly where they are, and the spacecraft themselves as w…

So if this was the movie Gravity, we could just scoot voyager over to see it as it passes by.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#73

Post by blacksmith_tb »

wasx wrote: post #15
cantrip wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno I think if it were an alien spacecraft we should just keep our heads low and not draw any attention to it. Our first window of opportunity might be our last.

I've gotta disagree with you on this. Personally I think intelligent life is probably very rare in the universe, the sheer number of factors that need to go right for it to arise, and then the sheer number of factors that need to not go wrong for it to continue to exist mean any intelligent life out there is probably going to find us way more valuable and worthy of co-operation and interaction than say destruction of…

You might be entirely right, but the universe is a big place. Estimates of the number of stars (called Sagan's Number[1]) are on the order of the 3 x 10^23 (300 sextillion[2]). Even if only a tiny fraction of a percent of them had worlds with intelligent life, there'd be a lot of it out there. The bad news, though, is that it's still hard to travel, or even send transmissions, so it's just as likely we're doomed to stay lonely.

(I tend to share your optimism about the odds of other intelligent life being good-natured; we've come a long way in the last 2,000 years, by the time we're out in the stars, I'd like to think we'd all be Bodhisattvas).

1: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Sagan%27s_number

2: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2010/12/01/131730552...

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#74

Post by geoah »

swombat wrote: post #70
Unbeliever69 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dark Forest Deterence. I'd be interested to find out what % of HR readers HAVEN'T read this trilogy considering how much it comes up in conversation on these forums. I'm willing to bet it is a VERY high % compared to the average reading population.

I started reading it and found it fairly poor quality sci fi so I stopped somewhere in the first book. I think the bit where they slice a passing ship with newly invented nanowires smacked more of a comic book or 50s golden age sci fi than the sort of “proper” science fiction I’m used to these days. That and the way the characters seem to have such simplified motivations. It’s just not good fiction - and science fict…

You should give it another shot, second book is pretty good, third one is great.

It's not Quantum Thief, but it ain't have bad either :D

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#75

Post by swombat »

Unbeliever69 wrote: post #71
swombat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started reading it and found it fairly poor quality sci fi so I stopped somewhere in the first book. I think the bit where they slice a passing ship with newly invented nanowires smacked more of a comic book or 50s golden age sci fi than the sort of “proper” science fiction I’m used to these days. That and the way the characters seem to have such simplified motivations. It’s just not good fiction - and science fict…

It wasn't me! Personally loved the series! I'm always on the lookout for more "proper" sci-fi, so please share! I've been binge reading hard sci-fi this year and can't get enough. And yeah, HN is a tough crowd.

There’s so much awesome SF out there... it depends what you like!

Personally, in very different styles, I found pretty much everything written by Iain M Banks excellent (start with Excession or Player of Games), I enjoy John Scalzi’s humourous sci fi space operas a fair bit too, Peter F Hamilton’s Reality Dysfunction trilogy was pretty decent... I’ve loved most of what I’ve read from Charles Stross but particularly Accelerando, Greg Egan’s Diaspora was awesome, like a modern day Childhood’s End (read that too if you haven’t, though it’s aged badly). Cloud Atlas is sorta science fiction and amazing. I’ve yet to not enjoy any book by Cory Doctorow - start with Pirate Cinema. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi was excellent.

This should be enough to get you started!

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#76

Post by swombat »

geoah wrote: post #74
swombat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started reading it and found it fairly poor quality sci fi so I stopped somewhere in the first book. I think the bit where they slice a passing ship with newly invented nanowires smacked more of a comic book or 50s golden age sci fi than the sort of “proper” science fiction I’m used to these days. That and the way the characters seem to have such simplified motivations. It’s just not good fiction - and science fict…

You should give it another shot, second book is pretty good, third one is great. It's not Quantum Thief, but it ain't have bad either :D

Do the characters get a bit more complex than “humans killed ppl I loved so now I’m going to plot to end all human life”? Because it was really hard to suspend my disbelief on that one. People just don’t behave in unidimensional ways like that. And they forget trauma, fall in love, gain contrary motivations. Humans are complex creatures.

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#77

Post by hbcondo714 »

bitwize wrote: post #2

Coming up next on the History Channel: Preliminary scans indicated 'Oumuamua was just a lump of space rock. But could it be... a derelict alien spaceship?

Perhaps like the derelict spacecraft discovered in Alien[1]. Check for a warning signal!

[1] http://alienanthology.wikia.com/wiki/The_Derelict

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#78

Post by mirimir »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #62
mirimir wrote: post #61

> The cigar-shaped object ... All they have is a light curve, right? No imaging, right? If so, "cigar-shaped" is just speculation.

It rotates, so its brightness changes over time. From examining this data they can draw some conclusions about its shape.

Sure, but "some conclusions" is a long way from "cigar-shaped".

Re: Is ‘Oumuamua an alien spacecraft? First scans show no signs of technology

#79

Post by hprotagonist »

XR0CSWV3h3kZWg wrote: post #60
yoodenvranx wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish that book had a better ending.

I wish that book didn't have a part three.

Me, too. My background is biomedical, so i spent most of it thinking "epigenetics doesn't work like that!"
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