Mystery of interstellar visitor 'Oumuamua gets trickier

Post by kentonv » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 11:36 PM UTC

Ancalagon wrote: post #166

kentonv wrote: post #47

My pet theory (which is not intended to be taken too seriously) is that it is indeed a discarded light sail, and that light sail in particular was used to transport a Von Neumann probe which detached at some point after the object entered our solar system but before we first observed it. This detachment, in addition to leaving the sail tumbling, would have changed its trajectory, meaning our estimation of which direc…

I thought one of the main issues arising with the "alien tech" theory is that this object was moving too slowly to ever make it to our solar system in any timely manner? Thats not to say it couldn't have slowed down prior to us finding it, but if its a detached light sail why wouldn't the alien probe have detached it at higher speeds to have less mass to slow down?

Post by _8j50 » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 11:45 PM UTC

8bitsrule wrote: post #153

_8j50 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They?

She

Post by kentonv » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 11:52 PM UTC

nafey wrote: post #136

kentonv wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's entirely possible they'd have a good reason to be stealthy, I don't think it's likely to be anything we've thought of. The Prime Directive is a mushy human emotional idea, not something that makes any logical sense for a space-faring civilization to follow. If there's any competition out there among space-faring civilizations, none of them are going to tie their hands behind their backs by refusing to touc…

What you are missing is that technological advancement can accelerate exponentially. Couple this fact nothing can move faster than light. This means if you don't stamp out alien life as soon as you encounter it then the next time you come back they might already have achieved technological parity with you. And they might not be as forgiving as you are. This means you have to hide and you have to exterminate any alien…

Post by kbenson » Sat, Aug 22, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

anoniuyiu33412 wrote: post #174

kbenson wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. At that level of abstraction it might make more sense to think of humanity itself as an organism, and to their point of view an infant one. At the point we either either birth an AI or elevate people to digital organisms with vastly greater intelligence, then we've…

maybe we are just "ants" for them. That would be the current intelligence level of humanity for aliens. Doesn't the cities, human civilization on Earth feel like a big messy anthill? All our society could feel for them just like what we see when we look to what ants have built. "Nice engineering down there, they communicate using sounds and directed energy, nice they've discovered electricity, they solve their confli…

Post by ekianjo » Sun, Aug 23, 2020, 12:05 AM UTC

motohagiography wrote: post #172

kentonv wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Light sails are not very fast. The probe would have had to have been launched thousands of years ago at least, maybe millions. Either way, long before our current level of advancement could have been predicted.

I'd argue development isn't linear, as we seem to have millennia with pretty static tech, then in the span of a (increasingly long) lifetime, electricity, flight, and the internet. On that scale, our last 150 years could have occurred randomly at any time.