91–100 of 123 posts
If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
The more one looks for aliens, the less worthwhile it is to look for aliens. If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-re...
The more one looks for aliens, the less worthwhile it is to look for aliens. If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
Have they found nothing? https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-re...
The more one looks for aliens, the less worthwhile it is to look for aliens. If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
Have they found nothing? https://thedebrief.org/intelligence-officials-say-u-s-has-re...
The more one looks for aliens, the less worthwhile it is to look for aliens. If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
Why is it so important for them to figure out whether or not there is (intelligent) life out there that we can detect with our instruments?
Even if I believe there is life out there, and even if we have visual proof of it, SETI specializes in detection with certain instruments, not proving they exist.
I like the plans of SETI, and the equipment they come up with, but to me that is like Alchemy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> starting to question the gain of a project in the scientific space is never really an argument It most certainly is, at least in the real world. The ISS has cost more than $150 billion so far. That's not "a joke", it's the GDP of a mid-size country. I very much do hope that everyone involved is asking themselves hard questions about whether this expense is justified by whatever has been gained in return. Science is…
> The ISS has cost more than $150 billion so far. The UK's "High Speed 2" project is currently budgeted to cost about $125 billion for its ~300mi extent. I very much do hope that everyone involved is asking themselves hard questions about whether this expense is justified by whatever has been gained in return. The UK is not a magical la-la-land where people have the right to piss away truckloads of public money on pr…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that aliens aren’t magical and all-powerful. They’re likely having similar struggles and fight the issues using technology. It’s a big difference to a god who just waves the hand and creates the universe.
Heads up; that isnt an even remotely accurate reduction of religion or deities as a concept. I could see the misunderstanding if your only exposure to religion was via christian sermons - they are real big on describing their god as the perfect being that is all powerful and blah de blah - but even their creation myths don't portray an omnipotent being, and much of their bible depicts a deity that strives and mistake…
And I would argue that God is not ultimately focused just on us, but one of his interests is in helping us to get to know him since that is beneficial to us and he loves us. A big difference with an alien is that they would be a created being just like us (in Christian understanding). If they exist, we can't really presume to know whether they'd be just into their selfish interests, or perhaps know God and be committed to loving others the way God calls us to, etc.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What would be the motivation to build those cylinders? Traditionally people ventured into new places in hope of getting return of the effort and cost of the journey. Here it seems like you need to invest a lot, just to survive in emptiness.
The amount of energy you would have access to is almost unimaginable. We can only speculate what you'd do with that but two leading ideas are: 1. It may well be the only feasible method of interstellar travel. Accelerating a spacecraft is a whole bunch of fuel you don't have to carry; and 2. Computing power. So what would motivate people? Living room. One estimate I've seen is the current population of Earth on a ful…
The more one looks for aliens, the less worthwhile it is to look for aliens. If nobody had ever thought to look before at the sky for any signs of aliens, then it would be worth a quick glance to see. But since people have been looking at the sky now for many hundreds of years, with increasingly advanced tech, and still found nothing, it might be worth scaling back the effort.
Looking for aliens is worthwhile because discovering alien life would transform how we see the universe and ourselves, not because it’s easy. That’s like saying the more one looks for fundamental physics the less worthwhile it is. We would never have built a particle accelerator with that attitude. You can extend it to all of science. Why look for anything hard?
I value SETI and ideas behind it and even the line you just wrote. But would it?
The whole thing will just descend into a twisted conspiracy pit of nonsense within 48 hours.
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How long did governments know about it?
Have aliens been interbreeding with humans all this time?
Is Joe Biden a lizard crossbreed alien?
When do we get to nuke them?
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This is the level of humanity that we currently display, or which shouts the loudest, or which we click on and ... eventually, slowly, but surely, listen to... or, at least, take account of in our political decisions.
I'm certain that any alien lifeforms out there are far more sensible and will just ... 'walk on by' ... as a human might in the presence of a tiny microbe resting on a discarded apple in the corner of a derelict building.