Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us

Post by mmh0000 » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 12:50 AM UTC

demondemidi wrote: post #6

nadermx wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's assuming that's the only mode of travel. There could be worm holes, or things we can't imagine. Also if the goal was to find life, searching would not be optimal. It would be better to launch pods that self expand to nearby planet, make their own pods, and go to the next nearby planets.

Even if there is a wormhole or some crazy sci-fi thing we haven’t thought of, there are a million trillion stars. Basically invisible. Unless you suggest some technology appears that allows an entity to travel to every star and observe it for billions of years. I’d love to hear a sci-fi proposal that covers this without invoking omniscient gods or the supernatural.

Post by millerhooks » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 12:57 AM UTC

araes wrote: post #4

Kind of a worldbuilding stackexchange response, yet other reasons aliens might not interact (from a "they exist" perspective). Hitchhiker's Guide - We're just not very interesting. The aliens exist, have noticed the Earth, yet don't care, because we don't really do much from a galactic perspective. Mostly Harmless. Star Trek - The aliens exist, yet have some external reason to not interact, like a diplomatic treaty.…

Post by mcheung610 » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 1:59 AM UTC

Post by volemo » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 4:22 AM UTC

millerhooks wrote: post #13

araes wrote: post #4

Kind of a worldbuilding stackexchange response, yet other reasons aliens might not interact (from a "they exist" perspective). Hitchhiker's Guide - We're just not very interesting. The aliens exist, have noticed the Earth, yet don't care, because we don't really do much from a galactic perspective. Mostly Harmless. Star Trek - The aliens exist, yet have some external reason to not interact, like a diplomatic treaty.…

I never understood the aliens as harvesters as a threat movie plot / Hawking logic. There is SO much stuff in space. All of the stuff. Why care about our stuff? Intergalactic highway imminent domain? Just chart a different course. There’s no reason other than to mess with us for fun like dolphins jacking with a pufferfish. I guess maybe I’ve stumbled onto a sci-fi short story idea.

Post by volemo » Tue, Nov 28, 2023, 4:26 AM UTC

bsder wrote: post #10

demondemidi wrote: post #2

These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.

> We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big. Intra-galaxy is certainly not too big. Even at slow, sub-relativistic speeds, our local galaxy should be fully colonized by now--whether by self-replicating automation or life. This is the paradox.