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The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

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Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#21

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

this_user wrote: post #7
moomoo11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, I really hope that we establish contact with aliens in my lifetime. Hopefully they're chill, and like us lol.

Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being nice, you get there by murdering all of the competition and plundering all of the resources. And if you were trying to be nice, someone else would have just wiped you out. The big question is if a species can eventually reach some point of co…

Alternatively, advanced megaprojects are only achievable through sophisticated large-scale cooperation. Aggression leads to infighting; infighting wastes resources on zero-sum conflict.

>based on the current state of humanity, I'm not to optimistic.

Which version of Earth culture has a better shot at building e.g. a megastructure for an interstellar beacon: Earth culture during the post-nationalist 90s moment, or Earth culture during the current dysfunctional moment?

"Earlier this year, the White House proposed a nearly 24% cut to NASA's 2026 fiscal year budget, primarily aimed at the organization's fundamental science research. If the cuts come to fruition, they would be the largest in the agency's entire history." https://www.npr.org/2025/07/22/1266983866/trump-science-spac...

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#22

Post by spott »

reactordev wrote: post #16
robocat wrote: post #4

As compared to Australian FRBs: https://www.planetary.org/articles/0417-the-cosmic-microwave...

[flagged]

Extraterrestrial in this sense is “didn’t come from earth”, not “aliens!”.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#23

Post by zippo_the_zippo »

Quite similar to the "my cat listening to me making 10 grammar mistakes" meme.

Alien: sends SOS after years of studying human communication signals, as a last ditch effort to mark their existence before being wiped out by supernova.

Humans: Look - the sky people said WOW.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#24

Post by krapp »

TillE wrote: post #3
treetalker wrote: post #2

Extraterrestrial as in "not of Earthly origin" — not as in space aliens.

Space aliens are still kinda the best explanation. It's extremely inconclusive, and it's entirely possible that we'll discover some new natural phenomenon to explain it instead, but for now there's not really any known alternative.

Space aliens are also not a known alternative.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#25

Post by jcgrillo »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #21
this_user wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being nice, you get there by murdering all of the competition and plundering all of the resources. And if you were trying to be nice, someone else would have just wiped you out. The big question is if a species can eventually reach some point of co…

Alternatively, advanced megaprojects are only achievable through sophisticated large-scale cooperation. Aggression leads to infighting; infighting wastes resources on zero-sum conflict. >based on the current state of humanity, I'm not to optimistic. Which version of Earth culture has a better shot at building e.g. a megastructure for an interstellar beacon: Earth culture during the post-nationalist 90s moment, or Ear…

Not advocating for this approach, but maybe a fascist oligopoly will get the job done. Or something entirely stranger like a corporate theocracy. There's plenty of room for aggressive, murderous, backstabby species to achieve incredible things. We have a great existence proof right here on Earth.

EDIT: Maybe even a future culture that reveres aggression and has achieved some success in their warlike ways will look back on the peaceful post nationalist 90s as an age of decadent sloth. It could be that massive sustained conflict actually drives humans to achieve greater technical heights than peace.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#26

Post by protocolture »

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #21
this_user wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being nice, you get there by murdering all of the competition and plundering all of the resources. And if you were trying to be nice, someone else would have just wiped you out. The big question is if a species can eventually reach some point of co…

Alternatively, advanced megaprojects are only achievable through sophisticated large-scale cooperation. Aggression leads to infighting; infighting wastes resources on zero-sum conflict. >based on the current state of humanity, I'm not to optimistic. Which version of Earth culture has a better shot at building e.g. a megastructure for an interstellar beacon: Earth culture during the post-nationalist 90s moment, or Ear…

>Alternatively, advanced megaprojects are only achievable through sophisticated large-scale cooperation.

Alternatively, megastructures are only achievable through massive amounts of low wage workers with terrible working conditions.

Consider: Panama canal, most large railroads, Snowy hydro.

As time rolls forward we appear to lose our ability to do large things, and in part that's because we are less and less accepting of risk.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#27

Post by djrj477dhsnv »

TillE wrote: post #3
treetalker wrote: post #2

Extraterrestrial as in "not of Earthly origin" — not as in space aliens.

Space aliens are still kinda the best explanation. It's extremely inconclusive, and it's entirely possible that we'll discover some new natural phenomenon to explain it instead, but for now there's not really any known alternative.

That's like saying God is the best explanation for any newly described natural phenomenon.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#28

Post by dlivingston »

this_user wrote: post #7
moomoo11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, I really hope that we establish contact with aliens in my lifetime. Hopefully they're chill, and like us lol.

Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being nice, you get there by murdering all of the competition and plundering all of the resources. And if you were trying to be nice, someone else would have just wiped you out. The big question is if a species can eventually reach some point of co…

> Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species.

How can you estimate likelihood of behavior when currently N=0 (or N=1 if you count humans)?

There is no baseline, no control; it's just complete speculation, a roundabout way of saying "this is what I think humans would likely do, therefore, all advanced life forms must also be like this".

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#29

Post by xfeeefeee »

this_user wrote: post #7
moomoo11 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way, I really hope that we establish contact with aliens in my lifetime. Hopefully they're chill, and like us lol.

Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species. You don't get to the top of the food chain by being nice, you get there by murdering all of the competition and plundering all of the resources. And if you were trying to be nice, someone else would have just wiped you out. The big question is if a species can eventually reach some point of co…

> Any species that is advanced enough for interstellar communication will almost certainly be a highly aggressive apex species.

Well we could always be pets. That wouldn't be so bad.

Re: The “Wow!” signal was likely from extraterrestrial source, and more powerful

#30

Post by autoexec »

zippo_the_zippo wrote: post #23

Quite similar to the "my cat listening to me making 10 grammar mistakes" meme. Alien: sends SOS after years of studying human communication signals, as a last ditch effort to mark their existence before being wiped out by supernova. Humans: Look - the sky people said WOW .

> Quite similar to the "my cat listening to me making 10 grammar mistakes" meme.

Which meme is that?

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