3-Body-Problem once again vindicated as the scariest possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox
Did you intend to say dark forest hypothesis ?
Yes!
Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
21–30 of 105 posts
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#22And yet no one does a thing about it.
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bad news is that if a black hole is not primordial, the minimum mass is high enough (2-4 M_sol) that it doesn't so much "pass through our system" as "we pass through its". I'm not 100% confident, but rough approximation suggests that a close approach of even 5 AU even at typical interstellar velocities might have an unplesant climate impact by increasing the eccentricity of our orbit.
Did you mean 5 AU or 5 ly? 5 AU at 2-4 M sol intuitively seems like a complete and utter havoc.
We know what something with about 2 solar masses looks like at about 5 light years, because there is such a thing a bit closer: the Alpha Centauri system.
So (and again, this is very rough approximation) I mean AU: consider the high speed of interstellar encounters so it won't be there for long, and that it takes the full pull of Sol 6 months to turn us around 180°.
Also, yes, in general this would cause a lot of the Oort cloud to destabilise and a long period of bombardment of all the planets.
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#243-Body-Problem once again vindicated as the scariest possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox
Many physicists have pointed out several flaws in the dark forest theory, which makes for a great read but doesn’t really carry over to the real universe 1:1.
Can you point me to more info on that or just tell me? I am curious about reasons to be more optimistic than that book lays out. I would much prefer the Carl Sagan view of the Cosmos as one where it simply makes no physical nor cultural sense at all to be aggressive toward other stellar civilizations.
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#253-Body-Problem once again vindicated as the scariest possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox
I think a fragile world hypothesis is more interesting and scary.
Instead of a superintelligence killing any emerging intelligence, superintelligence is so smart that it can perturb spacetime in ways that easily kill itself.
Kind of like the idea that LLMs will give anyone with a garage the ability to create killer viruses (wild claim), a superintelligence might trivially create black holes that engulf it. If the intelligence is distributed across many agents (or nations), someone will try something stupid that kills the entire population.
It'd be even scarier if they could accidentally collapse the supposed vacuum state. Universal annihilation at the speed of light just because you got too smart.
Fragile world / fragile universe meets "too smart for your own good".
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#26Kind of chilling to think about these tiny black holes. If they have enough gravitational pull to destabilize a white dwarf, I don't want to know what they'd do to our solar system.
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
The good news about black holes is that even if one transited the solar system, it would be extremely unlikely to come anywhere near earth.
The bad news is that if a black hole is not primordial, the minimum mass is high enough (2-4 M_sol) that it doesn't so much "pass through our system" as "we pass through its". I'm not 100% confident, but rough approximation suggests that a close approach of even 5 AU even at typical interstellar velocities might have an unplesant climate impact by increasing the eccentricity of our orbit.
Déstabilise orbits - definitely, but the same would be true of a star or other celestial body.
But our risk of getting sucked into a black hole is really tiny. (Although personally if I had a chance to enter a black hope, I would. I’m just naturally curious.)
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#283-Body-Problem once again vindicated as the scariest possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox
I think a fragile world hypothesis is more interesting and scary. Instead of a superintelligence killing any emerging intelligence, superintelligence is so smart that it can perturb spacetime in ways that easily kill itself. Kind of like the idea that LLMs will give anyone with a garage the ability to create killer viruses (wild claim), a superintelligence might trivially create black holes that engulf it. If the int…
Sounds logical to me. It's already remarkable that we haven't done this with fission weapons. It's not unreasonable to assume that within a century we'll have antimatter weapons. Destructive potential only goes up.
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#293-Body-Problem once again vindicated as the scariest possible explanation for the Fermi Paradox
Many physicists have pointed out several flaws in the dark forest theory, which makes for a great read but doesn’t really carry over to the real universe 1:1.
What flaws? Do they apply to variants such as Greg Bear's and related ideas such as berserkers?
Re: Tiny black holes may be exploding stars across the Milky Way
#30This is one of those headlines where I simultaneously think "cool" and now have a new source of low-grade background anxiety about. It can have a seat next to false vacuum collapse.
Concern for celestial events is a bit like one of your gut bacterium being concerned with your work schedule