I'm fine with that! [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Body_II:_Dark_Forest [1]: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/stephen-hawking-alien...
Yeah broadcasting our location is a horrible idea until we know whats out there.
Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
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Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#12I'm fine with that! [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Body_II:_Dark_Forest [1]: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Space/stephen-hawking-alien...
Yep, after reading the three body series I feel like I'm much more skeptical about sending out Earths location indiscriminately. Spoiler: One of the central tenets of this book is that the most logical course of action for any alien discovering another life form, is to destroy it immediately. The story is pretty coherent, but if anyone has references to any scientific/theoretical work on this I'd be very interested i…
I don't buy it, at least not as stated in the book. The axioms in the book are flawed, and there are some unspoken axioms that aren't explicitly laid out.
1. Destroying a civilization isn't risk free. If you destroy a nearby star system that harbors life, you better be sure that your weapon can't be traced back to you, by either any observers, or by the survivors. (See Forge of God & The Anvil of the Stars[1] for a study of the latter.)
2. If you do subscribe to the Dark Forest game theory, and do have what you believe is an untraceable weapon of some kind, there's no reason not to sterilize every star system around you. Why would you wait until you've detected life? Send out self-replicating Saberhagen Berserker[2] probes and sterilize the galaxy. (Be sure you've got a good Friend-or-Foe system in place.)
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/464609.Anvil_of_Stars [2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/582675.Berserker
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#13Good, Why would we want potentially dangerous aliens to easily find us?
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#14I have faith that they could decode it if they were sufficiently advanced.
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#15It's only a matter of time until someone notices we have a very weird spectral emission peaking around the TV and FM radio broadcast frequencies...
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#16It's only a matter of time until someone notices we have a very weird spectral emission peaking around the TV and FM radio broadcast frequencies...
And anyone recalling the film 2001 will know what signals they'll be picking up ...
(for those who haven't seen it, 'they' receive images dating from the 1930s or thereabouts with a certain someone making what is today, an unacceptable (for most of us one hopes) salute)
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#17Wouldn't they just look at the nearest star first? On the scale of light years, it's so close to us it's extremely obvious where it came from, and will be for many thousands of years. Just backtracking it's course should be enough for a much longer time after that. Sure, millions of years from now it might be harder to figure out, but we'll be long gone by then. They can come bother our descendents, whatever form the…
Depends on how far it goes and if any other gravitational forces act on it along the way. Sometimes I wonder if the decision to turn Voyager around to produce the photo of the "pale blue dot" will someday end up fucking with aliens who couldn't imagine another species who would launch a deep space probe backwards.
Perhaps all intelligent species take star system selfies.
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, after reading the three body series I feel like I'm much more skeptical about sending out Earths location indiscriminately. Spoiler: One of the central tenets of this book is that the most logical course of action for any alien discovering another life form, is to destroy it immediately. The story is pretty coherent, but if anyone has references to any scientific/theoretical work on this I'd be very interested i…
'the most logical course of action for any alien discovering another life form, is to destroy it immediately'. In that case i'd rather be destroyed than share a universe with such a species. I do not think the premise makes sense. It also makes no sense to compare it with the slaughter of native americans, since that has been done by apes in clothes. Any interstellar spacefaring civilisation should be so advanced tha…
You've got a fairly self-fulfilling wish. If we share a universe with Dark Foresters, you'll be destroyed! And if we don't, you won't!
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#19It's only a matter of time until someone notices we have a very weird spectral emission peaking around the TV and FM radio broadcast frequencies...
And anyone recalling the film 2001 will know what signals they'll be picking up ... (for those who haven't seen it, 'they' receive images dating from the 1930s or thereabouts with a certain someone making what is today, an unacceptable (for most of us one hopes) salute)
I believe you're thinking of Contact, not 2001.
Re: Voyager's 'Cosmic Map' of Earth's Location Is Hopelessly Wrong
#20It's only a matter of time until someone notices we have a very weird spectral emission peaking around the TV and FM radio broadcast frequencies...
And anyone recalling the film 2001 will know what signals they'll be picking up ... (for those who haven't seen it, 'they' receive images dating from the 1930s or thereabouts with a certain someone making what is today, an unacceptable (for most of us one hopes) salute)
It was Contact, not 2001.