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A Lonely Universe

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Re: A Lonely Universe

#201

Post by pfdietz »

ncmncm wrote: post #200
pfdietz wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'd presumably do this starting from the fringes of the galaxy where the gas is thinner, and with a sufficiently big vehicle (perhaps assembled out of parts that are accelerated separately) that it could withstand some erosion. The sail itself would be discarded after acceleration. Drag on the interstellar medium using magnetic fields could be used for deceleration.

Standing up to millions of years of relativistic erosion seems difficult. Accelerating ISM ions near your destination to slow down would necessarily consume as much energy as it took to get up to speed, and without assist from folks at home (who are anyway a different species by now). You will have plowed through untold tons of relativistic IGM on the way that I suppose you could collect on the way and then fuse to p…

Accelerating ISM ions near your destination requires no additional energy at all -- it's just drag. The kinetic energy of the vehicle suffices.

The Local Group is embedded within the WHIM -- Warm/Hot Intergalactic Medium. This is a hot, ionized gas with density maybe a few ions per cubic meter, maybe 100,000x less dense than the ISM in our galaxy. Even better, it's ionized: a magnetic field will enable the ions to be guided around the vehicle without any erosion whatsoever.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#202

Post by kromem »

echelon wrote: post #149
Causality1 wrote: post #2

Either intelligent life is rare in the universe or there's something that happens to it that prevents it from what we envision as the future of our own species, i.e., colonizing and spreading among planets. Maybe 99.99% of species ruin their own climate before getting off-world. Maybe they all decide it's happier living as hunter-gatherers. Unless we're alone, there is some fate that's common to all intelligences and…

Maybe we're a simulation of an advanced alien intelligence in preparation for war games? Maybe we're a simulation of future earth historians? Maybe they're already here? A computational foam that surrounds us. Maybe we're the first? Or life is exceedingly rare? Maybe it's up there, purposefully undetected, killing anything that emerges? Like a spider in wait. Maybe we've been seeded by them, and they're watching us g…

There's a 2,000 year old document that claims we're in a recreation of a long dead world from within a world to come by a being that self-established in light and everything we see around us is just that creator's light in the images of what existed before.

It says souls that depended on bodies were screwed and it's better to be a recreation - that the whole point of the recreation is to provide an afterlife for the dead.

At the time it was written, it went over everyone's heads and eventually even devolved into Gnosticism.

But it seems very pertinent in an age where we stand on the cusp of having AI self-evolve and are heavily investing into photonics for AI, and are then employing our nacent AI to bring photos of great grandparents "to life" and Microsoft was even granted a patent on resurrecting the dead using social media data and AI.

Even the best software authors tend to put in Easter Eggs. I see no reason why the creator of a simulation wouldn't have put in some obscure lore that breaks the 4th wall on the nature of it.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#203

Post by GoblinSlayer »

ncmncm wrote: post #173
GoblinSlayer wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are in the galactic habitable zone.

There is no such thing as a "galactic habitable zone" defined or meaningful. There is a an obviously un inhabitable zone close to the core black hole, and uncountable similar zones elsewhere, but Sol could move into one of the latter at any time. And, distant events could wipe us out, anyplace else, with decreasing probability as the density of other stars in the immediate neighborhood decreases. All we can say is th…

Habitable in a sense that we can stay away from the active star formation zones for a long time. Assuming those zones are deadly.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#204

Post by slothtrop »

ncmncm wrote: post #198
slothtrop wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The capability of "curtailing" another race from expanding is contingent on having expanded into the galaxy.

It is contingent on having the physical capacity to have expanded, had they cared to.

Not going to curtail jack shit if you haven't left your homeworld. There's a large Universe out there, it's absurd to imagine muscling other races out without a wide-reaching presence, and that demands colonization.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#205

Post by ncmncm »

slothtrop wrote: post #204
ncmncm wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is contingent on having the physical capacity to have expanded, had they cared to.

Not going to curtail jack shit if you haven't left your homeworld. There's a large Universe out there, it's absurd to imagine muscling other races out without a wide-reaching presence, and that demands colonization.

So says the reflexive expansionist, too big for its britches, about to be taken down a peg via novas induced on the suns of its homeworlds by unidentified offended parties.

It is a dangerous galaxy, out there. Step carefully.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#206

Post by ncmncm »

GoblinSlayer wrote: post #203
ncmncm wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no such thing as a "galactic habitable zone" defined or meaningful. There is a an obviously un inhabitable zone close to the core black hole, and uncountable similar zones elsewhere, but Sol could move into one of the latter at any time. And, distant events could wipe us out, anyplace else, with decreasing probability as the density of other stars in the immediate neighborhood decreases. All we can say is th…

Habitable in a sense that we can stay away from the active star formation zones for a long time. Assuming those zones are deadly.

You can see active star formation zones with the naked eye from Earth's surface. Star formation is happening literally all around us.

Star formation zones are very far from the most deadly places in the galaxy, or even in our neighborhood.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#207

Post by edgyquant »

ncmncm wrote: post #192
7thaccount wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? I think sharding yourself (breaking yourself into clones, not pooping on yourself) would be pretty interesting. A lot of problems could be worked on simultaneously. There are of course philosophical implications. I think it is fine as long as it isn't forced.

Would your shards have rights to spend your money?

Only if I created them myself

Re: A Lonely Universe

#209

Post by citizenpaul »

me_me_me wrote: post #180
citizenpaul wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So we should just leave other planets as lifeless husks? The self loathing you are experiancing must be miserable.

> The self loathing you are experiancing must be miserable This is not reddit mate, cool of and take your personal attacks somewhere else. That and idea of jizzing at every planet you see just because you can sounds awfully indicative of your age.

Says the guy using the word "jizzing" to describe seeding a dead planet with life.

Re: A Lonely Universe

#210

Post by slothtrop »

ncmncm wrote: post #205
slothtrop wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not going to curtail jack shit if you haven't left your homeworld. There's a large Universe out there, it's absurd to imagine muscling other races out without a wide-reaching presence, and that demands colonization.

So says the reflexive expansionist, too big for its britches, about to be taken down a peg via novas induced on the suns of its homeworlds by unidentified offended parties. It is a dangerous galaxy, out there. Step carefully.

That is the dumbest thing I've ever read.
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