Molecule of beer, mmm...
“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
331–340 of 365 posts
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
The sun has about 5B years more to go before it turns into a red giant, not 0.5B years...
According to this Timeline of the Far Future [0], we only have 500-600 million years. (warning, this is one of the most depressive pages on Wikipedia) [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_far_future
You confused two things. There is the Sun turning into red giant in 5 billion years consuming the Earth, and the Sun getting too bright for Earth to be habitable in 500 million years.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#333Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I do not think high-intelligence is useful for life. The most successful life forms aren’t the most intelligent, and humans seem to be fixed to self-annihilate.
what do you consider the most successful life forms to be? humans currently inhabit every continent and are unquestionably at the top of the food chain.
Are we though? Bacteria do better than us. Cockroaches. Rats. Ants. Grasses. Plankton. We aren’t the most numerous. We aren’t the most widespread. We are serious risk of killing off our own species.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
what do you consider the most successful life forms to be? humans currently inhabit every continent and are unquestionably at the top of the food chain.
Are we though? Bacteria do better than us. Cockroaches. Rats. Ants. Grasses. Plankton. We aren’t the most numerous. We aren’t the most widespread. We are serious risk of killing off our own species.
If the Earth was about to be hit by a huge asteroid, some people might survive (by fleeing in spaceships) but none of the species you list have a chance unless people choose to save them.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#335Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are we though? Bacteria do better than us. Cockroaches. Rats. Ants. Grasses. Plankton. We aren’t the most numerous. We aren’t the most widespread. We are serious risk of killing off our own species.
If the Earth was about to be hit by a huge asteroid, some people might survive (by fleeing in spaceships) but none of the species you list have a chance unless people choose to save them.
I highly doubt much of the bacteria would care. The amoeba probably wouldn’t either. Also, rodents have already survived such impacts. All mammals alive today are alive because our ancestors didn’t die with dinosaurs.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#336Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the Earth was about to be hit by a huge asteroid, some people might survive (by fleeing in spaceships) but none of the species you list have a chance unless people choose to save them.
I highly doubt much of the bacteria would care. The amoeba probably wouldn’t either. Also, rodents have already survived such impacts. All mammals alive today are alive because our ancestors didn’t die with dinosaurs.
Suppose the asteroid is much bigger than the one that ended the dinosaurs.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#337Earlier quoted context omitted.
> life would tend toward technology Based on what evidence? We only know if it happening once, after a very long delay.
I think it's a natural product of curiosity. And I think that intelligent life would only be so because of curiosity. You want to figure things out or you're interested in seeing what happens when you fuck around with things. So I think a technological progression is a natural progression for intelligent life. Does that make sense? I feel like I'm not explaining myself well.
Lots of animals have been curious for hundreds of millions of years, but technology more advanced than breaking bits off rocks and sticks has only been around a couple thousand years. If you say it's a "natural progression", you also have to say there are serious barriers that most species will never pass.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think by the time we get to modern humans it would only be a matter of time for technology to develop to something like the current stage. The main evidence I can think of is the independent development of agriculture in about 4-5 regions, and the independent development of large complex civilizations in the Americas and Eurasia. Humans are cultural learners, so this allowed cumulative cultural evolution from at le…
I think it only takes a small tweak for everything to stall. Suppose say, that people only trust a small group. Extended family and lifelong friends, for instance. People get very violent as soon as they disagree on something, immediately wanting to settle disputes by force. Nobody can strike a deal to do anything with anyone outside their group, and you certainly can't make agreements with a guy in Seattle to delive…
Mutation is random but selection is non-random. Multilevel selection could select against those scenarios you're talking about. Collaboration could be yet another thing that comes from convergent evolution.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
I really wish natives of places we discovered knew about this. they could've evaded all the bad parts and just explained how it is just a story.
The Indigenous peoples of the Americas knew well enough about the value of cooperation and alliance. That's why they had stuff like the Iroquois Confederacy, and switched between working with the British, the French, and the colonies depending on which was best for each individual group of natives at any one time. To present them as pure victims powerless before the might of white settlers undermines the political an…
Valid arguments tbh. In the struggles between European and Native American, there is the aspect of being able to escape and continue to pose as a threat and such. There is no total extinction. But in dark forest theory there is the total extinction of home planet aspect, without giving in your own location (no vengeance or kill switch can be carried towards you). And also attack factor being so much more advanced that there is little to no defense against it.
In our world, we never had this level of capability amassed in one hand. We were never tested in this scale. But lets think there was a button in cold war that completely erased soviets with no harm to planet, no harm to the western world and without anyone noticing the origin of this action. How many in U.S. would press that button? I think we would've pressed many times. And later, to know that another planet might be having a button exactly like this that they can press and erase us? we would press first so they never get the chance to do it. Paranoia and self preservation prevails, sadly.
I believe our cooperation in society also relies on our capability of projecting power be it physical or economical. The weaker individuals power becomes, the louder powerful peoples actions become. Saying this as Non-U.S citizen, right now the richest guy can easily interfere in state dealings, act like the president in a way, maybe this is evolution of lobbying tradition there but could you imagine such a thing happening in ancient Greece or even in Rome? What prevented this was citizens' ability to exert power. Right now there is little of that, power disparity is huge and so there isn't as much of a cooperation. Sorry if this part deviated from topic or smth. It is just I believe it 100% depends on real, physical factors rather than how advanced we get mentally.
Re: “Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System
#340Most signs promise that life is to become alien on our planet.