Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
rollingstone.com
Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#2These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#3These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
That's assuming that's the only mode of travel. There could be worm holes, or things we can't imagine.
Also if the goal was to find life, searching would not be optimal. It would be better to launch pods that self expand to nearby planet, make their own pods, and go to the next nearby planets.
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#4Kind of a worldbuilding stackexchange response, yet other reasons aliens might not interact (from a "they exist" perspective).
Hitchhiker's Guide - We're just not very interesting. The aliens exist, have noticed the Earth, yet don't care, because we don't really do much from a galactic perspective. Mostly Harmless.
Star Trek - The aliens exist, yet have some external reason to not interact, like a diplomatic treaty.
Star Wars - The aliens exist, there's just too many other aliens to deal with already (Republic). The situation external to Earth is some kind of massive bureaucracy that makes doing much other than dealing with the bureaucracy nearly unmanageable.
Culture Novels - The aliens exist, yet don't interact because we're the equivalent of barbarous housepets from their perspective.
Forever War - The aliens exist, may have noticed, they're just too busy fighting some really long term war with each other to care.
Stargate - The aliens exist, just view the Earth as a non-threatening farm to be harvested eventually.
The Algebraist - Aliens exist, yet the most common form is just really weird from a human perspective (like gaseous objects in cloud giants). Flesh bipeds are not all that interesting, or perhaps discounted because "intelligence only exists in these forms."
Dragon Ball Z or Warhammer 40k - Aliens exist, yet the Earth is boring. It's mostly calm bickering a lot of the time. Where are the enormous battles and massive weapons? No titanic fights that lay waste to the surface?
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#5Maybe they would if they live in a solar system with 3 suns?
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#6These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
That's assuming that's the only mode of travel. There could be worm holes, or things we can't imagine. Also if the goal was to find life, searching would not be optimal. It would be better to launch pods that self expand to nearby planet, make their own pods, and go to the next nearby planets.
Even if there is a wormhole or some crazy sci-fi thing we haven’t thought of, there are a million trillion stars. Basically invisible. Unless you suggest some technology appears that allows an entity to travel to every star and observe it for billions of years. I’d love to hear a sci-fi proposal that covers this without invoking omniscient gods or the supernatural.
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's assuming that's the only mode of travel. There could be worm holes, or things we can't imagine. Also if the goal was to find life, searching would not be optimal. It would be better to launch pods that self expand to nearby planet, make their own pods, and go to the next nearby planets.
Even if there is a wormhole or some crazy sci-fi thing we haven’t thought of, there are a million trillion stars. Basically invisible. Unless you suggest some technology appears that allows an entity to travel to every star and observe it for billions of years. I’d love to hear a sci-fi proposal that covers this without invoking omniscient gods or the supernatural.
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if there is a wormhole or some crazy sci-fi thing we haven’t thought of, there are a million trillion stars. Basically invisible. Unless you suggest some technology appears that allows an entity to travel to every star and observe it for billions of years. I’d love to hear a sci-fi proposal that covers this without invoking omniscient gods or the supernatural.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
Very cool!
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#9These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
That's assuming that's the only mode of travel. There could be worm holes, or things we can't imagine. Also if the goal was to find life, searching would not be optimal. It would be better to launch pods that self expand to nearby planet, make their own pods, and go to the next nearby planets.
The universe is so vast, that I think even self-replicating probes traveling via wormholes would not be able to cover even a tiny fraction of the existing planets before their suns die out. The universe is really really really big.
Re: Aliens Are Out There – But They Probably Don't Care About Us
#10These articles should spend more time trying to explain the scale of galaxies and superclusters, plus the sheer number of stars vs. physics. That puts in so much perspective: even if we had warp 11 drives it would be essentially impossible to look for alien life on every star system. We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
> We’ll never find each other because the universe is too damn big.
Intra-galaxy is certainly not too big.
Even at slow, sub-relativistic speeds, our local galaxy should be fully colonized by now--whether by self-replicating automation or life. This is the paradox.