Aliens?

[jc100]

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Like I said before, if aliens have the technology to travel vast distances why would they only make themselves known to a small bunch of looney tunes loners?

...and why do they anal probe them?

 

[RockerGuy]

Just because we can't wrap around our heads around space travel or travel at the speed of light doesn't mean it can't exist. In the old days when there was no science we discount certain things as witchcraft or the act of God. Now it is fully explained.

How about teleportation?

 

[Two50noob]

Just because we can't wrap around our heads around space travel or travel at the speed of light doesn't mean it can't exist.

How about teleportation?

Your are correct thats not the reason. But physics as it stands right now says that its a hard barrier.

Teleportation will be interesting we have been able to place the properties of one photon to another over a relatively long distance. But might be to complex for who items but it still has interesting possibilities

 

[Sativa Quemador]

Just because we can't wrap around our heads around space travel or travel at the speed of light doesn't mean it can't exist. In the old days when there was no science we discount certain things as witchcraft or the act of God. Now it is fully explained.

How about teleportation?

exactly.

and as i stated before, WE are exploring our galaxy, and landing on other planets... who's to say they arent doing it as well ?

our " human " nature drives us to explore. maybe that curiosity drives other species as well ?

 

[Rob MacLennan]

exactly.

and as i stated before, WE are exploring our galaxy, and landing on other planets... who's to say they arent doing it as well ?

our " human " nature drives us to explore. maybe that curiosity drives other species as well ?

It's like those "Ancient Aliens" shows. If you assume this unlikely thing, and this unlikely thing as well, and then this third unlikely thing, then doesn't this fourth unlikely thing become possible? Scientists don't generally like to use the word 'impossible.' They much prefer to use expressions like 'highly improbable.' Given the known statistical possibilities it is highly improbable that the human race has been visited by aliens. I'd be happy if it was the case. Hell, I'd like as much as the next guy to find a nice Orion Slave Girl and settle down on a nice, little uninhabited Class M planet somewhere, but the odds are very much against it. Vanishingly small, in fact.

 

[Boots]

A lot of interesting conversation going on here. I'd like to point out that the nearest sun-like-ours star out there is 12 light years away. Whether it has planet-like-ours is a stretch, and whether that planet is in the habitable zone is equally as much of a stretch as well. However, it's possible. "So you're saying there's a chance." So hypothetically speaking if a civilization lived on a planet of the closest sun-like-ours star then (supposing they haven't figured to travel the speed of light which as it stands is impossible to our physics) then let's be generous and say that it would only take maybe 15 years for them to get to us (again assuming they aren't traveling the speed of light, I added time to be generous).

Even if the chances are slim, it's interesting to think about.

Hell, let's not even think about earth at the moment. Let's think about a galaxy or solar system far far away. Who's to say that this kind of interstellar travel between neighboring alien colonies doesn't exist? Sure we're going out on a limb here, but it's this basic intuition and curiosity which could lead to answers. Without the curiosity or human imagination, there would be no drive to search for these kinds of things.

So I mean, as much as science and humanity is geared towards empiricism and empirical data and peer reviewed studies etc etc. Let's not discount the dreamers because after all Einstein's theory of relativity started with a dream or impossible imagination of what he thought it would be like to travel on a beam of light.

 

[RockerGuy]

Your are correct thats not the reason. But physics as it stands right now says that its a hard barrier.

Teleportation will be interesting we have been able to place the properties of one photon to another over a relatively long distance. But might be to complex for who items but it still has interesting possibilities

You're only seeing one side of an equation. You're seeing travelling as bringing one object from one place to another by a vehicle.

I remember reading an article about teleportation & this is disintegrating an object & reintegrating at another location. Not far fetched since who we are is defined by a bunch of hormones & chemicals that are distributed in a certain way or amount. Since you're assuming they're reached us, as I noted before, most likely they would be more technologically advanced. So most likely they would have some advanced form of travelling

 

[RockerGuy]

Oh yeh, I also think it is a bad idea for us to send signals out there broadcasting our location. That's almost as bad as posting your address on Facebook. Do you want complete strangers showing up at your front door?

What if they come here finding valuable resources they need? Remember what happened when the Europeans come to the Americas?

 

[Rob MacLennan]

Oh yeh, I also think it is a bad idea for us to send signals out there broadcasting our location. That's almost as bad as posting your address on Facebook. Do you want complete strangers showing up at your front door?

What if they come here finding valuable resources they need? Remember what happened when the Europeans come to the Americas?

The one problem with the typical SciFi assumption that aliens would want our resources, is that those same resources are far more plentiful and easier to acquire, off planet. You don't have a gravity well to deal with in the Oort Cloud, or the Asteroid Belt.

 

[Two50noob]

You're only seeing one side of an equation. You're seeing travelling as bringing one object from one place to another by a vehicle.

No i'm also thinking of super rigid materials, Quantum tunnelling, the Casimir effect. Im not talking about vehicles as all i'm talking the hard science of FTL ie the near instant transmission of information

I remember reading an article about teleportation & this is disintegrating an object & reintegrating at another location. Not far fetched since who we are is defined by a bunch of hormones & chemicals that are distributed in a certain way or amount.

Thats how the teleporters work on start trek like i said the current research has been on copying the properties of individual photons and transporting those same properties on a different photon. The issues comes when we talk about the quantum states of matter. Considering new research shows quantum effects might be fairly significant on our biology then we have major issues to overcome.

you're assuming they're reached us, as I noted before, most likely they would be more technologically advanced. So most likely they would have some advanced form of travelling

Well is we are talking about aliens reaching us, yes currently one has to make that assumption unless of course they are closer than we think. I mean more advanced than solid fuel rockets? Even by our own sense thats primitive and we are looking at other propulsion methods

 

[Lightcycle]

It's completely immaterial how old, mature, and technologically advanced some presumed alien societies might be. So let's presume that there's an alien 'empire' out there that spans tens of thousands of inhabited worlds and has existed for a million years. They've got faster than light travel. In which thousands of the 300 billion stars, in just our galaxy, are their thousands of inhabited systems? Then you have the stumbling block that I've already mentioned; they would have to stumble across us in the tiny fragment of time in which we've existed.

You misunderstood me. Imagine an omniscient species that has existed since before the gases in our solar system coalesced into planets and they still exist today. Imagine they have technology that is capable of monitoring or travel equipment to chart all the known universe. They've see and have seen everything. They know we're here. They don't care.

Infinity and the place we inhabit in it only seems like a "pitiful candle" because of our current limitations. If we are playing a speculation game, then go all in and imagine technology that is sufficiently advanced enough to seem like magic to us.

 

[Rob MacLennan]

You misunderstood me. Imagine an omniscient species that has existed since before the gases in our solar system coalesced into planets and they still exist today. Imagine they have technology that is capable of monitoring or travel equipment to chart all the known universe. They've see and have seen everything. They know we're here. They don't care.

Infinity and the place we inhabit in it only seems like a "pitiful candle" because of our current limitations. If we are playing a speculation game, then go all in and imagine technology that is sufficiently advanced enough to seem like magic to us.

Then call them "God" and get on with it, because you've pretty much defined that being. I think that we would be of zero ongoing interest to beings approaching such a state, because we have nothing to teach them.

 

[Two50noob]

I think that we would be of zero ongoing interest to beings approaching such a state, because we have nothing to teach them.

Unless of course....they find us delicious

That reference might be boarding on obscure these days..

 

[iFly55]

We should also consider the Drake Equation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which radio-communication might be possible (i.e. which are on our current past light cone);

R* = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space​

The most important of which is 'L', how long civilizations exist. How long do you think we'll exist? What about previously great civilizations that have absolutely vanished?

Forget space travel, lets at least get some radio communication at the speed of light first. All we really have is the Wow! signal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

 

[Wingboy]

Believing in Aliens is like believing in St Peter for me.I'll let you know when I meet them.

 

[Lightcycle]

Then call them "God" and get on with it, because you've pretty much defined that being.

I don't have to call them "God", countless sci-fi books and films already have.

 

[LiNK666]

Ever consider this is fake and a stunt to generate income???

 

[adv_round]

All probabilities and opinions aside, I truly hope we get to find another home planet before we destroy ourselves, or Earth runs out of luck.

Regarding aliens - I hope they don't find us. Stephen Hawking understood it would be a bad day for humans, and I'm of the same view.
They would treat us the way we treated Native Indians... at best. We didn't care about their problems, or wanted to help them in any way... And if we are talking of our curiosity, how we are analyzing ants - that's a good analogy - dude pours concrete and molten aluminum into anthill to study its structure... It's just ants. That's just how advanced civilization would look at us. Just some primitive amphibian slime... So, I think it is likely that there is life out there, very very far away, and I hope it stays that way.

 

[iFly55]

I believe the next step is to try and terra-form Mars.

 

[LiNK666]

Even if you terraform it would hard to live there if not possible. A person born and living on mars for most of his life goes to earth would not be able be survive because of the gravity situation

I believe the next step is to try and terra-form Mars.

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