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Do floor tiles occur naturally? Even if we can't intercept their communications, we should be able to see their works. The universe looks far too natural to co
by obfuscate 17y ago
Do floor tiles occur naturally?
Even if we can't intercept their communications, we should be able to see their works. The universe looks far too natural to contain much technologically advanced intelligence.
- InclinedPlane 17y agoHow much of the universe have you searched so far? I think that's the point of the xkcd strip.
- Semiapies 17y agoNo, that we may be looking for the wrong things. The ants could search every floor tile on Earth, but they wouldn't find pheromone trail messages from us. The modest scale of SETI is just a secondary point. On the other hand, how exactly do you find things without looking for them - wait to get stepped on? :)
- InclinedPlane 17y agoPerhaps I was too terse. The point of the xkcd strip is that the ants conducted a very shallow test (looking for life that was most similar to theirs) and then gave up. The post I responded to made a similar comment generalizing about the nature of "the Universe", which is indicative of the same fallacy. Which is the point of the xkcd strip (the alt-text makes it even more clear). It isn't about ants, ants don't read xkcd. The point is that despite all of what we've done we have barely scratched the surface of knowing or understanding the universe. We are as ignorant of the nature of intelligent life in the universe, even whether it exists outside of Earth or not, as the depicted ants are of human civilization. Far more so, in fact.