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Except that we've been pumping radio waves out of this rock as loud as we can for decades. We're the loud cousin who can't keep quiet when hunting.
by ucaetano 11y ago
Except that we've been pumping radio waves out of this rock as loud as we can for decades. We're the loud cousin who can't keep quiet when hunting.
- SixSigma 11y agoThis is how far human radio broadcasts have reached into the galaxy http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/3390.html http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2012/3390.ht...
- adamio 11y agomaybe we're just the crickets
- nsns 11y ago...or an inconsequential assemblage of organic molecules; forming and disintegrating in the blink of an eye.
- adamio 11y agomaybe we're just the crickets
- guelo 11y agoAnd, if one civilization found another it would take massive amounts of resources and time to launch an interstellar attack. I doubt humanity's first reaction would be to embark on a giant project to somehow try to destroy the other civilization. This idea makes no sense.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoIt would take a massive amount of resources if you're in a rush. What if you just lob a rock with a couple of steering thrusters towards a star using a solar sail? When it gets to the solar system, it tracks towards the nearest inhabitable planet, and does the thing that big rocks do.
- TrevorJ 11y agoI assume that because in this metaphor we are the baby. Reduce the scenario to, say two small human villages that just discovered each other, and it's not so hard to see how our tendency is to overrun and destroy, either by intention or by mistake. That's certainly something that has played out over and over again in our history.
- snowwrestler 11y agoYou're right, the hunters analogy breaks down if we imagine that the hunters are each on their own isolated continent. They couldn't attack each other even if they knew the other existed. That's how the universe works as we understand it now. And if we're wrong--if it is possible for a civilization to be capable of mounting an interstellar attack--they might not see themselves as a "fellow hunter." They might think nothing of harming us incidentally, like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass.
- bnegreve 11y ago> Except that we've been pumping radio waves out of this rock as loud as we can for decades. It's true but there is a possibility that human radio activity does not last that long. We choose to transmit information using electromagnetic waves that propagates in every possible direction when there is no alternative, but it's a massive waste of energy and we may not continue to do so forever. As a matter of fact, an increasing amount of communications travel through optic fibers, which are not observable from space. (And that's also why they're efficient) If that's a correct prediction, we won't be pumping radio waves out of that rocks for more than a couple of decades. This is nothing compared to the age of the universe and may very well be missed, even if there's someone to observe.
- ucaetano 11y agoSure, but then the "dark forest" analogy still doesn't make sense.
- Teckla 11y agoExcept that we've been pumping radio waves out of this rock as loud as we can for decades. We're the loud cousin who can't keep quiet when hunting. The inverse-square law makes this a non-concern, doesn't it?