4 ms·
If we discovered actual humans on a near-exact clone of earth, we'd still be about 50,000 years from something relevant here on Earth. Outer space is staggering
by Retra 9y ago
If we discovered actual humans on a near-exact clone of earth, we'd still be about 50,000 years from something relevant here on Earth. Outer space is staggeringly expansive. Staggeringly. Like "your space probe is sad joke" expansive.
We could develop our own alien life right on Earth within that timeframe.
- ExactoKnight 9y agoYou're thinking about this wrong. As long as we can send probes and/or communicate within compressed timeframes than physical transportation of humans doesn't matter. E.g. Breakthrough Starshot can get us to many exoplanets within 20-30 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot
- Retra 9y ago"Many" exoplanets? How many planets does Alpha Centauri have? It is ~4 ly away. If you're willing to go ~10 ly, you get 6 more stars to look at. And it gets far worse from there.
- ExactoKnight 9y agoIt's now estimated there are more Earth-sized planets than gas giants on most stars, and that every star has at least 1 planet, likely more. So that's 7 or more planets. That's many.