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I might be underestimating the sensitivity of our instruments, but if we're just now being able to detect planets based on their gravitional signatures on stars

I might be underestimating the sensitivity of our instruments, but if we're just now being able to detect planets based on their gravitional signatures on stars, how can we be sure we haven't peered through a telescope at intelligent life already? Our species was pretty damn interesting 300 years ago, but if the aliens were looking for was radio signals we didn't "exist" to them until about 1920. And our radio waves haven't even gone that far yet, 100 light years is nowhere. Maybe in a 1,000 years when they get somewhere and aliens notice, they'll dispatch their ship and another 1,000 years later land here. I wouldn't expect to get found in the woods a millisecond after I lit the signal fire, and thats where we are today in universe terms.

khafra 16y ago
That's where we are--but the universe is 14 billion years old, and there are many, many planets out there much older than ours; some several times older. It should only take a few millenia for any truly successful life in our galaxy to colonize the whole thing: less than a cosmic eyeblink.
- chc 16y ago
  It took us millions of years to get all around the globe, when it "should" (in the same sense as above) only have taken a couple hundred. I don't think we should assume that life will necessarily take the most efficient path to any particular goal.
- krschultz 16y ago
  Yea but that point, you are getting around faster than the speed of light. If you can move faster than the speed of light, why would you use radio waves for anything? What if their entire communication/transportation happens in some manner we can't comprehend. Imagine trying to show an iPad videochatting someone else to Da Vinci. It would be black magic with so many layers of technology that he couldn't comprehend - and he was a smart guy. So in a few hundred years we've blown everything we thought we knew away. Who knows what physics and technology we will have in a few thousand years?
acgourley 16y ago
I'm not usually the type that debates this topic in forums and probably don't know what I'm talking about. However, my understanding is that the worry comes from not seeing artificial radio signals from other parts of the galaxy.

khafra 16y ago

That's where we are--but the universe is 14 billion years old, and there are many, many planets out there much older than ours; some several times older. It should only take a few millenia for any truly successful life in our galaxy to colonize the whole thing: less than a cosmic eyeblink.

chc 16y ago
It took us millions of years to get all around the globe, when it "should" (in the same sense as above) only have taken a couple hundred. I don't think we should assume that life will necessarily take the most efficient path to any particular goal.
krschultz 16y ago
Yea but that point, you are getting around faster than the speed of light. If you can move faster than the speed of light, why would you use radio waves for anything? What if their entire communication/transportation happens in some manner we can't comprehend. Imagine trying to show an iPad videochatting someone else to Da Vinci. It would be black magic with so many layers of technology that he couldn't comprehend - and he was a smart guy. So in a few hundred years we've blown everything we thought we knew away. Who knows what physics and technology we will have in a few thousand years?

acgourley 16y ago

I'm not usually the type that debates this topic in forums and probably don't know what I'm talking about. However, my understanding is that the worry comes from not seeing artificial radio signals from other parts of the galaxy.