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There was a time when people thought a ball of fire moving across the sky every day must be alive. The universe is full of strange phenomena perfectly explainab

There was a time when people thought a ball of fire moving across the sky every day must be alive. The universe is full of strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics. This is no different.

rhacker 6y ago
It's really not "perfectly" explainable by physics since we don't understand all aspects of physics yet. If you said "mostly" explainable by physics I would believe you. Also, if an alien happens to be shining a beam at us rhythmically, that's also "explained" by physics but we won't actually know if the source is a natural phenomena or an alien shining his super flashlight at us.
- spenczar5 6y ago
  No, that was the right phrasing. It isn’t perfectly explained, but its perfectly explainable.
  - jfkebwjsbx 6y ago
    It is not perfectly explainable by us, though. And it may not actually perfectly explainable ever. Nothing guarantees we can get a perfect understanding of physics.
mrmonkeyman 6y ago
It's just calling it by a different name though. Nothing of the magic has been altered.
odyssey7 6y ago
Eventually physicists are going to end up trying to explain signs of intelligent life as new Physics and calibrate their models according to it. "Greetings from ___." "Oh, hello... uhh, so those signals were your house and not a trefoil of two black holes and a quasar?
- libraryatnight 6y ago
  This is what I was just thinking. I personally hope if it does happen the reveal has excellent comedic timing.
  - TomMarius 6y ago
    Hahaha. Aliens contact Earth but nobody believes because the whole situation is extremely funny.
hnarn 6y ago
Are you saying that extraterrestrial intelligence is not “a strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics”?
- antepodius 6y ago
  The map is not the territory; the way people stumble through their maps has little to do with the territory. People's intuitive maps don't tend to distinguish greatly between the plausibility of sapient suns and the plausibility of sapient aliens.
- dreamcompiler 6y ago
  Of course life at a deep level is just physics. But given that the information content of this signal is relatively low (regular patterns of repeats) and that the amount of energy it requires is immense, I'd bet much more heavily on a natural phenomenon than life-directed activity.
- TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
  There's no evidence extraterrestrial intelligence is a phenomenon at all. [1] We can worry about whether it's explainable by 21st century human physics when that stops being true. [1] Although there is evidence very weird things have happened on Earth, like the recent confirmation that the US Navy UFO videos are genuine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/pentagon-releases-three-ufo-videos-taken-by-us-navy-pilots https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/pentagon-relea...
  - hnarn 6y ago
    I’m not saying there’s evidence, I’m just pointing out that it’s a strange dichotomy to say that one one hand, we have explainable phenomena, and on the other hand we have extraterrestrial life. If we ever do find proof of it, I don’t understand why the assumption should be that it won’t be explainable.
  - acqq 6y ago
    Not weird at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jcBGLIpus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jcBGLIpus Mick West's full playlist with explanations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4ZqTjKmhn5Qr0tCHkCVnqTx_c0P3O2t https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4ZqTjKmhn5Qr0tCHkCV... An article mentioning Mick West: https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-an-optical-explanation/ https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a... https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-an-optical-explanation/ https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a...
jameshart 6y ago
The problem is, any form of intelligent life that exists in the same universe as us is going to have to be able to be explained by physics, since that’s what physics does - explain the way the universe gives rise to the phenomena in it which we observe. I mean, if we detected signs of intelligent life that can’t be explained by physics, that either means we have some new physics to discover, or physics has to give up because it turns out there is a form of life not subject to its rules.

There was a time when people thought a ball of fire moving across the sky every day must be alive. The universe is full of strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics. This is no different.

rhacker 6y ago

It's really not "perfectly" explainable by physics since we don't understand all aspects of physics yet. If you said "mostly" explainable by physics I would believe you. Also, if an alien happens to be shining a beam at us rhythmically, that's also "explained" by physics but we won't actually know if the source is a natural phenomena or an alien shining his super flashlight at us.

spenczar5 6y ago
No, that was the right phrasing. It isn’t perfectly explained, but its perfectly explainable.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y ago
  It is not perfectly explainable by us, though. And it may not actually perfectly explainable ever. Nothing guarantees we can get a perfect understanding of physics.

mrmonkeyman 6y ago

It's just calling it by a different name though. Nothing of the magic has been altered.

odyssey7 6y ago

Eventually physicists are going to end up trying to explain signs of intelligent life as new Physics and calibrate their models according to it. "Greetings from ___." "Oh, hello... uhh, so those signals were your house and not a trefoil of two black holes and a quasar?

libraryatnight 6y ago
This is what I was just thinking. I personally hope if it does happen the reveal has excellent comedic timing.
- TomMarius 6y ago
  Hahaha. Aliens contact Earth but nobody believes because the whole situation is extremely funny.

hnarn 6y ago

Are you saying that extraterrestrial intelligence is not “a strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics”?

antepodius 6y ago
The map is not the territory; the way people stumble through their maps has little to do with the territory. People's intuitive maps don't tend to distinguish greatly between the plausibility of sapient suns and the plausibility of sapient aliens.
dreamcompiler 6y ago
Of course life at a deep level is just physics. But given that the information content of this signal is relatively low (regular patterns of repeats) and that the amount of energy it requires is immense, I'd bet much more heavily on a natural phenomenon than life-directed activity.
TheOtherHobbes 6y ago
There's no evidence extraterrestrial intelligence is a phenomenon at all. [1] We can worry about whether it's explainable by 21st century human physics when that stops being true. [1] Although there is evidence very weird things have happened on Earth, like the recent confirmation that the US Navy UFO videos are genuine. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/pentagon-releases-three-ufo-videos-taken-by-us-navy-pilots https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/27/pentagon-relea...
- hnarn 6y ago
  I’m not saying there’s evidence, I’m just pointing out that it’s a strange dichotomy to say that one one hand, we have explainable phenomena, and on the other hand we have extraterrestrial life. If we ever do find proof of it, I don’t understand why the assumption should be that it won’t be explainable.
- acqq 6y ago
  Not weird at all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jcBGLIpus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7jcBGLIpus Mick West's full playlist with explanations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4ZqTjKmhn5Qr0tCHkCVnqTx_c0P3O2t https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-4ZqTjKmhn5Qr0tCHkCV... An article mentioning Mick West: https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-an-optical-explanation/ https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a... https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-an-optical-explanation/ https://petapixel.com/2020/04/28/that-navy-ufo-footage-has-a...

jameshart 6y ago

The problem is, any form of intelligent life that exists in the same universe as us is going to have to be able to be explained by physics, since that’s what physics does - explain the way the universe gives rise to the phenomena in it which we observe. I mean, if we detected signs of intelligent life that can’t be explained by physics, that either means we have some new physics to discover, or physics has to give up because it turns out there is a form of life not subject to its rules.