8 ms·

This is pretty cool. I am constantly looking at current events and thinking to myself "what if aliens were watching this?". I feel like it sorta puts things in

This is pretty cool. I am constantly looking at current events and thinking to myself "what if aliens were watching this?". I feel like it sorta puts things in perspective for me. Seeing that this might be a possibility is sorta thrilling.

tremon 6y ago
If you think this is cool, you should definitely buy the book this advert is about.
pp19dd 6y ago
Further we look into the void, further we see how vast it is in length of time and breadth of space. And in that void we're a tiny speck of dust on an already tiny speck of dust. For me, looking at zoomable deep space telescope imagery, it's a 50/50 proposition, either we have the only miracle of life in existence, or it's prolific. Deepest visible light image of 10,000 galaxies - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0406a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0406a/zoomable/ NGC 1866 star cluster - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1847a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1847a/zoomable/ Runaway galaxy UGC 10214 with thousands of galaxies in backdrop - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0206a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0206a/zoomable/ Abell 2218, a rich glaxy cluster composed of thousands of galaxies - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0814a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0814a/zoomable/ Gordo ("The Fat One") - enormous galaxy cluster with mass of three million billion Suns - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1802a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1802a/zoomable/ Gallery of more of these at https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/zoomable/ - follow a delightful thumbnail, then desperately seek the tiny buried zoomable links on subsequent pages.
- zaroth 6y ago
  The incomprehensible vastness in terms both time and space, combined with our own flittering existence, mean that even a universe utterly teeming with life would never see two advanced civilizations actually cross paths.
  - emteycz 6y ago
    Could you elaborate? To me that seems tobe too anthropocentric thinking.
    - api 6y ago
      All thinking about aliens is anthropocentric. We have a sample size of one.
  - eeegnu 6y ago
    Von Neumann self replicating probes would make contact between two very distant civilisations eventually happen. Though that may occur after both civilisations are gone and all that remains are the programmed probes creating relay stations to send out more of themselves.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  >it's a 50/50 proposition, either we have the only miracle of life in existence, or it's prolific. This seems like a false dichotomy. There could be 200 billion planets with life in the universe...but only about one per galaxy. Someone did a probabilistic analysis of the Drake equation, and found out that indeed, given the known facts (that we don't see any life yet, how life appears to have developed on earth) that a substantial likelihood exists that the density of life is right in the range where there are many instances but we will never see one. It's sad to never get closure, but it's irrational to deny it's a possibility.
rendall 6y ago
"what if aliens were watching this?" There is an archetype of the Mysterious Stranger, an innocent, naive observer of our culture, who finds us incomprehensible because we are Just Terrible. We make war, pollute, enslave, etc, while this archetype is pure. Examples: K-Pax, Powder, Dostoyevski's The Idiot, Crocodile Dundee all have elements of this archetype The thing is, the only reason this archetype has any meaning to us is because this archetype shares our values. That character is always just the author, putting words in the mouth of a character who could not exist in reality. There is no Mysterious Stranger. We can expect actual aliens, ones who evolved in a different ecosystem, would have no opinion about what we do. Not from our value system anyway. Less "these poor hooman creatures actually kill each other, how primitive!" and more ... well, something more incomprehensible to us
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- atomi 6y ago
  Your moral objectivity is concerning.
  - twicetwice 6y ago
    Did you mean relativity? It seems to me that the comment does imply moral relativity is true.
    - rendall 6y ago
      We can no more expect aliens to hold our moral values than we would expect bats or bees to do
- Izkata 6y ago
  > We can expect actual aliens, ones who evolved in a different ecosystem, would have no opinion about what we do. Not from our value system anyway. Less "these poor hooman creatures actually kill each other, how primitive!" and more ... well, something more incomprehensible to us TVTropes has a whole section called "Blue-and-Orange Morality" for this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMor...

tremon 6y ago

If you think this is cool, you should definitely buy the book this advert is about.

pp19dd 6y ago

Further we look into the void, further we see how vast it is in length of time and breadth of space. And in that void we're a tiny speck of dust on an already tiny speck of dust. For me, looking at zoomable deep space telescope imagery, it's a 50/50 proposition, either we have the only miracle of life in existence, or it's prolific. Deepest visible light image of 10,000 galaxies - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0406a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0406a/zoomable/ NGC 1866 star cluster - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1847a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1847a/zoomable/ Runaway galaxy UGC 10214 with thousands of galaxies in backdrop - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0206a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0206a/zoomable/ Abell 2218, a rich glaxy cluster composed of thousands of galaxies - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0814a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0814a/zoomable/ Gordo ("The Fat One") - enormous galaxy cluster with mass of three million billion Suns - https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1802a/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1802a/zoomable/ Gallery of more of these at https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/zoomable/ https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/zoomable/ - follow a delightful thumbnail, then desperately seek the tiny buried zoomable links on subsequent pages.

zaroth 6y ago
The incomprehensible vastness in terms both time and space, combined with our own flittering existence, mean that even a universe utterly teeming with life would never see two advanced civilizations actually cross paths.
- emteycz 6y ago
  Could you elaborate? To me that seems tobe too anthropocentric thinking.
  - api 6y ago
    All thinking about aliens is anthropocentric. We have a sample size of one.
- eeegnu 6y ago
  Von Neumann self replicating probes would make contact between two very distant civilisations eventually happen. Though that may occur after both civilisations are gone and all that remains are the programmed probes creating relay stations to send out more of themselves.
perl4ever 6y ago
>it's a 50/50 proposition, either we have the only miracle of life in existence, or it's prolific. This seems like a false dichotomy. There could be 200 billion planets with life in the universe...but only about one per galaxy. Someone did a probabilistic analysis of the Drake equation, and found out that indeed, given the known facts (that we don't see any life yet, how life appears to have developed on earth) that a substantial likelihood exists that the density of life is right in the range where there are many instances but we will never see one. It's sad to never get closure, but it's irrational to deny it's a possibility.

rendall 6y ago

"what if aliens were watching this?" There is an archetype of the Mysterious Stranger, an innocent, naive observer of our culture, who finds us incomprehensible because we are Just Terrible. We make war, pollute, enslave, etc, while this archetype is pure. Examples: K-Pax, Powder, Dostoyevski's The Idiot, Crocodile Dundee all have elements of this archetype The thing is, the only reason this archetype has any meaning to us is because this archetype shares our values. That character is always just the author, putting words in the mouth of a character who could not exist in reality. There is no Mysterious Stranger. We can expect actual aliens, ones who evolved in a different ecosystem, would have no opinion about what we do. Not from our value system anyway. Less "these poor hooman creatures actually kill each other, how primitive!" and more ... well, something more incomprehensible to us

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
atomi 6y ago
Your moral objectivity is concerning.
- twicetwice 6y ago
  Did you mean relativity? It seems to me that the comment does imply moral relativity is true.
  - rendall 6y ago
    We can no more expect aliens to hold our moral values than we would expect bats or bees to do
Izkata 6y ago
> We can expect actual aliens, ones who evolved in a different ecosystem, would have no opinion about what we do. Not from our value system anyway. Less "these poor hooman creatures actually kill each other, how primitive!" and more ... well, something more incomprehensible to us TVTropes has a whole section called "Blue-and-Orange Morality" for this: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMor...