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> Thus, the fact that we are unable to detect any signal from even a single other civilization is quite puzzling, we should be inundated by those signals. Or o
by fiblye 6y ago
> Thus, the fact that we are unable to detect any signal from even a single other civilization is quite puzzling, we should be inundated by those signals.
Or other societies realized widely broadcasting noise is bad for whatever reason. Maybe they're composed of something sensitive to certain wavelengths. Like humans don't use xrays to transmit data, maybe radio waves are harmful in some way.
Or maybe broadcasting widely resulted is a case study for getting your civilization invaded, so they avoided it it or only send signals as strong as they need to be.
Or maybe it's so consistently and universally done that we simple see it as cosmic background radiation.
Or maybe something like quantum entanglement someday makes wave transmissions for communication seem as backwards as smoke signals.
Humans have only observed a tiny slice of space over a very tiny time span--less than 100 years. It's like being born in a barren desert and never venturing out and realizing most of the world is ocean and full of activity. We don't know what to look for or where. An observer 200 light years away from earth could easily conclude that there's no life here, since all they'd have to go by is inconclusive signs of some gases in the air.
- enkid 6y agoIIRC, we wouldn't be able to pick up our own broadcasts from Alpha Centauri because of the loss of radio transmission power. I doubt we would know if an alien civilization was transmitting at us, even if it was trying to get our attention.
- notsuoh 6y agoAttenuation of radio waves (long membrane) is way too high, that's true, but radio isn't the only way to transmit that we could theoretically pick up. Gravity waves for example would be a way to transmit across the whole universe.
- enkid 6y agoGravity waves would still have similar issues. The only gravity waves we can pick up right now are from extremely dense bodies colliding with each other. Not exactly a feasible means for intergalactic communication.
- halfdan 6y agoUnless your hobby involves collecting black holes and smashing them into each other...
- sjy 6y agoThe Breakthrough Listen initiative claims that it is sensitive to “Earth-leakage” levels of radio transmission from all 43 stars within 5 parsecs: https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/news/3 https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/news/3
- Voloskaya 6y agoNote that I personally don't have a set opinion on this subject. I am only trying to respond to OP's question of why some people would think this is a possiblity. But I like to play devil's advocate so: > Or other societies realized widely broadcasting noise is bad for whatever reason. > Or maybe broadcasting widely resulted is a case study for getting your civilization invaded, so they avoided it it or only send signals as strong as they need to be Every other society realized it at the same time? Which would imply every other society is roughly born at the same time, which sounds unlikely. So some of them (like us) should not yet have discovered the danger of broadcasting signals. > Or maybe it's so consistently and universally done that we simple see it as cosmic background radiation. I don't think you can possibly mistake the CMB with some artifical radio signals coming from point sources. > Or maybe something like quantum entanglement someday makes wave transmissions for communication seem as backwards as smoke signals Definitely a possibility, but again, that would assume some kind of synchronicity between all other societies (no one is still figuring out quantum communication). But since radio signals are hard to pickup at a long range, it's possible. But we also haven't seen any other traces of civilizations: probes, dyson spheres etc.
- WrtCdEvrydy 6y ago> Every other society realized it at the same time? Which would imply every other society is roughly born at the same time, which sounds unlikely. So some of them (like us) should not yet have discovered the danger of broadcasting signals. Yeah, that's the Dark Forest book in effect. If you broadcast, other civilizations could attempt to destroy you, so most civilizations find some way to dampen transmissions or limit them somehow.
- Voloskaya 6y ago> Yeah, that's the Dark Forest book in effect. Precisely, and in the Dark Forest book we (humans) did indeed detect radio signals from other civilization very early after we built the radio telescopes capable of doing so. So the fermi paradox is not present in this alternate reality. In our reality we haven't detected anything yet, hence the paradox.
- 6y ago
- pfraze 6y agoStar Trek posits that warp drive is the technology which merits contact from other civilizations. I would expect the technology to actually be access to interstellar communication. A planet joins the universe when it first logs in.
- ithkuil 6y agoWow imagine the fun reverse engineering the communication protocol, littered with millions of years of hack