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And it would be silly to assume a species capable of interplanetary space travel would not use rivets.

mortenjorck 6y ago
It would actually be pretty funny if the extraterrestrial technology we like to imagine taking the form of some geometrically-perfect prism of exotic nano-materials did indeed exist, but had to be enclosed, for entirely practical reasons, in plain old riveted stainless steel. It wouldn't even be that far off from what our species does anyway, putting our advanced nano-materials (integrated circuits) inside cases made of much lower-tech materials. All that said, I don't think aliens would have left the lid behind.
waterhouse 6y ago
Eh, if they're that capable, they probably have a lot of room to optimize for whatever they want. Maybe they consider rivets ugly—or consider making such a thing without rivets to be a demonstration of their skill (which it would be). I'd agree you can't assume for certain they wouldn't use rivets, but I'd say it seems likely they wouldn't. (Of course, the chance they'd choose to make rivets in an exact shape and size and style that is presumably mass-produced somewhere on Earth is very unlikely unless they wanted to make something to blend in.)
- HeadsUpHigh 6y ago
  Or this is just a container box that was dropped in Earth accidentally. So it's some sort of mass produced cost-cut product.
jspash 6y ago
Maybe the aliens ARE the rivets! And we've been looking at the wrong thing all along. We've got to think outside the prismatic box.
thamer 6y ago
The spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety specifically mentioned that the monolith was put together "with human-made rivets". How he knows the difference between human-made rivets and other types of rivets was not explained.
- simplicio 6y ago
  Presumably, rivets whose sizes correspond to those standard on Earth. Be a big coincidence if they happened to use 3/16" rivets on Vulcan
  - cutemonster 6y ago
    But it would be silly to assume a species capable of interplanetary space travel couldn't imitate human made rivets
    - rualca 6y ago
      I don't understand how someone can look at a metal box held together with standard rivets and think "the aliens did it".
      - permo-w 6y ago
        perhaps it’s easier if you interpret it as “the aliens could have done it”
        rualca 6y ago
        Mythical creatures are very capable. Their only limit is your imagination.
plutonorm 6y ago
I think it would. Any species we encounter is likely to be old and extraordinarily advanced. The idea that they stitch pieces of material together is absurd. Matter will be like software to them, the process of construction so advanced that objects will be constructed as they appear internally in the world of thoughts. Perfect geometric curves, down to the atomic level. No seams. They may even have a programmable matter and that for sure wont have seams.... and rivets! lol
- c22 6y ago
  Unless they got stuck here and were trying to build an escape craft. Perhaps the monolith is all that remains...

It would actually be pretty funny if the extraterrestrial technology we like to imagine taking the form of some geometrically-perfect prism of exotic nano-materials did indeed exist, but had to be enclosed, for entirely practical reasons, in plain old riveted stainless steel. It wouldn't even be that far off from what our species does anyway, putting our advanced nano-materials (integrated circuits) inside cases made of much lower-tech materials. All that said, I don't think aliens would have left the lid behind.

waterhouse 6y ago

Eh, if they're that capable, they probably have a lot of room to optimize for whatever they want. Maybe they consider rivets ugly—or consider making such a thing without rivets to be a demonstration of their skill (which it would be). I'd agree you can't assume for certain they wouldn't use rivets, but I'd say it seems likely they wouldn't. (Of course, the chance they'd choose to make rivets in an exact shape and size and style that is presumably mass-produced somewhere on Earth is very unlikely unless they wanted to make something to blend in.)

HeadsUpHigh 6y ago
Or this is just a container box that was dropped in Earth accidentally. So it's some sort of mass produced cost-cut product.

jspash 6y ago

Maybe the aliens ARE the rivets! And we've been looking at the wrong thing all along. We've got to think outside the prismatic box.

thamer 6y ago

The spokesman for the Utah Department of Public Safety specifically mentioned that the monolith was put together "with human-made rivets". How he knows the difference between human-made rivets and other types of rivets was not explained.

simplicio 6y ago
Presumably, rivets whose sizes correspond to those standard on Earth. Be a big coincidence if they happened to use 3/16" rivets on Vulcan
- cutemonster 6y ago
  But it would be silly to assume a species capable of interplanetary space travel couldn't imitate human made rivets
  - rualca 6y ago
    I don't understand how someone can look at a metal box held together with standard rivets and think "the aliens did it".
    - permo-w 6y ago
      perhaps it’s easier if you interpret it as “the aliens could have done it”
      - rualca 6y ago
        Mythical creatures are very capable. Their only limit is your imagination.

plutonorm 6y ago

I think it would. Any species we encounter is likely to be old and extraordinarily advanced. The idea that they stitch pieces of material together is absurd. Matter will be like software to them, the process of construction so advanced that objects will be constructed as they appear internally in the world of thoughts. Perfect geometric curves, down to the atomic level. No seams. They may even have a programmable matter and that for sure wont have seams.... and rivets! lol

c22 6y ago
Unless they got stuck here and were trying to build an escape craft. Perhaps the monolith is all that remains...