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What if they don't "hop on" and "visit"? For example, humans seem to be at a point where corporations are trying to automate everything - what if some alien ci

What if they don't "hop on" and "visit"? For example, humans seem to be at a point where corporations are trying to automate everything - what if some alien civilization figured out automation was the way to go as far as colonization and what if they figured this out say, 20 million years ago and so didn't care if it took a million or 2 or 5 million years to "get here" via some automation that is beyond our ability as humans to perceive?

adastra22 4y ago
Then by even some very conservative assumptions they could extract all the obtainable resources of the entire galaxy within a few tens of millions of years. We should expect to see nothing--not stars, not galaxies. Nothing but a soft infrared background radiation from the back side of Dyson swarms.
- plutonorm 4y ago
  Dark matter. I know we don't see it in infrared, but maybe there is a way to block even that with some physics we do not understand.
  - adastra22 4y ago
    Doesn’t work out. Beyond the already mentioned fact that true zero emissions is physically impossible, dark matter is seemingly spread throughout the cosmos, not clumped together where light matter isn’t. If this were the solution they would take over an entire two thirds of the galaxy, not diffusely consume two thirds equally across all space and time.
- GWBullshit 4y ago
  Why? You're ASSUMING such an alien civilization's goals would be in line with countless strategy games. What if millions of years of advancement wound up leading to very, very different goals for colonization than what we're used to based on pretty much nothing else other than fairly recent (by comparison) human history? What if, for example, if you're a civilization that's been around for millions of years, your goals are no longer to "extract base resources" like in "Starcraft" ... but rather to play a sort of "Sims" game where you guide the development of life on various planets and "extract" research data – or simply sit back and enjoy the show? Or what if they have an advanced Ai they're testing and want to see if life on colonized planets turned out like the Ai said it would, and if so – to what extent? In that case, the "resource to be extracted" wouldn't be physical as much as knowledge and possible entertainment.
  - adastra22 4y ago
    Then you could extract research data from quintillions more civilizations simply by directing stellar light instead of simply heating the universe by a few micro kelvin.

adastra22 4y ago

Then by even some very conservative assumptions they could extract all the obtainable resources of the entire galaxy within a few tens of millions of years. We should expect to see nothing--not stars, not galaxies. Nothing but a soft infrared background radiation from the back side of Dyson swarms.

plutonorm 4y ago
Dark matter. I know we don't see it in infrared, but maybe there is a way to block even that with some physics we do not understand.
- adastra22 4y ago
  Doesn’t work out. Beyond the already mentioned fact that true zero emissions is physically impossible, dark matter is seemingly spread throughout the cosmos, not clumped together where light matter isn’t. If this were the solution they would take over an entire two thirds of the galaxy, not diffusely consume two thirds equally across all space and time.
GWBullshit 4y ago
Why? You're ASSUMING such an alien civilization's goals would be in line with countless strategy games. What if millions of years of advancement wound up leading to very, very different goals for colonization than what we're used to based on pretty much nothing else other than fairly recent (by comparison) human history? What if, for example, if you're a civilization that's been around for millions of years, your goals are no longer to "extract base resources" like in "Starcraft" ... but rather to play a sort of "Sims" game where you guide the development of life on various planets and "extract" research data – or simply sit back and enjoy the show? Or what if they have an advanced Ai they're testing and want to see if life on colonized planets turned out like the Ai said it would, and if so – to what extent? In that case, the "resource to be extracted" wouldn't be physical as much as knowledge and possible entertainment.
- adastra22 4y ago
  Then you could extract research data from quintillions more civilizations simply by directing stellar light instead of simply heating the universe by a few micro kelvin.