> Did a civilization rise and fall somewhere? Yes. The same civilization! (wait for it) > or is it one of those things where relativity is so unintuitive that

> Did a civilization rise and fall somewhere? Yes. The same civilization! (wait for it) > or is it one of those things where relativity is so unintuitive that asking a question like this is nonsensical? The latter. One of the most unintuive aspects of relativity is the relativity of simultaneity. Basically, the order in which events happen in different places in the universe is relative. Imagine event A happening in galaxy A, event B happening in galaxy B, and event C happening in galaxy C. From the POV of one observer, events might happen in order ABC, while for other they may happen in order BCA. This doesn't mean that the observers simply see the events in different order because of their distance to them--it means that even when taking distance into account, one event happened before the other. So yes, a civilization rose while you wrote that comment. It also fell... from the POV of someone else. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_of_simultaneity