4 ms·
They would have to have developed calculus in order to build radio telescopes. We're not talking about how they think, we're talking about their understanding o
by vecter 4y ago
They would have to have developed calculus in order to build radio telescopes. We're not talking about how they think, we're talking about their understanding of concepts. These concepts are all hard prerequisites to being a species that can communicate across the stars.
- wizofaus 4y agoBut what does "understanding of a concept" mean if you have no idea how they think? And I disagree, I reckon even as humans we could come up with ways we might be able to build a device able to send radio signals interstellar distances without even having any real understanding of how it works. After all, beings as complex as ourselves came into existence via mechanisms that didn't involve, as far as we know, any sort of sentient understanding of the concepts of natural selection or basic laws of physics/chemistry/biology that you might think would be "hard prerequisites" for an ecosystem that can generate such an outcome. If there were a high selective pressure for the ability to transmit long-distance radio signals, do you really think natural selection could never have led to species natively capable of doing so?