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Until SETI locates something like a pulsar braking and accelerating to signal prime numbers we're really really really unlikely to stumble onto more life. Space

by 1970-01-01 4y ago

Until SETI locates something like a pulsar braking and accelerating to signal prime numbers we're really really really unlikely to stumble onto more life. Space is just too big.

eloff 4y ago
But is it? We can detect things about the chemical makeup of the atmospheres of extra solar planets. Our own atmosphere is broadcasting the likely presence of life, plus near certainty of industrial civilization. We could detect that up to some distance with our technology. What could advanced aliens detect? What if they used gravitational lensing to magnify the signal? We can’t rule it out. Let’s hope the dark forest explanation for the Fermi paradox is wrong - because we’ve long had a campfire sending smoke up that’s been visible for many, many light years.
- russdill 4y ago
  Our signal for oxygen and other bio-signatures is so much stronger than the signals we have been sending recently and it's been going out for...quite some time.
  - rvnx 4y ago
    Maybe they found Earth already and they just find it boring: "yet another planet likely filled with idiots"
    - saalweachter 4y ago
      I mean, the Great Oxygenation Event is ~2 billion years in the past, and the Cambrian Explosion is only half a billion years ago. If intelligent, space-faring aliens checked it out, there's a 75% chance they arrived while the most interesting thing on Earth was, well, I can't think of anything that wasn't "technically before the Cambrian but like, only by 50 million years". Fungi? We should look for oxygen-rich atmospheres, but we need another signal before we jump in a rocketship and go looking for someone to talk to or eat.
actionfromafar 4y ago
I think it can be done cheaper than that, and with technology we have access to. Detonate a handful of large hydrogen bombs in deep space, set apart by <prime number> minutes. Say hello to our fellow Aliens.
- AnimalMuppet 4y ago
  How far away do you think such a thing could be detected? Say someone set off a 100 megaton nuke in space within the Centauri star system. Could we detect it?
  - russdill 4y ago
    My intuition says no. I don't think we'll be detecting exoplanet asteroid strikes anytime soon for instance.
    - m4rtink 4y ago
      Well, someone running a nearby Dyson Swarm might as well run a couple thousand telescopes when they are at it, even to just make really sure no habitats are ending up in collisions with comments and extrasystem asteroids. In spare time such system could be used to look for interesting stuff in other systems, possibly like a big synthetic telescope of some sort.
  - DesiLurker 4y ago
    its inverse square falloff for radio energy dissipation so I'd say it goes away really really quickly. also you have the problem of overcoming Sun's 'blaring' background signal unless you took your signal generator and placed it outside of oort cloud or further.
    - actionfromafar 4y ago
      Yes, why not the oort cloud! It might take a decade or two to get them out there, but completely within our current technical capabilities.
fawadasaurus 4y ago
Agreed. I read somewhere that if you pick a random direction and fly through space, you have a 0% chance to ever hit anything. That is how big and empty the universe is.
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  Well, you're almost certain to hit a hydrogen atom within a meter of travel in deep space. Larger objects will be less common, no doubt. > That is how big and empty the universe is. Indeed. The corrollary is that there's an awful lot of space to travel through in search of something to hit. Regarding that 0%: I don't think it's possible for you to travel through space fast enough to catch up with the expansion of the Universe. It follows that your search for something to hit goes on forever, and the chance of eventually hitting something must be 100%. Whoah! Not so fast, Denton! As you are travelling looking for something to hit, the Universe is expanding, and the distance between galaxies is growing. So the longer you travel, the less likely you are to find something to crash into. I don't know how to work out the sums. I don't know how to multiply a 0% chance by a 100% chance. Or rather, I do; it just gives an answer that I don't like intuitively. It should be a 0% chance; I guess it probably is.
Ancalagon 4y ago
The ultimate flex from a type 3 civ, love it!

Until SETI locates something like a pulsar braking and accelerating to signal prime numbers we're really really really unlikely to stumble onto more life. Space is just too big.

eloff 4y ago

But is it? We can detect things about the chemical makeup of the atmospheres of extra solar planets. Our own atmosphere is broadcasting the likely presence of life, plus near certainty of industrial civilization. We could detect that up to some distance with our technology. What could advanced aliens detect? What if they used gravitational lensing to magnify the signal? We can’t rule it out. Let’s hope the dark forest explanation for the Fermi paradox is wrong - because we’ve long had a campfire sending smoke up that’s been visible for many, many light years.

russdill 4y ago
Our signal for oxygen and other bio-signatures is so much stronger than the signals we have been sending recently and it's been going out for...quite some time.
- rvnx 4y ago
  Maybe they found Earth already and they just find it boring: "yet another planet likely filled with idiots"
  - saalweachter 4y ago
    I mean, the Great Oxygenation Event is ~2 billion years in the past, and the Cambrian Explosion is only half a billion years ago. If intelligent, space-faring aliens checked it out, there's a 75% chance they arrived while the most interesting thing on Earth was, well, I can't think of anything that wasn't "technically before the Cambrian but like, only by 50 million years". Fungi? We should look for oxygen-rich atmospheres, but we need another signal before we jump in a rocketship and go looking for someone to talk to or eat.

actionfromafar 4y ago

I think it can be done cheaper than that, and with technology we have access to. Detonate a handful of large hydrogen bombs in deep space, set apart by <prime number> minutes. Say hello to our fellow Aliens.

AnimalMuppet 4y ago
How far away do you think such a thing could be detected? Say someone set off a 100 megaton nuke in space within the Centauri star system. Could we detect it?
- russdill 4y ago
  My intuition says no. I don't think we'll be detecting exoplanet asteroid strikes anytime soon for instance.
  - m4rtink 4y ago
    Well, someone running a nearby Dyson Swarm might as well run a couple thousand telescopes when they are at it, even to just make really sure no habitats are ending up in collisions with comments and extrasystem asteroids. In spare time such system could be used to look for interesting stuff in other systems, possibly like a big synthetic telescope of some sort.
- DesiLurker 4y ago
  its inverse square falloff for radio energy dissipation so I'd say it goes away really really quickly. also you have the problem of overcoming Sun's 'blaring' background signal unless you took your signal generator and placed it outside of oort cloud or further.
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    Yes, why not the oort cloud! It might take a decade or two to get them out there, but completely within our current technical capabilities.

fawadasaurus 4y ago

Agreed. I read somewhere that if you pick a random direction and fly through space, you have a 0% chance to ever hit anything. That is how big and empty the universe is.

denton-scratch 4y ago
Well, you're almost certain to hit a hydrogen atom within a meter of travel in deep space. Larger objects will be less common, no doubt. > That is how big and empty the universe is. Indeed. The corrollary is that there's an awful lot of space to travel through in search of something to hit. Regarding that 0%: I don't think it's possible for you to travel through space fast enough to catch up with the expansion of the Universe. It follows that your search for something to hit goes on forever, and the chance of eventually hitting something must be 100%. Whoah! Not so fast, Denton! As you are travelling looking for something to hit, the Universe is expanding, and the distance between galaxies is growing. So the longer you travel, the less likely you are to find something to crash into. I don't know how to work out the sums. I don't know how to multiply a 0% chance by a 100% chance. Or rather, I do; it just gives an answer that I don't like intuitively. It should be a 0% chance; I guess it probably is.

Ancalagon 4y ago

The ultimate flex from a type 3 civ, love it!