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But space is beyond vast and there are no shortage of rocks out there. I don't think that's really a concern. Plot devices like aliens attacking Earth for her

But space is beyond vast and there are no shortage of rocks out there. I don't think that's really a concern. Plot devices like aliens attacking Earth for her water really burns me up. The universe is brimming with water and materials. Why expend the effort to lift water out of a gravity well, when you can just gather it from comets and asteroids and not have pesky humans shooting at you?

unsupp0rted 4y ago
It only takes a couple million years for humans to colonize the entire galaxy. As long as a species like humans is confined to their own rock, there's no threat of them doing much harm. Once they get to a second rock, there's a good chance they'll get to a 3rd, 4th and nth in another star system, within a couple decamillennia. It's exponential grown, limited only by the speed of light. They'll probably start building Dyson swarms too and taking over stars that way, which is a lot more annoying than them taking over planets. This is scary fast to observe if you're a long-lived species, or if you live around a gravity well and time dilation makes it seem like humans are buzzing along and taking over stuff at incredible speeds.
- moloch-hai 4y ago
  Humans will not colonize (any more of) the galaxy. Our machine successors might. Or, might not see any reason to. Hot, rocky planets deep in gravity wells will in any case be of no more than academic interest.
  - unsupp0rted 4y ago
    That's a lot of certainty for something which is vastly uncertain. And life that exists deep in gravity wells would be very interesting indeed.
    - breakpointalpha 4y ago
      It may very well be the case that deep gravity wells are a necessary precursor to life! Are there other known natural systems that push and mix pre-life molecules together?
      - moloch-hai 4y ago
        Moons of gas giants might have life inside. Dunno if those are in what is considered a deep gravity well.
  - actionfromafar 4y ago
    I just had a (to me) hilarious thought. In some distant eons, humans actually manages to colonize a string of star systems. The other aliens think we are super quaint and weird. Slarti: "Look at them, it makes no sense to me. They always go for the hot, rocky planets deep in gravity wells. Why do they do it?!" Barti: "I guess there's no accounting for taste." Slarti: "Maybe they want to avoid competition... no one is going to come there looking for resources." Barti: "But they had to drain an Oorth cloud for fusion power to get there! You are right, it makes no sense!"

unsupp0rted 4y ago

It only takes a couple million years for humans to colonize the entire galaxy. As long as a species like humans is confined to their own rock, there's no threat of them doing much harm. Once they get to a second rock, there's a good chance they'll get to a 3rd, 4th and nth in another star system, within a couple decamillennia. It's exponential grown, limited only by the speed of light. They'll probably start building Dyson swarms too and taking over stars that way, which is a lot more annoying than them taking over planets. This is scary fast to observe if you're a long-lived species, or if you live around a gravity well and time dilation makes it seem like humans are buzzing along and taking over stuff at incredible speeds.

moloch-hai 4y ago
Humans will not colonize (any more of) the galaxy. Our machine successors might. Or, might not see any reason to. Hot, rocky planets deep in gravity wells will in any case be of no more than academic interest.
- unsupp0rted 4y ago
  That's a lot of certainty for something which is vastly uncertain. And life that exists deep in gravity wells would be very interesting indeed.
  - breakpointalpha 4y ago
    It may very well be the case that deep gravity wells are a necessary precursor to life! Are there other known natural systems that push and mix pre-life molecules together?
    - moloch-hai 4y ago
      Moons of gas giants might have life inside. Dunno if those are in what is considered a deep gravity well.
- actionfromafar 4y ago
  I just had a (to me) hilarious thought. In some distant eons, humans actually manages to colonize a string of star systems. The other aliens think we are super quaint and weird. Slarti: "Look at them, it makes no sense to me. They always go for the hot, rocky planets deep in gravity wells. Why do they do it?!" Barti: "I guess there's no accounting for taste." Slarti: "Maybe they want to avoid competition... no one is going to come there looking for resources." Barti: "But they had to drain an Oorth cloud for fusion power to get there! You are right, it makes no sense!"