4 ms·
>We're in the center of a ~100 light year sphere of space that we've polluted with our radio waves, so it seems a safe bet that they'll hear us before we hear t
by brap 4y ago
>We're in the center of a ~100 light year sphere of space that we've polluted with our radio waves, so it seems a safe bet that they'll hear us before we hear them.
I don't really see why this is a safe bet, whoever sent signals first is going to be heard by the other party first*, and we have no reason to assume that we were first.
* assuming there's nothing "magical" going on like FTL signals etc
- chatmasta 4y agoBecause we haven't been listening for signals as long as we've been sending them.
- brap 4y agoThis might also be true for them
- chatmasta 4y agoTrue. I guess I'm assuming that given two intelligent civilizations, it's more likely they are more advanced than us. But of course I have no basis to assume that!
- brap 4y agoI see why it’s easy to assume that, but there’s a symmetry, anything that we can say about them they can also say about us… Personally I think our first encounter with aliens, if we ever have one, is going to be more similar to plants, bacteria, etc. It will be very underwhelming.
- chatmasta 4y agoGenerally speaking, finding primitive alien life, depending how close to Earth it is, would be very bad news. It would mean the great filter is ahead of us, as Nick Bostrom likes to explain [0]. [0] (timestamped) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vD4df_63wo&t=382s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vD4df_63wo&t=382s