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> Do you really, really think a species capable of interstellar travel would have vehicles or crafts that we could recognize as such? Yes. That is, they almost
by andrewflnr 3y ago
> Do you really, really think a species capable of interstellar travel would have vehicles or crafts that we could recognize as such?
Yes. That is, they almost certainly use objects made out of actual atoms to travel it or whatever the hell. There are almost no hints, with the possible exception of dark matter, in even the most speculative of well -grounded physics, of anything else they could be using. So that's the the null hypothesis. And the mere presence of that object in an interaction is enough to recognize it with high confidence as a vehicle.
People get too obsessed with the idea of technology indistinguishable from magic. Physics is still real, still imposes hard constraints on technology, and our tech is already sufficiently shaped by those constraints that other things within those constraints will at least be recognizable with some effort. We may not know how it works right away, but that's a very different question.
- boringuser2 3y agoQuick question for you. Have you heard of a really smart guy named "Isaac Newton"? Well, his ideas are only ~300 solar years established and observations in quantum mechanics have opened a realm of complete impossibility to a Newtonian worldview.
- baja_blast 3y agoYes, but Isaac Newton would be able to see an F-35 and iPhone and would be able to understand how these things work once explained.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Karunamon 3y agoBut, you are giving Newton an affordance that makes this an unfair comparison: "once explained". How do you think he would do with rare visual glimpses and hearsay only?
- andrewflnr 3y agoYou asked, analogously, if he would be able to recognize the F-35 as a vehicle. All it would take is watching one land and seeing the pilot climb out to make it absolutely clear to him.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]