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I love, so much, the idea that we might get a sort of galactic-scale AAA roadside warning service “Uh-oh, 2 billion years ago somebody’s warp drive went wonky i
by vessenes 2y ago
I love, so much, the idea that we might get a sort of galactic-scale AAA roadside warning service “Uh-oh, 2 billion years ago somebody’s warp drive went wonky in Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Beta” before we can easily move around our own Solar System. Humans would be like the old guy in a neighborhood listening to the police scanner, essentially.
- floren 2y agoThis was done computationally, no gravitational waves actually came into existence.
- jkingsman 2y agoI think the commenter's point was that a model for detecting events caused by advanced tech before we even get our space exploration training wheels off would be a funny irony.
- Already__Taken 2y agokinda the premise of Stargate where most aliens copied other aliens advanced tech. So actually anyone who could build it from scratch was kinda rare.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago> kinda the premise of Stargate where most aliens copied other aliens advanced tech This is how all technology has always worked.
- noduerme 2y agoPyramids, writing, and agriculture with irrigation developed independently in at least two completely separate places on Earth within just the last 3000 years.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoAnd, as a percentage of cultures using pyramids, writing, and agriculture, that would be...?
- dumpsterdiver 2y agoIrrelevant.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoI think you mean "zero". Why would you expect technology to work any differently between planets?
- dumpsterdiver 2y agoNo, I mean irrelevant, as is your newest argument. The functional capabilities of technology between planets is irrelevant to the observation that disparate groups develop similar levels of technology independently.
- thaumasiotes 2y ago> The functional capabilities of technology between planets is irrelevant to the observation that disparate groups develop similar levels of technology independently. That "observation" is false.
- noduerme 2y agoNo, it's not. The observation that agriculture developed independently along the Tigris/Euphrates, the Yangtzee, the Indus, Sub-Saharan Africa, Mesoamerica, Peru, and several other places is indisputable and proven by the human-influenced domestication of local plants over thousands of years and the lack of any evidence of communication between those cultures when domestication began. If you're simply trying to make the case that no culture which develops a technology matters besides whichever culture ended up most dominant, it's an absurd point because all of them influenced each other bilaterally (that means both ways) when they came into contact. Corn and tomatoes were domesticated in Mesoamerica and wheat was domesticated from a grass in Mesopotamia. All are now worldwide staples. Without agriculture having developed independently in numerous places and NOT being wiped out by other technologies, one or the other of those would not exist. Have you had a Kung Pao chicken satined with corn flour? Or a corn tortilla around steak? Or spaghetti with marinara sauce? None of those combinations was possible a mere 524 years ago.
- quotemstr 2y agoThe absence of such detections is yet another unsettling input to the Fermi paradox.
- marshray 2y agoOn the bright side, maybe it is evidence against Dark Forest theory?
- shepardrtc 2y agoThe Dark Forest theory is fear-mongering anyway. If there's a civilization out there that wants to conquer others, it just has to send a probe to every star out there. Sufficiently advanced automation would allow this to happen without much work on their part. In theory, WE could do that right now, though very clumsily and with many failures. 3D printing, AI, harvesting materials off asteroids. Not outside of possibility, just hard at our level of tech. Now imagine the boogeyman of the Dark Forest theory - they would obviously have a greater level of tech if they're so dangerous, and it would be much easier.
- SoftTalker 2y agoWhy unsettling?
- quotemstr 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoYou don't need FTL travel to expand into our light cone at this point in the evolution of the universe.
- pfdietz 2y agoThat makes absence of FTL detections comforting, not unsettling.
- m463 2y agothe trick is to say: Looks like your ship has a mechanical problem <click for more...> and collect click information about their civilization before they get any information about their warp drive
- pimlottc 2y agoToo bad the Arecibo Telescope collapsed: “We've Been Trying To Reach You About Your Starship’s Extended Warranty…”
- dreamcompiler 2y agoOr like the Vulcans, who were constantly listening for warp signatures and thus discovered the humanoids of Earth after Zefram Cochrane invented the warp drive. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zefram_Cochrane https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zefram_Cochrane
- vessenes 2y agoAhh the non-dark-forest angle on finding aliens! So hopeful!