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i for one hope that we don't discover nearby life. why? think about what it implies. if life is so phenomenally common that it pops up twice in the same sola
by nazgulnarsil 17y ago
i for one hope that we don't discover nearby life. why? think about what it implies. if life is so phenomenally common that it pops up twice in the same solar system then it becomes downright unsettling that there is no sign of galaxy spanning civilizations out there.
- yannis 17y agoI wish we do. I just don't want to feel so lonely in such a large Universe. Life is probably something very common out there, the fact that we are not observing galaxy spanning civilizations doesn't prove that life is not out there. After all is only about two hundred years that we came to know that there are microbes all over the place.
- charlesju 17y agoI would hope that higher life forms try and protect lower life forms, such as ourselves, from the influences of galactic domination.
- gloob 17y agoBecause that's worked out so terrifically in our history.
- noaharc 17y agoI think Star Wars-type galactic civilizations are very unlikely. Instead, life forms (humans included, eventually) probably just upload their minds into better hardware and "live" in a virtual Shangri La. After that, why bother exploring?
- pg 17y agoit becomes downright unsettling that there is no sign of galaxy spanning civilizations out there Only if Einstein is wrong about the speed of light. Sci fi novels routinely assume he overlooked something, because they have to as a plot device, but he might not have.
- thunk 17y agoIndeed. Out of curiosity, are you an SF fan? And if so, any favs?
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoI have a list I've put together for fans of sci-fi that have only read the standard stuff (asimov, clarke, niven, heinlein) 1. The Cyberiad 2. Babel-17 3. The Stars My Destination 4. The Sheep Look Up 5. More Than Human 6. Lord of Light 7. To Your Scattered Bodies Go 8. Earth Abides 9. Gateway 10. City
- thunk 17y agoWoah, thanks! The Cyberiad is one of my all time favorites. If the rest are as strong as it, that's a serious list.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoIf you haven't read Memoirs Found in a Bathtub do yourself a favor and get it post haste.
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoeven with the speed of light as a constraint it should only take a few million years for self replicators to spread through significant portions of space.
- pg 17y agoInteresting point. Either such replicators are hard to build, or civilizations capable of building them are rare, or they are already here, but quiet.
- steiger 17y agoIt reminds me of the famous Drake equation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Equation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Equation The most famous 'guesstimation' based on the Drake equation says there should be something around 10 civilizations in our galaxy. But there are other factors that influence here, like the tendency a civilization has to destroy itself before it reaches the space exploration era (and also the tendency it has to destroy other civilizations) [2] Also, the fact that we have found none yet comes the famous Fermi paradox [2]. Alternative explanations for the seemly inexistence of extraterrestrian civilizations exist, such as impossibility of communication between long distanced civilizations. [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox
- euccastro 17y agoI wish that we discover it after we have learned to live reasonably well with each other here on Earth.
- rms 17y agoIt would be more interesting to discover nearby life, but at least if no one else is out there we'll get to colonize the nearby stars ourselves without conflict.