3 ms·

- FTL is not possible. - Technological life exists for a few thousand years. They are a small blip so basically nothing in terms of cosmic timelines. - Even i

by x5n1 11y ago

- FTL is not possible. - Technological life exists for a few thousand years. They are a small blip so basically nothing in terms of cosmic timelines. - Even if it sends out probes, those probes generally fall into the gravity wells of the planets they are sent to over the millions of years. - Hence why intelligent life is common, but not often seen. One thing to do, and we should do it fast... is to make self replicating robotic probes that spread throughout the galaxy. I guess it should collect samples of life once it finds it and find ways to seed the universe with it. Or create some sort of Ark of Life to carry DNA from intelligent life forms to other places where they could perhaps be cloned. We should not focus on our own survival, but increasing the chances of intelligent life in general to survive in the universe and find each other. We are probably doomed as a species, but we can do that for the universe.

jimmcslim 11y ago
- Even if it sends out probes, those probes generally fall into the gravity wells of the planets they are sent to over the millions of years. But then wouldn't we have possibly observed these probes? Maybe they have visited our planet, just so long ago such that any evidence of their arrival has decayed...
- x5n1 11y ago
  Metal decays fast enough, but not only that the Earth's crust moves and most of the planet is water. It's like looking for a small piece of metal that was here say 10 million years ago, is very rusted and probably at the bottom of the ocean. And even if they send probes, it's not as if they or we send a million of them. We send a few, and they are expensive, and they are easily lost.
  - david-given 11y ago
    Why would any self-respecting interstellar civilisation build probes out of metal? It's expensive, heavy, doesn't breed very well, and doesn't last. A true interstellar self-replicating probe is going to look like a fat molecule. Hell, they could be here already; panspermia is still a totally valid theory.
daemonfire300 11y ago
I can only imagine this going horribly wrong. Like when Explorers visited cultures which had been isolated from the rest of the world, not having developed antibodies against a simple flue and getting infected.
gus_massa 11y ago
> One thing to do, and we should do it fast... is to make self replicating robotic probes that spread throughout the galaxy. I guess it should collect samples of life once it finds it and find ways to seed the universe with it. This looks like a bad idea because is a planet has life and the probe seeds it with the life of the other planet, you may kill all the native population. Anyway, the probes we send will have a few bacteria as free riders, so we will seed them with Earth bacterial life anyway. There are some protocols to clean the probes that go to Mars (and other planets), so if find life there it will be Mars' life. (But this is very difficult, I think that bacteria are very sneaky and they probably will win.)
pavel_lishin 11y ago
> - Even if it sends out probes, those probes generally fall into the gravity wells of the planets they are sent to over the millions of years. [citation needed]; a civilization wouldn't just shotgun these things and wave farewell, it would have instrumentation, guidance and engines on board.
- x5n1 11y ago
  it might have all these things, but if you don't have ftl then they take a very long time to get to their destination. tens of thousands to millions of years. There are a few planets between 4 and 42 light years from here. At 4 light years using a Nuclear pulse propulsion it would take 100 years. At 40 it would take 10x that, so 1,000 years. That's nuclear which requires a immense amount of fuel which probably does not make sense for satellites. Other mechanisms for prop. are much slower. By the time any of these get to their destination, people who built them will be dead and possibly the civilizations which have launched them will have gone extinct.

by x5n1 11y ago

jimmcslim 11y ago

- Even if it sends out probes, those probes generally fall into the gravity wells of the planets they are sent to over the millions of years. But then wouldn't we have possibly observed these probes? Maybe they have visited our planet, just so long ago such that any evidence of their arrival has decayed...

x5n1 11y ago
Metal decays fast enough, but not only that the Earth's crust moves and most of the planet is water. It's like looking for a small piece of metal that was here say 10 million years ago, is very rusted and probably at the bottom of the ocean. And even if they send probes, it's not as if they or we send a million of them. We send a few, and they are expensive, and they are easily lost.
- david-given 11y ago
  Why would any self-respecting interstellar civilisation build probes out of metal? It's expensive, heavy, doesn't breed very well, and doesn't last. A true interstellar self-replicating probe is going to look like a fat molecule. Hell, they could be here already; panspermia is still a totally valid theory.

daemonfire300 11y ago

I can only imagine this going horribly wrong. Like when Explorers visited cultures which had been isolated from the rest of the world, not having developed antibodies against a simple flue and getting infected.

gus_massa 11y ago

> One thing to do, and we should do it fast... is to make self replicating robotic probes that spread throughout the galaxy. I guess it should collect samples of life once it finds it and find ways to seed the universe with it. This looks like a bad idea because is a planet has life and the probe seeds it with the life of the other planet, you may kill all the native population. Anyway, the probes we send will have a few bacteria as free riders, so we will seed them with Earth bacterial life anyway. There are some protocols to clean the probes that go to Mars (and other planets), so if find life there it will be Mars' life. (But this is very difficult, I think that bacteria are very sneaky and they probably will win.)

pavel_lishin 11y ago

> - Even if it sends out probes, those probes generally fall into the gravity wells of the planets they are sent to over the millions of years. [citation needed]; a civilization wouldn't just shotgun these things and wave farewell, it would have instrumentation, guidance and engines on board.

x5n1 11y ago
it might have all these things, but if you don't have ftl then they take a very long time to get to their destination. tens of thousands to millions of years. There are a few planets between 4 and 42 light years from here. At 4 light years using a Nuclear pulse propulsion it would take 100 years. At 40 it would take 10x that, so 1,000 years. That's nuclear which requires a immense amount of fuel which probably does not make sense for satellites. Other mechanisms for prop. are much slower. By the time any of these get to their destination, people who built them will be dead and possibly the civilizations which have launched them will have gone extinct.