The truth is out there

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BDFL - Memuneh
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#2709673 19-May-2021 15:08

tdgeek:

The main issue with aliens is distance. The Centauri stars are about 4 light years away, closest stars. If you could travel at 1/10th the speed of light that's a 40 year one way trip as just one example.

The Roman Empire lasted over 1000 years. The Moorish invasion of Spain lasted about 800 years (with varying degrees of spread over the peninsula). Egypt was ruled by native Pharaos for 2500 years.

That 40-year travel time is nothing in the big scheme of things.

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#2709683 19-May-2021 15:21

Why would aliens want to contact us? We are the neighbors from hell.

frankv

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#2709690 19-May-2021 15:35

We're a long way from 40 years each way.

Marco Polo spent 24 years on his travels to China and back,

The longest time sea voyage is 1152 days. The longest human space flight is 437 days, although 3 cosmonauts have amassed over 800 days each. The estimated time for a Mars mission is 1000 days.

Rikkitic

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#2709697 19-May-2021 15:53

The average human lifespan is a little over 70 years. Lonesome George the tortoise made it past 150. A Bowhead whale is said to have hit more than 250. Jellyfish are believed to be immortal.

Star travel only takes too long if you race through your life like we do. Who's to say a species that measures itself in centuries would be bothered by a long voyage? Who's to say a creature with a completely different evolution has a nervous system that operates at the same speed ours does? The passage of time can be very subjective.

Anyone born 2,000 years ago would see our technology as magic. How can we possibly know what technology a civilisation 2,000 years ahead of us might have? We think we have a basic understanding of the laws of physics, but maybe we don't because there is still a lot that is beyond our comprehension. Maybe the speed of light can be circumvented. Maybe it cannot. So what? How fast can a ship be accelerated to? Time slows for the occupants as they speed up and maybe they don't care if they never see their egg cousins again. It doesn't place a practical limit on how far they can go.

One day we will be robots. They are just so much better than organic life-forms. First we will replace our worn-out body parts with bionics. Then we will transplant our brains. Finally, we will just let the AI take over. Machines can be switched off and on. They don't age in the usual sense. They don't need to eat. They don't need to breathe oxygen. They aren't bothered by extremes of temperature, or radiation, or sexual jealousy. They should travel quite well as they cross the stellar distances. I'm surprised they haven't reached here already. Or maybe they have. There is something very suspicious about those spy birds.

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#2709699 19-May-2021 15:56

Rikkitic:

One day we will be robots.

What makes you think we are not robots already and not living in a simulation?

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#2709708 19-May-2021 16:13

freitasm:

Rikkitic:

One day we will be robots.

What makes you think we are not robots already and not living in a simulation?

If this is the Matrix, I sure wish they had chosen a better decade to simulate.

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networkn

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#2709709 19-May-2021 16:17

freitasm:

Rikkitic:

One day we will be robots.

What makes you think we are not robots already and not living in a simulation?

The smell of my sons farts! No machine would inflict that harm on a human :)

tdgeek

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#2709724 19-May-2021 16:28

frankv:

We're a long way from 40 years each way.

Marco Polo spent 24 years on his travels to China and back,

The longest time sea voyage is 1152 days. The longest human space flight is 437 days, although 3 cosmonauts have amassed over 800 days each. The estimated time for a Mars mission is 1000 days.

Yep, and my 40 year example is from the nearest star, at 1/10 light speed. All the many exoplanets we have discovered are far further away

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#2709726 19-May-2021 16:31

If aliens were good enough to come here, they wouldn't hide and occasionally be caught by the US Govt, they would visit us and make peace, or they would take over in a war we cannot win, or they do what all life forms do, take what they want and leave.

Fred99

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#2709729 19-May-2021 16:34

tdgeek:

Yep, and my 40 year example is from the nearest star, at 1/10 light speed. All the many exoplanets we have discovered are far further away

"potentially habitable for life as we know it" exoplanets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxima_Centauri_b

networkn

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#2709733 19-May-2021 16:45

tdgeek:

If aliens were good enough to come here, they wouldn't hide and occasionally be caught by the US Govt, they would visit us and make peace, or they would take over in a war we cannot win, or they do what all life forms do, take what they want and leave.

Well, they could be assessing us for suitability for a number of things, like as pets, food, or other things.

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Fred99

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#2709737 19-May-2021 16:53

What's going to happen if they arrive in Hicksville, Wyoming, and ask some guy in an F350 to "take me to your leader"? It's a long drive to Florida.

SJB

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#2709738 19-May-2021 16:55

I have it on good authority they are here surveying for the new Intergalactic Highway. We will be getting an eviction notice in the next few months.

Fred99

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#2709739 19-May-2021 17:03

networkn:

tdgeek:

If aliens were good enough to come here, they wouldn't hide and occasionally be caught by the US Govt, they would visit us and make peace, or they would take over in a war we cannot win, or they do what all life forms do, take what they want and leave.

Well, they could be assessing us for suitability for a number of things, like as pets, food, or other things.

I'm hoping for some kind of symbiotic relationship, maybe we could munch parasites from parts of their anatomy they can't reach with the teeth at the end of their venomous appendages. Humans would make hopeless pets - fussy, fragile, need too much pampering.

Fred99

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#2709741 19-May-2021 17:07

networkn:

The smell of my sons farts! No machine would inflict that harm on a human :)

You underestimate the ability of humans to create very nasty machines.

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