Page: 1 2 3 Next > Jump to:  Bottom  Last Post
 Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
 9533 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 3:04:09 PM
A rough idea of the scale involved:
The hypothetical alien mapping mission of this galaxy uses ships that can travel instantaneously between solar systems. No warp factor 9.9 stuff here, we're talking instant travel over any distance.
So they only use time investigating each solar system.
They're only doing a really superficial survey, so extremely superficial that they only spend one day in each solar system. Just one day to survey an entire solar system.
It would still take 273,792,574 ship-years. Even with a fleet of 1000 ships all doing only this survey mission every single day and with perfect efficiency, the survey would take almost 274000 years.
So how likely would it be that they happened to be around here so recently that our technology was advanced enough to detect on a brief survey of our solar system? |
|
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
9533 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 2:56:33 PM
I've always thought if there was something so advanced out there, they would have found us and done... something
Left quietly after putting up a warning sign for others :)
They'd have to be incredibly advanced to find us, except by chance. Even if they were advanced enough for interstellar travel to be routine for them, how would they find us otherwise? There's absolutely no sign of us more than a tiny distance out from Earth and even that sign is extremely faint unless you're more or less here already. Even if they have a fleet of ships exploring, it would take eons to cover everywhere. Even if they had passed by Earth on their grand mapping mission, chances are it would have happened long before any human technology they could detect existed. A quick scan on the way past...nothing interesting there, on to the next planet. |
|
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
9533 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 2:47:34 PM
There's really not much basis for that statement, not to be argumentative, but we don't know what is out there or if it's more advanced than we are ... so "marvels" may not be the best word, but in our own right we're definitely advanced
Same answer as before, really. It doesn't matter if there are more advanced people elsewhere, or even if they come here. We're still marvels. The pinnacle of billions of years of change. The ape that asks everything and finds answers. |
|
 ggolbez
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
1814 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 10:58:21 AM
Everything you have ever known, seen, or even thought about has been on that little grain of sand. |
|
 tomahawkjam
Male, 18-29, Europe
200 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 8:55:34 AM
I've always thought if there was something so advanced out there, they would have found us and done... something
(same with time travel, if it was possible then someone in the future who invented it would come back and say hi :P) |
|
 oceanbeast
Male, 18-29, Southern US
549 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 8:36:43 AM
the real question is, are we among the most advanced beings in the universe? we always seem to think aliens would be more advanced but maybe we are not far behind, or not behind at all...
im just sayin.. cuz i think aliens would be more advanced seein as how they have ufos and lazer beams that can destroy entire planets. |
|
datroman
Male, 13-17, Eastern US
36 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 5:11:39 AM
@angilion
There's really not much basis for that statement, not to be argumentative, but we don't know what is out there or if it's more advanced than we are ... so "marvels" may not be the best word, but in our own right we're definitely advanced |
|
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
9533 Posts
|
Monday, May 03, 2010 12:19:08 AM
Makes you feel kinda small don't it?
No. I'm still me, regardless of the size of the universe.
If you're thinking in terms of the whole of humanity being small because we're all on one medium-sized planet orbiting a medium-sized star in nowhere important...it was humans who put that camera way out there to take that photo. Humans, with their brilliant minds and dextrous hands. Humans are marvels of the universe. |
|
 Kiwigirl2
Female, 30-39, Australia
1051 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 11:09:31 PM
Makes you feel kinda small don't it? |
|
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
9533 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 6:54:41 PM
Regarding a terraformed Mars:
i) How are you going to keep a created Earthlike atmosphere on the planet, given the low gravity and lack of a natural magnetic shield?
ii) How are you going to handle protection from the solar wind, given that Mars doesn't have a natural magnetic shield?
You'd need to build in some way to artificially maintain Mars in a terraformed state. It would have to be part planet, part space spation. |
|
 LazyMe484
Male, 18-29, Canada
10503 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 2:24:46 PM
Here's a hint to its likelihood: we can't even 'terraform' our own deserts, which already have air, water, bacteria, microbial life, access to transportation for resupply, etc - and people think we can do it somewhere like Mars? It ain't gonna happen. Ever. Its another "wish life was better somewhere else" dream.
You must be one of those life-sucks people.
Just cause' its hard, doesn't mean it will never happen. |
|
 alchemist18
Female, 13-17, Eastern US
356 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 11:00:16 AM
This is unsettling. |
|
 revdrdark
Male, 40-49, Southern US
692 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 10:34:10 AM
FYI: There's an image called "The Pale Blue Dot" that was taken by the Galileo space probe, out near the orbit of Pluto; it is the most distant image of earth that exists, from over 3 billion miles away. |
|
Angilion
Male, 40-49, Europe
9533 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 8:05:19 AM
Here's a hint to its likelihood: we can't even 'terraform' our own deserts, which already have air, water, bacteria, microbial life, access to transportation for resupply, etc - and people think we can do it somewhere like Mars? It ain't gonna happen. Ever. Its another "wish life was better somewhere else" dream.
You might be right, but your argument isn't. There are big differences between turning a desert into fertile soil and terraforming a planet - the latter is not simply a bigger and more difficult version of the former.
Making another planet partially habitable could be easier, although the timescale would be centuries at least, probably millenia.
Terraforming Mars might just be possible in the future - a runaway greenhouse effect would go a long way to making it habitable over a couple of millenia. It would take a lot of maintainence though - gravity too small, magnetic field too small. Mars would be part planet, part spa |
|
 coffeekoneko
Female, 18-29, Europe
1003 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 7:33:22 AM
I just got home after an awesome party and I looked at this and got seriously disoriented.
I need to go to sleep IAB... |
|
 jtrebowski
Male, 40-49, Southern US
3057 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 4:00:38 AM
kinda looks like Mars does from here. |
|
 Max_Normal
Male, 30-39, Europe
499 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 3:22:53 AM
"Here's a hint to its likelihood: we can't even 'terraform' our own deserts, which already have air, water, bacteria, microbial life, access to transportation for resupply, etc - and people think we can do it somewhere like Mars? It ain't gonna happen. Ever. Its another "wish life was better somewhere else" dream."
and people will suffocate if they travel more than 30mph.
Come on, the ancient Mayans irrigated the desert, and the Saudis do a pretty good job now (so does the Nile). It's just too expensive or hard to find the water. What if we crash an ice comet into Mars and seed the whole place with a bunch of chemolithotrophic bacteria to start the soil going, followed by some CO2 excreting and nitrogen fixing bacteria too (not sure where the N2 will come from), followed by some nice photosynthetic bacteria to make some O2. Ok maybe in 1000 years. 5h1t, Israel and Iran have nukes. Maybe never. |
|
 Lionhart2
Male, 40-49, Australia
8285 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 2:53:02 AM
> fancylady
> Pictures like this always make me wonder why I stress over the small stuff
Because you're far more likely to die from a virus than hit by meteorite. |
|
 fancylady
Female, 30-39, Canada
870 Posts
|
Sunday, May 02, 2010 12:44:02 AM
Pictures like this always make me wonder why I stress over the small stuff . |
|
Imadude
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
94 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 10:33:31 PM
Sadly Terra forming mars is just science fiction.At least until we invent a way. We cant yet because Mars doesnt have a magnetic field. The only way we could terra form Mars is if we found a way to re magnetize it.
|
|
Lionhart2
Male, 40-49, Australia
8285 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 8:55:54 PM
> Nerdfighter0
> Just thinking of terra-forming mars gives me the tinglies
Here's a hint to its likelihood: we can't even 'terraform' our own deserts, which already have air, water, bacteria, microbial life, access to transportation for resupply, etc - and people think we can do it somewhere like Mars? It ain't gonna happen. Ever. Its another "wish life was better somewhere else" dream. |
|
Nerdfighter0
Male, 18-29, Midwest US
213 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 8:11:43 PM
Ooh.
Just thinking of terra-forming mars gives me the tinglies. |
|
 MrTwidget
Male, 18-29, Eastern US
746 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 8:05:12 PM
I guess Hawking is correct when he says in order for us to grow and survive as a species, we must venture into space. |
|
 Stelly
Male, 30-39, Eastern US
321 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 7:23:16 PM
If when you stop and deeply think about where the edge of the universe is and you become completely awed, you can then start the think about being a genius or not. Thinking about this will now ruin the rest of my day, thanks a lot IAB...ugh... |
|
 a1butcher
Male, 40-49, Canada
4783 Posts
|
Saturday, May 01, 2010 6:40:43 PM
Those letters must be massive!!
How come we can't see them a night? |
|
Page: 1 2 3 Next >
|
Back to Listing
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}
){kind=avatar}