Aliens

[Derrk]

aliens? exploding star? or something else altogether?

my money's on aliens, but the signal is supposedly coming from 3 billion light years away - i'll probably never get to meet them...
 

https://www.seti.org/press-release/artificial-intelligence-helps-find-new-fast-radio-bursts

 

https://www.zmescience.com/space/ai-tracking-light-source-04234/

[Andreas Lilja]

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

[Derrk]

Just now, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

because it's neat

[Teddy07]

13 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

Why should high tech aliens care about us? We don´t care about worms

[Andreas Lilja]

7 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should high tech aliens care about us? We don´t care about worms

We use them as bait for recreation. 

 

[Derrk]

8 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Why should high tech aliens care about us? We don´t care about worms

I'd like to think aliens would view us more as dogs than as worms. Unlike worms, we can do tricks

[aezakmi]

Just now, Derrk said:

I'd like to think aliens would view us more as dogs than as worms. Unlike worms, we can do tricks

worms can do tricks

 

if you behead a worm it can grow a body again

[Froody129]

31 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

Because we think we can kill or enslave them 

[Derrk]

Just now, aezakmi said:

worms can do tricks

 

if you behead a worm it can grow a body again

kind of a one-trick-worm if you ask me

[Guest]

There is a very high chance there is extraterrestrial life out there. Note the explanatory Drake Equation. 

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

Don't forget anal probing.

[dalekphalm]

43 minutes ago, Derrk said:

aliens? exploding star? or something else altogether?

my money's on aliens, but the signal is supposedly coming from 3 billion light years away - i'll probably never get to meet them...
 

https://www.seti.org/press-release/artificial-intelligence-helps-find-new-fast-radio-bursts

 

https://www.zmescience.com/space/ai-tracking-light-source-04234/

If a Radio Wave came from 3 billion light years away, then it originated 3 billion years ago.

 

Though it's possible the same civilization could send a radio wave, then hundreds, thousands, or millions of years later develop FTL technology and eventually be able to arrive at the destination at the same time as the radio wave.

 

But yeah - realistically, we should only be looking at radio waves that originate in our galactic neighbourhood, because that's the only location we could conceivably explore within human lifespans.

[Guest]

40 minutes ago, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

Nah I think they’re ignoring us. We come off as clingy. Have you seen how many things we sent out into space? 

[Derrk]

1 minute ago, fpo said:

Nah I think they’re ignoring us. We come off as clingy. Have you seen how many things we sent out into space? 

if aliens are smart enough to know about us, they're more than smart enough to stay away from us

[Guest]

Just now, Derrk said:

if aliens are smart enough to know about us, they're more than smart enough to stay away from us

Cuz we’re clingy. 

[aezakmi]

10 minutes ago, Derrk said:

kind of a one-trick-worm if you ask me

but it has a trick

[Amazonsucks]

1 hour ago, Raskolnikov said:

Why do we keep searching for things that will either kill or enslave us. 

Same reason people shop at and trade with places/countries that do the same?

[Guest]

4 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

If a Radio Wave came from 3 billion light years away, then it originated 3 billion years ago.

 

Though it's possible the same civilization could send a radio wave, then hundreds, thousands, or millions of years later develop FTL technology and eventually be able to arrive at the destination at the same time as the radio wave.

 

But yeah - realistically, we should only be looking at radio waves that originate in our galactic neighbourhood, because that's the only location we could conceivably explore within human lifespans.

We should take into account the pace of evolution. While its possible an alien race can evolve on another planet - considering it's taken quite a while for us to evolve - and earth is close to the center of the universe (or as we'd like to imagine), 3 billion years ago its highly likely to be a comet or anomaly - not intelligent life. 

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, RorzNZ said:

We should take into account the pace of evolution. While its possible an alien race can evolve on another planet - considering it's taken quite a while for us to evolve - and earth is close to the center of the universe (or as we'd like to imagine), 3 billion years ago its highly likely to be a comet or anomaly - not intelligent life. 

True, and I agree. But consider that the earth is really only like 4.5 billion years old. What happened on earth was essentially inevitable, given the environment, circumstances and factors. 

 

Had another solar system form say, 8 or 10 billion years ago, with similar factors, it’s certainly possible that other intelligent species evolved earlier than hominids did. 

 

In our galaxy, I would actually be surprised if we were the first species to evolve to this level. Maybe they went extinct by now, but I would find it surprising if we were the farthest along. 

[kilgore_T]

since reading "the dark forest" this kind of sh*t terrifies me

[Derrk]

13 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

I would find it surprising if we were the farthest along. 

there's too much out there for us to be alone/the most advanced. incomprehensible amount of stuffs.

 

2 hours ago, VegetableStu said:

you know the thing in Halo where you kill some aliens and then pick up their plasma weapons?

district 9 irl

[dalekphalm]

7 minutes ago, Derrk said:

there's too much out there for us to be alone/the most advanced. incomprehensible amount of stuffs.

Agreed.

 

There are ~250 Billion (+/- 150 Billion) stars in the Milky Way.

 

Let's round down to 200 Billion.

 

Now let's assume that 0.01% of them have planets (the number is actually much higher). That leaves 20 Million systems with planets.

 

Now let's assume 0.01% of them are in the "green zone". That leaves 2000 planets in the green zone. - and out of 2000, we're the farthest evolved?

 

Now let's do the calculations again using more accurate numbers.

(found here)

https://www.space.com/14200-160-billion-alien-planets-milky-galaxy.html

 

Planets are actually EXCEEDINGLY COMMON in our galaxy. There are approximately 1.6 planets per system, on average. Now, in this source, they list 100 Billion Solar Systems in the Milky Way (Some systems have multiple stars). So that leaves 160 Billion planets in our galaxy.

 

According to this source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone

There are some 40 billion planets in the Habitable Zone (not too close, not too far).

 

That means a massive 25% of planets, on average, are in the habitable zone.

 

So let's take that 40 billion, and say 0.01% (admittedly, this number is entirely made up) of them have the necessary elements for life. That's 4 million planets.

 

Now let's take that 4 million planets, and say of them, 0.01% of them actually developed organic life of some kind. That's at minimum, 400 planets that develop life.

 

And let's be honest, this number is unnecessarily pessimistic. The number could easily be in the Millions or even Billions. There's some research saying there could be upwards of 60 Billion planets that support life.

 

With that in mind, not every planet will evolve intelligent life. But still, the massive number of planets out there, it would be essentially impossible that we're the pinnacle.

[Derrk]

11 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Agreed.

 

There are ~250 Billion (+/- 150 Billion) stars in the Milky Way.

 

Let's round down to 200 Billion.

 

Now let's assume that 0.01% of them have planets (the number is actually much higher). That leaves 20 Million systems with planets.

 

Now let's assume 0.01% of them are in the "green zone". That leaves 2000 planets in the green zone. - and out of 2000, we're the farthest evolved?

 

Now let's do the calculations again using more accurate numbers.

(found here)

https://www.space.com/14200-160-billion-alien-planets-milky-galaxy.html

 

Planets are actually EXCEEDINGLY COMMON in our galaxy. There are approximately 1.6 planets per system, on average. Now, in this source, they list 100 Billion Solar Systems in the Milky Way (Some systems have multiple stars). So that leaves 160 Billion planets in our galaxy.

 

According to this source:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumstellar_habitable_zone

There are some 40 billion planets in the Habitable Zone (not too close, not too far).

 

That means a massive 25% of planets, on average, are in the habitable zone.

 

So let's take that 40 billion, and say 0.01% (admittedly, this number is entirely made up) of them have the necessary elements for life. That's 4 million planets.

 

Now let's take that 4 million planets, and say of them, 0.01% of them actually developed organic life of some kind. That's at minimum, 400 planets that develop life.

 

And let's be honest, this number is unnecessarily pessimistic. The number could easily be in the Millions or even Billions. There's some research saying there could be upwards of 60 Billion planets that support life.

 

With that in mind, not every planet will evolve intelligent life. But still, the massive number of planets out there, it would be essentially impossible that we're the pinnacle.

All this &&& i think it would be extremely optimistic to claim the "observable universe" contains 0.01% of what is out there

[dalekphalm]

25 minutes ago, Derrk said:

All this &&& i think it would be extremely optimistic to claim the "observable universe" contains 0.01% of what is out there

Indeed - but that's beyond the scope of what is even remotely relevant. Unless there is some near magical scientific technology allowing inter-galaxy travel.

 

Even if we invent FTL (which I think is probably inevitable, though may still take hundreds or thousands of years to develop), we're likely going to be limited to our galactic neighbourhood.

 

But there are likely dozens - if not hundreds - of sentient alien species. There are also likely hundreds of space faring species. There are also likely at least a few - or a dozen (or more) species with FTL capabilities.

[Derrk]

10 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

Even if we invent FTL (which I think is probably inevitable, though may still take hundreds or thousands of years to develop)

what do you mean by FTL? is it an acronym for traveling at light speed? faster than light?