Voyager Plaque May Guide Alien Invaders to Earth!

On Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 6:17:23 AM UTC-6, Martin Brown wrote:

On 17/08/2017 12:51, Gary Harnagel wrote:

On Wednesday, August 16, 2017 at 8:42:58 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:

What I'd say is that they would be so close that if they had the
capacity to make interstellar journeys, they'd already have been here..

Maybe they have, but why would they upset an inferior civilization by
boldly presenting themselves?

To restock their space ship with fresh provisions

Maybe with their favorite food: people :-)

- much like the mariners of old did when they encountered a habitable
island.

I think it would be a mistake to equate the motives of an advanced beings
with those in earth's past.

I don't think there's any reason to think an advanced civilization
couldn't visit other stars. If you're culturally stable, what does it
matter if it takes thousands or tens of thousands of years?

Or a million years. The galaxy is 9 billion years old and planets are
plentiful. In fact, there's a 14-billion-year-old red dwarf a mere
150 lightyears away, and Proxima Centauri is known to have a planet in
the habitable zone. At 0.1c, a civilization could populate the galaxy
in a million years.

The fastest manmade object is the Juno probe we have managed managed a
whopping 0.000013c or a shade under 40km/s. Even so they should have
populated the galaxy inside about 10 billion years at least in the sense
of self replicating Von Neumann probes or similar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-r...Neumann_probes

Chances are we haven't seen them because they are not there.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

Well, all opinions are ... just opinions :-)

“People with opinions just go around bothering each other.� -- Buddha

Sorry for bothering you :-)

On Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 7:20:02 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:

On Thu, 17 Aug 2017 04:51:01 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:

Of course, that assumes there are advanced technological
civilizations, which I'm inclined to doubt.

That's a rather dark opinion of intelligence :-)

Not at all. I just think that technological civilizations are likely
to be unstable and collapse young. Seems natural.

If the observations of Tabby's star pan out, that would counter your opinion.

Considering the age of the universe, it seems to me a statistical certainty
that VERY old civilizations exist even in our own galaxy.

Not if they can never develop.

I have a much more optimistic view.

On Thu, 17 Aug 2017 06:58:08 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:
Considering the age of the universe, it seems to me a
statistical certainty
that VERY old civilizations exist even in our own galaxy.

Not if they can never develop.

I have a much more optimistic view.

That's all we have about this - views. We have no actual knowledge -
no data - about the lifetime of advanced civilizations.

Our views say more about ourselves than about the universe.

On Thu, 17 Aug 2017 06:58:08 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:

Not at all. I just think that technological civilizations are likely
to be unstable and collapse young. Seems natural.

If the observations of Tabby's star pan out, that would counter your opinion.

Well, I don't think anybody really takes very seriously the suggestion
that what's happening with that star is the product of an advanced
civilization. The whole thing was pretty much put forward as a joke,
and is still viewed that way. But it's not impossible.

Considering the age of the universe, it seems to me a statistical certainty
that VERY old civilizations exist even in our own galaxy.

Not if they can never develop.

I have a much more optimistic view.

To me, neither view is optimistic or pessimistic. They just are what
they are.

On Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 6:17:23 AM UTC-6, Martin Brown wrote:

The fastest manmade object is the Juno probe we have managed managed a
whopping 0.000013c or a shade under 40km/s.

We only need to go about 800 times faster to get to 0.001c, which is about as fast
as one could go before the interstellar medium starts behaving like a brick wall.

Taking thousands of years rather than millions to get to Alpha Centauri is indeed
fast enough to colonize the galaxy in a cosmic eyeblink.

John Savard

On Thu, 17 Aug 2017 16:34:05 +0200, Paul Schlyter wrote:

On Thu, 17 Aug 2017 06:58:08 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:
Considering the age of the universe, it seems to me a
statistical certainty
that VERY old civilizations exist even in our own galaxy.

Not if they can never develop.

I have a much more optimistic view.

That's all we have about this - views. We have no actual knowledge -
no data - about the lifetime of advanced civilizations.

Our views say more about ourselves than about the universe.

Indeed.

Where's Nancy when we need her? She knows all about aliens. ;-)

--
Email address is a Spam trap.

On Wednesday, 16 August 2017 02:19:30 UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
At least, so this news story suggests:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/scienc...tephen-hawking

And quantum computers will wreak havoc when they become available:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/scienc...mputer-physics

I knew that the Daily Express was a tabloid newspaper, but I didn't realize it was
moving in the direction of an American "supermarket tabloid".

John Savard

Theoretically, a brute-force attack by a quantum computer could break every kind of encryption there is. But since there are no quantum computers yet, we don't have to worry yet.

One philosopher/economist/futurist said it would be cheaper to pay the average low-skilled worked to not work than to let them work.