[PublicAnimalNo9]

OK, let's say for sake of argument that E.T. life exists on other worlds. And for sake of argument let's say they've developed interstellar travel.
The chances of them finding us are still pretty slim.
If we go back to the first radio signals and assuming they can still be heard over the background radiation noise, they have barely travelled 1% of the way across the galaxy. Our location is pretty close to the edge of the galaxy in a particularily uninteresting and empty part of it. We are in the backwater of our galaxy.
It would be like someone from NYC going to the jungles of Bolivia in search of civilization. Yeah sure, you MIGHT find intelligent life there, but there are plenty of other places that are closer that would make sense to look first.
Our telecommunications signals would be the only reason aliens would travel here, and my guess is, IF there is other life out there, anybody alive right now will be LONG dead before those signals reach anyone/anything that might be able to pick them up.

[DerbyX]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

OK, let's say for sake of argument that E.T. life exists on other worlds. And for sake of argument let's say they've developed interstellar travel.
The chances of them finding us are still pretty slim.
If we go back to the first radio signals and assuming they can still be heard over the background radiation noise, they have barely travelled 1% of the way across the galaxy. Our location is pretty close to the edge of the galaxy in a particularily uninteresting and empty part of it. We are in the backwater of our galaxy.
It would be like someone from NYC going to the jungles of Bolivia in search of civilization. Yeah sure, you MIGHT find intelligent life there, but there are plenty of other places that are closer that would make sense to look first.
Our telecommunications signals would be the only reason aliens would travel here, and my guess is, IF there is other life out there, anybody alive right now will be LONG dead before those signals reach anyone/anything that might be able to pick them up.

Unless of course they have developed technology that we haven't even conceived of yet. They might very well have developed a method to eliminate background noise to look specifically for the type of signals that intelligent life might use. Hell they might have spent entire centuries developing technology for the exclusive purpose of looking for ET signals just as we have. Computer assisted telescopes and scanning equipment to look for stars that have a higher probability of having planets supporting intelligent life (or any life) get the special intense scans looking for signals or other tell tale signs. They might be mass producing robotic probes to do just that increasing the probability by exponential factors.

There could be millions of these guys scanning the star systems looking for intelligent life just like ours.

[Dragom]

Of course it would be far easier for post-humans to meet post-aliens as hyper intelligent robot scouts from each planet blow each other to smithereens to determine which long extinct organic progenitor was superior.

[PluggyRug]

Proculation Proculation:

Wow, PluggyPlug. If this "article" is really serious. That's so funny

Look at the image: The woman is moving at 10 mph and the earth is rotating at 1,037 mph so the woman is moving at 1,047mph. WTF ?

What if she was running North, South or backward.
She must be a relative of the relativity family.

[tritium]

Amazing program, watching it now. 'Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking,' Sunday on Discovery. I love PVR's.



I like where Hawking talks about humanity can inhabit Gliese 581.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_d

http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.3758

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planet_gliese_581_c.jpg [ 33.93 KiB | Viewed 230 times ]

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Gliese_581d.png [ 174.23 KiB | Viewed 228 times ]

[tritium]

What I think is totally awsome is that out Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy, in about 2 billion years.

Basically destroying the Milky Way galaxy.

$1:

If Homo sapiens can stick it out on Earth for another two billion years, our descendants may witness quite a show in the night sky. Researchers estimate that the Milky Way will collide with its nearest neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, at around that time—well before the sun collapses into a white dwarf, perhaps destroying the Earth in the process.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... -from-home

http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/cosmic- ... ision.html

[Tman1]

Sorry, H.G Wells beat you to it in 'War of the Worlds' but thanks for the warning.

[BartSimpson]

tritium tritium:

What I think is totally awsome is that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 2 billion years.

Basically destroying the Milky Way galaxy.

Stellar distances being what they are the odds are that the two galaxies can collide yet very few, if any, of their stars will collide with each other.

The galactic collision will rearrange the two galaxies and it may well cause some stars to fly out into space on their own, but, again, odds are the earth and our solar system will still be here when the collision is done.

[Proculation]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

tritium tritium:

What I think is totally awsome is that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 2 billion years.

Basically destroying the Milky Way galaxy.

Stellar distances being what they are the odds are that the two galaxies can collide yet very few, if any, of their stars will collide with each other.

The galactic collision will rearrange the two galaxies and it may well cause some stars to fly out into space on their own, but, again, odds are the earth and our solar system will still be here when the collision is done.

Maybe they will be few collisions but it will be a hell of a perturbation. I would not be the Ph.D. in the NASA trying to calculate all the effects that would create

[Dragom]

tritium tritium:

I like where Hawking talks about humanity can inhabit Gliese 581.

Interesting, I wonder how long it would take to hurl a probe over there for a better looksy.

It would probably take less then 100 years to get there and start sending some photo's back.

But it would look identical to a world shattering Kinetic bomb for the first 40 odd years.

Wow, I think it would be faster, easier and cheaper to sunder that planet to rubble then go have a looksy at it. Frightening.

[tritium]

Dragom Dragom:

tritium tritium:

I like where Hawking talks about humanity can inhabit Gliese 581.

Interesting, I wonder how long it would take to hurl a probe over there for a better looksy.

It would probably take less then 100 years to get there and start sending some photo's back.

But it would look identical to a world shattering Kinetic bomb for the first 40 odd years.

Wow, I think it would be faster, easier and cheaper to sunder that planet to rubble then go have a looksy at it. Frightening.

25 light years..

[tritium]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

tritium tritium:

What I think is totally awsome is that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 2 billion years.

Basically destroying the Milky Way galaxy.

Stellar distances being what they are the odds are that the two galaxies can collide yet very few, if any, of their stars will collide with each other.

The galactic collision will rearrange the two galaxies and it may well cause some stars to fly out into space on their own, but, again, odds are the earth and our solar system will still be here when the collision is done.

Please watch this... Bart. (you can advance to the 3rd dot/frame)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/95022/the-uni ... s-p1-so-i0

[ShepherdsDog]

Why is it so quiet(no signals) out there? Well picture a forest and the noise associated with it. Then, something big and nasty comes into the area....everything goes quiet, until the danger passes.

[Chumley]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Why is it so quiet(no signals) out there? Well picture a forest and the noise associated with it. Then, something big and nasty comes into the area....everything goes quiet, until the danger passes.

So are we making a lot of noise in the bush when we should be quiet like everyone else because something nasty is coming, or is everyone else in the bush being quiet because we are the creepy thing tromping through the trees?