thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:03:09 EST

Probably too much Douglas Adams... :-)

postillion: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:29:50 EST

Yes, this silly advertising stunt will significantly increase the detectability of human civilization at this star we're aiming at.

The silly advertising stunt is already working at significantly increasing the detectability of the Cool Ranch Dor

postillion: Re: Galactic Civilization

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 22:20:42 EST

It just has tons of time to sit around and think in this big lonely universe and thus is massively obsessed with say emotional development.

Wetdreams of alien life forms by a humanities major, I assume? I was one as well.

Shy Elf: Re: Galactic Civilization

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:42:28 EST

A true von Neumann machine inevitably favors evolution towards running amok. I presume this is what you mean by "'Robo-Conquest-Seed-Bot". Certainly machines have major advantages when it comes to radiation resistance and the ability to enter a

WMK: Re: Galactic Civilization

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:16:38 EST

That first story you mention was by THE VISITORS (1980) - Clifford D. Simak - I remembered reading it in HS.

I tend to think that life like ours is highly unsuited to interstellar travel mainly because:

We each live a very brief time

Lou: Me too

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:12:16 EST
But if we were to be visited by an alien race which only wanted to give us an inspirational message, I would be deeply disappointed in them.
As would I, for two reasons. The first of course would be the aliens having the means to give aid,

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:47:30 EST
It is a curious scenario, that some alien race which is scientifically so much more advanced than ours that they would see no point in exchanging scientific information with us, nonetheless wishes to help us out by delivering a message about social maturit

Shy Elf: Re: Galactic Civilization

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:14:19 EST
I am reminded of a science fiction story in which aliens arrive in the from indestructible black cubes (or was it pyramids), which sit and completely ignore all attempts at communication, and grow and divide faster when hit with atomic bomb radiation.
I

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:15:00 EST
My point was that in the day the earth stood still, the aliens had no interest in exchanging technology with us. In fact, they made a point of it. They had no interest in our technology because it was rudimentary to them and they had no interest in sharing

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 09:40:45 EST
Of course, in "The Day The Earth Stood Still" the Earth was actually visited by an alien spaceship, a scenario which presents a wider range of possibilities than a mere radio message from outer space. I have begun this discussion with the observation

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:21:24 EST
I agree, these aren't mutually exclusive scenarios. Personally, I just don't think scientific knowledge is necessarily the most important thing they could bring us. Look at The Day The Earth Stood Still.

Shy Elf: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:35:45 EST
Trust your feelings and not your head on this one. The Earth isn't one of the brightest objects out there, and were it next door to us we would not yet have detected it. &nb

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:28:10 EST
Bats and dolphins do NOT use radar/sonar, they just use sonar. No known species on Earth has a biological mechanism (as opposed to an artificial device, which we humans have built) with which to communicate by radio frequency. (There are specie

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:58:36 EST
As for the massive, long-lived species that you speculate about, even if such a species were to exist, we would never receive any radio messages from them, nor would they decipher any that we transmit, without a strong technological base.
Agai

MayorBob: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 16:04:52 EST
Let's just hope the Lizard People from Remulak weren't watching and come calling to rid Earth of those pesky geckos.

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:55:33 EST
I am not assuming that any given alien species would know or care about science or technology; as I said, any species that enters into inter-stellar communication with us would be interested in technology because there is almost certainly no non-technologi

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:55:35 EST
Judging by the vast majority of our population, I'm sure the first question we get asked by foreign life will be what the score in the football match was.

MayorBob: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:52:40 EST
"This is an extreme example but I think it's off-base to assume the thing(s) would care about technology."
Much less corn chips.

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 13:27:49 EST
Given that we have no idea what form life outside this planet would take, it seems plausible that if there is life (small chance in the first place) that discovered us or we discovered them, they could be some massive, long-living life form that is so well

skeptic: Galactic Civilization

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:50:22 EST
Although it is always possible that there is something very important that has so far escaped our collective knowledge, there appears, so far, to be excellent reason to believe that the problem of interstellar travel, given the ridiculously large distances

skeeter1: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 06:54:54 EST
IIRC, the earth is one of the "brightest" (and I say that with some reservations) radio-frequency objects there is. If there are intelligent aliens out there and they haven't discovered us yet, it's unlikely they ever will.
Then again, I haven't c

Shy Elf: If people thought this could work...

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:05:29 EST
they'd be up in arms at our advertising our presence to aliens who could potentially either send a tiny biological weapon to wipe us out or come here to take samples of humans to use as a new slave species.

Lou: Frito Lay should stick with Jay

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:34:50 EST
"Agbar...come look at the newest ad from Earth!"
"Oh no! It is the terrifying Leno. Look at that jaw! We could never overcome a species that could breed for jaws of that magnitude."
badaboom badabing...no alien invasion.

MayorBob: Sooner or later CNN is going to run ...

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:51:37 EST
... a compilation of all the contritely remorseful speeches of all the politicians who ever got caught trying to get their freaks on with someone who isn't their wife. I predict many generations from now, visitors from a distant galaxy will land and

Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos (Trees And Things)

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

postillion: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

postillion: Re: Galactic Civilization

Shy Elf: Re: Galactic Civilization

WMK: Re: Galactic Civilization

Lou: Me too

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

Shy Elf: Re: Galactic Civilization

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

Shy Elf: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

MayorBob: Re: Galactic Civilization

skeptic: Re: Galactic Civilization

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

MayorBob: Re: Galactic Civilization

thefadd: Re: Galactic Civilization

skeptic: Galactic Civilization

skeeter1: Re: Take Us To Your Cool Ranch Doritos

Shy Elf: If people thought this could work...

Lou: Frito Lay should stick with Jay

MayorBob: Sooner or later CNN is going to run ...