Re: Fermi paradox

spintronic wrote:

VoiceOfReason wrote:

spintronic wrote:

VoiceOfReason wrote:

spintronic wrote:

Where are they?

Not here, it would seem. Do you think they should be? If so, why?

Yes they should be, they've had 9 billion+ "extra" years of evolution
to get their act together.

Depending on what one might expect to see, that's making lots of
assumptions. If it's "Why they haven't visited us," I think it
seriously underestimates the difficulties of travel between stars, not
the least of which is supplying power to a spacecraft for the years the
trip would take. It could be that inter-stellar travel will always be
impractical, regardless of the level of technology (which would be a
pity).

Aliens could very well be in the same position we are, listening for
telltale signals from distant planets. Maybe it took hundreds of years
before they finally found anybody. Maybe they never did.

Maybe life on other planets doesn't exist long enough between massive
extinctions to get to an advanced technological stage. There are
volcanic events, comets & meteors, etc., that have killed off entire
ecosystems here. It could be that we're some of the lucky few
intelligent species that have survived to wonder who else is out there.

A special I saw the other night said that Earth's protective magnetic
field is weakening, and that it may be gone within a thousand years.
They said that Mars used to have a similar magnetic field that
disappeared a couple billion years ago. Is that a common event? Do
most life-capable planets have only a limited "life span" before their
magnetic field dissipates, their atmosphere is stripped away and high
levels of radiation make life impossible?

There are many unanswered questions, and we have few examples to go by.
We may never find signs of technological species on other planets - or
we may find it next week.

Take the space travel out of the equation. There should still be plenty
of radio signals out there.

Mostly too faint for anyone at interstellar distances to pick up, I'd
reckon. Then it's a question of picking those that might be near enough
out of the background noise. I don't think it's at all likely that one
would "hear" radio signals from other sentient beings even if one could
scan the heavens for centuries.

--Jeff

--
Often war is waged only in order to
show valor; thus an inner dignity is
ascribed to war itself, and even some
philosophers have praised it as an
ennoblement of humanity, forgetting the
pronouncement of the Greek who said,
"War is an evil in as much as it produces
more wicked men than it takes away."
--Immanuel Kant

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Fermi paradox
    ... regardless of the level of technology (which would be a ... Maybe life on other planets doesn't exist long enough between massive ... magnetic field dissipates, their atmosphere is stripped away and high ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Fermi paradox
    ... regardless of the level of technology (which would be a ... Maybe life on other planets doesn't exist long enough between massive ... magnetic field dissipates, their atmosphere is stripped away and high ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Fermi paradox
    ... technology improvements should reduce these incrimentally over time. ... Maybe life on other planets doesn't exist long enough between massive ... magnetic field dissipates, their atmosphere is stripped away and high ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Re: Atheists are the biggest fools on Earth
    ... maybe God did the same thing with this universe. ... the fact that there is life on some planets. ... We can conclude nothing of the sort as there is no evidence to base ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: "The Scarcity of Life Bearing Planets"
    ... large number of planets in our galaxy that are suitable for life. ... If an Earth sized planet existed 93,000,000 miles ... too small and too close to the Sun to have prevented its atmosphere, ...
    (sci.physics.particle)