|
Well now that we have our own thread for this, I'm going all in because I actually spent most of my youth devouring stuff on aliens and Area 51 and poo poo so I do have some viewpoints on this. But I think the simple one, adding onto Fermi a bit, is this: the universe is just unendingly, mind bendingly, soul crushingly huge and we're just one tiny, likely unremarkable part of it. If anything, the idea that aliens would come visit us instead of billions of other solar systems is just as self absorbed as thinking our star was the center of the entire universe. Who the gently caress are we? That may be part of it. But old, pre-9/11 X-Files stories of visits and coverups still sort of excite me just like they did back then. I do think it's interesting though, how "pilot saw something" is now a legit story that gets reported in the news, not something that causes the pilot to be laughed out of his job anymore.
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2018 15:40
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 11, 2024 12:37 |
|
|
Kerning Chameleon posted:I love how your post can literally be boiled down to "Okay, BUT WHAT IF everything physicists have observed about our universe so far is 100% wrong and my favorite pulp fiction comic is right? What then, smartie pants?!?" This is a more doomsaying way than I would have put it but you have a point here: in the cosmic timeline of planets and stars forming and etc, our overall lifespan is a mere blip on the heart monitor. We'll have been around a few thousand years if we're lucky in a universe where millions of years can pass without anything notable happening nearby. The sheer odds of our short existence overlapping with some other spacefaring species' are long indeed.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2018 18:22
|
|
|
DrSunshine posted:Which are the top 10 best moons in the Solar System? IO has to be on that list, top 3 for sure. It's my personal favorite.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 29, 2018 22:44
|
|
|
It's telling that, for one example, the Star Trek universe is based 100% on finding what essentially is a wholly new source of propulsion based on a limitless energy output and a process to use it that doesn't exist. You sort of have to start at unobtainium because yeah, the science as it stands now pretty much keeps us locked into our galactic neighborhood.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2018 02:50
|
|