>either we are the only intelligent life in the observable universe or another intelligent civilization has already been here and is either observing us without revealing themselves to humanity at large or found us so uninteresting as to be not worth their time interacting with >there is literally no in between
The only way this could be the case with "no in between" is if both A; we have observed every planet and moon in the trillions of galaxies in the observable universe and B; it is entirely possible to develop an advanced civilisation while also remaining undetected by an entity that is capable of observing every potentially life bearing planet and moon in the universe
>>16936542theres no in between because you can divide down the odds of intelligent, sapient life arising on any given planet to the order of septillions to 1, yet if there somehow was another intelligent species anywhere in the observable universe they would have thousands (unlikely) to millions or even billions of years of a headstart against us making the likelihood of them not knowing about us vanishingly small in my mind
>>16936547>theres no in between because you can divide down the odds of intelligent, sapient life arising on any given planet to the order of septillions to 1No you can't>yet if there somehow was another intelligent species anywhere in the observable universe they would have thousands (unlikely) to millions or even billions of years of a headstart against us Total conjecture. And even if a species was millions of years older that does not necessarily mean millions more advanced. Maybe they lacked the requisite biology or environment to develop advanced technology (sentient whales for example could never become space faring)>making the likelihood of them not knowing about us vanishingly small in my mindBeing advanced does not give you the magical abiltiy to ignore the speed of light
>>16936549>no you cant yes you can>intelligent whales intentionally misinterpreting the thought experiment doesnt make you seem intelligent or make your argument more valid, ties into the first point as well >SoL cope even today there are hypothetical work arounds to this
>>16936539>there is no inbetweenUh, yeah there is. Imagine we are the first intelligent alien life to exist. How long before we've observed every habitable planet in this galaxy? Thousands of years? Millions of years? Tens of millions? Pretty big window for other life to exist undetected and unobserved. Now just flip the roles between human and alien.
>>16936539Or their hot alien queens just want to secretely kidnap a few male earthlings to satiate their relentless sexual appetites.That's my favorite hypothesis at least.
>>16936539Or it's not easy to detect ayylmaos and they don't bother with traveling long outside of their system given how much time and energy that requires. Just look at humanity. We're veru advanced and it's clear by now that we're never going anywhere.
>>16936777>it's clear by now that we're never going anywhereNTA but I don't buy this. All an advanced civ has to do is wait for a rogue star to drift close enough that we can hop onto it's gravity well and ride it to star hop. I remember seeing an estime that said a civ could colonise a galaxy in several million years with this method even if ship-based interstellar travel remainds impossible (which I am not necessarily convined of, especially when superintelligence like genetically engineered supermen or AI get involved)
>>16936539The bugs in my backyard could literally think the same about never having witnessed humans.
>>16936688they don't need to do it in secret... they'd have a long line signing up voluntarily
>>16936539The idea that we haven’t been observed is far more absurd than the alternative. Really, really think about it.
>>16936539>>16936777>>16936939Better explanation: Intelligent ayy lmaos (including us) *eventually* master interstellar/galactic travel, but NEVER develop spacecraft that get near relativistic speeds, and hence explore relatively small portions of the universe around them, almost never interacting.
>>16936988I wish we were one of the lucky few, one in a trillion species that got to share a star system with another naturally evolving sentient on a nearby planet.
>>16933918
Interstellar travel simply isn't possible. Shit's too far apart, and it's getting further apart constantly. There probably is other life out there somewhere, but we'll never even know about them because they're too far away. We're alone on our little rock forever.
>>16937023even then if they were the size of a phone we’d literally never see it
>>16937030See >>16936939Rogue stars and planets are perfeclty viable vectors
>muh gravity wellsLet's say spacefaring aliens existed on a planet one billion light-years away, in a galaxy moving away from Earth (probably at the expected ~20,000 km/s rate.) How fast would they have to travel to reach Earth in a thousand years (from our perspective)? Also, how long would it take them to detect than an industrial civilization appeared on Earth? (assume Earth became noticeable 2 centuries ago)
>>16937140By the way, if you object that 1 billion ly is too far away, please remember that 99.99% of the objects in the observable universe (~90 billion ly in diameter) are at least that distant. 99.9999999999% (10^-14) are at least 1 million ly away. And of course we have little idea how far the actual universe extends and what shape it has.That's part of the reason why the Drake Equation only bothers with the Milky Way.
