Is it normal that the thought of us never meeting aliens makes me sad

61% Normal
13 Comments

If we don't find a way around "the speed of light" limit then that means we'll never be able to have interstellar travel and meet aliens, unless it's through generation ships, but then that means that only a small portion of humanity will get to meet aliens until hundreds of millions of years later when the Sun explodes and we all have to produce a bunch of generation ships to get out of here, and that's if we're lucky enough to make it somewhere we can stay as refugees without running out of fuel.

And then in the meantime humanity becomes more globalized and centralized until we all have the exact same language and culture, which is then spread throughout the solar system. Solar system colonization might add some diversity for a little while, but then that will all come together too.

It's disappointing and boring to think of a world where everyone has the exact same language and culture and where there is never any relationships whether in peace or conflict with "others" because we're all part of "one humanity". But given the limit of the speed of light that's going to happen unless someone comes along and revises Einstein.

Voting Results
61% Normal
Based on 33 votes (20 yes)
Help us keep this site organized and clean. Thanks!
[ Report Post ]
Comments ( 13 )
  • TerryVie
    11 years ago

    Logic fail.
    Why would it have to be US visiting THEM?

    Matter of factly, our society is just not advanced enough to be anything of a curiosity study. We are going full speed ahead towards either a wall or a cliff, we "accept" that we are ruled by whole clans of politicians reknown for corruption and exploited by the rich that want to get richer.
    We exploit native species and resources shamelessly and without consideration for the future. All in all, we are more of a harmful planetary parasite than an intelligent species.

    Also, take a look at the Lorentz Transformations. Even at 99% speed of light, it's almost a factor 7 time dilation. Quite achievable with some theoretic concepts. So you would not need generation ships. You could move from earth to Alpha Centauri in about 5 years(including the acceleration and decceleration). 10 years back and forth. Only, here it would be 70 years from your departure until you are back here. This incredibly slow exchange will make us "aliens" to one another.

    Then again, gravitational influence(to give just one example) is not exactly worried about speed-of-light, so may well provide a layer beyond our known space-time to work with.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    2
    2
      -
    • Geldsmaggen
      11 years ago

      1. The aliens are bound to the same laws of physics as we are, unless they discover a way around it but if that were possible then so could we.

      2. With the Lorentz Transformations it takes even longer from Earth's perspective. Sure we could get some interaction with the nearby star systems, but that's incredibly limited and chances are there aren't any intelligent aliens there.

      Comment Hidden ( show )
      0
      0
        -
      • TerryVie
        11 years ago

        1. The aliens are bound to the same physics, but not necessarily the same biology. We may need generation ships, they may have life spans of 10 thousand years or more making travel close to the speed of light more of a weekend trip.
        Plus, that THEY discover a way around the laws does not mean we are automatically capable as well. A vastly different form of existance(for sake of example, an artificial digital lifeform) could well "survive" things we may not, or go into a hiatus/torpor state. Our fleshy bags are quite vulnerable to a lot of things. If the only way to move through another "dimension"(e.g. a warped reality similar to the depictations of hyperspeed) includes a subjective acceleration of 50g or more to everything moving through, humans are not built to survive that. Unless you genetically alter our whole species(vastly), thats not a road open to us.

        2. As said, the faster, the longer, the farther, the longer as well. In a way, that will make us aliens. If you go to a location and back, but 200 years pass, chances are the local adaption(e.g. to a lower-gravity world with a different spectrum of light passing through the atmosphere) will result in humans vastly different from our uniform species on earth.

        Comment Hidden ( show )
        1
        1
          -
        • Geldsmaggen
          11 years ago

          Genetically altering the whole species is a viable option given that genetic engineering technology is emerging.

          Comment Hidden ( show )
          0
          0
            -
          • TerryVie
            11 years ago

            Only to a certain extent. To use the example above...what would be necessary to make us capable of surviving prolonged accelerations of beyond 50g is nothing short of a complete and utter redesign of our physical forms.
            If you go that path, due to differing specializations, you will have plenty of non-humans around even without technical aliens.
            And even with genetics, you can't be sure to achieve the redesigns necessary to tread on the same paths as an alien species could.

            Comment Hidden ( show )
            2
            2
              -
            • Geldsmaggen
              11 years ago

              Awesome, instead of aliens we get to have cyborgs and new mutant sentient species in the future!

              Comment Hidden ( show )
              0
              0
  • Avant-Garde
    11 years ago

    It does make me sad that our planet isn't "open" to other planets. It would be nice if the universe was "open" like in Futurama, but strangely it's not. Maybe, they'll contact us in near future (hopefully).

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    1
    1
  • shuggy-chan
    11 years ago

    have you met space ghostie, she took me for a ride once... in her space ship of course

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    1
    1
  • Cheradenine
    11 years ago

    You idiots need to look up the Fermi Paradox

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    0
    0
  • AssBurgers
    11 years ago

    Yeah, it makes me sad too.

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    0
    0
  • dappled
    11 years ago

    We could be meeting aliens in four days, fourteen and a half hours. Curiosity is landing on Mars then and one of the things she'll be looking for is historical evidence of water (some carbonates, for instance, only form in the presence of water, so their existence proves water was once on Mars). If they also find certain organic molecules, it could be indicative of life having existed (or still existing).

    I'll be getting up at 5am to watch the landing "live". Much excitement in dappled-land. Is there Life on Mars? :)

    Comment Hidden ( show )
    0
    0
      -
    • Geldsmaggen
      11 years ago

      Obviously I mean intelligent life. Microbes isn't going to keep the world that interesting.

      Comment Hidden ( show )
      1
      1