Alien Races?

[acr0b3rts]

But we actually showed up after 3 billion years of evolution, because our planet is only about 4 billion years old. Consider that most habitable planets will have wildly different ages- some might be a few thousand years ahead (or behind), some might be 5-10 billion years older than ours or may have only formed in the last 2 billion years. What are the odds we would all evolve to spacefaring within a few centuries of each other?

But what if the conditions for the evolution and prolonged survival of advanced civilization (which is what we are) only exist in the older, cooler, less dense universe in which we find ourselves today?

Personally, I do think there is life out there but even if it has advanced to the point where it can break atmosphere, there are immense volumes of space between us.

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

There might be enough space for it but what's the likelihood that a sapient race will survive to spacefaring capability? Even the most conservative estimates of alien life suggest thousands of alien intelligences. Given that in 14B years there's been enough time for even the most slow travelling race to colonise the entire galaxy, you gotta wonder where they are?

They've been and gone, billions of years ago when the earth was nothing but a ball of uninteresting hot rock.
They'll be back

Either that or they set off in the other direction....

Actually they might have colonized the entire galaxy, how do you know they haven't? We haven't exactly been for a look have we?
The Vogon constructor fleet might be on it's way now to make way for a bypass.

 

[AtomicHorror]

But what if the conditions for the evolution and prolonged survival of advanced civilization (which is what we are) only exist in the older, cooler, less dense universe in which we find ourselves today?

Is there any reason to assume that is the case? Let's assume that it is and that at some time point in the history of the universe, the conditions changed as you suggest. Planets vary, their life-supporting conditions- even in the broader context of the conditions of the universe- vary, and there are certainly many variables involved. Is it really plausible that the universe flipped a switch and, over the course of 3 billion years, with no slowdown or speedup between them, a whole bunch of planets evolved life at the same rate and arrived at the spacefaring stage within a few centuries of each other?

Even if every world started at the same time, and every world were heading in the same "direction" evolutionarily, minor differences between those worlds could equal millions of years of difference in arriving at the spacefaring stage.

 

[metatheurgist]

Personally, I do think there is life out there but even if it has advanced to the point where it can break atmosphere, there are immense volumes of space between us.

And the experts have done the math, even at the slowest rate of travel the entire galaxy should be colonised by now, if anyone is out there.

 

[Darth Sidious]

We've had transatlantic radio for less than 100 years, which means if there are aliens, who are listening, could detect such a weak signal, and who replied immediately, their reply will not have reached us yet if they are over 50ly away...

Fermi's Paradox is fun

They wouldn't reply anyway
Humans are still in reliïsm
Contact wont occur before that' period is long forgotten

 

[Gelbrock]

All I know is that the universe is basically like a doughnut... and growing....

You would think there would be a bunch of aliens that can see the win win situation in moving here....

Maybe massive cop like aliens with HUGE coffee cups....

And as for the milky way.... who does not like chocolate?

 

[acr0b3rts]

And the experts have done the math, even at the slowest rate of travel the entire galaxy should be colonised by now, if anyone is out there.

We can't categorically state such things. What is the reliability of those caulculations? They are by nature based on a huge number of assumptions. We don't know what the conditions for the evolution of advanced civilisation are. If we assume that they can exist elsewhere, we don't know what the average life time is. Perhaps several thousand advanced civilsations have already spawned and wiped themselves out in what we believe to be the history of the universe.

 

[Patrick_68000]

We can't categorically state such things. What is the reliability of those caulculations? They are by nature based on a huge number of assumptions. We don't know what the conditions for the evolution of advanced civilisation are. If we assume that they can exist elsewhere, we don't know what the average life time is. Perhaps several thousand advanced civilsations have already spawned and wiped themselves out in what we believe to be the history of the universe.

There are even scientists which announces one new theory, according to which, the conditions of the emergence of the life on a planet, are not necessarily, those whom we know on earth (in particular the distance between the planet and its star)

 

[Patrick_68000]

According to these scientists, the lack of atmosphere, water, very high or very low temperatures, very close or very far distances, between a planet and its star could simply give birth to different forms of life

 

[Gibbon]

What a serious discussion. Why for crying out loud? Have people forgotten this is a game and not a real life simulation? In a game of this magnitude, there has to be alien races to meet otherwise we'll all get bored very quickly. Who cares if, with our limited real life knowledge, it's realistic that there may or may not be real alien races out there? It's a game i'd like to enjoy without a bunch of 'scientists' telling me if it's possible or not.

 

[Patrick_68000]

What a serious discussion. Why for crying out loud? Have people forgotten this is a game and not a real life simulation? In a game of this magnitude, there has to be alien races to meet otherwise we'll all get bored very quickly. Who cares if, with our limited real life knowledge, it's realistic that there may or may not be real alien races out there? It's a game i'd like to enjoy without a bunch of 'scientists' telling me if it's possible or not.

This is what we say. The different theories concerning the conditions of the emergence of life, is not an exact science and definitives theories. Thereby, ED can accomodate all the possibles and imaginables lives

 

[scrufferpops]

Well....I know this will sound suspicious and perhaps 'crazy' to some on this forum; but I've seen the 'unexplained' before in my 70 odd years. For me there is little doubt; I accept what I and some others have seen . Even if I consider other explanations for what I've seen;-- some random chemical imbalance effecting my vision, interdimensionals etc. I expect at least one or two other traveling species in game.

I echo your sentiments entirely.

 

[scrufferpops]

And the experts have done the math, even at the slowest rate of travel the entire galaxy should be colonised by now, if anyone is out there.

Colonisation is a very human concept and aliens are unlikely to even remotely match our thought patterns.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Colonisation is a very human concept and aliens are unlikely to even remotely match our thought patterns.

If the aliens proliferate, they are well obliged to expand their vital space

 

[AtomicHorror]

What a serious discussion. Why for crying out loud? Have people forgotten this is a game and not a real life simulation? In a game of this magnitude, there has to be alien races to meet otherwise we'll all get bored very quickly. Who cares if, with our limited real life knowledge, it's realistic that there may or may not be real alien races out there? It's a game i'd like to enjoy without a bunch of 'scientists' telling me if it's possible or not.

It's a science fiction game. We've all got different tolerances for realism, so why not explore that? We've all accepted compromises with Elite (such as speed limits, sound in space etc.) and the results have been that most players are very happy. But to find that compromise, it's good to discuss realism as well as the need for gameplay.

But... putting 'scientists' in disdain quotes? Really? Do you even like this genre?

 

[Shishakli]

Going back to the game for a moment, the original Elite made reference to various alien beings, but for frontier and frontier fe, all of that seems to have been abandoned.

In the game yes. In the lore no:

http://www.dream-ware.co.uk/frontier/books/gazetteer/

"2280s - Discovery of first non-human relic in space. Origin still unknown in 3200."
"2310s - News of elimination of a reputedly sentient race on Achenar 6d by private colonists causes outrage in the Federation. Achenar refuses to join Federation, many terra-forming projects started."

As a side note, it's interesting that the empire is founded on genocide

 

[Gibbon]

But... putting 'scientists' in disdain quotes? Really? Do you even like this genre?

Oh please, knowing the difference between a game and reality is what is important here. Some of these discussions on here just try my patience with the absurdity of it all. I can only keep on stressing the fact that this is only a game. All these discussions about reality, it's about time some people returned to it.

And for your information, i've been into sci-fi for a very long time. Written way too many mods for other sci-fi games so yes, i do like the genre. Moving on...

 

[trekman]

What a serious discussion. Why for crying out loud? Have people forgotten this is a game and not a real life simulation?

I know. The original post was about other life in the game apart from the Thargoids. Suddenly it exploded into a discussion about real life in the galaxy.

 

[insanephoton]

Now the thing is the galaxy is vast, I think in one of his recent interviews, DB said something along the lines of 'if you imagine the galaxy takes up the whole of a screen, the area of human influence in the game would take up one pixel'. We know about the Thargoids, but we don't know much, essentially all that has been confirmed so far is that they are going to be in the game at some stage (though not confirmed for the initial release), that they are all 'female' and that their empire is much bigger than all of humanity's sphere of influence.

This still leaves most of the galaxy being able to contain who knows what to be introduced later.

Allen Stroud of Lave Radio discusses the lack of aliens in his writer's interview
http://laveradio.com/podcasts/laveradio-wi14.mp3

The contrast between having lots of aliens like Star Wars or Mass Effect and having few or none at first is the impact that they can have. In this case, less is more. If aliens were commonplace, they would perhaps seem less 'alien' or exotic perhaps even dull. In the same way that before we had easy travel, meeting someone from a different country was unusual and exciting, but now it's just an everyday occurrence.

It could mean that there are plans for a future injected event of first contact with another species. Only FD know for sure and they're not saying.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

I'd rather see the Thargoid thing done really well, rather than having a whole host of sentient factions. There has been plenty of decent sci-fi with one (or less) sentient alien race in it. Alien, Blade Runner, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Dune (I believe) and more.

Generally media which uses multiple races ends up making each one hugely stereotyped, which I often find a bit lame. Mass Effect was guilty of that.

Would love to see plenty of non-sentient alien life though, and it would be really cool to have creatures that are just on the cusp. Kind of like the alien equivalent of chimpanzees, or maybe even slightly cleverer.