General / Off-Topic What if we are the first?

[Pyrotiger]

That sounds like the most logical conclusion. Given this, the question thus being: has an alien civilisation managed to develop the technology to travel massive distances at/beyond the speed of light?

I don't think it's so improbable to think that others know what we don't know, have travelled and have discovered we're basically not worth interfering with, beyond stealing the odd cow or two!

 

[Talarin]

That sounds like the most logical conclusion. Given this, the question thus being: has an alien civilisation managed to develop the technology to travel massive distances at/beyond the speed of light?

I don't think it's so improbable to think that others know what we don't know, have travelled and have discovered we're basically not worth interfering with, beyond stealing the odd cow or two!

The sci-fi fan in me would love you to be right, but physics as we know it now says no (at least in straight line travel).

Wormhole travel, maybe...

But if you'd gone to the trouble of visiting an inhabited star system, why on earth would you be so interested in livestock?

 

[TigerTen]

I think if we where the "ONLY", what a waste of "SPACE" ( sorry no pun intended)...

 

[Adept]

The fact that prime real estate like the Earth has been here for us to develop shows that usably good FTL for travel or colonising is not available.

 

[JeffRyan]

Look up Drake's Equation on Wikipedia.

 

[Pyrotiger]

Look up Drake's Equation on Wikipedia.

Cheers. I worked it out as 42, what about you?

 

[Talarin]

The fact that prime real estate like the Earth has been here for us to develop shows that usably good FTL for travel or colonising is not available.

... unless we're the colonists?

 

[Adept]

... unless we're the colonists?

As some ancient archaea? We are native here, very clearly the products of the evolution that has happened on Earth.

 

[Don Alvarez]

We are all made up of molecules, billions of years old. We all came from somewhere else.

 

[Minonian]

Getting back to the OP?

I think this very unlikely.

 

[Ozram]

Ok, so you guys have probably played and watched a ton of sci-fi games / movies. I am sure that everyone is familiar with the story, used in many games and movies, of how there used to be a great and super advanced alien civilization. And now they are gone. Maybe they waged war on each other or looked for other civilizations or simply disappeared due to unknown circumstances.

We spend a lot of time and effort looking for evidence of other life in the universe. We have not found anything outside of a few microbe fossils. WHAT IF we are the first? What if there are no advanced civilizations anywhere near earth for hundreds or thousands of light years. Just something I was thinking about and wondering if any serious scientists have given this hypothesis any thought.

Feel free to share your comments/ideas/hatemail. All are welcome.

Lol! I wish we'd found microbe fossils! Truth is we've searched an infinitesimal minutiae of the universe. Who knows?

 

[Minonian]

Lol! I wish we'd found microbe fossils! Truth is we've searched an infinitesimal minutiae of the universe. Who knows?

We do, and from the mars.
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nasa1.html

And the very fact of these not 100% percent confirmed finding this close to earth, closes out the we are the first, or we are alone.
Somewhere out of there there is life, and intelligence.

 

[metatheurgist]

But if you'd gone to the trouble of visiting an inhabited star system, why on earth would you be so interested in livestock?

Why are biologists so interested in catching (abducting) animals, tagging them (implants) and collecting their stool samples (butt probes).

 

[FuzzySpider]

We are probably not only the first but the only ones there are or will ever be. Fermi Paradox ladies and gentlemen. "Space is big" does not logically mean "Life exists".

Furthermore.

[video=youtube;poyxXsVb9aA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poyxXsVb9aA[/video]

How to raise a child.

 

[Draxxen]

Maybe only predatorial species like humans would want to expand, while peaceful intelligent life find their perfect balance right where they are, not seeing any point in expanding.
Maybe predatorial species manage to destroy themselves before getting too far...

 

[who?]

We are probably not only the first but the only ones there are or will ever be. Fermi Paradox ladies and gentlemen. "Space is big" does not logically mean "Life exists".

Furthermore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poyxXsVb9aA

How to raise a child.

I would argue our current sample size is insufficient to support bolded claim.

 

[Mephane]

I am convinced we are neither the first, the last, nor alone. It is instead the gulf of time which separates us much more starkly from other civilizations than the gulf of space. It took billions of years for a technological civilization to spring up on Earth - given how many random events factor into this specific time frame, it could just as well happen 100 million years earlier or later on another planet.

Now imagine a civilization 100 million years ahead of us. You simply can't.

 

[Arry]

Maybe only predatorial species like humans would want to expand, while peaceful intelligent life find their perfect balance right where they are, not seeing any point in expanding.
Maybe predatorial species manage to destroy themselves before getting too far...

Like the planet Kricket, you mean?

 

[FuzzySpider]

I am convinced we are neither the first, the last, nor alone. It is instead the gulf of time which separates us much more starkly from other civilizations than the gulf of space. It took billions of years for a technological civilization to spring up on Earth - given how many random events factor into this specific time frame, it could just as well happen 100 million years earlier or later on another planet.

Now imagine a civilization 100 million years ahead of us. You simply can't.

Just like the Fermi paradox that argument can be turned around.

Imagine if a civilization had sprung up on this planet 100 million years ago. Let's say some dinos developed brain power and invented rudimentary technology. However much you like. Whether using caves as homes and using fire to cook, all the way through to the invention of the steam engine.

Is it conceivable that we wouldn't find traces of their activity in the fossil record?

And let's say humans go extinct very soon. Then imagine a hyper intelligent species of squid rising up and becoming the planets foremost species. Is it conceivable that they themselves wouldn't find traces of humans as they dig through the future earth?

 

[Mephane]

Just like the Fermi paradox that argument can be turned around.

Imagine if a civilization had sprung up on this planet 100 million years ago. Let's say some dinos developed brain power and invented rudimentary technology. However much you like. Whether using caves as homes and using fire to cook, all the way through to the invention of the steam engine.

Is it conceivable that we wouldn't find traces of their activity in the fossil record?

And let's say humans go extinct very soon. Then imagine a hyper intelligent species of squid rising up and becoming the planets foremost species. Is it conceivable that they themselves wouldn't find traces of humans as they dig through the future earth?

Depends on the time scales and the precise nature of the events (e.g. geological) in the meantime, but probably we would have had traces. The thing is, we have access to all of the Earth, but only a limited view into the past (and none into the future). For the universe, our view is very limited, it is only into the past to begin with (and only a very specific point in the past dependent on distance), and we have no direct physical access. It's possible that when/if we regular travel to the stars, we find the ruins of thousands of long dead civilizations... or none.