undefined | Better HN

0 pointspasabagi4y ago0 comments

My preferred speculation is simply that faster-than-light travel is impossible, so all the tool-using aliens out there are not visiting us because they can't, and we can't hear their signals because it gets lost against the background noise.

I mean, would we be able to detect our own civilization from a few lightyears out? Apparently, unless you're pointing a radio telescope right at something, you woudn't be able to pick up human civilization levels of radio from more than a lightyear out. Say there's one smart tool-using civilization per 5000 lightyear volume, then they're unlikely to meet.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

spfzero4y ago

Even if a civilization out there had faster-than-light travel, they would most likely not know we were here. They would need to decide to come explore near us, probably need to expensively slow down to sub-light speeds to look for signs of life near here and pick up our emissions on some old archaic piece of equipment they happened to bring along.

Would a much more advanced civilization spend their exploration budget to look over uninteresting primitives like us, or would they go off in search of other more advanced civilizations like their own?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse