Baby the stars shine bright...

JennyDaniella said:
Absolutely love this photo John! Great post! :)
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And this from Wyote is truly amazing too - love it!

Wyote said:
Beautiful image!

Something I came to realize a while back is that the light energy from one of these bad boys could potentially aim at us and fry us all, even being a crapload far away. Crapload is a scientific term meaning "probably even further than you're thinking."

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JennyDaniella said:
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Great post Jenny - bitter sweet enough for your sad melancholy thread. I've thought for a while the most likely possibility is that we're alone, or that there's only very few civilisations in the whole universe. If we don't destroy ourselves, we'll be everywhere in the galaxy within a few 100,000 years, and that's nothing in cosmic timescales, so we must be alone in our own galaxy surely or the solar system would be full of those who developed earlier than us.


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John K said:
Great post Jenny - bitter sweet enough for your sad melancholy thread. I've thought for a while the most likely possibility is that we're alone, or that there's only very few civilisations in the whole universe. If we don't destroy ourselves, we'll be everywhere in the galaxy within a few 100,000 years, and that's nothing in cosmic timescales, so we must be alone in our own galaxy surely or the solar system would be full of those who developed earlier than us.


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I absolutely agree. I actually did a little blog on the Fermi Paradox a month or so ago, discussing the mysteries and theories as to why we haven't encountered or heard anything from other beings. It is a great possibility that we are truly alone in this great vast galaxy as you have mentioned, or possibly the universe. It is quite a saddening and depressing thought, but if you think about it, it should give the human race a much more greater incentive to treat one another with kindness and love---we only have each other. Even if there are other beings, we will never reach that same level of connection and understanding with them like we do with one another. Who knows? Other civilizations could be much more hostile than we are.

I get incredibly infuriated and frustrated that we as a species are so focused on war, materialism, greed, and hate---when it should be the complete opposite. There isn't one day when I don't think about the human condition and have a cynical aftertaste in my mouth.

Another thing to point out, it could be a possibility that other civilizations have caused their own demise way before we have arrived, similarly in the route we are going as a species right now. Hence why we haven't received any signal back.

I realize how pessimistic I sound, but it is an unfortunate reality right now. I truly hope that eventually things will look up in our planet, because the more time passes and the lack of actual evidence of extraterrestrials continues, the more we will realize that we are most likely completely alone.

I still have hope though despite my cynicism, it would be such a waste of space if it was only just us.
 
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JennyDaniella said:
I realize how pessimistic I sound, but it is an unfortunate reality right now. I truly hope that eventually things will look up in our planet, because the more time passes and the lack of actual evidence of extraterrestrials continues, the more we will realize that we are most likely completely alone.

I still have hope though despite my cynicism, it would be such a waste of space if it was only just us.
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It's like the duck/rabbit picture - depends on how you look. It would be terribly sad if we are alone, because we wouldn't have the perspectives and insights that a completely different civilisation would give us. But perhaps it's our destiny to go out there and fill it all with our descendants. They wouldn't look like us, any more than we look like the first fishes that walked on dry land - it might be that our role is a bit like theirs, the first ones out of their pond. That view is encouraging, but it's very daunting as well because we would be so precious if things really are like that - a silly bit of mismanagement now could determine whether the far future of the whole universe is sterile or teeming with life.

It's fun to play with the ideas …. Stephen Webb talked about sending self replicating robots out into the galaxy. I've come across that idea quite a bit before and I got to wondering how they'd evolve. We always assume visitors from outer space would be super intelligent, but perhaps some of these guys would evolve to be more like animals. Maybe ufos are like interstellar geese that evolved from robots sent out by some long gone civilisation - that would explain part of their odd behaviour.
 
John K said:
It's like the duck/rabbit picture - depends on how you look. It would be terribly sad if we are alone, because we wouldn't have the perspectives and insights that a completely different civilisation would give us. But perhaps it's our destiny to go out there and fill it all with our descendants. They wouldn't look like us, any more than we look like the first fishes that walked on dry land - it might be that our role is a bit like theirs, the first ones out of their pond. That view is encouraging, but it's very daunting as well because we would be so precious if things really are like that - a silly bit of mismanagement now could determine whether the far future of the whole universe is sterile or teeming with life.

It's fun to play with the ideas …. Stephen Webb talked about sending self replicating robots out into the galaxy. I've come across that idea quite a bit before and I got to wondering how they'd evolve. We always assume visitors from outer space would be super intelligent, but perhaps some of these guys would evolve to be more like animals. Maybe ufos are like interstellar geese that evolved from robots sent out by some long gone civilisation - that would explain part of their odd behaviour.
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You are definitely correct! And that is actually a great perspective there @John K!

I actually do have the strongest feeling that we will come to the point that humans will have the capabilities in colonizing our solar system, and possibly other galaxies if we figure out how to interstellar travel, no doubt about it. Just as long as we don't obliterate ourselves in the first place haha--- then there is no doubt in mind we will be advanced enough to do all those things!
 
Jodrell Bank radio telescope in Cheshire, England. Took this today from about 10 miles away - I'm pretty pleased because it's hand-held at a focal length of 750mm equivalent.

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Very interesting news! Actual evidence of an alien breakthrough?

I just read an article from the Daily News just now that the mysterious asteroid Oumuamua that hit our solar system of last year suddenly changed trajectory and increased in speed. No external force have caused this change of direction or speed.

Thoughts?

The article is found here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...uamua-giant-solar-sail-sent-civilization.html



 
JennyDaniella said:
Very interesting news! Actual evidence of an alien breakthrough?

I just read an article from the Daily News just now that the mysterious asteroid Oumuamua that hit our solar system of last year suddenly changed trajectory and increased in speed. No external force have caused this change of direction or speed.

Thoughts?

The article is found here:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...uamua-giant-solar-sail-sent-civilization.html


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Meh, its a comet.

Btw, why are we still naming projects after Icarus? Is this a poorly-written sci-fi we're living through?
 
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