What If Humanity Is Among The First Spacefaring Civilizations?



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Half of the universe is filled with expansionist alien civilizations, and it’s only a matter of time before they’ll reach us. OK, that sounded a little sensationalist. But it’s also the conclusion of a recent astrophysics paper. Let’s see how they figure this, and whether we should take it seriously.

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46 thoughts on “What If Humanity Is Among The First Spacefaring Civilizations?”

  1. I must say, as somebody who is working on their Master's degree in palaeontology at one of the top palaeo universities in the world, I find this all to be quite interesting, albeit arm-wavy. At the end of the day, we only have one datapoint that describes the emergence of life. That's hardly enough data to create a generalisable empirical model, much less a mechanistic one as this hypothesis posits. Nevertheless, it's an interesting philosophical exercise in how humans perceive themselves and their place in the world.

    Good job with the video, as always!

    Reply
  2. You know the guys who cook up these fermi paradoxes and grabby aliens should really spend a few minutes talking to climate scientists. I propose to you that it is materially IMPOSSIBLE for any civilization to conquer or expand throughout the galaxy. Any civilization dumb enough to attempt to do so will destroy it's home planets ability to support the civilizations existence. Think really hard with me here guys. In just 200 years of COMPARATIVELY LIGHT industrial activity we are already plunging towards our planet being totally unable to support our industrial civilization. So to start grabby aliens I think you would need 10 orders of magnitude more in a 40 year window, doing so would of course destroy the entire civilization in the process destroying themselves in the process. There is no paradox. Only dumb civilizations that killed themselves trying to leave their paradise and civilizations who aren't dumb enough to kill themselves to go mine space rocks.

    Reply
  3. Can you imagine humanity in its current state spreading across the galaxy? It sounds more like the Spaceballs! If there is a more advanced species they have good reason to keep us quarantined here

    'Cause what you got is what we need and all we do is dirty deeds
    We're the Spaceballs! Watch out, 'cause we're the Spaceballs
    We're the masters of space
    Hey, don't mess around with the Spaceballs'
    Going cruisin' in a spaceship, we're so good at being bad
    We'll destroy your little planet if you ever get us mad
    We're mothers of the galaxy
    You better scatter when you see
    The Spaceballs! Watch out, we're the Spaceballs
    We're the masters of space
    Say what? Don't mess around with the Spaceballs
    Watch out!

    Reply
  4. I feel bad for the rare, pre-FTL civilizations that will be swept up when a larger grabby alien colonizer shows up at the doorstep. Their home will most likely be taken from them, terraformed, and they’ll be placed in zoos/integrated at best or exterminated at worst.

    Reply
  5. Alternatively, humans went from primitive to wiping ourselves out with nuclear weapons in a few thousand years.

    In terms of Universal time, we're a mere blip.

    Other civilisations may have come and gone in other such blips.

    Reply
  6. What about all the mass extinction events?

    Would we have evolved had the dinosaurs not been wiped out along with around 75% of all life on the planet? These events seem to have been conveniently overlooked.

    Reply
  7. If we are the first, who other than ourselves will we impress?
    Deep space travel is "practically" impossible, and surely impossible, IF we don't clean up Planet earth first. MY BOOK: The concept of light speed and warp speed, as well as the potential development of death rays, has been a subject of interest and speculation in academic circles.Yet another formidable challenge arises from the fact that the kinetic energy of the atoms likewise experiences an increase. In order for a crew to successfully undertake a 50,000-light-year expedition to the central region of the Milky Way within a decade, it would be necessary for them to maintain a velocity equivalent to 99.999998 percent of the speed of light. At such velocities, hydrogen atoms would appear to attain an impressive energy level of 7 teraelectron volts, which is equivalent to the energy that protons will ultimately achieve in the fully operational state of the Large Hadron Collider. According to Edelstein, the experience for the crew would be comparable to being positioned in front of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) beam.The protective capabilities of the spacecraft's hull would be insufficient. According to Edelstein's calculations, a coating of aluminum with a thickness of 10 centimeters would absorb less than 1 percent of the energy. Due to the presence of a proton as the nucleus of hydrogen atoms, the crew is subjected to hazardous ionizing radiation, which results in the disruption of chemical bonds and the impairment of DNA. According to Edelstein, hydrogen atoms possess characteristics that make them inescapable hazards in outer space.The lethal threshold of radiation exposure for an individual is determined to be 6 sieverts. According to Edelstein's calculations, it has been determined that the crew would be subjected to a radiation dose exceeding 10,000 sieverts within a single second. The presence of intense radiation would additionally result in the structural degradation of the spacecraft and inflict harm onto its electrical instrumentation. The possible harm is of significant magnitude. This experience can be likened to entering a highly intense thermal environment, comparable to that of a nuclear furnace. Edelstein postulates that this could perhaps be the singular factor contributing to the absence of extraterrestrial visitation. In the hypothetical scenario where Mr. E. T. had the expertise to construct a spacecraft capable of achieving light speed, it is plausible that he could encounter a fatal outcome due to the presence of a malfunctioning navigation system within the compromised vessel.
    However, according to the genre of science fiction, it posits that aliens are capable of achieving feats that may be considered inconceivable by conventional standards. Perhaps the spacecraft in question operates via antigravity propulsion and is governed by photon-based quantum computing systems [17]. Perhaps the extraterrestrial beings have achieved expertise in the field of radiation shielding and have successfully resolved challenges related to the preservation of food? It is possible to hypothesize that if my grandma possessed wheels, she might exhibit characteristics akin to those of a wagon. See Weirdvideos.com GO HERE…
    https://www.amazon.com/Aliens-Search-Extra-Terrestrial-Presence-Universe/dp/1985739518/ref=sr_1_19?keywords=Ross+S+Marshall&qid=1692315938&s=books&sr=1-19

    Reply
  8. It's hard to remember everyone's name yet alone the stars and planets in the galaxy beyond the cosmos if you could design the universe would you change it for the better or believe it's ok it's alright humans know axcactly what their doing. My perspective on the cosmos is it's to big it's bigger than the bank and I'll break my head thinking about that much space.

    Reply
  9. wrong: not typical star. typical star is red dwarf. ours is g-type yellow .. bigger than most. Allows safe Goldilox zone 4 rocky terrestrial planets & long-term habitability. That's relatively rare .. so .. we're special. Others we eventually interact with (if we don't destroy ourselves 1st), will also b .. special. It takes a whole lotta luck/love/will-power 2 evolve sentience & cosmos from chaos & entropy.

    Reply
  10. Interesting, but now that JWST just showed us there universe 26b years old and possibly cyclic in nature, as for the big bangs, that throws a bit of a monkey wrench into some of your conclusions, right?

    Reply
  11. 11:24 Maybe I'm just imagining it but I swear to God, I can hear a hissing on the video and a voice saying "the implicit function of intelligent life is to expand indefinitely and colonize the universe as an a priori assumption really sounds like the kind of thing people who aren't ready to go out and meet the neighbors would advance".

    Reply
  12. No one will ever see this but here's my hypothesis about why we might actually be special. I'm just going to hyphenate but pretend they're arrows.
    As far as we know:
    Life requires water – life begins in water – evolution occurs in water – intelligent lifeforms emerge… in water – they build civilisations and technology but can't create fire or steam and certainly no electricity – no tech advancement possible – no interstellar travel

    So my hypothesis is, we are special because we are intelligent AND evolved on land. Not to mention, our intelligence was remarkably bad for survival. We have extremely low genetic variability precisely because we were pathetic and weak and nearly died out just like the other dozen species of human already did. It is not a given that intelligence is a favourable trait for evolution.

    Reply
  13. I think the emergence of intelligent life got a big boost from the extinction of the dinosaurs, they weren't exactly smart, but they were successful in life through other positive traits. An intelligent species would have had more trouble emerging in this world since intelligence was not a very useful trait from an evolutionary perspectice (at least compared to mammalian life) and such an evolution might have taken significantly longer to emerge if ever. However since dinosaurs got wiped out it changed the rules of the game, allowing more recessive traits to become dominant, intelligence as opposed to physical traits. The fact that most mammalians living in the modern times are smarter than the smartest of dinosaurs of the time tells us something already.

    Reply
  14. Oh we would absolutely be grabby. Grabby mcgraberson. But also i think a certain level of technology would take the grabbiness out of you. If you have replication tech for example what are you grabbing?

    Reply
  15. In my understanding, after the "Big Bang" everything in universe that existed was light… In fact that most of all energy in universe is now dark or inside Black Holes means, we are by far not at the beginning of it, but maybe at the beginning of the phase where materials for life were spread enough to make our existence even possible… but I don't think we are the lucky ones, there must exist better places.

    Reply
  16. Humans have a serious problem of self-overestimation! We are not a space-faring species. We barelly scratch the surface of the atmosphere in tiny alu-bottles. There is also no need to leave Earth. It's the planet that made us what we are. No other planet will ever fit our needs in the same way. And interstellar space is just 100% deadly. All planets too.

    Reply

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