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The Space Thread


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In my twenties i was convinced that intelligent life was out there and had been to earth. I read loads of first contact books, saw all the films, the documentaries. There are so many planets and galaxies that surely we can't be the only ones - the old Fermi paradox.

 

But the last couple of years i'm now as certain as i'll ever be that intelligent life probably doesn't exist, and in the unlikely event it does then it's either so far away that we'll never ever cross paths (because space is so vast), or more likely other civilizations have been and gone/haven't evolved yet and the human race will be gone long before they're up and about. The cocktail of elements that need to align for life (the Goldilocks zone) is so precise it's a wonder life ever began on earth and even more astounding that it's still here. 

 

I find it quite a depressing thought when i look into the sky that we are the only intelligent species. We are literally the only ones here. If a meteorite wiped us out next week it'd be like we'd never existed at all and even if they did exist then no alien civilization (ancient or otherwise) would be any the wiser that we'd ever been here. 

 

I just hope we're around long enough for us to win the league again, really. 

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As I get older I am more inclined to think life is actually some kind of unfortunate anomaly, aberration, an infection. The Earth is actually sick and life is the manifestation of it. I don't mean in some environmentalist sense that we are destroying our planet, more that the Universe is obviously physics and chemistry, and we and the immediate world around us may be the unwanted occurrence of biology.

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45 minutes ago, johnsusername said:

In my twenties i was convinced that intelligent life was out there and had been to earth. I read loads of first contact books, saw all the films, the documentaries. There are so many planets and galaxies that surely we can't be the only ones - the old Fermi paradox.

 

But the last couple of years i'm now as certain as i'll ever be that intelligent life probably doesn't exist, and in the unlikely event it does then it's either so far away that we'll never ever cross paths (because space is so vast), or more likely other civilizations have been and gone/haven't evolved yet and the human race will be gone long before they're up and about. The cocktail of elements that need to align for life (the Goldilocks zone) is so precise it's a wonder life ever began on earth and even more astounding that it's still here. 

 

I find it quite a depressing thought when i look into the sky that we are the only intelligent species. We are literally the only ones here. If a meteorite wiped us out next week it'd be like we'd never existed at all and even if they did exist then no alien civilization (ancient or otherwise) would be any the wiser that we'd ever been here. 

 

I just hope we're around long enough for us to win the league again, really. 

The older I get the more I come to the conclusion that we are actually not intelligent life. All we have basically managed to do is harness fire and blast things up into the air. We have become better at aiming but that is about it. We have no concept of the physics beyond our tiny monkey brains ability. We would be fucked without thumbs.

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My take for what it's worth is that it's virtually impossible for the conditions for intelligent life to evolve elsewhere not to have occurred.  The Universe is so inconceivably vast that it must have happened.  That said given the time civilisations like ours survive the chances of ever encountering aliens is virtually nil.

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1 hour ago, Anny Road said:

The older I get the more I come to the conclusion that we are actually not intelligent life. All we have basically managed to do is harness fire and blast things up into the air. We have become better at aiming but that is about it. We have no concept of the physics beyond our tiny monkey brains ability. We would be fucked without thumbs.

He says, wirelessly beaming a signal at near instant speed to thousands of people all around the world, via the miracle of the internet, who are then viewing his words and understanding his intent, via a device that fits in their pockets with a high definition screen that can access most of the world’s information in an instant. 

 

 

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3 hours ago, johnsusername said:

In my twenties i was convinced that intelligent life was out there and had been to earth. I read loads of first contact books, saw all the films, the documentaries. There are so many planets and galaxies that surely we can't be the only ones - the old Fermi paradox.

 

But the last couple of years i'm now as certain as i'll ever be that intelligent life probably doesn't exist, and in the unlikely event it does then it's either so far away that we'll never ever cross paths (because space is so vast), or more likely other civilizations have been and gone/haven't evolved yet and the human race will be gone long before they're up and about. The cocktail of elements that need to align for life (the Goldilocks zone) is so precise it's a wonder life ever began on earth and even more astounding that it's still here. 

 

I find it quite a depressing thought when i look into the sky that we are the only intelligent species. We are literally the only ones here. If a meteorite wiped us out next week it'd be like we'd never existed at all and even if they did exist then no alien civilization (ancient or otherwise) would be any the wiser that we'd ever been here. 

 

I just hope we're around long enough for us to win the league again, really. 

If they decided to stop off at Mars or the Moon on the way, they'd find a few clues that someone had been around before they got to what's left of Earth.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/10/2019 at 3:58 PM, Anny Road said:

The older I get the more I come to the conclusion that we are actually not intelligent life. All we have basically managed to do is harness fire and blast things up into the air. We have become better at aiming but that is about it. We have no concept of the physics beyond our tiny monkey brains ability. We would be fucked without thumbs.

You say that like you've never even heard of Baby Shark.

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On 1/10/2019 at 3:10 PM, johnsusername said:

In my twenties i was convinced that intelligent life was out there and had been to earth. I read loads of first contact books, saw all the films, the documentaries. There are so many planets and galaxies that surely we can't be the only ones - the old Fermi paradox.

 

But the last couple of years i'm now as certain as i'll ever be that intelligent life probably doesn't exist, and in the unlikely event it does then it's either so far away that we'll never ever cross paths (because space is so vast), or more likely other civilizations have been and gone/haven't evolved yet and the human race will be gone long before they're up and about. The cocktail of elements that need to align for life (the Goldilocks zone) is so precise it's a wonder life ever began on earth and even more astounding that it's still here. 

 

I find it quite a depressing thought when i look into the sky that we are the only intelligent species. We are literally the only ones here. If a meteorite wiped us out next week it'd be like we'd never existed at all and even if they did exist then no alien civilization (ancient or otherwise) would be any the wiser that we'd ever been here. 

 

I just hope we're around long enough for us to win the league again, really. 

Football on the GF?

 

DgswuTy.gif?noredirect

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  • 1 month later...

I have one and have never used it but hopefully I will this year. It was highly recommended though in the 'All About Space' magazine. I will try and find out what it is and post a link.

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30 minutes ago, Remmie said:

Anyone know anything about telescopes? I want to buy one for my dad's birthday, but don't know shit

Have a look at this link. The guy is also on Twitter as VirtualAstronomer. He posts stuff like ISS passes and meteor showers. 

 

I bought a Sky Watcher heritage for about £150 and its very good.  

 

https://www.meteorwatch.org/

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