What do you think would finally be their, “Enough, we gotta say something!” situation?
Edit:
Put another way, what might serve as a cosmic icebreaker?
I suppose it depends on why they’re being quiet. If other civilizations view each other as competitors for rare resources like worlds that would be inhabitable with out large scale terraforming, then being loud may get your planet targeted. That’s the basis for the “Dark Forest” theory. I think that theory is interesting, but it’s a bit pessimistic in my opinion. What’s way more likely is, if there are other civilizations out there, the odds of them existing during the same time frame that we’re here, AND being close enough to receive radio waves in a timely fashion, AND are at a technology level to send and receive those radio waves… it’s all very very very unlikely.
For me, what’s way scarier is, it isn’t that everyone is being quiet, it’s that there isn’t any one else out there, and we’re one of the first civilizations to develop. If there were other highly advanced civilizations out there, there’d be signs of them, signs of their technology. Shit, I read that large ships moving at close to the speed light would generate detectable gravity waves. But so far, nothing.
For me, what’s way scarier is, it isn’t that everyone is being quiet, it’s that there isn’t any one else out there, and we’re one of the first civilizations to develop.
Why would you find that scary?
Is it because of the ‘great filter’ stuff, that there must therefore be something ahead of us in time that wipes us out (like self-inflicted climate change)? Or is it something like humans being awfully flawed to go down in universal history as the “first” intelligent and technologically advanced species? Or something else?
maybe if we’re the only and first one, our odds of ‘success’ are much lower, and aint nobody gonna show up to guide us. if millions of previous had already ‘succeeded’ then its likely smooth sailing with a well tread path.
I find the idea that life is insanely rare, and that 99.99999999999999999999 of every planet and moon is lifeless. Even if we some how find a way to explore the cosmos, we’ll be searching empty dead rocks for the rest of our species lives. That’s scary to me.
Transmit math equations into space, but make them all just a little wrong. If someone’s out there, they’ll come by to correct us.
Invent a warp drive.
Cue the T’Plana Hath landing.
Share with them generated videos of us hanging out with other alien species, having a good time, etc. and make it seem like they’re missing out.
“Wait, that earth video is AI-generated-- their hands only have five fingers!”
Say ‘Marco’ out really loud
If I were trying to get quiet aliens to communicate, I would try to get earthlings to clean up their own mess. I can’t imagine an advanced civilization wanting to bother with the sad tragedy of humanity’s self-destruction. There isn’t a day where some random human isn’t killing another, and there’s usually some government that has organized some mass-kill army operation against another country – or, worse, it’s own people. Even omitting the bloodthirsty, power-hungry, greedy, and liars, the general population can’t get together to work for the common good.
Maybe we could start by fixing the climate catastrophe, getting the trash out of the ocean, and then getting food and housing to everyone. If I was an alien that’d been avoiding Earth, that’s the sort of thing that would get my attention.
Which is the perfect premises for a Colonial Invasion by a “superioristic” neighbor. Like the Belgians bringing Civilization to Congo, or France shining the lights of the Republic to North Africa (and S-E Asia). Or the Spanish, saving South America through Religion.
Please, Lizards Overlords, make haste; I have a feeling it is a matter of emergency right now.
Yeah, only the “enlightenment” comes at the price of getting your hands chopped of if you produce insufficient precious materials. No thanks.
Drop a couple nukes on planets in a predictable order with a predictable time in between. They’ll reach out sooner or later once we get close enough.
I wouldn’t. If you determine that other life is intentionally staying quiet, why would you not also theorize on why they stay* silent?
I like to imagine a sort of awkward strangers reasoning for it, personally, where it’s not a matter of anything untoward involved, so much as nobody able to decide how to break the ice. Supposing that, I wonder what the cosmic icebreaker might be?
Certainly not destroying ourselves or our own planet. We’re already doing that.
Lure them with Reece’s Pieces.
Your so gnarp gnarp
Marcoooooo
end humankind and they will make an memorial of earth of how what not to become as species
Doom gloom doom gloom humanity sucks blaaaargh
Make them think some of them have already come to Earth for whatever reason.
Yeah, one way to do this is to start transmitting what sounds like one half of a phone conversation.
…
“Hi, how have you been?”
…
“Ugh that’s the worst. You coming by soon?”
…
“Nice I’ll get the barbecue ready.”
…
“A functioning FTL drive you say?”
They’re probably waiting for us to get past the Great Filter.
I think we’re the North Sentinelese of the Milky Way and we’re being purposefully insulated so we develop technologically and sociologically up to a certain point where we’ll be able to join everyone else. I doubt they’ll say anything. That’s the point. In fact i think we’re being shielded as a kindness, possibly protected too. We, as a species, can’t even leave the solar system and return. I’m guessing an advanced enough civilization could create a believable enough reproduction of the universe for us to study.
I think the difference between the alien UN and our global organization is probably the same level as the difference between our UN and the North Sentinel Island tribal elders.
It just doesn’t make sense that the galaxy is empty. But my theory is just my best guess. I have no concrete evidence. I do think there are some mighty coincidences around here. For instance, a solar system stocked with several planets and minerals and a long life stable star, almost ideal from all the various star types available. A random meteorite hitting the earth after millions of years of dinosaurs not developing intelligent life. A very logical progression of bodies for a space faring civilization to grow. First the moon, then mars, then venus, etc. A lot of asteroids that seem to zip by Earth but always near miss at an alarming common rate. Jupiter strategically placed to keep Earth safe from a large number of meteors and other celestial bodies.
I think humans are a benevolent, non intrusive biological experiment by an advanced species or at the very least a protected species in some nature reserve. Them interacting with us could potentially hamper our development. It could be that religions were their previous attempts but didn’t work out so well.
Have you heard of the puddle analogy?
A small amount of water sits there, it this hole in the ground it finds itself in. It looks at this cavity, observes how perfectly it fits the contours of their liquid body. It’s perfect! Every nook and cranny seems to be formed to fit the puddle perfectly.
“This hole must have been made for me! It’s too much of a coincidence that, with all the ways a hole could form, this one formed perfectly to fit me!”
You’re doing that. You’re saying it’s a crazy coincidence that all the right things were in place here for life to exist that led to us being here… but if it wasn’t, then we just wouldn’t have developed as life-forms. Or if the environs were different, life would have developed to fit into that kind of solar system. I think you just like the idea, so you believe it, but I think it’s better to believe things we have evidence for.
Maybe the hole was made for the puddle, who’s to say it wasn’t? Perhaps a large number of coincidental occurrences made it, but there sits the water in a hole that perfectly accommodates it. Something that the people who built the road expected. How can one say it wasn’t the intention of the organization of the universe in a series of probabilities that one day that water would be right on that puddle, in a specific moment in time? Wouldn’t that arguably make the hole made for the water at that point in time ?
I guess that’s more of a philosophy debate, but honestly until we get more data, it could be anything. All we know is that our long range scanners have not detected advanced civilizations and that doesn’t match our expectations. It could be because they don’t exist, it could be because they’re hiding themselves from us.
We know very little about alien life at this point and until we have more information, every explanation is possible. Some scientific explanations of the universe or life that were eventually discovered were certainly more wild and vivid than we previously thought before. I’m not saying this is what is necessary happening, just something that could be happening.
Jesus fucking christ. You know how water works, right? It fits the form of the container it’s in. It’s an simplified analogy to explain what that other guy linked to. We (well, you) see a universe fit to our kind of life, but the reality is that we developed to fit the universe.
You remind me of this guy I saw the other day claiming that a whole bunch of rocks that are vaguely shaped like body parts might be fossilized body parts.
He just kept saying “I’m not saying it definitely is, but imagine if we don’t understand the world, and it’s maybe this way? Crazy right?!”
It’s such cowardly bullshit. If you want to believe a thing because it sounds nice to you, don’t half-ass it and throw qualifiers on it. You brought it up, and then when challenged the tiniest bit, backed down with a “I’m not saying that’s definitely true… but maybe…?”
and that doesn’t match our expectations.
What expectations? Actual scientist, using facts, don’t have expectations of alien life. We don’t know the probability of life existing anywhere but here because we have nothing to compare it to. We have the one universe with the one data set available to us. Until we discover alien life, we should have no expectation for it. Do I think it’s likely there is life elsewhere? Yes. Does that mean I expect it? No. We don’t have enough information about the cosmos to even start to calculate whether it should happen.
I had a roommate once who believed that the stuff from the Alvin the Maker book series was real. The magic and shit. I asked if he had anything that led him to believe that or if he just really liked the books and wanted it to be. OF course he didn’t have any evidence or real reason for it. He just wanted it to be so, so he decided that he was going to believe that thing.
You’re doing that. Stop it. Be a grown-up here and stop believing in make-believe and believe things only when we have sufficient (or in your case, I’ll take any) evidence.
I see. Thank you for your reply and for the stories of your friends. It’s an interesting way to see things. I have nothing further to reply.
Might be or might not be, another option is that space travel is nearly impossible except for one way generation trips.
