• gnomesaiyan@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Fermi Paradox. Are there aliens? Of course. Are they in our current time and local space? Probably not. It’s it fun to think about? Yes, that’s why science fiction exists.

    • DaCookeyMonsta@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      More importantly, are they a lifeforms that we would even recognize as alive? The chances of an alien being humanoid are even slimmer. Then there’s whether they develop intelligence, whether they care about space, and whether they survive long enough to get anywhere.

      • Globulart@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If intelligent life exists anywhere else the biggest chance we have of finding anything would be a self sustaining vehicle sent off into space by them at some point. The chances of us being alive at the same time in close enough proximity to encounter each other is almost zero.

        If a vessel could wander space endlessly we have a slightly bigger (but still almost zero) chance of encountering it.

      • THE_STORM_BLADE@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Counterpoint, why do dolphins and sharks look so alike when they have a completely different phylogenetic tree? They separately developed traits that were very well suited to the medium of water. Convergent evolution means that it isn’t entirely unlikely that whatever we may find has similar traits to beings on earth, because we all exist in a universe of solids, liquids, and gasses.

        • Gabu@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Counter-counterpoint: both species come from the same tree of life, several of their traits taken for granted come from previous species’ adaptation, e.g. bilateral symmetry. When you see, say, a molusk with the same bodyplan as a shark, we can talk about it being a common possibility.