Aliens?

  • Don’t exist

    Votes: 16 26.7%
  • Exist, but haven’t found us yet

    Votes: 9 15.0%
  • Exist and plan to kill us

    Votes: 2 3.3%
  • Exist and might accidentally destroy us building their space megastructures

    Votes: 2 3.3%
  • Exist and have found us, but leave us alone

    Votes: 4 6.7%
  • Exist and are surveilling us to keep us from destroying ourselves

    Votes: 5 8.3%
  • Don’t know

    Votes: 22 36.7%
  • Don’t care

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    60

Ophiolite

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Could you give a few examples of ways you think that might be possible?
I've given one example in my reply to @klutedavid : travel by asteroid powered by? Let's see, perhaps a Project Orion approach.

Naturally you have to deal with the problem of travel time. A human approach could be one of the following:
  • Generation ship
  • Hibernation
  • Frozen embryos quickened on arrival at the destination and raised by AIs. Ah! Looking back I see you've suggested that one yourself in another post. As you say this one could be relatively light weight, so light sail may be a potential propulsion mode.
Of course if our aliens have life spans of say 10,000 years then a couple of hundred years for the trip would not be a big issue.

I'm sure there is a bunch of material out there on the web, some of it good quality, much of it not.

(as for looking for evidence of previous "visits" what about the redundant code that is apparently in DNA?

Might there be encrypted messages in them or would they mutate too much for that purpose?
Absolutely. I almost included it as an example. I think the concept may have been introduced in the Carl Sagan's SF novel Contact. Or was that a discovery of a 'message' imbedded deep in the irrational number pi, not from aliens, but . . . . well you can imagine. We're in the right place for it.
 
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jasperr

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Frozen embryos quickened on arrival at the destination and raised by AIs. Ah! Looking back I see you've suggested that one yourself in another post.As you say this one could be relatively light weight, so light sail may be a potential propulsion mode
Could that method be combined with ground based laser propulsion(to get the micro craft up to relativistic speeds in extremely short order,at which stage the light sail could be deployed) ?

Reminds me of Bob Zimmerman's good ship Mayflower :)
 
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Ophiolite

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Could that method be combined with ground based laser propulsion(to get the micro craft up to relativistic speeds in extremely short order,at which stage the light sail could be deployed) ?
Speculatively, yes, but the technology for this is maybe 100+ years ahead, while the technology to support embryos for the time required is possibly further away than that. The AI capability required might be achieved well within that time, but at this point we don't know. These are bar-room chat, rather than well specified goals. And we haven't even considered the ethics of the matter - so, with existing trends, - West say No, China say Yes.
 
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FrumiousBandersnatch

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There is no way to protect the ship from meteorites which no doubt you would run into. Meteorites travel at speeds between 10 km and 70 km per second. That is extremely quick.
If you did hit a meteoroid, it would probably be catastrophic, but even in interplanetary space the chances of hitting one are... er, astronomically remote, and interplanetary space is crowded compared to interstellar space. The greatest danger would be in LEO (low Earth orbit) with the fog of satellites and debris, but even then it's unlikely you'd be hit passing through (as shown by the many successful satellite launches).
 
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Tinker Grey

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If you did hit a meteoroid, it would probably be catastrophic, but even in interplanetary space the chances of hitting one are... er, astronomically remote, and interplanetary space is crowded compared to interstellar space. The greatest danger would be in LEO (low Earth orbit) with the fog of satellites and debris, but even then it's unlikely you'd be hit passing through (as shown by the many successful satellite launches).
Indeed. I did a little googling. The average distance between asteroids in our asteroid belt is 600,000 miles (1e6 km). That's 75 times the diameter of Earth and about 2.5 times the distance from Earth to the moon.

If my google-fu is good enough, the average distance between KBOs is about 40-50 times the distance between us and the sun.
 
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Vap841

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If wormholes are just hypothetical fantasy then it’s easy to see how visitation is impossible. If only some type of very limited material or energy of some sort that we don’t even understand yet (that can even transmit data back through) can make it through wormholes, but it’s impossible for living organisms to make it through alive, that might explain why what we see is always fuzzy and weird.
 
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dlamberth

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If wormholes are just hypothetical fantasy then it’s easy to see how visitation is impossible. If only some type of very limited material or energy of some sort that we don’t even understand yet (that can even transmit data back through) can make it through wormholes, but it’s impossible for living organisms to make it through alive, that might explain why what we see is always fuzzy and weird.
I have no idea how it got here, but the UFO I saw was very clear and not at all fuzzy. I have no idea the technology, but it left me with the impression of out of this world visitors. I can come up with no other options.
 
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AV1611VET

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I have no idea how it got here, but the UFO I saw was very clear and not at all fuzzy. I have no idea the technology, but it left me with the impression of out of this world visitors. I can come up with no other options.
Could it have been a drone?
 
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Vap841

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I have no idea how it got here, but the UFO I saw was very clear and not at all fuzzy. I have no idea the technology, but it left me with the impression of out of this world visitors. I can come up with no other options.
I have actually known people who have seen something that’s crystal clear so I don’t know why I used the word always, probably because I was thinking about people who complain that the images are always fuzzy. It would also be interesting if cameras get distorted with these objects compared to the naked eye, or maybe we have different types of probes where some are fuzzy and some are clear.
 
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dlamberth

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Could it have been a drone?
Drone's did not exist when I saw a UFO. My first job was washing RV trailers at a trailer sales store. This was back in 1965. I was 16 at the time. Because of the height of RV trailers your always looking up when washing them, and there it was moving across the sky. Back than in my young world there was very little if any in the way of UFO information that came across my life. Technology wise, we were moving from vacuum tube to transistors. So it couldn't have been built here on Earth. I found out years later that the type of UFO I saw evidentially was seen fairly common. But not so much any more. I've been looking via google for a picture or drawing of what I saw, at one time I could find one, but not now.

I'm not into UFO conspiracies or Alien sightings or any of that stuff. I have one friend who believes that Alien's are farming us and are evil and another who believes that Aliens are going to save us from ourselves. I think they are both off their rockers. But other than what I saw that left a clear impression of not of this world, I know nothing beyond that.
 
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AV1611VET

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Drone's did not exist when I saw a UFO.
What about those giant spotlights they used to use, when dealerships had a midnight sale going on? or even the northern lights?
 
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dlamberth

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What about those giant spotlights they used to use, when dealerships had a midnight sale going on? or even the northern lights?
This was during the day. The dealership where I worked never used Giant spotlights or anything like that. What I saw was very clear and crisp, so much so that I can draw a picture of what I saw. I've never seen the northern lights.
 
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AV1611VET

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This was during the day. The dealership where I worked never used Giant spotlights or anything like that. What I saw was very clear and crisp, so much so that I can draw a picture of what I saw. I've never seen the northern lights.
Wow. Sounds legitimate then. To me anyway.
 
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Chriliman

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This was during the day. The dealership where I worked never used Giant spotlights or anything like that. What I saw was very clear and crisp, so much so that I can draw a picture of what I saw. I've never seen the northern lights.

Could you try to draw it and post it here, I'm curious :pray:
 
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klutedavid

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In response to each point.
1. There should be no difficulty in providing appropriate shielding for an interstellar voyage.
Perhaps against average background radiation. What about solar flares?
Even planet earth with it's powerful shielding is no match for solar flares. I doubt whether a space craft could generate a sufficient field to protect itself. Even on Mars you will be irradiated.
2. Our present spacecraft are constantly colliding with micro-meteorites, but are designed to tolerate that. Very large meteorites could be detected early and avoided.
Our present space craft are not really protected against meteorites larger meteorites. That is a risk the astronauts take. Perhaps in a hundred years time.
3. One would not attempt an interstellar voyage on a small ship. You seem to be thinking in terms of present day technology. I'm envisaging the technology available as the equivalent of Earth tech. in a couple of centuries, or four or five millenia from now.
The way we are going these days, I doubt whether we will be here in a hundred years from now.
4. This can be dealt with by one of genetic engineering, long term evolution of a sub-set of humans born and raised in space, medical intervention, or by rotating a portion of the craft to simulate gravity.
All of these are best dealt with by finding a suitable asteroid, burrowing into it to create living space and locations for all engines and equipment.

Of course, there are likely much more elegant methods available to aliens who are not a couple of millenia ahead of us, but twenty or thirty million years more advanced. Bottom line, I don't think your objections hold up.
If aliens were that advanced, why would they bother with something as rudimentary as planet earth. I do not think that an alien race, even a thousand years more advanced than us. Would be interested in a primitive society like ours.

Your dreaming.
 
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SelfSim

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Travelling the distance to 'visit' the Earth, first requires detecting the existence of the Earth from light year distance viewpoints.

There are only a mere seven star systems that can detect Earth transiting the Sun, (ie: the 'Earth Transit Zone'), which are themselves, known to host one or more exoplanets.
Given there may be more systems having exoplanets which we haven't yet detected, there are still only 1,715 star-systems known, which could have possibly 'spotted' Earth since human civilization took off (about 5,000 years ago).

Over the past 10,000-year period, 117 objects have been within about 100 light-years of the Sun and a mere 75 of these objects have been in the (above) 'Earth Transit Zone' since commercial radio stations on Earth began broadcasting into space about a century ago.

So, there's a few actual facts to form the basis of speculation about alien visits, (y or n):
Past, present and future stars that can see Earth as a transiting exoplanet

Video here.
 
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dlamberth

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Could you try to draw it and post it here, I'm curious :pray:
It was like this picture with the 3 bulb things on the bottom but had a dome on top and no windows. And more or less at the same general angle as in the picture as I was looking up at it.


Flying Saucer.jpg
 
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Kylie

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I have four reasons why we would never see aliens from another star.

1) The cosmos is filled with radiation and any long journey through space would be hazardous.

That can be shielded.

2) If you travelled through space you would eventually collide with a meteorite.

Unlikely. Space is REALLY empty. The chances of hitting anything are very small.

3) Space ships are small and a long journey time would be difficult to endure.

This is the most likely cause.

4) Anyone on a space station for over a year suffers from muscle weakness and bone dystrophy.

Gravity can be replicated, such as spinning a large circular structure.
 
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klutedavid

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That can be shielded.



Unlikely. Space is REALLY empty. The chances of hitting anything are very small.



This is the most likely cause.



Gravity can be replicated, such as spinning a large circular structure.
You sound like a good candidate for a Mars mission. I will fast track you through the program and get you onboard.

Thank me later.
 
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AV1611VET

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It was like this picture with the 3 bulb things on the bottom but had a dome on top and no windows. And more or less at the same general angle as in the picture as I was looking up at it.

vlcsnap-2018-06-02-08h40m53s424-e1528023562284-620x315.png
 
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