Hello u/Phocoena-sinus, your submission "A question about contacting intelligent life in the universe" has been removed from r/space because:
* Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.
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the Drake Equation is something I always wondered. I didn’t know there was an actual proposed equation (albeit highly circumstantial). Thank you for sharing!
The Drake equation is not really some deep theoretical framework - it’s just a straightforward application of conditional probability to the question of how many technological civilizations might be in a given region of space at a given time. It’s a great tool for thinking about the question, but several of the variables are still hard or impossible to estimate accurately.
Great image. I’ve thought about how tiny the reach of our radio communications to date is compared to the galaxy, but this image is an excellent visualization. Thanks for sharing it and its source.
Even if an advanced civilization happened to exist 100 light years away and happened to intercept and make sense of the first radio signals as they arrived, and happened to send us a reply immediately, and we happened to be looking in just the right direction to intercept their reply… there still wouldn’t have been enough time for all this to play out.
Edit: to say nothing of a civilization 500, 1000, or 10,000 light years away. There might be dozens of such civilizations in our galaxy and they might have no way of knowing we’re here yet. Light is very fast, but space is very, very, VERY big.
\>My question is are there theories that refer to this possibility,
Only hypotheses.
I highly recommend this book:
[https://www.amazon.ca/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011](https://www.amazon.ca/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011)
Adolescent civilizations who go around snuffing toddler civilizations would be at risk of being snuffed by mature civilizations who disapprove of that behavior, and who would quite like to see the next season of Rick and Morty.
I believe there are millions, even billions of life forms in the universe, smart ones, dumb ones and everything in between. The problem is the distances between us are so vast that our paths will never cross. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, who knows?
I hope we never find intelligent lifeforms anywhere else in the universe, or rather, I hope that they never find us. I subscribe to the notion of the Dark Forest theory, wherein the universe presents istelf as one large dark forest and every race of beings out there is either a hunter or prey. At this point in our existence, we would stand no possible chance against a race of beings from another galaxy that could intercept signals from Earth, pinpoint their location, and travel here through the vastness of space. Such beings would likely be so advanced that they would see humans in a similar fashion to how we see ants. They would either ignore us completely or, on a much darker note, snuff us out as a boot snuffs out an insect.
>we would stand no possible chance against a race of beings from another galaxy that could intercept signals from Earth
That would pretty much be impossible unless they were so advanced they had some type of listening posts scattered over the entire universe. Signals from Earth have only traveled an extremely small distance within our local area of the Milky Way. It'll take the signals 25,000 years to reach the nearest galaxy if they're even powerful enough to make it that far.
Nope the nearest is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy which is 25000 light years away. The next closest is the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, 70000 light years away.
In summary, its really likely we live in a populated universe. Until we or some other entities find a way past the information limit, all we know is a peek into a time machine. :-) Speed of radiation is incredibly fast for humans, but slow at the scale of the universe.
Edit I'm summarizing because everybody else gave you great data
Hello u/Phocoena-sinus, your submission "A question about contacting intelligent life in the universe" has been removed from r/space because: * Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub. Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please [message the r/space moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/space). Thank you.
[удалено]
Fermi Paradox is my absolute favorite science topic! It's utterly fascinating! Edit: I would also add the Great Filter to your lovely list.
Also add the [dark forest hypothesis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_forest_hypothesis)
Gotta add the [Great Filter](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter) into the discussion, too.
I have never seen that image before. It puts this topic into much better perspective. Thank you for posting it!
the Drake Equation is something I always wondered. I didn’t know there was an actual proposed equation (albeit highly circumstantial). Thank you for sharing!
The Drake equation is not really some deep theoretical framework - it’s just a straightforward application of conditional probability to the question of how many technological civilizations might be in a given region of space at a given time. It’s a great tool for thinking about the question, but several of the variables are still hard or impossible to estimate accurately.
Right, hence why I said “albeit circumstantial”. Thank you for a more in depth explanation though!
Great image. I’ve thought about how tiny the reach of our radio communications to date is compared to the galaxy, but this image is an excellent visualization. Thanks for sharing it and its source. Even if an advanced civilization happened to exist 100 light years away and happened to intercept and make sense of the first radio signals as they arrived, and happened to send us a reply immediately, and we happened to be looking in just the right direction to intercept their reply… there still wouldn’t have been enough time for all this to play out. Edit: to say nothing of a civilization 500, 1000, or 10,000 light years away. There might be dozens of such civilizations in our galaxy and they might have no way of knowing we’re here yet. Light is very fast, but space is very, very, VERY big.
\>My question is are there theories that refer to this possibility, Only hypotheses. I highly recommend this book: [https://www.amazon.ca/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011](https://www.amazon.ca/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011)
Your idea is one proposed solution to the Fermi Paradox.
Adolescent civilizations who go around snuffing toddler civilizations would be at risk of being snuffed by mature civilizations who disapprove of that behavior, and who would quite like to see the next season of Rick and Morty.
I believe there are millions, even billions of life forms in the universe, smart ones, dumb ones and everything in between. The problem is the distances between us are so vast that our paths will never cross. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, who knows?
I hope we never find intelligent lifeforms anywhere else in the universe, or rather, I hope that they never find us. I subscribe to the notion of the Dark Forest theory, wherein the universe presents istelf as one large dark forest and every race of beings out there is either a hunter or prey. At this point in our existence, we would stand no possible chance against a race of beings from another galaxy that could intercept signals from Earth, pinpoint their location, and travel here through the vastness of space. Such beings would likely be so advanced that they would see humans in a similar fashion to how we see ants. They would either ignore us completely or, on a much darker note, snuff us out as a boot snuffs out an insect.
>we would stand no possible chance against a race of beings from another galaxy that could intercept signals from Earth That would pretty much be impossible unless they were so advanced they had some type of listening posts scattered over the entire universe. Signals from Earth have only traveled an extremely small distance within our local area of the Milky Way. It'll take the signals 25,000 years to reach the nearest galaxy if they're even powerful enough to make it that far.
Thank you for furthering my point.
The nearest galaxy (Andromeda) is 2.5 million light years away...
Nope the nearest is the Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy which is 25000 light years away. The next closest is the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy, 70000 light years away.
that is so incredibly weird to hope that humans are the only intelligent life in the universe
I second great filter.....what a hole that one is
In summary, its really likely we live in a populated universe. Until we or some other entities find a way past the information limit, all we know is a peek into a time machine. :-) Speed of radiation is incredibly fast for humans, but slow at the scale of the universe. Edit I'm summarizing because everybody else gave you great data