/sci/ - Science & Math

hey /sci/, why are alien civilizations so quiet?
decades of SETI and the best they've got is the WOW! signal

-are they communicating in a medium we are not advanced enough to realize exists?
-have they all died out? is there some thing that all sentient races do which destroy themselves?
-is it the dark forest scenario? where whoever cries out is the first to be eaten by wolves?
-are they all computer intelligences and have simply retreated into their own self-imposed Matrix?
-are there simply so few we haven't detected them yet?
-or is light speed the best we have, and ultimately any signals fade into background noise within a few lightyears?

the silence is eerie

>>1418560
/thread
ITT armchair physicists think up retarded workarounds to the fact that WE DON'T KNOW

>>1414398
it's not a continuous reaction, just a controlled fusion explosion.

they'll have to swap targets at a rate of 25 times a second, roughly, to meet the energy needs equivalent to a normal nuclear power planet

it's toroidal fusion all over again

>>1412824
well there you go
get an impactor about half the size of the moon

surface of the earth turns to magma for a few years, seas boil off in days, and the salt boils too due to the incredible heat

only thing left is extremophile bacteria that hang out between the scorching surface and the hot mantle

>>1404788
little of this
little of the fact that incentives breed loopholes and corruption

you'd need to keep a lid on that

>>1406761
yes
actually
that's exactly what would happen

>>1400522
never said it would happen, i said there would be a push for it.
However due to the previously mentioned "identity crisis", in which each nation becomes more stereotypical of itself in order to become more culturally focused, i doubt a global government would be established.

a global representative front, funded by all the governments of earth (a-la the human alliance in mass effect?) entirely possible.

>>1403255
been disproven
radiation inside the bubble (hawking radiation) would basically cook any form of matter within

notice about FTL;
i am not talking about literally smashing the light speed barrier, not possible.

i am talking about loopholes. some are known, some are not. some exist within alternative standard models, some are absurd. ect. ect.

>>1400002
>>1399990
we do not actively kill eachother on the street for petty reasons like food or water or-
wait
fuck

>>1399958
for all of a month, until it's possible to consistently translate anything they say

then it's back to boredom!

>>1399925
i'd be all for it.
SUM MAH EXTRATERRBROSTRIALS?

>>1399897
not so sure
gateway films/comic books/cartoons could be found, introducing common cultural norms.

and their stuff would be like really wacky foreign stuff. some absurd, some touching in a strange way.

cultural exchange starts once communications channels are open. I know that while the more open-minded youths will be intensely curious, the aliens might not be. the nerds of both cultures intertwine quickly. We share Star Wars with them, if they can relate with it. They share something similar in the sense of a very well respected sci-fi film. Perhaps we can relate with it?

It is at this point we begin to stereotype them, but not in a bad way. "oh, it's kind of like <name of empire or culture>, except different", we treat them like this, they probably do not mind, and do the same for us. Sci-fi authors find similarities to creatures in various works, and offer them to the public in order to facilitate pre-personal-contact cultural understanding (they're like the humblags from <that book> by <that guy>, read it)


is it at this point i cease ranting and turn it over to /sci/

/sci/
describe a realistic first contact scenario.

WARNING, this is long and i make the following (possibly erroneous) assumptions;
-they are corporeal
-they are organic
-they see on somewhat similar wavelengths
-they communicate vocally or in some meaningful way we can compensate for
-their language is able to be translated into english
-our technology levels are marginally similar (within 200-600 years)

WAY I SEE IT:
will most likely happen a few decades after the initial invention of FTL (it will happen, somehow, some when) so we have time to spread over a large area of space. A small scout ship of ours runs into one of theirs, or perhaps we cross a shipping lane, or something equally innocuous.

Initial response is frantic. People are simultaneously terrified and inspired. An ambassador party is assembled within days. Scientists the world over attempt to find common ground to communicate, such as a specific branch of mathematics. The other species MOST LIKELY does something similar, but their cultural nature could be just about anything,i will assume they are primarily peaceful like us.

first dialogs are awkward, experts wrack their brains to translate their language. If we're smart, we exchange children's books or television shows (jam packed with vocabulary and grammatical data conveyed in image form).

Earth is in uproar, at least at first. Lots of high expectations, lots of fear. Many radical thinkers start pushing for a global government, cultures begin to become more stereotypical in a sense of "identity". Hopefully asshole warlords and petty conflicts stop, due to the crushing sense of small-ness, at least for a time.

Scientific exchange is rapid and behind closed doors. They probably differ from us wildly (perhaps they didn't have a readily available source of cheap energy such as hydrocarbons? Perhaps they went full-speed ahead on physics and left medical technology by the wayside?)

best way i cane explain it;
the speed limit is C, you cannot go past it no matter what

as a natural "defense mechanism", the universe enforces this speed limit by literally slowing down anything approaching C

so the twin traveling at 99.99% C must be slowed down in order to keep from reaching it, this to us is time dilation. relative to the twin on earth, the twin in the rocket is going very slowly. And the rocket twin would see everything outside the ship speed up (since he is slowed down)

this isn't how it works, but it's a simple analogy

>>1398849
oh, of course
that's what powered Cassini, there was a HUGE uproar about that from dumbshit eco-fanatics who (again) didn't understand how radiation works.

that was 30 years ago

>>1398696
oh fuck yeah it was going to be awesome

probes for like 4 of the moons, entire thing running on a nuclear power plant

>>1398474
one reusable SHLV would be INCREDIBLY profitable for them, since they could haul up fucking massive loads of gear for space bases or something like that jupiter moons explorer mission that was scrapped

>>1398269
carbon nanotubes are a dead end, since they cannot be manufactured into full strands in any known way.

the best they can get is little bundles of them all linked together.

less guitar strings, more angel hair pasta.

50 billion dollars?
let's put that shit into a space elevator program, it would SLASH space assembly costs for vehicles. making deep solar system trecks and colonization rather easy

>>1397679
>We'll need a stopgap of some sort.
yeah
A PROPER EDUCATION ON NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY, OUTSIDE OF THE CHINA SYNDROME

>>1397645
you mean build time for reactors?

that's due to eco-bullshit red tape put in place by people who do not understand how radiation works, at all.

remove that, and the actual building of the reactor shouldn't take more than 2-3 years at most.

>combination of solar, wind and nuclear?

why would you combine nuclear with anything?
it's leagues better than the other two. it's like combining a twisted up rubber band with a diesel engine.