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Clarksp2 t1_iteylsq wrote

I just really hope I’m still alive when we finally do find other life (regardless of civilized, moving, or microbial)

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thetruthteller t1_itfwabr wrote

Rendezvous with Rama

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Poop_1111 t1_itgf1gj wrote

Read 2001 but never heard of this. What's your opinion on it?

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skaven81 t1_itgnrut wrote

One of the most memorable and enjoyable series I've ever read from Arthur C. Clarke. And I've read nearly all of his books. Absolutely worth the read.

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TraceSpazer t1_itgtvka wrote

Thanks for the recommendation.

Added to my list.

Currently working through Brin's Uplift Saga and enjoying that as campy as it is.

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Buscemi_D_Sanji t1_ith7xje wrote

One of the best books I've ever read. There isn't some crazy conflict, just scientists exploring something for the most part. Plus there are three more that show what's actually happening.

If you remember oumoaoa, that thing that came into our system from interstellar space and was rotating like it would if it was hollow inside and needed to provide centrifugal gravity... You'll see how everyone who read Rama was kinda secretly bugging out.

I also recommend Childhood's End, also by Clarke and imo his coolest book. It's short and seriously great, one of the best endings of anything I've read.

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Poop_1111 t1_itj9qbv wrote

ohhh thanks! loving all the recommendations i'm getting

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Buscemi_D_Sanji t1_itkx123 wrote

No problem! I also recommend Heinlein, Vinge, Niven, Verne, Wells, and Asimov of course.

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Slave35 t1_ith3ymy wrote

It was good. One that really stuck with me was The Mote In God's Eye.

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vegainthemirror t1_itheo0d wrote

I'm joining the other commenters. It's a really good book. Bought it based on a recommendation. You know, how it is with older Sci-Fi novels and how they feel severely outdated? Rama isn't. The only thing that feels outdated is how competent and disciplined the entire crew of the Endeavour (the ship that explores Rama) is. We're used to drama, incompetence and personal agendas etc. nowadays, Rama goes a different approach. Very Hard Sc-Fi, very refreshing, a lot of mystery surrounding Rama's purpose and nature. I'm torn between what Clarke novel I like better, 2001 or Rama. Definitely worth a read

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Poop_1111 t1_itj9mj1 wrote

wow thanks i'll definitely give it a read

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DubC_Bassist t1_itf3c91 wrote

Microbes? Do you want Aliens, because this is how you get Aliens!

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nate1212 t1_itfpwtc wrote

I’m pretty sure this is exactly what they’re saying they want

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DookieShoez t1_itfumcn wrote

Its an Archer reference

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lucidrage t1_itixckb wrote

>Its an Archer reference

I am the bone of my sword?

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DoomRide007 t1_itf1pqo wrote

I’m kind of on the line. They could have helped us OR they could just clean house. We are so ducked right now and they could be waiting for us to wipe ourselves out.

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MuhammedJahleen t1_itfghp7 wrote

Ehh I woulda imagine most races would go through what we are now it’s all about how you rebound when shit gets tough

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R3AP3RGAMING t1_itg5p33 wrote

It's the same concept why we don't intervene in primates. We don't know what would happen. We could tech them to light fire for cooking and heating and they could turn around and start hurling flaming pitch balls into African villages. I believe they disabled nuclear Arma in the 60s to prevent a war and they may even do it again but I doubt they will ever try to give us technology or even knowledge and I'm certain we will have to reach out to them first or they will stay quiet and on the side of our conciousness.

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jesjimher t1_ithalsl wrote

Most likely they just don't care, same thing as we don't care about the ant nest in our backyard. We don't worry about their wellness, nor we think about contacting them or trying to help them with better technology.

In order for them to wanting to contact is, they might need to be just slightly more advanced than us. But then the chances they can get here are next to none.

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HallucinogenicShroom t1_itguelw wrote

are you saying getting blown to bits by aliens wouldn't be spectacular?

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DoomRide007 t1_itgullh wrote

As a third party viewing yes, as a parent who’s seeing the shit slowly crawling towards you? No

0

Azuregore t1_itgbnz6 wrote

You think aliens would be cool to find until you find red and vlakc markers all over the fuckin planet.

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_Puppet_Mastr_ t1_ithyquz wrote

Well, they're quite possibly already here and have been for a looong time. If a space traveling species exist, and made it here already, they'd definitely be able to conceal themselves from us. Or, they evolved before us here on earth and like to experiment on monkeys and poof here we are. Or a combo of 1 and 2.

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PunisherASM129 t1_ith4yzg wrote

You mean something as amazing as this story from a few weeks ago?

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover finds diversity, hints of microbial life in ancient lake bed rocks

By Emilee Speck, FOX

September 15, 2022 7:53pm

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ph30nix01 t1_itg2t87 wrote

I feel we should create a new type of consciousness and go into space together.

2

HerefoyoBunz t1_itgks4f wrote

But then they be like “cool, yall are like cave men to us, have no appreciation for this world, we gonna kill you and take your planet over, and make it better”

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oldskoolplayaR1 t1_ithd0uj wrote

Feel exactly the same, even if it’s the smallest of the smallest bacteria, anything is a result

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IceCreamMeatballs t1_ith4svb wrote

I genuinely believe that scientists have had proof of alien life for decades but are keeping it top secret in fear of how the public would react

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Captain_Dunsel t1_itj6es5 wrote

Have an UpVote :)

I read somewhere that there “were” alien worlds out there and were destroyed, just how we’re doing it to our planet now. Technologically advanced but depleted their world’s resources until it killed them. Kinda like a planetary scale Easter Island; where the decline of the palm and the rapid deforestation that took place on the island caused societal collapse and population collapse.

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zig_zaz t1_itgs7h1 wrote

You are alive. It’s happened.

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lovemycereal t1_itgu4rp wrote

What dude!!? We already found life. Go google it dumb ass

−3

Clarksp2 t1_ith23me wrote

Thanks for the compliment sir, but what life have we proven to have found outside of earth? Link it please

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0x077777 t1_itg1890 wrote

They've already found microbial life on other planets

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Codboss4407 t1_itg8vdo wrote

No, we haven't found any life on any planet yet.

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Cinsev t1_itg2vzk wrote

“Put a circle around something in the photo, these people will click on anything with a circle around it”

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mickestenen t1_itgklz4 wrote

I mean I see the circle but I dont understand where to focus without giant red arrows as well

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Cinsev t1_ith7sy0 wrote

That’s professional level clickbait right there. Once everybody catches onto the arrow trick it’s all over.

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thx1138- t1_itj2cfy wrote

I can't wait for NASA to announce the discovery of alien intelligence with a useless red circle.

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Cinsev t1_itkpzd2 wrote

We will all have grown numb to the red circle so it will be ignored….. but now, a BLUE circle…….

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WallStreetDoesntBet OP t1_iteynku wrote

If an alien were to look at Earth, many human technologies, from cell towers to fluorescent light bulbs, could be a beacon signifying the presence of life.

A technosignature (technomarker) is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence of past or present technology. Technosignatures are analogous to biosignatures, which signal the presence of life, whether intelligent or not.

While scanning the sky for a TV broadcast of some extraterrestrial Olympics may sound straightforward, searching for signs of distant, advanced civilisations is a much more nuanced and difficult task than it might seem.

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TheGreatArseholio t1_itf3rfr wrote

That depends on how far away they are. They could be looking at cave men, right now.

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CSEnzley t1_itfnycy wrote

I like to imagine them getting all excited because of the Dinosaurs and being extremely underwhelmed when they arrived...

Like taking a cross country trip to Wally World only to find out it's closed when you get there.

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TheGreatArseholio t1_itge8k8 wrote

Sorry folks, Earth’s closed… Dinosaur out front should’ve told you.

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Plumbedbum t1_itgudeh wrote

Or they have a super advanced telescope that negates all time and space. Like a portal of some kind.

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jesjimher t1_ithazbf wrote

We've been dark for thousands of years, and we've been emitting waves for just a few centuries. Who knows if we will switch to optical/quantum communications in a century or two, and we'll completely stop emitting radio waves, and then our "wave emitting" period will be just a blip in history.

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lucidrage t1_itixn7z wrote

> our "wave emitting" period will be just a blip in history.

especially since the waves travel at lightspeed so the first wave should be at a distance of 200 lightyear at most

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Glum-Gap3316 t1_ithxt8k wrote

Scanning the sky for alien olympic tv signals sounds anything but straightforward...

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TheGreatArseholio t1_itf3nnf wrote

If an alien civilization 500 light years away is looking at earth through a big ass telescope, right now, they’re not seeing much except some blurry renaissance era dude trying to make a helicopter out of balsa wood and paper.

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L8n1ght t1_itfgz5x wrote

Same goes for us looking at other stuff, it's just too far away to tell if there's intelligent life right now, we have to guess based on the circumstances of the planet in the past

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Vancocillin t1_itfqy6w wrote

What if human civilization had kicked off 200 million years ago instead of dinosaurs being cool? It's possible a sapient species could have been kicking around for millions of years by now.

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Impossible_Garbage_4 t1_itg8mkx wrote

With 100% certainty I can declare there is life elsewhere in the universe. Anything beyond that is speculation but it’s more than likely that single called organisms or their ET equivalent exists. Less likely to exist but still fairly likely is multicellular but still microscopic creatures. So on and so on it gets less likely the further up the stages you go. The chance of intelligent life existing elsewhere is infinitesimally small, but since the universe is so fucking vast the chance might as well be 100%. Now, the odds that we ever meet them is far lower, since they could be so far away that getting to them would be like driving your car to Pluto at highway speeds.

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TheGreatArseholio t1_itggc9h wrote

That’s part of the paradox, isn’t it? If we were to find a signature of alien technology like digital radio waves, we would be looking at technology from that many years ago (light years away). That intelligence life would either be that many years technologically more advanced than us or - if facing the same problems we’re facing as humans - could have already wiped itself out of existence.

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uninterestingly t1_itgwpfm wrote

I agree with everything here but your phrasing. Saying you can 100% guarantee something that you have zero proof of, even if it is overwhelmingly likely, is just mathematically wrong. 100% guarantees should very rarely be used, and yet people throw them around left and right. It's just one of my pet peeves.

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Buscemi_D_Sanji t1_ith98z5 wrote

Heh, I have quite a few pet peeves, like affect/effect and saying there's instead of there're when referring to plurals. But I've spent some time making sure my students know that there is no such thing as 100% certainty for things existing in the universe. But then, you can say "I'm 100% certain that one does not equal two" and that's true, so it's more about being conscientious of the language you use to describe reality.

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Impossible_Garbage_4 t1_ith68g4 wrote

I said 100% certainty, and I’m not a scientist. I can be certain of something and be wrong. Watch out for how statistics are phrased

0

Longshot_45 t1_itga0xb wrote

It's kind of impossible to see anything of detail from that distance. The diameter of the telescope would need to be so large it would be of comical proportions.

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mr_bedbugs t1_itk07dc wrote

"Idiots haven't even figured out electricity yet."

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elsrjefe t1_itfnzqe wrote

Just waiting for the intergalactic bypass to be built. After all, the notice in intergalactic city hall has been up for nearly a million years now.

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FlimsyGooseGoose t1_itfw4rh wrote

Intergalactic planetary, planetary intergalactic

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Bothand_Nether t1_itf2it2 wrote

The navigational hazard beacons placed around this system will be the first proof of alien life

​

This shocking truth will be realized when some of the beacons message is deciphered.

​

A picture of a crying baby driving a comically large tank will be

the first form of deciphered alien cuneiform

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[deleted] t1_itf3wl2 wrote

[removed]

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[deleted] t1_itf7yx9 wrote

[removed]

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ReturnedAndReported t1_ith06id wrote

Hello TheGreatArseholio, your comment or post has been removed for the following reason:

Rule 6 - Comment Quality

> Comments must be on topic, contribute to the discussion and be of sufficient length.

> Comments / Posts that dismiss well-established science without compelling evidence are a distraction to discussion of futurology and may be removed.

1

miggsd28 t1_itfjq1u wrote

The big problem with this for me is what ever technological signature we do see is thousands to millions to billions of light years away. So that civilization has either collapsed or advanced a terrifying amount. If some advanced tech that hasn’t discovered how to see faster than light looked at earth they would see the beginning of the dark ages

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Impossible_Garbage_4 t1_itgadto wrote

Or it could be like… 10 Lightyears over. We just don’t know.

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miggsd28 t1_itgg7k3 wrote

But that’s only a handful of stars. Statistically they probably won’t be

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Xw5838 t1_itmf3ek wrote

There are hundreds of stars within a few hundred light years of earth with stars that are as old if not older than our sun.

Also interstellar travel only seems difficult to a planet bound civilization that has to depend on primitive rockets. Just like oceanic travel seemed difficult to people who only had canoes.

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miggsd28 t1_itmhi3k wrote

Ya but hundreds on a galactic scale is a very small handful it’s .000000001% of the stellar systems in the universe . As for the travel thing I agree that’s why I emphasized a civ that doesn’t have beyond light speed capabilities

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AggravatingHome5222 t1_itfflmb wrote

IMO, unless the aliens have invented a spacetime machine and decided to say hello to humans by spawning in a particular location at select time and emit signal strong enough in the direction of earth for the receivers of our tech to detect by present time frame, we would not be able to receive a strong signal.

A civilisation with such advancement and knowledge about our presence in this space time continum would be possibly use tech to sheild us from detecting other civilisation as well. May be life on earth, is a experiment. We are all the subjects

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roflsst t1_itgsvl8 wrote

Your last point resonates with me, why do we seem to be alone when all indicators point out that the universe should be teeming with life? Maybe it's no coincidence and we are right where we should be, in prison by design.

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Kohouteky t1_itggf5g wrote

If there is intelligent life, it has to be close in time and space for us to be near enough to even witness a 'signature'.

The probability of that does not seem high given what little we know. The probability of intelligence in another galaxy could be high, given the massive number of planets.

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feed_me_the_gherkin t1_itf64pm wrote

I just read the Three Body Problem trilogy last month and like...I dont think I want aliens anymore

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newromanempire t1_itf874h wrote

The Hunter in the forest metaphor was a new thought process for me.

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feed_me_the_gherkin t1_itf9c75 wrote

It's fucking terrifying lol. Because the only way to k own if it's true is to either be the one to call out first hoping to be alone, or watch someone else die.

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Busterlimes t1_itgym7z wrote

Bold of you to assume we will find intelligent life when we dont even have it here on earth. Intelligent life wouldn't be fighting with itself over profits while simultaneously stripping the planet of its ability to support life. Fermi paradox is the answer, life kills off the planet before it has a chance to advance their technology to move off the planet.

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RedBaret t1_itgdltd wrote

Isn’t that what they tried with finding radio signals for decades and it didn’t really work? We need to stop looking for just ‘smart’ life and look for bio signatures.

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TheMaskedImp t1_itf51bi wrote

I just want to say, if weve ever come into contact with an alien probe or ship, Omuamua was probably one of them. Just think about it, it behaved unlike anything weve seen in the solar system (granted we havent observed it for that long), we never got a picture of it, and it was shaped really weirdly

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ozas258 t1_itg6kol wrote

Like mass relays at the edge of our solar system also a mass effect engine on mars

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Xw5838 t1_ithe6iu wrote

Signatures of alien technology like say....odd objects flying in formation or separately around military and civilian aircraft?

Which they've been doing for decades.

Those sorts of signatures of alien technology?

Or

An odd acting object that enters the solar system that gets immediately classified by astronomers as an asteroid or comet even though it doesn't really look like or act like either?

And when someone mentions that it could possibly be alien technology they get mocked and denigrated.

So the problem with the "signatures of alien technology" idea being taken seriously is that apparently in the absence of a flashing neon sign saying, "hey guys this is alien technology" astronomers and other scientists and others due to the fear of ostracism etc...will immediately classify everything as a naturally occurring object making it impossible to study even the possibility of observing alien technology.

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SeverableSole7 t1_ithlmys wrote

I’m starting to think any civilization we come across is either going to be on our level (in terms of how technologically advanced they are) or well below because I feel like any civilization that’s more advanced than us would never let us find them unless they wanted to be found I guess

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YadaYadaYou t1_itj47ci wrote

Evidence of life could be evidence of life? Who would have thought?

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FuturologyBot t1_itf1nse wrote

The following submission statement was provided by /u/WallStreetDoesntBet:

If an alien were to look at Earth, many human technologies, from cell towers to fluorescent light bulbs, could be a beacon signifying the presence of life.

A technosignature (technomarker) is any measurable property or effect that provides scientific evidence of past or present technology. Technosignatures are analogous to biosignatures, which signal the presence of life, whether intelligent or not.

While scanning the sky for a TV broadcast of some extraterrestrial Olympics may sound straightforward, searching for signs of distant, advanced civilisations is a much more nuanced and difficult task than it might seem.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/yb6m6d/signatures_of_alien_technology_could_be_how/iteynku/

1

MountainofObligation t1_itfmlm3 wrote

Whats crazy is if aliens were just a future of humanity where we evolved and adapted to each ecoystem.

1

SirGlenn t1_itgcz0t wrote

One dark night, over Lake Superior, a large red object appeared in the sky, 10 or 12 smaller ones started rotating around the big light, them each flew away in different directions one at a time, then the large (mother ship?) Blasted away and in 2 seconds it was out of sight. My neighbor, a WWII flight camera man, shook his head and said, not from this planet!

1

AnAncientOne t1_itheyla wrote

We're probably the only technologically advanced civilisation that exists in this Galaxy at the moment and given we're not likely to last more than a few thousand years it's unlikely we'll hear from another.

1

StoicType4 t1_ithll6c wrote

After recently finishing the Three Body Problem trilogy I’m a little conflicted on making contact. Could be a dark forest out there.

1

kcaJkcalB t1_itit42y wrote

They already found and contacted intelligent life hundreds years ago

1

seanbrockest t1_itiyxfl wrote

The first discovery of an exoplanet was made years before we realized what it was. I would imagine the same will happen for aliens. In fact we've likely already discovered them, we just don't know how to recognize them.

1

yt1nifnI t1_itj5arj wrote

It most likely would depend entirely on how advanced the alien technology is. Just look at the Kardashev scale for reference. Their technology might not work or behave like ours at all making them next to impossible to find and that is assuming they would want to be found.

1

fazhenda t1_itjsit6 wrote

That capition which says something like "intelligent species may purposefully avoid broadcasting out their locations" reads as "I never win the lottery so the lottery operator may be intentionally avoiding me"

1

herbw t1_itm2qwe wrote

CART before the Horse. First you have to find a site, out of several trillions. Not an optimal search program.

The BEST is finding a very large planet, in the liquid water temps/zone, with unstable organic cmpds. & spectra, which ID such substances, clearly, and confirmably. Something which looks like Chlorophyll or the other pigments found from plants.

Then we look for the living systems creating that, if possible.

Then we go from there. It's not the Wizard of Oz ideas.

As Ellie's dad said in Contact " Slow steps, ellie, Slow steps."

1

pauljs75 t1_itnui71 wrote

Space junk in other words. It could be something as innocuous as a detached panel, or perhaps a nut or bolt that doesn't seem to match any of the dimensional standards used by us here on Earth. It could be something we may not quite recognize as alien until there's enough people working out in space to specifically look over things like that.

1

0xNNON t1_itfnev7 wrote

The fact that UATs haven’t been debunked yet means we may might already be there.

0

AzLibDem t1_itgru0m wrote

The fact that something hasn't been disproved is no evidence for it's existence.

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rwdrive t1_itfwxfe wrote

Agreed. Too late to be worried about technomarkers... I am pretty confident they are already here and various leadership groups know it in detail. We just have not included in the knowledge---yet.

−1

iCthe4 t1_itg2mi9 wrote

Wait what what?

3

rwdrive t1_itm28xr wrote

Many governments have said UFOs are real, and not likely of human origin.... In particular the US is finally admitting this. I believe they know much more than they are sharing with the public.

1

[deleted] t1_ithr88t wrote

I'm sure religions, governments, doomsday preppers, and conspiracy theorists will absolutely react rationally if/when we find Alien anything.

0

Extremely-Bad-Idea t1_itf3vdp wrote

Might "signatures of alien technology" include gigantic orbiting garbage dumps? LOL

I hate to say it, but evidence of pollution might be a strong indication of advanced life forms. Squirrels and birds don't produce mountains of plastic, paper, and industrial waste.

−1

evildork t1_ith5nvt wrote

One possible technosignature that we could detect is high levels of CFCs in the atmosphere of an exoplanet. They're industrially useful chemicals with no known natural means of production.

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crazzyfuzzy88 t1_itf6yz7 wrote

If we find subscriptions in space , we know we have found advanced civilizations. Got it .

−1

FirmamentGaming t1_ith1yaj wrote

So, by seeing a bird's nest you then get proof that a bird made that nest. Man, stellar reasoning.

We found an ET spaceship!!! Bro, ETs must exist as this is proof!!!

−1

[deleted] t1_itiw6r1 wrote

Then they will nuke us from a distance because they already saw Maury Povic and then DJtrump. “Stick a fork in ‘em”, they were heard to say.

−1

TirayShell t1_itf58yo wrote

They may not use what we consider to be technology. What if their main form of travel is dreams, and they consist of concepts transmitted to receptive individuals who apply the concepts to their own species then culture with the ultimate effect of the concepts being sent out by us too. Like right now on the Internet. We don't even know we've been invaded. And dreams have never been proven to exist. All of the evidence is anecdotal.

−3

YYC9393 t1_itgjryp wrote

What? We’ve already made direct contact with them many times..

−3

[deleted] t1_itf0n1n wrote

[removed]

−11

Main_X t1_itgbwa2 wrote

I will date the girl from Venus, FOR SCIENCE!

2

Extreme-Ad-5059 t1_itf476k wrote

lol keep dreaming. aliens dont exist no matter what you want to believe

−22

Doktor_Earrape t1_itf5v56 wrote

There is zero chance Earth has the only life forms in the universe

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KingRafa t1_itg1j5s wrote

There are certainly other life forms out there, but other civilizations are relatively unlikely, at least within our galaxy.

−2

LeadSky t1_itf6x75 wrote

Why do you think so? You have no way of proving they don’t exist

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Theman227 t1_itg3n7f wrote

Seriously, just read his comment history... you're not talking to peak intelligence...

1

gmoney32211 t1_itgtafv wrote

There is 2 trillion galaxies within just our OBSERVABLE universe. There are 10^25, yes 10 to the 25th exponent planets that orbit stars.

It’s incredibly naive to think we are the only ones who exist and even the most intelligent to exist.

3