Quote:
Originally Posted by pmrid
While our own feeble signal has only been moving outwards for 200 years or so, the rest of the universe has been 'out there' for 13.7 Billion years - or wharever the current received wisdom is - so while nobody has had much of a chance of hearing us, there is every reason to believe that we ought to be hearing them - if they are being broadcast in any medium or band within our techincal competence.
Peter
|
I dunno. The idea that we should have heard from them seems to presume one of two things.
1 - They have found a way of circumventing the limitation of the speed of light. I find this hard to credit. It seems to be deeply embedded in the way things work. The potential outs to this as far as I can tell are either very exotic particles or wormholes. The former doesn't sound practical for actually moving things or communicating with us. The latter would require colossal amounts of energy harnessed with a precision that defies belief. And both are still based on very speculative science even in theory.
2 - They have been around for so long the speed of light isn't a major constraint. More than that, they are capable of developing, resourcing and sticking to a plan the size of a galaxy over geological time (hundreds of thousands of years at the very least). Sounds like space opera to me, and not something I'd consider likely from anything that had to evolve.
Further to both points (as many have observed), if they are that advanced, why on earth would they want to talk to us?
That said, I think it's overwhelmingly likely that plenty of them are out there. I just don't think it likely that any of us will ever hear from each other.