[ThirdOfFive]

I was watching a rather grainy YouTube video last night on how to use the latest in cutting-edge technology--the dial telephone! I still remember what the dial phone replaced: the old wooden box on the wall with a black horn that you spoke into, while listening with the receiver held to your ear, and you rang people up with a little hand-crank: longs and shorts. Calling anyone not on our "party line" meant ringing up "central", with the worker (Audrey, in our case) physically connected your line with the line of the person you were calling. Audrey only worked 40 hours a week though, so you had to plan your calls accordingly. Stone-age technology, relatively speaking, when compared to sending information 10 million miles on a beam of light. But those old phones themselves were cutting-age technology mere decades before dial phones came available.

Just checked my wrist: the watch I'm wearing is a computer multiples upon multiples more powerful than what took the Apollo 11 astronauts to the moon and back. Heck, my watch CHARGER is more powerful.

Knowledge begets knowledge. Today's miracles are only destined to be tomorrow's antique curiosities. I have no doubt that in the lifetimes of my grandchildren we will have the capability (whether or not we have the will is another question) not only for interplanetary but for interstellar travel. No doubt an antique curiosity from our age, Voyager 1, will one day grace the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Remember we couldn't fly--until we did.

"There is no "never". Only "not yet". Words I recall seeing on an old German silent-film - era science fiction movie. Less than a hundred years ago--do you think they really had any inkling, compared to today, just how prophetic those words were?

[star20166@yahoo.com]

Spock would say' that is illogical, Captain."

[toeser]

Originally Posted by Randall55

NASA confirmed Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with data nearly 10 million miles away to the Hale Telescope in San Diego. Known as "first light" this achievement paves the way toward higher-data-rate communications, high-definition imagery, and streaming video that can be transmitted throughout the solar system. If there are different life forms out there, are we asking for trouble? What would Spock advise us?

Other beings already know we are here. Fortunately, the ones that do don't think we taste good.

[Get real]

Build a wall now.

[Fastskiguy]

Originally Posted by Randall55

NASA confirmed Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment beamed a near-infrared laser encoded with data nearly 10 million miles away to the Hale Telescope in San Diego. Known as "first light" this achievement paves the way toward higher-data-rate communications, high-definition imagery, and streaming video that can be transmitted throughout the solar system. If there are different life forms out there, are we asking for trouble? What would Spock advise us?

Ah the dark forest theory. There may be something to it! On the other hand, space is really big so we've got that going for us. As Douglas Adams wrote...

"“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.” "

Joe

[Bay Kid]

Probably from a new Dollar General store.

[nn0wheremann]

So why are we measuring in miles when the whole world is measuring in klicks?

[HORNET]

Maybe we ought to worry about Planet Earth, and get the leaders worry about us. Let’s save the monies and take care of our own. We have people going to bed hungry and worrying about paying their bills. Let’s worry about others out there.

[Blueblaze]

10 million, you say? Yawn.

Call me when they receive a signal from 24,963,500,379,000 miles away -- about 25 TRILLION miles. That's how far it is to the NEAREST star!

[Randall55]

Originally Posted by Blueblaze

10 million, you say? Yawn.

Call me when they receive a signal from 24,963,500,379,000 miles away -- about 25 TRILLION miles. That's how far it is to the NEAREST star!

There is a possibility there are advanced life forms out there. Who knows what type of knowledge and technology they possess. Slim chance of this? Possibly. No chance? Never say never.

[Blueblaze]

Originally Posted by Randall55

There is a possibility there are advanced life forms out there. Who knows what type of knowledge and technology they possess. Slim chance of this? Possibly. No chance? Never say never.

With a billion-billion stars in the VISIBLE universe, I would estimate that "slim chance" at something on the order of 99.9999999999...%

But with 25 trillion miles to the nearest star, I would estimate the chance of ever encountering one of those advanced life forms at about 0.00000000...1%

[JMintzer]

They've been able to decode the message...

[ThirdOfFive]

Originally Posted by Blueblaze

10 million, you say? Yawn.

Call me when they receive a signal from 24,963,500,379,000 miles away -- about 25 TRILLION miles. That's how far it is to the NEAREST star!

True, but considering that radio waves travel at the speed of light (as do TV signals), those signals have already reached 75 star systems, with that number growing all the time. If there are intelligent beings within that range who are capable of at least the science we have, it is a good bet that they know about us--at least to the extent that our media represents our civilization, which come to think of it is pretty negative most of the time.

Maybe they figure that we're not worth striking up a conversation. If all I knew of us is what is on our news and entertainment media, I know I'd come to that conclusion.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive

True, but considering that radio waves travel at the speed of light (as do TV signals), those signals have already reached 75 star systems, with that number growing all the time. If there are intelligent beings within that range who are capable of at least the science we have, it is a good bet that they know about us--at least to the extent that our media represents our civilization, which come to think of it is pretty negative most of the time.

Maybe they figure that we're not worth striking up a conversation. If all I knew of us is what is on our news and entertainment media, I know I'd come to that conclusion.

They have probably been here over the past billions of years and probably planted the seeds of life at some point. I kind of doubt we were the first in the universe with life.

And they need not worry about us unless our technology develops a lot more and we can also travel at much faster speeds.

[Taltarzac725]

Age of the universe - Wikipedia

Putting things in perspective.