Talk:Extraterrestrial life/Comments

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What about the Fermi Paradox and its interesting implications about what a galaxy full of life could be? Perhaps self-replicating Von Neumann Probes should be mentioned, as they might be used by advanced civilizations... Doesn't it seem like the scientific community slightly holds the opinion that interstellar travel is, at least as far as we can probe nature and elaborate scientific Theories such as General Relativity, unlikely to be quick and easy? I mean, these do put serious restrictions on travel times and energy level involved in any interstellar travel. Some people here say such statement as "don't assume their technological wisdom as being as primitive as ours. People didn't even believe in artificial, heavier than air flying machines to be possibly built by humans a century and a half ago!". Well, can't we say that no matter how advanced or different, with slanted eyes or large pointy heads and round shiny saucers parked in front of little green colored, triangular homes, anyone made of matter in this universe MUST follow the laws of physics? I mean, there ain't no switch to turn gravity off, or start curving space around your ship at will. There are certain bounds that we KNOW are followed by constituent of this beautiful Universe...We certainly do NOT expect such things to happen as a stone not feeling gravity anymore tomorrow and taking off at random towards the sky. Everywhere we look in the sky, stars undergo the same transmutation of elements, always as predicted by nuclear physics. The velocity of light as NEVER been seen to be broken by anything with mass; we have absolutely NEVER observed any variation in the way gravity works. Sure, "anomalies" such as dark matter and/or dark energy will continue to be discovered and studied, perhaps even understood; but it seems like the little we know, we seem to know well: a previous poster on this topic, when faced with the (disputed anyway, might I add) notion that wormholes are only "2 quarks in size", replied that it couldn't be expected what an advanced civilization might just be able to do, and maybe wormholes of a usable size and geometry had been built. This comment neglected to mention the little problem that, in fact, to potentially sustain a wormhole of a decent size for more than a fraction of a second, something identified as "negative energy" was desperatly needed; let's not even mention the fact that this exotic kind of energy has no valid interpretation in any scientific theory, and that only dark energy, acting over distances greater than intergalactic separations, would have this repulsive effect. In any case, it might just be a good idea to stop speculating so wildly, in this very page at least, and stick to what we know is possible or not. Perhaps interstellar travel, not able to break any physical laws, has to be painfully slow and demands huge generation ships with a reproducing cargo. Just maybe it is the case that this task of rasing the funds needed and building these modern noah's arks in orbit is hardly feasible for anyone or anything "alive" to accomplish, bounded as we are by the laws of Physics. 76.226.32.246 (talk) 20:44, 29 April 2008 (UTC)