We are probably alone (11 mins)

The Ancient Dog ^ | 08/05/2026 | Professor Edmund Whitmore

[Az Joe]

Professor Edmund Whitmore takes the stage to make an argument most scientists won't say out loud: that we are probably alone in the universe. Not "we haven't found anyone yet." Actually alone. The only technological civilization that exists, or has ever existed, within any distance that matters.

[cbvanb]

And how do you know that other life forms are peaceful?

[discostu]

The universe is way to big for that. And too old. Now there’s a significant chance we’ll never encounter anybody else, because distance and the speed of light and all that. But in a universe with BILLIONS of galaxies each with BILLIONS of suns tracking over BILLIONS of years even the downright impossible will happen more than once.

[PIF]

The Physics That Makes Interstellar Travel IMPOSSIBLE
—

The Physics That Makes Traveling Past The Mississippi Impossible - coming soon.

[discostu]

We’ve only been listening to the universe a couple of decades. And we’ve only been paying attention to the radio wave WE use, not the entire carrier spectrum. So any radio signals that got to us before we were listening, we missed em. Any radio signal that haven’t gotten here yet, well we haven’t had the chance to miss them yet. And anything in the parts of the carrier spectrum we don’t use, zipped right by.

The problem always is that space is HUGE. No really, much bigger than your thinking. If you’ve got a seats 4 to 6 round dining room table, or at least have sat at one, imagine a map of the Milkyway on it. Down about 6 inches one edge, in an unpopular arm of the galaxy, put a little spec of something. That’s earth. And stand look at that for a second. We’re really small, entire planet covered by pepper flake. Now on top of that put a dime. That dime covers the entire distance we, humans, could be detected from a far. That’s about 150 light years of distance. 150 years ago is when we started playing around with radios, and we’re pretending for this that our early radio stuff was strong enough to get out of the atmosphere at detectable, it wasn’t, but we’re as friendly as possible. Also around that time is when we started artificially lighting cities, which potentially be detected by really good telescopes.

That’s it. That dime, on that table, in that room, in that house, in that city. That is the entirety of the universe that could detect us. And that’s about what we’re able to seriously detect too. Our telescopes can’t detect artificial lighting even that far out.

So there could be many many peeps. But we just don’t have the tech to detect them.

[cgbg]

It is not an issue of belief.

It is an issue of how you determine what you know.

If the way you determine it is by trusting experts you will be in a world of hurt.

That is practical advice for the real world.

[ShadowAce]

I can’t finish watching AI slop

[lee martell]

We don’t yet know that, but chances are, if they are capable of knowing about us, they may also capable of destroying us, were that the immediate intention.

Think of it this way, just as we on earth speculate about mining the Moon for elements and essential materials, so too may be the intent of ‘outside agencies’ to mine Earth.
Nothing of significance is stopping them from doing it.

In other words, perhaps we are the Goose that inadvertently lays Golden Eggs, and our planet is now being mined for various material. Organic material, that continues to grow and replace itself. The Outsiders may occasionally come into our orbit to collect and harvest various products that naturally exist upon earth, and no where else in this abundance.
They don’t need to ‘destroy’ us in order to harvest (steal) our untapped resources. Baby/Bathwatr

[bobbo666]

“..within any distance that matters..” Yeah, there is the usual cheap arsed qualifier any dimbulb tacks onto his blithering idiocy on any subject.

Either quantify your assertions of shut the ‘Ell up. You are no scientist.

[Az Joe]

Nope.

It is accurate. You need to update your thinking on the matter.

[libertylover]

Professor Edmund Whitmore takes the stage to make an argument most scientists won't say out loud: that we are probably alone in the universe. Not "we haven't found anyone yet." Actually alone. The only technological civilization that exists, or has ever existed, within any distance that matters.

I find that hard to believe. Just because our technology has not yet found others doesn't mean that we're alone. There's just too many millions, billions, trillions of possibilities for me to believe we're alone.

Also, "within any distance that matters". That's not very far in terms of the universe.

I know the distance to the nearest star, other than the sun, is about 4.5 light years away. How far to the next nearest star?

[libertylover]

This is what I believe too and for the simple matter that God does not duplicate His creation.

You could be right of course, but there are millions of different lifeforms on earth, not just one. Of course, we're at the top but God created many different lifeforms on earth so I'm open to the possibility that there are others out there, not that we're anywhere close to being able to visit them and maybe never will be.

[spankalib]

I keep this in my misc folder, for when these discussions arise on FR:

The Bible shows that there is intelligent life elsewhere.
It just hasn't 'fallen', like man, here on erf.

Heb 1:2
Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Heb 11:3
Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

Worlds, plural, more than one. Then:

Isa 45:18
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

I don’t think He created the other worlds in vain either – he formed them to be inhabited as well.

Ephesians 3:9
And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: Also: Ephesians 3:10
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, Ephesians 6:12:
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Job 38:7
When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

[libertylover]

I'm not a Biblical scholar, but the first sentence is: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Plural (if the translation is accurate).

[JohnnyP]

I Believe!

The “Cote” UFO photo.

“During an official government aerial mapping expedition, an unexplained anomaly appeared on film between frames 299 and 301. The image, cataloged within Costa Rica’s national archive, has endured decades of scrutiny. Preserved with a clear chain of custody, the photograph has been examined by some of the most respected academic and scientific voices — and remains unexplained.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzGV76EyVdM

[unread]

This is interesting...

Bioinformation and Neutrino Communication:

Communications among civilizations may include self-descriptive bioinformation because pathogen dynamics exist in their astrobiology and astrovirology, which could become pathogenic upon actual contact. This information is of mutual benefit, if reciprocated. However, in contrast, the strategic counter-scenario of self-hidden civilizations is also discussed. Civilizations, including extra-terrestrial civilizations have been divided and stratified into three levels, using a wide non-linear logarithmic scale. The levels are based on their energy expenditures: level 1 is at 4x10^19 erg/sec; level 2 is at 4x10^33 erg/sec; and level 3 is at 4x10^44 erg/sec. Terrestrial civilization is currently below the entry level I. Particularly advanced civilizations, which are above the highest level, may engineer interstellar travel and could move their planets across interstellar distances. Communication among civilizations has always been of keen interest. In terms of ability to communicate among advanced civilizations, neutrinos may be used for galactic and inter-galactic communication, in addition to or instead of using electromagnetic radiation. Thus, at this juncture, deliberation and debate are essential to proceed with development of civilization and communication.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10165035/

[rlmorel]

For my part, I am only now on my journey to find Christ, but I feel that has been in my heart my whole life, so when read Carl Sagan’s arguments, my heart told me even back then it wasn’t true.

But that said, that is my heart. My intellect hasn’t made up its mind.

[Bobbyvotes]

Practical advice is stop wasting precious earth’s resources on cosmic travel. The GPS satellites are great, they are a profitable venture. Military satellites serve important function. But trying to set up colonies on mars or moon is a boondoggle. And to dream of travel to planets beyond our solar system is pure fantasy.

[punknpuss]

Name one thing that is an exact duplicate in God’s creation. A leaf, a fingerprint, a dna strand? A freckle, a single hair, a wrinkle? I don’t tell God to do anything. What a ridiculous thing to write.

[captmar-vell]

Interesting, it takes me more than a tin of matches just to light the fireplace. lol Yeah I need to work on that.

Yukon Cornelius would add ham hocks and guitar strings.

[T.B. Yoits]

However the gap between the 2 suns is so great that the spacecraft simply dies from entering the vast dark space between the two suns.