The Astronomy Thread

Just got in from setting my mount and tripod for a night of viewing. Going to start out with a 102mm refractor and graduate to an 8" newt. These were the only two telescopes I had handy since I moved. No idea where my 12v powersource is located, so goto and no guiding tonight. All manual.

I always have a couple of pet peeves with how things are shown in astronomy.

Firstly the milky way has a bar in it, that it rarely if ever shown in popular astronomy pictures.


Secondly, red giants aren't smooth red balls which look like our sun. They're constantly churning blobs of "fire" like this:

Eh, our sun isn't yellow either yet damn near every image it is portrayed as such.

Should we actively try to contact aliens? - Business Insider

What do you guys think?

Brad2770_sl said:

Should we actively try to contact aliens? - Business Insider

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Much more thorough explanation:
The Fermi Paradox - Wait But Why

Brad2770_sl said:

Should we actively try to contact aliens? - Business Insider

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Our presence is being broadcast to the universe whether we want it out there or not, we might as well take the shot at controlling the conversation.

opiate82_sl said:

Our presence is being broadcast to the universe whether we want it out there or not, we might as well take the shot at controlling the conversation.

Click to expand...

Read my link. There's good reason the brightest minds like Hawking, Sagan, Tyson, et all are / were warning about this.

The Fermi Paradox kinda goes hand in hand with Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI).

Very lengthly 2 part, but well worth it read:
The AI Revolution: Road to Superintelligence - Wait But Why

Jysin_sl said:

Read my link. There's good reason the brightest minds like Hawking, Sagan, Tyson, et all are / were warning about this.

Click to expand...

I know what they all have to say and did read the link (it was a good link btw). But even so I still feel the same way.

The whole discussion is a bit silly, because it piles guesstimations and assumptions on top of each other.

The fist big one is that not everything is possible. It's not because you can think of something today that it can be possible tomorrow. So these Type II and Type III civilizations may possibly not be able to exist. Interstellar travel might also be impossible.

Another big problem is the one of time scale and space scale. It's very possible that in many places of the universe life appeared and disappeared, but that it is extremely unlikely for two places with life to be close enough in time and distance to notice each other. Dramatically more so if we hope that we are specifically part of one of those lucky (?) pair.

Last but not least. Considering how we fare with other sentient life forms on our own planet, I am in no hurry to meet sentient aliens. Though I guess there is a case to be made for human exceptionalism on planet earth, as there is a number of applications of our sentience that is unique to us.

Jysin_sl said:

Much more thorough explanation:
The Fermi Paradox - Wait But Why

Click to expand...

I am definitely in group 2 part 3 (And a little of 9 and 10 heh) as an explanation that sounds reasonable to me. Given what we know right now about potential singularities, and how digital mediums work--I think the whole notion of "colonizing" the universe for most advanced species is probably ridiculously archaic. Once you could achieve a singularity and have engineering to a level where you can comfortably move around in your solar system and have unlimited energy? The only possible need to move becomes super nova, and even that would only require a single move to a nearby star every X billions and billions of years (As even a start becoming a red giant would be fine for this type of civilization).

The reality is, there may be entire digital universes aliens are playing and exploring right now. They could be every bit as real, and genuine as ours--and Aliens just make them for funsies, altering the rules, changing the parameters so people play entire lives like a fucking MMO (As number 10 said, maybe we are in a type of MMO--the super hardcore server where you have to block your memories before booting up and rolling a toon ). In any case, at some point, it seems to me, the digital world creates an infinite number of realities. Exploring actual reality might never actually be a thing, except launching probes and beaming information back so you get a few ideas of a new fun world to create that people can play on.

Given how radically different the world of today is with virtual spaces? I'm pretty sure the idea of physically colonizing the universe with biological bodies is probably silly. Or it just might be that technology causes such radical shifts we couldn't recognize the type of colonization that happens. Still, the idea of broadcasting also seems silly. Sagan is right, stop, listen and learn. We should know already not to speak when we are still fumbling in the dark.

As eyerolling as the Rama Trilogy was with it's Joan fetish and philosophy sometimes, I think Gentry didn't have it too wrong.

Intelligent, mechanical, technological life doesn't even have to berarein the universe. All it has to be isuncommonand we would probably never see any of it besides ourselves. And if we're really very lucky... maybe the remnants of one previous iteration. The universe is vast beyond comprehension.