30 MAY 2016 by ideonexus
The Universe is a Dark Forest for Civilization
The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him. If he finds other life—another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire a... 1 
notes
notes17 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Life in a Nebula Evolves to Maneuver into It
"Tell me what happened!"
"The tree came apart.
"Why?"
"Maybe the fire set it off, but it was ready. Clave, everythiiing in the Smoke Ring has some way of getting around. Some way to stay near the median... middle, where there's warater and air. Where do you think jet pods come from?" The hanand relaxed a little, and the Grad kept talking. "It's a plant's way of gettmg around. If a plant wanders out of the median, t too far into the gas torus region--"
"The what?"
Alfin asked, "What o... 1 notes
notesThe integral tree has just broken in half, and the scientist explains this is a survival mechanism because it was moving to far out of the nebula to survive.
12 APR 2012 by ideonexus
Intelligent Life May Have Appeared in the Universe Billio...
[W]e might expect intelligent life and technological communities to have emerged in the universe billions of years ago. Given that human society is only a few thousand years old, and that human technological society is mere centuries old, the nature of a community with millions or even billions of years of technological and social progress cannot even be imagined. ... What would we make of a billion-year-old technological community? Folksonomies: extraterrestrials alien life
Folksonomies: extraterrestrials alien life
1 Considering the age of the universe. The technological progress of such extraterrestrials would make them godlike.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
1420 megahertz
In the Next Generation episode “Galaxy's Child,” the Enterprise stumbles upon an alien life-form that lives in empty space, feeding on energy. Particularly tasty is radiation with a very specific frequency 1420 million cycles per second, having a wavelength of 21 cm.
In the spirit of Pythagoras, if there were a Music of the Spheres, surely this would be its opening tone. Fourteen hundred and twenty megahertz is the natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircle... 1 notes
notesThe natural frequency of precession of the spin of an electron as it encircles the atomic nucleus of hydrogen, it is the tone of the universe.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Stanley Kubrick Sought Insurance Against the Discovery of...
During the filming of 2001, Kubrick, who obviously has a grasp for detail,
became concerned that extraterrestrial intelligence might be discovered before the
$10.5 million film was released, rendering the plot line obsolete, if not erroneous.
Lloyd's of London was approached to underwrite an insurance policy protecting
against losses should extraterrestrial intelligence be discovered. Lloyd's of London,
which insures against the most implausible contingencies, declined to write such a
policy.... 1 notes
notesBecause it would ruin the premise of his film 2001.
01 JAN 2012 by ideonexus
Thinking About Aliens Stretches the Imagination
The virtue of thinking about life elsewhere is that it forces us to stretch our
imaginations. Can we think of alternative solutions to biological problems already
solved in one particular way on Earth? For example, the wheel is a comparatively
recent invention on the planet Earth. It seems to have been invented in the ancient
Near East less than ten thousand years ago. In fact, the high civilizations of Meso-
America, the Aztecs and the Mayas, never employed the wheel, except for children's t... 1 notes
notesThe possible life that could evolve in other environments is an imaginative treasure chest.
(TODO: The wheeled organisms described here appear in the Amber Spyglass by Pullman)
15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
If Life Can Exist in Sea Vents, Then It Can Exist Elsewhe...
The fact that this chain of life existed [at volcanic vents on the seafloor] in the black cold of the deep sea and was utterly independent of sunlight—previously thought to be the font of all Earth's life—has startling ramifications. If life could flourish there, nurtured by a complex chemical process based on geothermal heat, then life could exist under similar conditions on planets far removed from the nurturing light of our parent star, the Sun. 1 notes
notesIncreasing the range of places life can occur in the universe.
15 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Aliens Don't Care About Us
The idea that we shall be welcomed as new members into the galactic community is as unlikely as the idea that the oyster will be welcomed as a new member into the human community. We're probably not even edible. 1 notes
notesAnymore than we care about oysters.
13 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
Carbon VS Silicon Life
Though one might imagine "living" organisms such as intelligent computers produced from other elements, such as silicon, it is doubtful that life could have spontaneously evolved in the absence of carbon. The reasons for that are technical but have to do with the unique manner in which carbon bonds with other elements. Carbon dioxide, for example, is gaseous at room temperature, and biologically very useful. Since silicon is the element directly below carbon on the periodic table, it has simi... 1 notes
notesWhile we can imagine living computers, it is hard to imagine silicon life spontaneously forming in the universe.
