This is my headcannon for why we’ll never have first contact. Because in a theoretical infinite universe, aliens 100% exist in some form, but they’re absolutely mortified by the signals we pump out into our nearspace from TV, radio, internet, etc
The most curious aliens might take a peek or come down for scans, but actually getting out of the UAP is like jumping the fence at the Cincinnati Zoo.
So the aliens that do come down are researchers or stupid kids?.. Wow, that checks out. Explains a lot of crashes. Joy riding alien teenagers, daredevils and a handful who break down here.
Now I find myself wondering if aliens have an equivalent to a Nissan Altima.
Supposedly our 200-ish year old bubble of lightspeed radio signals now encompasses 75 star systems. Unfortunately the signal gets diminished over distance thanks to the inverse square rule, so they’d maybe receive a signal but not be able to distinguish it from the CMB.
I don’t think we’re sure what makes it and what doesn’t. Some of the first radio broadcasts were very strong and maybe even directed more, but over time due to competition limits were put on transmission power. Then there’s the question of general direction vs. a directed beam which would have more distance before it gets lost. Lastly, lower bandwidths were used as technology modernized, which would hide more in the background.
But even if the strongest part gets to a planet and lasts for years, what if their time to invent and use radio is still far in the future, or gone in the past and they don’t even look in those frequencies. It could be more a matter of timing than anything else.
I still wait for the darkly humorous joke until it really happens message to us, “Shhhh, they’ll hear you.”
The radio signals were essentially point source, so they’ll still dissipate. I’m not going to do the math, but like you said, others would need to be listening with the right gear at the right time to catch a signal and need a really impressive array to catch it. Yeah, the Dark Forest concept would be darkly funny.
This is my headcannon for why we’ll never have first contact. Because in a theoretical infinite universe, aliens 100% exist in some form, but they’re absolutely mortified by the signals we pump out into our nearspace from TV, radio, internet, etc
The most curious aliens might take a peek or come down for scans, but actually getting out of the UAP is like jumping the fence at the Cincinnati Zoo.
So the aliens that do come down are researchers or stupid kids?.. Wow, that checks out. Explains a lot of crashes. Joy riding alien teenagers, daredevils and a handful who break down here.
Now I find myself wondering if aliens have an equivalent to a Nissan Altima.
Supposedly our 200-ish year old bubble of lightspeed radio signals now encompasses 75 star systems. Unfortunately the signal gets diminished over distance thanks to the inverse square rule, so they’d maybe receive a signal but not be able to distinguish it from the CMB.
I don’t think we’re sure what makes it and what doesn’t. Some of the first radio broadcasts were very strong and maybe even directed more, but over time due to competition limits were put on transmission power. Then there’s the question of general direction vs. a directed beam which would have more distance before it gets lost. Lastly, lower bandwidths were used as technology modernized, which would hide more in the background.
But even if the strongest part gets to a planet and lasts for years, what if their time to invent and use radio is still far in the future, or gone in the past and they don’t even look in those frequencies. It could be more a matter of timing than anything else.
I still wait for the darkly humorous joke until it really happens message to us, “Shhhh, they’ll hear you.”
The radio signals were essentially point source, so they’ll still dissipate. I’m not going to do the math, but like you said, others would need to be listening with the right gear at the right time to catch a signal and need a really impressive array to catch it. Yeah, the Dark Forest concept would be darkly funny.
We are the Riggs (Lethal Weapon) of the universe. No one wants to get close to us, we are unpredictable.
Aliens killed Harambe? Those dicks!