106

If many extraterrestrial civilizations were nearby but trying to keep quiet, how would you suggest drawing them out? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by ALostInquirer@lemm.ee to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

66 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What do you think would finally be their, "Enough, we gotta say something!" situation?

Edit:
Put another way, what might serve as a cosmic icebreaker?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] FaceDeer@kbin.social 3 points 11 months ago

It depends on why they're being quiet. In this scenario I think it'd be likely that they're being quiet for some reason that's literally incomprehensible to human-level minds, since they're likely millions or billions of years more advanced than we are. So it's impossible to predict what, if anything, might provoke them to break that silence.

I guess sending a probe there and having it physically poke them might get some kind of reaction, at least.

[-] ALostInquirer@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

In this scenario I think it’d be likely that they’re being quiet for some reason that’s literally incomprehensible to human-level minds, since they’re likely millions or billions of years more advanced than we are.

Why's that? It's not an imposition on my part, especially given that unlike the usual scenarios where the reason one might imagine them to be more advanced is that they aren't nearby and are capable of reaching us from afar somehow.

Scenario I've posed is pretty basic, say some extraterrestrial civilizations were nearby (say, we're both able to travel & communicate in a more timely fashion than waiting decades for each trip/exchange), but they're not talking to us because ??? and so...How might ya get'em to meet & talk?

this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023

106 points (95.7% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26736 readers

1483 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.