Could any unpredictable consequence to experiments, like that in Large Hadron Collider, be an answer to extinctions of many extraterrestrial civilizations ?
Im sure that there are no risk in LHC, because scientifics lows (that one whe know) exclude any catastrophic outcome.
But science in the past have evolved in non linear manner.
20 year before Einstein who had forseen Relativity?
Can you imagine what would happen if space travel was routine and economical and we discovered a planet where creatures similar to cows and chickens were the highest life form? KFC and McDonalds would be leading the way for colonization. I hope the aliens are vegetarians.Or think of when advanced colonists discovered primitive natives in our own history. Not a pretty picture.
I have not read all the comments here, but has anyone considered the zoo hypothesis???
obviously it is foolish to think we are the first, which leaves ONLY TWO POSSIBLE OUTCOMES:
either they(however many) are watching us with some degree(no idea how high or low) of fascination, or they all destroy themselves at some point just past where we are today.
now for a fringe comment, that is only fringe because all govts have banned psychotropic substances even for scientific study:
in 1990, Dr Rick Strassman of New Mexico University was somehow granted that ability to study the effects of DiMethylTryptamine on human subjects...and over 50 percent described the same general experience: hyperdimensional contact with hyper-intelligent beings, specifically telling them to not give into the astonishment of experiencing their hyper-language.
after reading about this, my first thought was about how the latest string theories predict at least 11 dimensions as well as multiple universes, and how if our elders wanted to contact us, they would probably only choose the bravest.
Why do these people conveniently leave out two facts (1)objects in space are within but tremendous distances from one another (2) space is a hostile place. Simply consider the energy necessary to propel an object at 10% the speed of light - will any civilization ever practically get there? Why do we simply assume one magically will? Considering the things we know are necessary for life (stable/mild temperature, atmospheric protection, water) why can't we accept the likelihood that intelligent life is rare and typically exists isolated far from one another?
Personally, I don't want to see evidence of life on Mars, because when we terraform it one day, we will not have any immunity to the microbes should they want to live off us.
the energy required to propell a probe to 10% lightspeed is in fact not much, when you factor in the distances we are talking about. linear accelleration for a fraction of the time and you are there.
gross estimate here, but accellerating at 1 meter / minute even, you are at 10% light speed in under 100 years, much less the millions we are discussing here.
Current technology makes it sound unfeasable because of the energy requirements, but it is known that our current energy tech is well behind what we would need before this is done. Throw out a zero point system, or similar style energy provider, and you are good to go.
as for the harshness of the environment, considering we had no concept of carbon nano tubes and their construction potential less then a century ago, it is extremely feasable that in 10,000+ years we will have the tech to send a probe that won't be destroyed by the harshness of space
the odds that a microbe on mars would kill us is an infinitesimally tiny, i mean have you ever heard of someone contracting dutch elm disease? no you havent any microbe you find on mars would not be suited to get past any defenses life on earth has been using for the past 2 billion years. also the earth receives debris from mars on a regular basis any microbes in the soil would have already contaminated earth. so your wrong :) have a nice day.
Accelerating to .1 or .2, .3c is not an issue for a probe. The problem is that, using current technologies, it would take nigh 10,000 years to get close to those kinds of speeds (and a similar period of time to safely slow down). Relativistic speeds are within reach.
This is an excellent deduction of reasoning on this subject. There could easily be a 'Pandora's box' in our future of technological discovery. A quick example is the fear that detonating the atomic bomb would set off a chain reaction igniting the atomosphere. This was a real fear, and would have killed off the human race had it happend.
We look at these style of a small % chance of a failure of massive proportions more regularily now it seems. I'm not an LHC doomsayer, but we don't know 100% what will happen. We could stumble upon something, create a micro-blackhole that grows slightly, and dissapear in a blip like we never existed.
I am conflicted on this though, because if we find evidence of advanced life on mars (multi-cellular) then, while it does increase the chance that we will happen upon something that wipes us out in the future, it will make for damned interesting science in the meantime!
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
axartico
2
Possible answer to Fermi question
Im sure that there are no risk in LHC, because scientifics lows (that one whe know) exclude any catastrophic outcome.
But science in the past have evolved in non linear manner.
20 year before Einstein who had forseen Relativity?
There are some Pandora's vase ?
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