Ethan Siegel has an excellent post up exploring the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations. With hundreds of billions of stars (visible, above, in infrared wavelengths) in our galaxy alone, and literally trillions of planets around them, we have many, many chances for life to have evolved similarly to how it did here on Earth. With at … Continue reading The faster interstellar travel is, the further away intelligent aliens are
Tag: Fermi paradox
How far away is the closest extraterrestrial civilization?
First, let me be clear on what I'm talking about: intelligent aliens with an advanced civilization. This is a different question than extraterrestrial life in general. For life in general, particularly simple life, I'd be surprised if we'd have to look more than a hundred light years from Earth. (We may know the answer to … Continue reading How far away is the closest extraterrestrial civilization?
Beasts or gods; why a War Of The Worlds is very unlikely
One of the scenarios that is often played out in science fiction is what would happen if we encountered an alien civilization. Often, we are portrayed as defending Earth from an alien invasion or fighting battles with the aliens in a war. Another scenario, commonly found in more culturally introspective fiction, focuses on what our … Continue reading Beasts or gods; why a War Of The Worlds is very unlikely
Why extraterrestrial civilizations may be exceedingly rare
There's been a lot of news lately about the estimate of habitable planets in our galaxy. It sounds like there may be 40 billion planets in the habitable zones around their stars. This is cool stuff! The nearest one might be only 12 light years away. It's very tempting from this news, to conclude that … Continue reading Why extraterrestrial civilizations may be exceedingly rare
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