carnage11 said:

Patlal said:

My human mind cannot even understand how big this structure is.

Even with a space shuttle we couldn't even see 0.0001% of it....

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With a space shuttle that is capable of traveling at the speed of light (theoretically impossible) it would take 4 billion years to get from one end to the other.


Or you could think of it like this, if you were sitting on a planet on one side looking through a telescope to the other end, you would be looking at something that was 4 billion years in the past.

To put that into perspective, we believe the universe to be a little less than 15 billion years old.  This is because the farthest (oldest) objects we can see are ~15 billion light years away.  Meaning light can not travel farther than 15 billion light years because, theoretically nothing existed beyond that. 

Or at least this is from what I understand.  I could be mistaken with my numbers.

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Boomin907 said:

carnage11 said:

Patlal said:

My human mind cannot even understand how big this structure is.

Even with a space shuttle we couldn't even see 0.0001% of it....

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With a space shuttle that is capable of traveling at the speed of light (theoretically impossible) it would take 4 billion years to get from one end to the other.


Or you could think of it like this, if you were sitting on a planet on one side looking through a telescope to the other end, you would be looking at something that was 4 billion years in the past.

To put that into perspective, we believe the universe to be a little less than 15 billion years old.  This is because the farthest (oldest) objects we can see are ~15 billion light years away.  Meaning light can not travel farther than 15 billion light years because, theoretically nothing existed beyond that. 

Or at least this is from what I understand.  I could be mistaken with my numbers.

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Faster than light is actually theoretically possible NASA faster than light project

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Mafeki said:

why haven't we found intelligent beings on other planets yet?

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Midnight_Toker said:

Well think about it like this:  How many years have we had radio wave capability?  Less than two centuries.  Out of almost 14 billion years of the evolution of the universe, what are the chances that we find a civilization in our own galaxy on a similar planet(Earth is hugely unique) with at least as many years of radio communication under their belt as there is light years distance between us in order for us to pick up their signal?

It seems to me humans are going to ruin themselves before we ever make it to other planets, and if evolution created us as invasive species that ruin our own biosphere, there is a good chance that any other intelligent civilization will do the same thing before reaching interstellar space travelling capabilities.  Factoring in planet formation and evolution from a microscale, there's a 7 billion or so year time frame in which whole civilizations could have arisen and been destroyed.  The chances of one nearby arising at the same time as us are just too small.

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Midnight_Toker said:

There may be lots of planets with water in the habitable zone of their sun, but that doesn't mean they're perfect for intelligent life to develop.  They may have tons of microscopic or even fish-like life, but our climate is so stable it's ridiculous.  Take the moon for example, it's HUGE compared to the size of our planet and hugely improbable, but it keeps the Earth's axis steady and allows the seasons to be almost exactly the same every year, without too many ridiculous drops or rises in temperature.  The moon itself is probably a one in a hundred million chance, and I believe it's a big contributing factor in the evolution of intelligent life here on Earth.

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Midnight_Toker said:

By the way I'm not saying that there are no or have been no similarly unique Earth like planets and intelligent civilizations.  The universe is too massive to presume that.  I'm just saying that in our own galaxy, in our own civilizations time, in the span of the existence of the universe, the chances are ridiculously low that there is currently another sufficiently intelligent species in our vicinity that we will be able to detect through conventional methods.

I mean, I read Isaac Asimov, it's not like I don't dream about reaching the stars someday in my life time..  I just can't see it happening any time soon, even with the exponential growth in technological progress going on.

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Agreed.....most likely

teamkiller said:

its only a structure in the sense space stuff is close together, but only in the galactic sense.  All that space shit is still a bazzillion light miles away from each other.  Its not like some galactic great wall of china.

Boring story.

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Mafeki said:

why haven't we found intelligent beings on other planets yet?

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Individual said:

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