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A comment on In search of ET: Fear of what’s out there causes split among space scientists. Parent comment

Re:In search of ET: Fear of what’s out there causes split am... by jandrese on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @04:41PM (#19267216)
Even if they don't think the same way we do they are (probably) bound by the same laws of physics. Obviously this argument doesn't work if they have developed warp drives or infinite energy sources and reactionless engines, but if they're bound by the rocket equation as we are then there are truths that can't be avoided.

We are on the cusp of being able to detect the biological markers of life on distant worlds by spectroscopy. An alien civilization that can traverse the enormous gulf between solar systems can very easily build widely spaced telescopes that can monitor all nearby solar systems for changes to atmospheric composition. Anybody who is paranoid enough to need to kill any life around them would obviously build such an array. There is no hiding from them, the technology is much too simple compared to what you need to travel between solar systems.

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Re:In search of ET: Fear of what’s out there causes split am... by CharlesColeman on Wednesday February 27, 2019 @05:22PM (#19267481)
> An alien civilization that can traverse the enormous gulf between solar systems can very easily build widely spaced telescopes that can monitor all nearby solar systems for changes to atmospheric composition.

Maybe they can't themselves, but don't like the idea that someone else eventually may be able to.

I think you're overconfident of the safety of actively advertising our presence to the universe because you're making a lot of assumptions and only considering a small number of possibilities. The problem is that there are so many unknowns and so many shades between different possibilities that no one can really be confident about anything, except that the risk could be anywhere between zero and the maximum.

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