Re:Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of Venus – an indica...
by MiroF on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:33PM
(#24474161)
> So assuming an advanced civ is going to do what we'd do - build ships, colonise, hoard and transform resources - is more than a little naive and unimaginative.
The assumption is weaker than you suggest. It's not that your typical advanced civ will do what we'd do, just that some proportion (perhaps extremely small) of civilizations will be expansionary.
Re:Phosphine detected in the atmosphere of Venus – an indica...
by saberdancer on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:52PM
(#24474338)
But what is to make them expansionary. Space is so vast and resources plentiful that it is doubtful any run of the mill system would be interesting. After you are sufficiently advanced you probably do not need much resources at all.
Given modern technology, we would be able to observe both without being noticed. It would be pretty trivial from space. It wouldn't be quite so trivial close up, but it would be possible.
A time difference of ten thousand years? The invisibility would be rather more effortless, and might even include direct memory manipulation in the victims.
A million years? Can anyone even imagine what a million year difference would look like? Never mind the technology - we can't even imagine what its motivations would be.
So assuming an advanced civ is going to do what we'd do - build ships, colonise, hoard and transform resources - is more than a little naive and unimaginative.
It's not unlike a protohominid assuming that life is about hunting, and any other two legged creature they meet is going to want to talk about flint knapping and these new arrowhead shapes.