Re:Why do we assume extraterrestrials might want to visit us?
by rbanffy on Thursday January 21, 2021 @09:19AM
(#25859037)
There are, literally, millions of planets that can sustain life as we know it. Assuming a human-like mind, that alone is enough to reduce the interest in alien life as something mundane.
Re:Why do we assume extraterrestrials might want to visit us?
by ryanmercer on Thursday January 21, 2021 @10:16AM
(#25859653)
>There are, literally, millions of planets that can sustain life as we know it.
There are probably x amount of planets that can sustain life as we know it. We haven't even verified the existence of millions of planets.
https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/docs/counts_detail... shows only 4331 confirmed exoplanets, of those we've visited 0 and are still largely guessing as to their atmospheres, weather, temperatures, seismic activity, etc. Not to mention some we've found in the "goldilocks" zone are likely regularly sterilized due to the conditions of their orbit and their stars.
Re:Why do we assume extraterrestrials might want to visit us?
by alisonkisk on Thursday January 21, 2021 @12:37PM
(#25861573)
There are literally millions of species on Earth, and each one has a scientist interested in it.
If an alien civilisation has trillions of trillions individuals, there must be quite a bit of them interested in any possible niche. This assumes that an interstellar species would be naturally curious.