News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rdtsc on Thursday August 28, 2025 @03:21PM (#45055975)
Why would do think it would be a spaceship?
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by lucky_cloud on Thursday August 28, 2025 @03:46PM (#45056261)
I doubt they're serious but some wackos thought Oumuamua was an alien probe due to its unusual shape, and since this new interstellar object is arriving shortly after Oumuamua has left it must be the mothership.

I feel like it's more of a meme than a serious thing for most people.

Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by andyjohnson0 on Thursday August 28, 2025 @04:36PM (#45056764)
The Ramans do everything in threes.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by exe34 on Thursday August 28, 2025 @04:56PM (#45056951)
I'm looking forward to the braking!
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rbanffy on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:31PM (#45057277)
The books, unfortunately, didn’t stop on the first.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by exe34 on Friday August 29, 2025 @01:43AM (#45060638)
I didn't hate the rest. it gave me an interest in robots and nanotech. I even did a summer project on baking nanotubes and taking their pictures with an electron microscope as a result.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by chatmasta on Thursday August 28, 2025 @04:50PM (#45056890)
It wasn’t a wacko theory at first. The wackos are the people who still believed it even after evidence emerged to the contrary.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rbanffy on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:29PM (#45057257)
There are many more rocks in our own solar system than there are interstellar spacecraft. Assuming similar proportions elsewhere makes us conclude it’s never aliens.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by Bjartr on Thursday August 28, 2025 @06:49PM (#45057909)
Heuristcs that almost always work are right up until they're not.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/heuristics-that-almost-alwa...

Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by chatmasta on Thursday August 28, 2025 @11:37PM (#45059875)
That’s why they’re called heuristics and not deterministics
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by Tadpole9181 on Friday August 29, 2025 @12:34AM (#45060237)
I mean, sure, but no one I've invited in my home is a vampire so far and I think that heuristic is solid.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rbanffy on Friday August 29, 2025 @06:26AM (#45062322)
You wouldn’t know unless they told you. They could have had a snack someplace else.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by holoduke on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:20PM (#45057162)
I am getting bombarded with yt videos about this object being half the size of the sun passing our system with the planets aligned in a 0.01% chance perfect geometry etc etc. millions of views. It's incredible what people believe these days. Not a grain of skepticism.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by ojosilva on Thursday August 28, 2025 @07:07PM (#45058041)
I think the number of wacky believers hasn't changed that much. It's just that now the countless outlets and algorithms venting this nonsense have ballooned to galactic proportions! My dad used to buy these 70/80s UFO magazines back in the day and they were just as nutty.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rbanffy on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:29PM (#45057261)
Science teachers have failed their students.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by marshray on Friday August 29, 2025 @02:38AM (#45060927)
Let's put science teachers in charge of the youtube boost juice and see if the situation improves.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by dylan604 on Thursday August 28, 2025 @05:48PM (#45057441)
Do all of the views necessarily translate 1:1 to the number of people that believe it? Some people watch just to see what kooky nonsense people are falling for.
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by iJohnDoe on Thursday August 28, 2025 @10:11PM (#45059268)
They are asking if it is or not. They didn’t say they think it’s a spaceship.

In any case, assumptions shouldn’t be made either either way what it might be, which is the reason to gather more data.

Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rdtsc on Thursday August 28, 2025 @10:41PM (#45059483)
Sure but it's also not a pink elephant and not a flower pot. It's none of those things. We have just as much evidence of those objects flying through space as we have of alien spaceships so far. So it's odd asking "So is it a spaceship or not?" just like it's odd asking "so is it a flower pot?".
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by briffid on Friday August 29, 2025 @08:17AM (#45063086)
Is Musk's red car a spaceship btw? Because if we are able to send such stuff to space, other intelligent beings would most probably do the same. Or they are more intelligent?
Re:VLT observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS II by rdtsc on Friday August 29, 2025 @11:04AM (#45065094)
That's my point! Anything could be in space, elephants, flower pots, EVs. But they picked a particular thing out of the possible universe of objects so was curious why they picked that. It's an asteroid emitting Ni atoms based on the paper. Do we have any evidence of alien spaceships doing that that?