Where are the aliens?

The universe is expanding away from the origin of the Big Bang. This has been measured and quantified. Looking through space in the direction of the Big Bang is like looking back in time, in the same way that looking at stars is like looking back in time, since it takes billions of years for that light to get to us. What we see today is not what is currently happening.

Now, it has been theorized that one cannot travel faster than light. The speed of light may be a constant that cannot be broken. If this is true, it would be impossible for other life forms from distant galaxies to be able to reach us, since there is a finite period of time from the Big Bang to now, plus the time it takes for a species to evolve, plus the time it takes to
get to Earth from other galaxies.

None of this precludes the fact there is other life in the universe. Only humans are arrogant enough to believe that

A) all intelligent life wants to travel across space and time;
B) Earth is worth visiting;
C) Intelligent life is interested in seeking out other intelligent life;
D) Humans ought to be considered as an "intelligent species"

For all we know, in the eyes of another species, humans have the collective intelligence of pond scum.

Comments

Post new comment

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.

More information about formatting options

About Erich

Erich is a web developer and a native New Englander who is passionate about life, the universe, and everything.

He is a Drupal consultant, previously employed as a senior developer at Harvard University, working on the IQSS OpenScholar project.  Prior to joining the team at Harvard, he was the engineering manager at CommonPlaces e-Solutions, in Hampstead, NH, contributing as the lead engineer on the Greenopolis.com and Twolia.com.

Erich is active in the Drupal community, having contributed modules and patches to the community. He presented at DrupalCon in Szeged Hungary, and co-presented at DrupalCon 2009 in Washington, DC.

Erich lives in New Hampshire with his wife, two sons, and three weimaraners.  When not writing code, Erich enjoys landscaping and woodworking.

Faceted search

Categories

Content type

Project types

Artwork Type

Artwork Tags

Recent comments

Activity Stream

August 29, 2011

August 25, 2011

August 24, 2011

August 23, 2011

August 15, 2011

August 11, 2011

August 10, 2011

August 9, 2011

August 4, 2011

August 3, 2011