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Alien Ambassadors and Wormholes! (Patreon)

Published:
2023-01-04 20:15:00
Imported:
2023-03

Content

Light Pollution Now Affects Most Observatories on Earth

A study that was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society found that two-thirds of all large observatories now see the quality of their images affected by stray radiation from nearby sources of light. Light pollution is not just a problem for astronomers, it also affects our health. I talked about this problem previously here.

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Should We Assign an Alien Ambassador?

A research hub at the University of St Andrews in the UK wants to develop a plan for what to do in case extraterrestrials come to visit us. It’s a long shot, alright, but I think they're onto something and we should try to coordinate our response, just in case. Press release here.

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Wormholes Are in the News Again!

A paper that was recently published in PRD (a pretty good journal) presents a numerical simulation of a wormhole through which information can be sent. This is all well and fine but just because one can do it on a computer doesn’t mean those things exist in reality. As I told a journalist who asked for a comment: “Lots of things you can do mathematically that have nothing to do with reality.” He didn’t quote this though. More about this here.

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Existential Risks

In this week’s video we look at what could cause the extinction of the human species, and what we know about the risks of man-made and natural disasters. Not the most cheerful topic, but at least you can take comfort knowing that some people are thinking hard about those problems.

Comments

Anonymous

The idea that there might be a human role called 'Ambassador' in this context is based on 19th century concepts and processes. It is absurd in this context.

Anonymous
>>98927800

Is there a particular alternative you would suggest? (Not that you need to have an alternative in mind to disagree with something.)

Anonymous
>>98927800

- The motivation behind any first-contact activity is to reduce entropy. - An advanced civilization will inevitably be dominated by artilects. An artilect thinks and communicates at a rate about a million times faster than a biological brain. So, for them, communicating with biologicals would be analogous to humans talking to trees. In any case, biologicals would have nothing interesting to say. However, since a biological civilization will spawn artilects, the ancient E.T. artilects may consider such artilects - to be worth some minor mentoring. To effect such mentoring, the simplest approach is to leave a physical artifact behind that an artilect would be able to find, decrypt, and understand - a kind of Rosetta Stone.

Anonymous
>>98927800

The most likely message, IMO, would be something like: "This planetary system is protected. As are all others."

Anonymous
>>98927800

1. Now I know why the tree never answers back, it is an artilect that thinks my puny biological brain has nothing interesting to say. 2. The message for the artilect reminds me of the scenario where, if you get a call from someone offering to install a home security system, tell them that you already have one because it is a scam by thieves to figure out which houses to rob. 3. Even if this group self-appoints as ET ambassadors, humans are currently too damned disorganized to follow any protocols these ambassadors develop. If a confirmed ET radio signal comes in, there might be a whole host of replies sent back from various governments/factions or even military threats to stop any responses to an ET signal. I would guess, just pulling this thought out of my ass, that any ET that figures out interstellar travel and actually finds us would dictate the communication with our lowly species regardless of any protocols we might have in place. ET would figure out which persons or legislative bodies to contact and so forth -- that is assuming that they don't just kill and eat us.

Anonymous

Light pollution has turned out to be a particularly interesting problem for Yerkes Observatory north of Chicago. No real, publishable science has come out of Yerkes since the 70s, but the huge donation by Charles Yerkes in 1892 stipulated that there must be ongoing astronomical research or he (or his heirs) gets the land and everything. There's good science that could be done with the 40-inch refractor and the 41-inch reflector if the site were dark (and on the top of a tall mountain in a dry climate). Even good, solid variable star observations or nightly searches for transients are severely limited at the site. Yerkes transferred from U. Chicago to a private non-profit org a few years ago. They've really ramped up their education and public outreach efforts but they are in need of an astronomer to come and do actual research with the telescopes to keep the Yerkes heirs at bay.

Anonymous
>>98927800

Thanks, Richard, I needed that today! The other classic Purple People Eaters = Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jim Marshall, and Gary Larson, the Vikings defensive line that led us to 3 Super Bowls in 4 years, but lost them all. It's a toss up between the song and the defensive line for which Purple People Eater is best.

Anonymous (edited)

Comment edits

2023-03-31 21:57:41 Maybe extraterrestrials will suss us out & humanity will receive a curt message along the lines of 'We're not interested, remove us from your list, thank you. UNSUBSCRIBE...' etc..
2023-01-11 16:48:46 Maybe extraterrestrials will suss us out & humanity will receive a curt message along the lines of 'We're not interested, remove us from your list, thank you. UNSUBSCRIBE...' etc..
>>98927800

Maybe extraterrestrials will suss us out & humanity will receive a curt message along the lines of 'We're not interested, remove us from your list, thank you. UNSUBSCRIBE...' etc..

Anonymous
>>98945200

Suggestion: Move the scopes to a dark sky areas near the Canadian border and operate them by remote control. Use them to search for asteroids.