Re: The Fermi Paradox and SETI Success

On Aug 25, 8:43�am, pau...@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter) wrote:


I disagree with you - it can only be finitely more important. �Remember
that an arbitrarily large number is still finite, and quite different
from infinity.

Also, the "if" has to be most important here. �If there's no "if", there
cannot be any "where" or "when" either....

Finally, the "where" and "when" must be equally important. �Remember
we're talking about communication at light speed here, and then relativity
applies, which makes space and time integrated and not something you can
consider separately.

Paul Schlyter,


Paul

I was discussing "when", "if" and "where" in purely practical terms.
Anyone outside of a small light radius and close synchronicity of
development holds no great interest for either party except for simple
curiosity. More advanced technologies are not easily reproducable. Or
capable of backwards engineering as the UFO buffs like to call it.
Technology is built up from so many small advances across a whole
range of disciplines that even being handed the drawings on a plate
will likely get us no further. Materials and the sciences to use and
reproduce them in sufficient quantities, qualities and forms is a huge
hurdle. Scale is also another factor which would probably deny us
instant access to any advanced technology we might stumble across. A
warp drive ship which crashed unscathed onto the White House Lawn
would get us no nearer the stars for generations. Not even if the
little green men were willing to help. Taking a very simple example: A
motor cycle designer of today could not build the same machine if
transported backwards in time by a mere decade. Now multiply that
decade by any figure you care to pluck out of the air.  Each passing
decade into the future is the stuff of pure magic. Each decade into
the past is nearer to blacksmithery.