Interesting post from Reddit. This guy explains why being alone in the universe is actually a scary thought. It would mean that the entire responsibility and safe guarding of the cosmos depends on humanity’s ability to shed our warmongering ways and foster the growth and development of organic life and civilization. Think about that: if it’s on us to establish and colonize other planets, and we have the ability to thrive for millions of years more, then on that scale, how petty is the India-Pakistan conflict, or WW2, or the Cold War?
Thoughts?
"It means that if you value intelligence, technology, or understanding the universe then you realize that we, as humans, are not only the very best that the universe has to offer, but that it’s all on us. If we screw up then the universe will remain a mystery. It makes us the one single light of reason in an incomprehensibly large and dark room.
And it means that we are alone in facing our problems, alone in experiencing war and hate and all the darkness that comes from intelligence misused, it means no one and nothing is going to show up and say “Hey humanity, you’ve done well you know? You screwed up some places, but so did we.”
For me the idea that humanity is the only glimmer of intelligence in the universe makes all our petty squabbles and politics more damning. It means that the people in power are risking stakes they cannot comprehend for gains so short term that they’re not even visible on a geological scale, much less a cosmic one. Imagine all that humanity could accomplish, the colonies of life and reason spreading throughout the cosmos, every planet we visit and terraform would bring new and unique life into the universe, imagine the wonders we could create and then realize that we risk it all over things which won’t matter in 40 years or which would be better solved using reason. Add to it the fact that we risk all of that potential not only for ourselves but for the universe at large, and it is an awesome responsibility."
The probability of us being alone in the universe is miniscule at best. More so this whole notion that we are to safeguard the universe is arrogant on our part. The universe existed for millions or billions of years without us. We will go extinct well before the universe implodes. Life and the universe will continue regardless of what we do or don’t do. We are miniscule in the grand scheme of things and will continue to be so.
Assuming we are the only beings alive, or rather, we are the only beings alive in this window of space and time, which I think is very likely, it is entirely up to us. Note, I don’t just mean that the distance between us and another species might be too vast to traverse, I mean the time window in which humanity exists may be so brief when placed in the context of the universe, that by the time another intelligent civilization arises we may not be around. So, imo, I think it is very likely that for the window within which humanity exists we may very well never meet another species.
All that said, if we assume humanity to be alone in our window of existence, the decisions of our leaders seem so incredibly short sighted. Imagine the world ending because some lunatic dictator or Prime Minister launches a nuke, all because they want some patch of land on this floating rock. Very depressing.
we are dumb like brick. almost mad.
like a colony of ants so deleted predictable.
Yet we come up with “saving the universe” I don’t knot laugh or cry… But it seems like scientist have us all dancing on their tunes, making us
feel like what we are not.
“I wonder if, in fact, we have been observed by aliens and upon close examination of human conduct and human behavior they have concluded that there is no sign of intelligent life on Earth,” Tyson said in a recent interview with Business Insider…
Another possibility is that aliens have already visited us and gone unnoticed. As Tyson joked in the interview, “[M]aybe they have visited us in Times Square but no one noticed, because everybody who hangs out in Times Square is a little crazy.”…
What are you talking about? This has nothing to do with secularism. I’m talking about ultimately petty fighting that can destroy our potential. You don’t think someone 2,000 years ago would be amazed by our world? Okay buddy. Imagine what humanity would look like 2,000 years from now (if we make it that far).
I’ve seen this too. It’s interesting. He also mentioned that we may be insignificant to them. Do you notice an ant? Of course not, it’s just a stupid ant. Same thing for an alien and a human.
First of all, it’s highly unlikely that we are alone in the universe. Astronomers have not only found hundreds of planets within our galaxy, but identified dozens of them that are earth like in terms of size and distance from thier own star, which means those planets sit in the habitable zone where life can exist in them.
Universe is infinite and that means that from theory of probability perspective, if a phenomenon can happen once, it can happen and will multiple times in the universe. If life can evolve into an intelligence life form once, it will happen multiple times
Even if we are alone, we cannot impact the big picture, no matter how foolish of decisions we make. Information cannot travel faster than the speed of light in our universe. If we end up exploding our own planet today, the people living in the nearest star system would not know till 4.2 years that we no longer exist. Knowing that universe is about 46 billion light years wide in each direction from us, there is no way that any of our action can impact the universe in any way..
I agree with you that in the greater scheme of the things, it is extremely sad that humans kill each other for small pieces of land.
I agree with TLK.
It seems quite foolish to believe that we are alone. We simply cannot be. There are too many factors that fall within the range of not only likely but probable.
My niece showed my daughter this Scale of Universe - Interactive Scale of the Universe Tool while I was overlooking their antics. Ultimately I decided it was worth a look for myself. Very humbling indeed. I suggest everyone check it out to get a better understanding of who we are and what we can and cannot accomplish.
I dunno man we may be the only intelligent life in the universe unless otherwise documented. I would really like to know what they are hiding in Area 51.
Anyways, here are some famous words from Carl Sagan. This picture was taken by Voyager in 1990. The Earth is a speck of dust in this pic some 4 billion miles away fin space.
Agree with TLk, when something reaches infinite, then there are infinite possibilities. There could be infinite Earths out there in their own galaxies where infinite sliding door outcomes of our lives are taking place.
I don’t believe we are alone, just that either we are yet undiscovered or like NdGT said, we are too stupid as a species for higher tech beings to be bothered with.
Ofcourse we’re alone in the Universe. God created matter and created life with matter on this earth. So we’re the only planet that contains living matter such as animal and plants. The rest of this universe as the Quran describes is for beauty. Allah created this entire universe to showcase his beautiful creativity. The planets that exist in this universe are void of life except earth. Other life which God created is angelic life that of the Jinn and the spiritual beings that exist. In my opinion we’re very lucky to experience life in this manner. But sure Allah knows best.
Can any one please describe “we” to me.
Can some please tell me who told you humans are advance or are smart, like quote some one who is not from this planet or universe.
^ I would quote any of the animals who share this planet with us but they’re not advanced or smart enough.
Guys I’m not saying that we *are *alone, I’m saying us being alone would be a depressing fact. I do think it’s likely that we won’t meet any other species unless we develop significantly faster ways to travel, and even then, only if they happened to be on the same plane of intelligence as us.
The idea is to think about the short sightedness of our politics in the grand scheme of our species.
I don’t knot laugh or cry… But it seems like scientist have us all dancing on their tunes, making us
