Yoyo you are right, there is not much comparison between humans and canines or felines. If you understand what I am saying, you know that is exactly my point, we are different from other creatures here in massive ways. Even compared to apes they have massive differences between them.
Yes I know there are differences in different humans but the differences don't compare to the different types of pretty much any other animal.
These "different traits" we have are pretty small compared to the difference between a gorilla and an orangutang. All I am saying is it's worth exploring, it makes sense. We don't seem to fit in here, it seems like we have had way more time than the other species to evolve and conquer yet most of our major changes that lead to our species becoming what it is happened in a relatively short amount of time (when you compare it to the normal course of evolution)
The feeling I get looking at the human race is that we seem to be to apes what pigs are to boars, genetically engineered and bred into a specific form. Genetic engineering, as I said before, is something we did long before we had access to the life changing technology available to us now which is why I don't understand how people find that aspect of this theory so hard to comprehend.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
This just in: it's still a terrible idea to argue with moderation publicly in the thread. Also in the forum rules post as what not to do.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
Ok, I think that's enough off topic ramblings from you. I'm sure there's a conspiracy site somewhere that will welcome your discourse on hollow moons, hollow earths and other eminently disprovable horseshit. They are not welcome here.
For TWO whole episodes EC has been on a right crazy off topic out of their depth tangent that really in no way relates to video games anymore than quilting does. I'm not "arguing with admin" here, but I think they should re-evaluate what they consider "off topic" considering that the EC folks don't seem to share your penchant for on-topicness.
Edit: I believe the pertinent saying is: If you sleep with the dogs, expect fleas.
For instance... If you want to keep folks from arguing with moderators, then the moderators need to handle things silently, behind the scenes, instead of bringing it to the thread here.
@vortexcortex, thanks for the feedback. You're generally better off putting it in a PM to the relevant staff member to keep meta conversation out of threads.
7.5 Other potentialy active civilizations in the Milky Way, each with an effecive radius of 18000 LYs eh? That Seems pretty close to the number of Races and Civ Density Represented in Mass Effect to coincide with Future Humans.
Given the math involved and the rough estemates, its rather uncanny that you and Bioware came up with such relatively close numbers. Makes me wonder if Bioware's implimentation were more than just about Narrative and Mechanics.
One thing left out is the DESIRE to explore and colonize other planets. If there are other intelligent, communicating civilizations in the Milky Way, maybe they're all content to send out signals and not do anything nearly as aggressive as colonization. We have plenty of largely passive lifeforms here on Earth content to stay in their own corner of the world, such as turtles and tortoises, or most plants, who only become aggressive when desperate in some way. What if an alien species with that sort of behavior evolved intelligence and curiosity but no drive to expand outward?
Another possibility is that all of the other species got wiped out in a galactic war and Earth happened to be left untouched and ignored because none of them came by this corner. By the time we started sending out communications and, more importantly, picking them up, they've all been annihilated long ago.
Unfortunately there's a massive problem with the Prime Directive arguement. Due to all the advances in AI, genetics, cybernetics, et all that they've made and we haven't, they are almost certainly smarter than us. On THEIR scale of 1-10, we might only measure a 7.5. If they value a 7.5 species like ourselves, then they're also likely to value all the other 7.1-7.48 species on our world which WE are wiping out. (Dolphins, Apes, etc.) Beyond a certain point the value of protecting the other species outweighs the value of protecting just us, and they come and stamp on us and/or tell us in no uncertain terms to stop.
I don't know about all that. If we're far enough below them then I think the tendency would be to just view the entire earth as something like a nature preserve. They wouldn't view humanity as any more important than other species, sure, but they wouldn't view humanity's activities as in any way special, either. When we wipe out other species, that's just one more natural phenomenon taking place on Earth. Even if we say... rendered the planet uninhabitable to everything with a spine, they'd probably just view that as a major event in the planet's natural evolutionary cycles that they get to observe/study. Then we're replaced by the radioactive cockroach civilization and oh well, that's just the way things go.
But seriously, we shouldn't fund XCOM because anyone with the technology to travel to another solar system and "start shit" has the technology to vaporize the surface of any planet they don't like with kinetic weapons. That's not an assumption that if they developed technology A they must have obviously developed technologies B, C, and D as well. Its just recognizing that if you have the technology to accelerate massive objects to a significant fraction of the speed of light then you have the technology to accelerate massive objects to a significant fraction of the speed of light.
There's really nothing a nuclear arsenal can do against that.
Plus it has the advantage that it doesn't even render the target planet radioactive or anything. Wait a couple centuries for the thing to cool off and the dust to settle, and she's perfectly habitable again. And since the hypothetical attackers have the patience to be a star-faring civilization to start with, the delay is probably acceptable for an attack guaranteed to be successful.
I get the impression it's more likely to be a combination of several of these possibilities rather than just one.
An alien race found us, observed that we were a race run by leaders who are invariable corrupt liars and we're a race that kills each other over stupid things like race, sexual orientation, or even wearing your hair the wrong way, and decided not to interact with us, because that'd be equivalent to suicide. Coupled with the other civilizations making a prime directive type agreement to simple leave us alone and hope we grow out of this exclusionary, violent, hateful tendencies we have.
A race with the technology to span the galaxy could easily come do a quick flyby and get away easily, possibly explaining some of the 'ufo' sightings, and the few remaining ones that have landed or crashed get covered up by governments. All of these possibly combined might explain why we, the public haven't officially seen anything.
Naturally, it's just a hypothesis and isn't really provable, so take it with a grain of salt or ten.
But seriously, we shouldn't fund XCOM because anyone with the technology to travel to another solar system and "start shit" has the technology to vaporize the surface of any planet they don't like with kinetic weapons. That's not an assumption that if they developed technology A they must have obviously developed technologies B, C, and D as well. Its just recognizing that if you have the technology to accelerate massive objects to a significant fraction of the speed of light then you have the technology to accelerate massive objects to a significant fraction of the speed of light.
There's really nothing a nuclear arsenal can do against that.
Basically this. Any ship which can carry people (of some kind) through interstellar space is itself a weapon, or weapon delivery system. All they need is a giant rock or chunk of tungsten or something that they can jettison on a flyby and there's nothing we can do.
In other words, the problem isn't just that space is too big, it's that time is also too big. Peter Mulvey beautifully illustrates the answer given by his physicist friend Vladimir Chaloupka in "Vlad The Astrophysicist"
Maybe it's the same as when a butterfly flies past without acknowledging you as a living thing. It is too small to be worth our interacting with, and we are too different for the butterfly to recognize.
Dust mites are dependent or our existence, yet don't know we exist. We wouldn't even know of their existence if it weren't for our tec, yet they are probably crawling all over us right now.
You are also assuming aliens are social. We could walk through a jungle and miss 99% of the creatures that spotted us a mile off.
What if the are extremely small? We can imagine downloading our brains to a computer, what if aliens already have? There could be an ever expanding civilization that doesn't physically get any bigger.
Posts
Yes I know there are differences in different humans but the differences don't compare to the different types of pretty much any other animal.
These "different traits" we have are pretty small compared to the difference between a gorilla and an orangutang. All I am saying is it's worth exploring, it makes sense. We don't seem to fit in here, it seems like we have had way more time than the other species to evolve and conquer yet most of our major changes that lead to our species becoming what it is happened in a relatively short amount of time (when you compare it to the normal course of evolution)
The feeling I get looking at the human race is that we seem to be to apes what pigs are to boars, genetically engineered and bred into a specific form. Genetic engineering, as I said before, is something we did long before we had access to the life changing technology available to us now which is why I don't understand how people find that aspect of this theory so hard to comprehend.
For TWO whole episodes EC has been on a right crazy off topic out of their depth tangent that really in no way relates to video games anymore than quilting does. I'm not "arguing with admin" here, but I think they should re-evaluate what they consider "off topic" considering that the EC folks don't seem to share your penchant for on-topicness.
Edit: I believe the pertinent saying is: If you sleep with the dogs, expect fleas.
For instance... If you want to keep folks from arguing with moderators, then the moderators need to handle things silently, behind the scenes, instead of bringing it to the thread here.
Given the math involved and the rough estemates, its rather uncanny that you and Bioware came up with such relatively close numbers. Makes me wonder if Bioware's implimentation were more than just about Narrative and Mechanics.
A easy form of ID
GENDER is another barometer
To know it's truly me
Which forumer am I?
Another possibility is that all of the other species got wiped out in a galactic war and Earth happened to be left untouched and ignored because none of them came by this corner. By the time we started sending out communications and, more importantly, picking them up, they've all been annihilated long ago.
I don't know about all that. If we're far enough below them then I think the tendency would be to just view the entire earth as something like a nature preserve. They wouldn't view humanity as any more important than other species, sure, but they wouldn't view humanity's activities as in any way special, either. When we wipe out other species, that's just one more natural phenomenon taking place on Earth. Even if we say... rendered the planet uninhabitable to everything with a spine, they'd probably just view that as a major event in the planet's natural evolutionary cycles that they get to observe/study. Then we're replaced by the radioactive cockroach civilization and oh well, that's just the way things go.
There's really nothing a nuclear arsenal can do against that.
Plus it has the advantage that it doesn't even render the target planet radioactive or anything. Wait a couple centuries for the thing to cool off and the dust to settle, and she's perfectly habitable again. And since the hypothetical attackers have the patience to be a star-faring civilization to start with, the delay is probably acceptable for an attack guaranteed to be successful.
An alien race found us, observed that we were a race run by leaders who are invariable corrupt liars and we're a race that kills each other over stupid things like race, sexual orientation, or even wearing your hair the wrong way, and decided not to interact with us, because that'd be equivalent to suicide. Coupled with the other civilizations making a prime directive type agreement to simple leave us alone and hope we grow out of this exclusionary, violent, hateful tendencies we have.
A race with the technology to span the galaxy could easily come do a quick flyby and get away easily, possibly explaining some of the 'ufo' sightings, and the few remaining ones that have landed or crashed get covered up by governments. All of these possibly combined might explain why we, the public haven't officially seen anything.
Naturally, it's just a hypothesis and isn't really provable, so take it with a grain of salt or ten.
Technically these are the PA message boards.
Basically this. Any ship which can carry people (of some kind) through interstellar space is itself a weapon, or weapon delivery system. All they need is a giant rock or chunk of tungsten or something that they can jettison on a flyby and there's nothing we can do.
Dust mites are dependent or our existence, yet don't know we exist. We wouldn't even know of their existence if it weren't for our tec, yet they are probably crawling all over us right now.
You are also assuming aliens are social. We could walk through a jungle and miss 99% of the creatures that spotted us a mile off.
What if the are extremely small? We can imagine downloading our brains to a computer, what if aliens already have? There could be an ever expanding civilization that doesn't physically get any bigger.