Should we shut the f*** up?

[Hakons]

I don't think it would matter, as the sheer distances between the star systems may far exceed whatever technology level an advanced civilization might reach.

We can't and don't know that. We only know what we know and it's silly to apply that knowledge to assess what advanced technology can or can't do. We're only at the acceleration point of our technology ourselves over the last 300 years.

You can't go faster than light, no matter what technology you have. Any other species would be thousands of light years away, and our run of the mill solar system probably doesn't have anything of interest to them.

That being said, there's no evidence for aliens. If they existed before us, we should be hearing their communications everyday, but we don't. The universe is BIG is not a good argument, since that would justify any theory of what's out there. I could say there's an entire planet made of milk chocolate. Even though there's no evidence for it, space is BIG enough that surely it would happen eventually.

Finally, we can't shut up. A century of telecommunications is already huddling outward in space.

[Dooom35796821595]

I’m claiming our current understanding is only part of the picture, and thus we can’t rule out the possibility for FTL travel.

Answer the fucking question. Which one are you claiming isn't true?

I just said, our understanding of physics is incomplete, something anyone even slightly verses in physics is well aware of. For example, the fact that that special relativity is incomplete due to the fact it doesn’t account for gravity. So stating “based on this half picture, I can state with certainty this is impossible” is like accurately judging distance with just one eye.

[Salandriagado]

Answer the fucking question. Which one are you claiming isn't true?

I just said, our understanding of physics is incomplete, something anyone even slightly verses in physics is well aware of. For example, the fact that that special relativity is incomplete due to the fact it doesn’t account for gravity. So stating “based on this half picture, I can state with certainty this is impossible” is like accurately judging distance with just one eye.

Answer the question. One of those things must be false. This is not a matter of our understanding being incomplete: if you have FTL travel, then you necessarily have a way to pass messages into your own absolute past.

[LimaUniformNovemberAlpha]

I suppose the British shouldn't have bothered setting sail around the world either, as they risked alerting other nationalities to their presence.

[Bombadil]

I suppose the British shouldn't have bothered setting sail around the world either, as they risked alerting other nationalities to their presence.

Perhaps they were just lucky.

Maybe native Americans shouldn’t have announced their presence, stay hidden and then overwhelm with force once they knew what they were faced with. Could have bought them time and focused their minds on advancing defensive technology.

Better than coming out all friendly like.

There’s plenty of advantages in anonymity and observation as a strategy against the unknown.

[Free Arabian Nation]

I suppose the British shouldn't have bothered setting sail around the world either, as they risked alerting other nationalities to their presence.

Perhaps they were just lucky.

Maybe native Americans shouldn’t have announced their presence, stay hidden and then overwhelm with force once they knew what they were faced with. Could have bought them time and focused their minds on advancing defensive technology.

Better than coming out all friendly like.

There’s plenty of advantages in anonymity and observation as a strategy against the unknown.

Perhaps your forgetting about a little thing called Smallpox (Pun Intended)

Even if the natives stayed anonymous, which is unlikely, there are still gonna be colonial powers searching for Gold, Glory, and Land, which will bring the western diseases which would, in turn, wipe out 90% of the continents.

The only way the natives could survive colonization is if there was nothing to loot in the Americas (which might be why aliens haven't visited us yet)

[LimaUniformNovemberAlpha]

Perhaps they were just lucky.

Perhaps.

But we're talking everything from the everglades to the mojave all being missed out on by settlers AND their descendants because we were too afraid of the unknown to explore.