Dave Cahill wrote:fourthirtythree wrote:Time is very, very long, space is very, very large, the speed of light is a constant.
Did I mention how big space was, just how giant the distance between stars and galaxies?
The average span of existence of a mammal species on earth is around a million years, we're near that, and we've been communicating in a way visible to others for what, .01% of that time? enough time to reach the tiniest, absolutely unmentionably small percentage of the known universe with the weakest signals.
What would be a paradox, or at least an event of unimaginable unlikeliness based on what we know now, is if anyone showed up and got back to us.
I don't see any paradox in the vastness of space (and the only recently confirmed existence and proliferation of exoplanets), the likely reproducability of evolution (and the seeding of planets with organic matter from comets) and the fact that we have never met aliens.
Did I mention that time is very long? This planet is what, 6 billion years old and we've been around for on six thousandth of that and emitting radio for one 10 thousandth of that...
...reminded me of...Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space.
Do we all have our towels?