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Are alien probes scouring the galaxy ?


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How long would it take an alien civilization to explore the whole galaxy using automated probes ?

The team’s simulations mean that our solar system should have been visited — perhaps more than once — well-before the dawn of man. Their alien builders might have been motivated to have the machines go stealthy and cover their tracks once a planetary system survey is completed.

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I suppose it begs the question if an alien species would develop such probes only to receive sporadic trickles of information spread out over millions of years? If their politics are anything like ours then it is likely it would be viewed as a waste of time. From a purely scientific research mindset though it has its merits (as well as its drawbacks).

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Well, naturally, that's what I've often said, that it'd be a much more practical and cost-effective way of exploring space than sending manned craft. It would also, of course, account for why we haven't been "Contacted" yet,

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This could also explain why many UFOs do the "now you see them, now you don't" routine. Obviously, we don't know if there are actually any alien space probes zipping around...but it's any interesting speculation none the less.

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Well, naturally, that's what I've often said, that it'd be a much more practical and cost-effective way of exploring space than sending manned craft. It would also, of course, account for why we haven't been "Contacted" yet,

I think it would be a more efficient use of resources with better returns if a civilization only explored the immediate vicinity around their colonized area of space which would expand as they expand as opposed to attempting to explore everything at once. What difference does it make what mineral deposits might be found 50,000 light years away (as an example)? We can only guess at what an alien civilization might consider an appropriate or efficient use of resources.

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I suppose it begs the question if an alien species would develop such probes only to receive sporadic trickles of information spread out over millions of years? If their politics are anything like ours then it is likely it would be viewed as a waste of time. From a purely scientific research mindset though it has its merits (as well as its drawbacks).

if they didn't have to send information back to some "home planet" but used it themselves and learned from it, the idea is that if the probes were self-aware and self-replicating, they wouldn't need to send inforamtion back, they could keep spreading out indefinitely, carry the information themselves, so that the Galactic Civilisation could access the information whenever they wanted to. A bit like the Inter Net, I suppose, with each Probe being a server.

it's an idea that's much along my lines of thinking, and I'm glad that mainstream science is beginning to catch up with my thinking.

[/tongue in cheek]

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it'd be a much more practical and cost-effective way of exploring space than sending manned craft. It would also, of course, account for why we haven't been "Contacted" yet,

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so who's building the crop circles then??

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so who's building the crop circles then??

Semi-intelligent alien probes drunk on He3? Snickering as they stumble back out into deep space, pausing to urinate on Pluto on the way out?

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I can't see why not, our probes are scouring as much of the galaxy we can reach. Why shouldn't other folks' probes?

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so who's building the crop circles then??

inter-dimensional portholes.

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so who's building the crop circles then??

Batman is.

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inter-dimensional portholes.

.

strange how they only appear really in britain, when the weather's warm.

are aliens in cahoots with the English Board of Tourism?!

:-)

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Batman is.

.

bloody superheroes, coming over here, ruining our crops.....

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Probes are less expensive but also less competent and flexible, and in a situation where you really have no idea what at all you may encounter, probes could be a serious mistake.

I suspect our own exploration will be in three general phases -- first observation from the earth and near-earth space to identify planets and get and idea what they are about, then probes and later missions. At a rate of one new colony every century, expanding exponentially, the galaxy would be fully colonized in less than a million years, so one must wonder why we weren't colonized eons ago.

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I think that must be totally absurd, the Earth is more than four billion years old already. One tenth light-speed seems terribly impractical, not even to mention that even IF their robots are self-replicating where would they get the raw materials from considering that these robots would need something more than air to replicate themselves from, and how would they ever pay for those resources ? How could any space civilization, no matter how advanced, pay for the debts for such an extended exploration of this galaxy which has two hundred billion stars ? And even IF they could gather data and information on many different global cultures throughout this galaxy that data might just become obsolete within fifty years to say, a hundred and fifty years. And certainly long outmoded before they finish gathering their data and information from all over this galaxy.

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if they didn't have to send information back to some "home planet" but used it themselves and learned from it, the idea is that if the probes were self-aware and self-replicating, they wouldn't need to send inforamtion back, they could keep spreading out indefinitely, carry the information themselves, so that the Galactic Civilisation could access the information whenever they wanted to. A bit like the Inter Net, I suppose, with each Probe being a server.

it's an idea that's much along my lines of thinking, and I'm glad that mainstream science is beginning to catch up with my thinking.

[/tongue in cheek]

So basically a John Von Neumann machine, self replicating

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self-replicating . Rolls easily from the tongue . Sounds good . Hows about self-replicating food stores , oil wells etc .

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Perhaps humans took wrong approach. Maybe the speed of darkness is faster than speed of light :-)

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The Earth may have been visited by a probe in it's early existence, there is simply no way right now to know it for sure. Unless we believe that various UFO sightings and abductions is evidence that an Alien civilization already know of our presence on this planet.

Edited by sam_comm
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The Arcturians are building the crop circles.

Why?

As there is obviously a line of communication - for you to know what the aliens call themselves - why not just communicate that way?

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gOOgler is actually closer than one might think! Its all In the Magic of the Dark Matter ! It all needs to be the Matter that Matters ! :tu:

Im ready to Rock -n-Roll in Deep Space !

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I did like the episode of the X-files (War of the Coprophages) where it seemed an alien civilization was using robotic insects (metallic cockroaches as I recall) as probes. We are busy designing insect-sized robots so this is not so far fetched. This still supposes you have a way to get them to another star system, and there's the rub.

We have only humans and our space program as a real life example. Since we have been exploring space only two of our probes have reached the outer limits of our solar system and are beginning to cross into interstellar space, and this after decades of time. It was long after the launch of our probes that we discovered the existence of the exoplanets, many light years from Earth. If light speed turns out to be a barrier that cannot be crossed by some space warping technology, then the likelihood of interstellar probes seems rather unlikely. It could take thousands of years to reach a neighboring star system. Data, even at light speed, might take months or years to return home. And who is to say those beings who launched that probe would even care about or remember its launch some thousand years later? With the speed of data doubling in an advanced technological society, its returned data might not even be compatible (or even recognizable) with future data retrieval systems after such a long time. There is also a cost/benefit ratio here; a civilization that realizes that data might not come in for several hundred or several thousand years might not be too keen on sending out probes to the far corners of the galaxy.

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