Re: No Confirmed UFOs Ever So Far - perhaps long lived

On 6/19/2020 3:19 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> On 6/11/2020 8:23 AM, a425couple wrote:
>> On 6/10/2020 5:49 AM, Porcospino wrote:
>>> On 2020-01-05, casagiannoni  optonline.net 
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Not surprizing, even considering that intelligent apace faring 
>>>> species must
>>>> abound throughout the universe,  considering the vast interstellar 
>>>> distances.
>>>> Even at near light speed, which is extreemly unlikely, travel times 
>>>> would be
>>>> prohibitively long.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Would they really be 'prohibitively' long, however? We know that
>>> propulsion systems capable of reaching the nearest stars within a human
>>> lifetime are possible (e.g., nuclear pulse as in Project Orion, or laser
>>> sails). Given the age of the universe there may be civilizations
>>> who have existed for billions of years: even travelling at a fraction of
>>> the speed of light that's more than enough for a civilization to 
>>> cross the
>>> Milky Way several times, albeit at a slow pace and over many 
>>> generations.
>>>
>>> Nothing in physics or engineering prevents it, more so for a spacefaring
>>> civilizations which, you'd assume, can command enough energy to do this
>>> at little relative expense (without any breakthrough in physics). Time
>>> and propulsion systems are no obstacle, unless you believe that a
>>> closed-cycle life support system capable of working for centuries is
>>> impossible (not just from the perspective of present human technology
>>> but for everyone in all circumstances), or that no living being can
>>> adapt to prolonged life in space (even within envisioned settlements
>>> such as O'Neil cylinders) and thus cannot be away from a planetary
>>> surface for more than a few years.
>>>
>>> Setting aside the 'UFO' question, towards which I'm a skeptic, I think
>>> it's easier to explain the Fermi paradox in terms of not having observed
>>> long enough. We have not been around (or been paying attention) long 
>>> enough
>>> to claim that no intelligent species capable of interstellar travel 
>>> /ever/
>>> existed.
>>>
>> Yes.
>>  From the point of view of most humans, the travel time
>> to get to other inhabitable planets seems 'prohibitively' long.
>> Perhaps a very long lived and very developed alien species
>> is out there, and has for quite some time been exploring
>> the universe.  Perhaps it last checked in on our solar
>> system and found interesting life 10,000 of our years
>> ago.  Perhaps they have a follow-up inspection planned
>> in 10,000 more years.
>>
>> Or, perhaps it was 100,000 years ago, and not again
>> for another 100,000 years.  There are just so many interesting
>> and challenging places to check out!
>>
>> But our attention span (and perhaps species life span)
>> seems too short.
> 
> Read "We are Legion (We are Bob)" by Dennis Taylor:
>     https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Legion-Bob-Bobiverse/dp/1680680587/
> 
> Lynn
> 
Interesting book.  Thank you for the suggestion.