On June 1, 2003 10:27 am, Steve Desjardins wrote:
> Sci. Am had a special section on this a while back. (July 2000) My
> favorite arguemnt involves assuming that a tehcnoogocial species arises,
> sends one colony ship out at 0.1 c, it takes 400 years for that colonoy
> to send out another ship, etc. Making these estimates, the entire
> galaxy should be colonized in about 5 million years, whihc is a blink of
> the eye in cosmic terms. So where are they?
> You then get into "intelligent but no tech", deliberately avoiding us,
> etc. A good read if you like this stuff.
My feeling is when the next door neigbour is 4+ light years away you're
aren't going for a cup of sugar. At 1/10 of light it's 40+ years each
way. Ignoring speeding up and slowing down. That's next door.
Now lets say they have come. Say 100 years ago a ship showed up. Took out
there disposable camera. Took pictures of all the tourists things. Left some
graffiti on a wall. Ticked Earth off the list of things to do before they
die. Are we ever going to know they've been here?
Nick
