Oktyabr’s Notepad

What would you say to an alien? April 3, 2014

I’ve read many answers to this question over the years and the one I always remember, my favorite, is by American writer and humorist Steve Allen, when posed the question by OMNI magazine, January 1995:

To Our Visitors:

We have translated the key part of your recent message as, “We are peaceful, and we’re dropping by for a visit.”

(more…)

If we are alone in the universe, why? (Fermi Paradox part 2) April 3, 2014

Another rainy morning and a cup of coffee post.

This one is a reply to thread started in a group that began with this hypothesis:

“If even one civilization in our galaxy became spacefaring in it’s 10+ billion year history, it would only take about 50 million years to explore the entire galaxy. So, we can, it seems, say that never has a civilization arose to have explored the galaxy in it’s entirety.”

And my reply (so far):

(more…)

Are we alone in the Universe? (Fermi Paradox part 1) April 3, 2014

We are the evidence of life in the universe because we exist.  Is the universe conducive to life?  Yes, absolutely, or we wouldn’t be here.   As an example of “intelligent” life found in this current universe I do a lot of thinking, usually over my morning cup(s) of coffee.  For the last few years I’ve done a lot of pondering… and debating…  about a subject known as “The Fermi Paradox”.   This is the first of several posts I’ll share here…  my thoughts on this topic.

(more…)

What if aliens are like whales… April 3, 2014

Yet ANOTHER rainy morning cup of coffee post…

This one is from a thread regarding a recent article that crows and the like may be good to examine to help give us perspective on how something “intelligent” that does not think like humans do (even has a different brain design) “thinks”.  It may be useful for the day that we might encounter a truly alien intelligence.  Specifically I was responding to this post:

(more…)