# Really...so anyone have a feeling about UFO's?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-so-anyone-have-a-feeling-about-ufos/651876>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 3, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-so-anyone-have-a-feeling-about-ufos/651876 "2013-03-03T02:28:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-so-anyone-have-a-feeling-about-ufos/651876/41 "2013-03-04T14:57:56Z")

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> [@cmyk](#):
>
> The distance is limiting from the perspective of lifeforms.
> 
> Of course, advanced species may have cracked the whole death problem, but 4 LYs works out to over 24 _trillion_ miles. Just to the nearest star. Our current best propulsion tech can barely reach a fraction of 1% of the speed of light. It would take several _thousands_ of years to get there unless we developed radical propulsion systems that are only sketchy, theoretical musings now (if at all possible, let alone practical).
> 
> Either way, here’s an [interesting read on NASA’s site](http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/ipspaper.html) about some pie-in-the-sky thinking in this regard.

It’s only limiting if you want to go there and back in a human lifetime. Once/if humanity learns to live in space, then even at the slow pace of migration, you still get a galaxy filled with life in a matter of millions of years, which isn’t long in the grand scheme of things.

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2013, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/really-so-anyone-have-a-feeling-about-ufos/651876/42 "2013-03-04T15:11:17Z")

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> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#):
>
> Do you mean that across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours could this moment be watching us?

Yeah, but with pitying, rather than envious, eyes.

(actually, I was imagining them being closer than that, “cloaked” or with probes too small or otherwise impossible for us to detect)

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