# Thoughts on Interplanetary Intercourse and First Contact

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 28, 2020, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095 "2020-10-28T08:14:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095/21 "2020-11-05T13:18:32Z")

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Nobody addressed my particle entanglement theory. I realize that my next post made it irrelevant. But still, this is a message board of science. Isn’t it 🙂 ?

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**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095/22 "2020-11-05T15:46:09Z")

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Particle entanglement does _not_ allow faster than light communication, unfortunately. When you have entangled particles, you can find out _later_ (long enough for light to travel between the two points in question) that the particle spins (or other properties) were weirdly correlated - but that doesn’t help you in the moment, because you can’t control the particles in order to send a message.

Example. You’ve got a particle on Earth, entangled with a particle near Alpha Centaurus. You’d like to send a message to Alpha C, saying “Yes” to some question. But all you get is that if your particle turns out +, you will eventually find that (if your pal on Alpha C tested his particle in the same way) that the Alpha C particle turned out -. But that doesn’t tell anyone anything, since you can’t _make_ your particle show + or - on command.

I call @Chronos for physics backup!

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**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\
**Post date:** [November 5, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-interplanetary-intercourse-and-first-contact/924095/23 "2020-11-05T20:48:24Z")

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> [@Andy\_L](#):
>
> But all you get is that if your particle turns out +, you will eventually find that (if your pal on Alpha C tested his particle in the same way) that the Alpha C particle turned out -. But that doesn’t tell anyone anything, since you can’t _make_ your particle show + or - on command.

I suppose if we figure out how to influence the spin without interacting with it, we could do it.

But that almost seems a direct contradiction in terms.

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