# Will we be inialated \[annihilated\] as a race before its too late? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 24, 2011, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590 "2011-04-24T21:57:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/41 "2011-04-26T21:16:13Z")
I figured it was inseminated…I’ve heard that aliens are always wanting to do that to us. Plus, to paraphrase from Men in Black, what’s the deal with the anal probes…?? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/42 "2011-04-27T05:08:41Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Google “Fermi paradox”. Basically it raises the question that given the age and size of the universe, there should statistically be civilizations that are advanced enough to travel to other starts. So why have we never seen any evidence of them? Well, as of last week we aren’t really even looking anymore, at least not with SETI. The Seti Institute ran out of money to operate the Allen Telescope Array and put it into hibernation. > **[The Seattle Times | Local news, sports, business, politics, entertainment,...](https://www.seattletimes.com)** > > Local news, sports, business, politics, entertainment, travel, restaurants and opinion for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/43 "2011-04-27T11:20:17Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > No Easter Island because the Iron Age Hebrews didn’t know about the Pacific Ocean. No Atlantis is actually a good question. Assuming that the eruption of Thera was the “Atlantis Event” that inspired Plato, it wasn’t that far out of the sphere of experience of ancient Palestine, and was possibly the impetus for the invasions of the Sea People (who eventually became the Philistines). Then again, except for the Philistine connection (which the aggregation of Biblical sources may not have known about), there really isn’t anything in the destruction of Minoan civilization that touches on the Hebrews themselves, so it’s not THAT notable an omission. Well, Easter Island, Atlantis, whatever. Things of great mystery. It would make the Bible more interesting. 😉 Not that I take it as a textbook. I’m just saying. There is a value in a good story. I would like to think we’re all descended from (now) underwater sea people. > [@Marley23](#): > > If you send something into the air, it’ll decelerate, stop rising, and fall back to Earth. If it has enough velocity to break free of the earth’s gravity, you’d need some other force to make it come back. There’s no reason it would do so on its own. The earth’s gravity would have less effect on it and other objects would have more. I meant _past_ that. > [@](#): > > I don’t think I can explain this well, but it’s not like air pressure and water pressure. We’re talking about gravity on a whole different scale and even if a ship survived a black hole, I’m not sure what it would experience in terms of time. Can’t hurt to ask. :o > [@](#): > > Because it would be difficult and very resource intensive and we already have a lot of stuff floating around the Earth. The more stuff that’s floating around, the more stuff bumps into our satellites and spacecraft. I wasn’t serious. But we already pollute space. > [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > I’m not sure what space travel has to do with time travel. I do think you’re watching too many movies. I meant time…travel…and I was thinking of space, yes. So I probably do watch too many movies. Or rather, all movies that deal with time travel involve some weird anomaly in space or a guy with an oversized cappuccino machine and a lever. > [@](#): > > Sure. Maybe it eventually slingshots around another gravity well (like a planet) and rebounds. Or it could keep going forever. Hmm. So do you think that in 100,000 years, something we sent out will come back and the next civilization will go, wtfmate? > [@](#): > > If you mean, “Is there some mystical ‘wall’ that will send things back?”, no. Nothing mystical. I was just wondering how the, uh, forces? pulls? gravity? works outside of the Earth’s pull. > [@](#): > > Yes. Getting hit by some sufficiently large rock would do it. In fact, the currently accepted theory for the formation of the Moon involves the Earth getting hit by some massive space rock and the Moon splitting off. And then something hit Mars and it put a big crater in the moon? Or something? > [@](#): > > What the heck is an electromagnetic sphere? Mm…field? > [@](#): > > With our current tech? No friggin’ way. We’re not even close. Kind of like asking if it’s possible for a man survive a 2000 degree oven for an hour. > > I won’t venture a guess as to the possible future limits of technology, though. I was wondering if it was possible to design a spacecraft to do such a thing. > [@](#): > > Seriously? I hope this isn’t a whoosh. The Americas, Antarctica, and Australia aren’t even mentioned in the Bible, much less Easter Island. No, not seriously! I would just like something interesting to chew on. Am I the only one that sometimes wishes crazy events would happen in his/her lifetime? Asteroids? Aliens? Newly discovered civilizations? Dinosaurs? _sheepish look_ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b77776/32.png) [@The\_Jay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Jay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/44 "2011-04-27T11:55:59Z")
> [@SGT42](#): > > Assuming a race discovers intersteller travel, it will colonize planets in nearby stars. After a few centuries, the colonists will move to their nearby stars. > In a few million years, the whole galaxy would be colonized. What is this based on??? (Please don’t say “Well that’s what humans would do!” and mean it) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b77776/32.png) [@The\_Jay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Jay)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/45 "2011-04-27T12:01:13Z")
Also what’s with this idea that intelligent life wouldn’t find us interesting? Why is it unrealistic to believe that an intelligent civilisation wouldn’t want to study us? We’re intelligent and we study rocks! (And before anyone points out how this view contradicts my previous post, note how I am asking “why not?” and not saying “THIS IS HOW IT WILL BE!”) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/46 "2011-04-27T12:06:45Z")
It’s based on a series of assumptions. 1. Civilization exits in a form capable of space faring sufficiently long to do such a thing 2. They travel under .1c 3. Viable stars exits within 10 lyrs of each other. So say we kicked this off in now. Travel to Alpha Centauri in 40 years. Setup sufficient industry to kick of the next wave in 500 years. Meanwhile earth fires off a second ship to Barnard’s Star. in another 100 years you’ve creeped out at most 200 lyrs from your source point _and_ will be able to kick off colonization from other planets thereby accelerating the process. In 1000 years you could be a 400 lyr spanning species, in 10,000 a 4000 lyr species. ---
**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:** [April 27, 2011, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/47 "2011-04-27T13:12:36Z")
To answer the scientific aspect of the OP, there are lots of possible reasons why we have not been visited by extraterrestrials. The arguments are given at length on any site about the [Fermi Paradox](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox). On a more philosophical tip, even if the universe were infinite, and everything that could happen, did happen, that wouldn’t guarantee a visit from E.T. Because in such a universe there would have to be a world that had not been visited (from extraterrestrials), because that belongs to the set of “possible things”. In fact, we can go much further: There would necessarily be an _infinity_ of planets _identical to ours_, that all had not been visited by aliens. Infinity is a strange concept. ---
**Author:** ![Farmer\_Jane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Farmer\_Jane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Farmer_Jane)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/48 "2011-04-27T16:39:47Z")
[Could there be other ‘dimensions’?](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/dimensions.html) ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/49 "2011-04-27T17:42:07Z")
Maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2011, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/50 "2011-04-27T19:13:22Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Maybe. Oh, you Greys think you know everything, with your large, unblinking eyes, anal probes and flying saucers. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Jay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b77776/32.png) [@The\_Jay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Jay)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590/51 "2011-04-28T14:02:25Z")
Also, what if we’re the first? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-we-be-inialated-annihilated-as-a-race-before-its-too-late/579590.md?page=2)