'Search for intelligent aliens near bizarre dimming star has begun'

Not sure why so many want this to be true. Have you knuckleheads not seen Independence Day? Signs? V? War of the Worlds? The Thing? Hollywood has taught me well that nothing but bad can come from this.

 

Upcoming 2024 bumper sticker:

Kang & Kodos: Vote or Die!

 

My answer: I'll take that risk for the opportunity to be alive for what amounts to the seminal moment of human history, to this point. Also, we just want to know.

 

Oh sure. All about you, isn't it Dick? Quite willing to sacrifice the earth's resources to the invading invisible reptilians just so that you can say you were "there" for the big moment. Figures.

 

Yes, but I've also seen Star Trek and I want to be in Montana when the Vulcans come.

That said, I'm sure there is an explanation that isn't alien. Plus this is more than 1,000 light years away, so what ever were seeing, alien or not, was there 1,000 years ago. And if by some reason it is alien they would have to have known earth existed when we were in the dark ages and be so interested in another planet that they'll spend thousands of years coming to us.

I'm not worried about this. I just want to be alive when we know we are not alone.

 

Kind of dismissive of natural curiosity, isn't it?

 

Indulging one's curiosity as a form of consumption -- meaning it requires using resources that could have been used elsewhere -- would seem, to this earthling at least, as applicable across the cosmos. So that isolation hypothesis isn't necessarily dismissive of curiosity so much as it's accommodating of the reality that there arise diminishing returns to satisfying it.

But I like the alien Playboy version of it better:

 

Of course, there's also the theory out there that intelligent life in other worlds might have already done what humans may well do: kill themselves off before they're able to leave their solar system.

 

That's the main question at the center of Sagan's Contact.

It's also a possible answer to the apparent scarcity of radio evidence of technological civilizations: that the logical curve of technical development suggests that a civilization is likely to achieve nuclear weaponry within a generation or so of achieving radio communication.

If that development curve is anything like typical, the average civilization may only have 100 years or so of radio output before they blow themselves off the map.

 

Drew Magary talked about this in his Funbag today. And I got an accidental shoutout further down!

http://adequateman.deadspin.com/another-patriots-super-bowl-win-would-be-the-worst-thin-1737411322

 

The main reason I want to be alive for the possibility of alien life being found out is to see the way various religions scramble to explain how the fundamental principals of their doctrine suddenly apply to an entire species that no one knew existed the day before.
I'd love to see some hardcore rightwing Republicans try to explain to aliens from some far away planet the benefits of worshiping Jesus.
Also, can you imagine the outrage Kim Davis will have when someone starts fucking the aliens?