• breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I can’t remember where I read it but I like the idea of comparing humanity to ants.

    Imagine an ant hill, next to a bridge. The ant can’t even comprehend the bridge, what its for. To the ant it might as well just be more ground.

    If we are the ant, what are we missing?

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      That not about difference in intelligence it’s about difference is size…

      And Humans would 100% notice a spaceship with being 1,000s of times bigger than us, if only because it would block the sky and change gravity.

      If aliens were the size of ants, they likely won’t have the space for a brain big enough to get here.

      Aliens might be real somewhere, but the universe is too huge to travel. Unless they’re functionally immortal, there’s no chance we see a live one.

      If (and it’s a big if) we see proof of extraterrestrial life, it’s going to probes/drones/robots from a civilization that existed long before intelligent life on Earth started. Even if they are still around, they probably won’t be by the time they get some kind of response.

      The best chance is coming across some ancient version of the Voyager prove. Just enough that it proves we’re not alone, but not enough to actually do anything about it

      • Sordid@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Unless they’re functionally immortal, there’s no chance we see a live one.

        That’s not that much of a stretch, though. The way things are going, we’ll probably have indefinite lifespans before we have major colonies on other planets.