this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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[–] kromem@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The only thing I'll point out is that there's sometimes a false dichotomy presented with this topic of either extraterrestrial tech more advanced than us or secret terrestrial tech much more advanced than what's known.

But the same theory of wormholes brought up in the hearing for FTL travel as a possibility would be the exact same foundation that would allow for travel through time.

The idea that this is terrestrial tech that just hasn't occurred yet should remain one of the possible variables on the table.

Yes, to us right now that would be completely impossible or require the energy of an entire star to power. But we enjoy a number of technologies today that were thought to be impossible until intermediate progress was made to pull them out of the realm of impossibility.

One of my issues with an extraterrestrial explanation is that from a signals standpoint we're incredibly uninteresting or detectable across effectively the entire universe. That intelligent life exists here seems unlikely to be evidenced in any way outside a small radius around us. But present Earth will, moving forward, arguably be the most interesting spatial destination for an advanced technological civilization in the Earth's future capable of traveling through time.

So if this really is technology well beyond present capabilities that's so commonly seen, we should make sure not to ignore the possibility that it is our technology well beyond present capabilities with the same self-absorption that governs us today.

Humans have historically overestimated the prevalence of extraterrestrial life beyond what it has turned out to be, and routinely underestimated what we would ourselves one day be capable of.