The first rule of Space Force...

[schoonerwest]

If humans are the pinnacle of intelligent life then the universe is fugged

In all seriousness, it wouldn’t surprise me. Humans could end up being that invasive species we always worry about coming to earth. We could end up going to different planets and using their resources because ours have run out. I have a hard time believing if aliens did come here, it would be to live in peace with us or help us evolve. I think they would come for our resources.

I think we could definitely colonize Mars, some moons around Jupiter and Saturn and probably the asteroid belt within a couple hundred years. I've even heard of something to fear in the future called "asteroid terrorism", which essentially means terrorists use whatever tech is available at the time and they fling these asteroids in the general direction of colonies they don't like.

But to get back to the idea of spreading around the galaxy like an invasive species, we could absolutely do that but in order to appear as "alien overlords" to some other alien life, the timing would have to be near perfect. Meaning that they'd have to be just at that right point of their evolution to where they're intelligent but uncapable of thwarting off our advances. Pretty hard to do in a galaxy that's 10 billion years old with stars and planets that are likely over 3 billions years old themselves. We're maybe a thousand years away from doing that kind of thing (?) but we're only 10,000 years removed from humans first deciding to built cities. Anything that could happen like that would likely either be too early or too late for any species existence. I tend to think that if we get to that point of being able to travel around the galaxy, we're more likely to find evidence of extinct alien life from whatever unnatural structures they built that could still be around. I could be wrong on this but I think somebody proposed once that if a starship traveled at 1/10 the speed of light, and often times stopped for natural resources/to colonize in order to build another starship to explore as well, it would only take 600,000 years to have explored the entire Milky Way galaxy. Pretty cool, and I believe that it works into the Fermi Paradox, but again, haha everything I'm saying is bullshit because I have no idea.

 

[brooky03]

I don't know if they'll be hostile or not but they will obviously be into butt stuff.

that goes without saying

 

[Hoya1987]

https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

Here's a good write up on the fermi-paradox since we're on the subject.
Don't worry there are pictures.
It's a pretty entertaining website in general.

 

[BasketBallJunkie-UK]

There's no way the human race will ever live long to conquer anything outside our solar system. CO2 is increasing at an alarming rate creating all sorts of bad stuff along the way, over population - too many people for the resources available coming to a theatre near you soon, and global nuclear war. And these are the things we're doing to ourselves not counting natural disasters. Solar flares putting us back into the stone age, asteroids - meteors etc, and impending gamma ray bursts and pandemics..... But maybe the Space Force can save us....

 

[tw3301]

There's no way the human race will ever live long to conquer anything outside our solar system. CO2 is increasing at an alarming rate creating all sorts of bad stuff along the way, over population - too many people for the resources available coming to a theatre near you soon, and global nuclear war. And these are the things we're doing to ourselves not counting natural disasters. Solar flares putting us back into the stone age, asteroids - meteors etc, and impending gamma ray bursts and pandemics..... But maybe the Space Force can save us....

 

[hailtoyourvictor]

There's no way the human race will ever live long to conquer anything outside our solar system. CO2 is increasing at an alarming rate creating all sorts of bad stuff along the way, over population - too many people for the resources available coming to a theatre near you soon, and global nuclear war. And these are the things we're doing to ourselves not counting natural disasters. Solar flares putting us back into the stone age, asteroids - meteors etc, and impending gamma ray bursts and pandemics..... But maybe the Space Force can save us....

You’ll melt long before we run out if CO2

 

[JimboBBN]

There's no way the human race will ever live long to conquer anything outside our solar system. CO2 is increasing at an alarming rate creating all sorts of bad stuff along the way, over population - too many people for the resources available coming to a theatre near you soon, and global nuclear war. And these are the things we're doing to ourselves not counting natural disasters. Solar flares putting us back into the stone age, asteroids - meteors etc, and impending gamma ray bursts and pandemics..... But maybe the Space Force can save us....

I think you’re right. There is a theory, can’t remember what it’s called or who made it, but the basic understanding is that all intelligent life, not just humans, are unable to conquer their solar system, let alone galaxy, because they end up killing themselves or being wiped out by a natural disaster. I could totally see this being the case. By the time a species is intelligent enough to explore space and colonize other planets, they’ll have the technology to blow up their own planet in a matter of moments. Not to mention earth is kind of due for a big asteroid or something like it.

 

[JimboBBN]

You’ll melt long before we run out if CO2

Yup. If we don’t kill ourselves or get wiped out by an asteroid, the sun will get us. Only a matter of time

 

[tw3301]

well **** it, might as well try that heroin everyone has been talking about...

 

[bkingUK]

Other than shooting down satellites I don't understand what this would entail.

 

[bkingUK]

I think we could definitely colonize Mars, some moons around Jupiter and Saturn and probably the asteroid belt within a couple hundred years. I've even heard of something to fear in the future called "asteroid terrorism", which essentially means terrorists use whatever tech is available at the time and they fling these asteroids in the general direction of colonies they don't like.

But to get back to the idea of spreading around the galaxy like an invasive species, we could absolutely do that but in order to appear as "alien overlords" to some other alien life, the timing would have to be near perfect. Meaning that they'd have to be just at that right point of their evolution to where they're intelligent but uncapable of thwarting off our advances. Pretty hard to do in a galaxy that's 10 billion years old with stars and planets that are likely over 3 billions years old themselves. We're maybe a thousand years away from doing that kind of thing (?) but we're only 10,000 years removed from humans first deciding to built cities. Anything that could happen like that would likely either be too early or too late for any species existence. I tend to think that if we get to that point of being able to travel around the galaxy, we're more likely to find evidence of extinct alien life from whatever unnatural structures they built that could still be around. I could be wrong on this but I think somebody proposed once that if a starship traveled at 1/10 the speed of light, and often times stopped for natural resources/to colonize in order to build another starship to explore as well, it would only take 600,000 years to have explored the entire Milky Way galaxy. Pretty cool, and I believe that it works into the Fermi Paradox, but again, haha everything I'm saying is bullshit because I have no idea.

Here's a good speech on that... and why ironically a space force could be a good thing for long term space exploration.

 

[BasketBallJunkie-UK]

You’ll melt long before we run out if CO2

Yep, Venus is good example of a runaway greenhouse effect. Mars is a good example of what happens when a planet's core quits spinning and magnetic poles are lost. Plus the earth has already experienced 5 mass extinctions.

Betelgeuse which is approx 700 times the size of our sun, is heading towards supernova. When this happens, or it may have already happened, the gamma burst could fry us.

 

[schoonerwest]

Yep, Venus is good example of a runaway greenhouse effect. Mars is a good example of what happens when a planet's core quits spinning and magnetic poles are lost. Plus the earth has already experienced 5 mass extinctions.

Betelgeuse which is approx 700 times the size of our sun, is heading towards supernova. When this happens, or it may have already happened, the gamma burst could fry us.

I thought Betelgeuse exploding won’t have much effect on earth. I thought it was too far away.

 

[Big_Blue79]

I thought Betelgeuse exploding won’t have much effect on earth. I thought it was too far away.

A gamma ray burst has approximately infinity range. But each gamma ray burst is exceedingly unlikely to hit Earth (narrow beam from axis of rotation), so that's nice. The supernova from Betelgeuse is otherwise too far away to have a real effect on Earth.

Edit: gamma ray bursts become less powerful over range, and their power will vary, but estimates say that anything within 1000 light years can destroy Earth. Betelgeuse is well within that range, but the axis appears to be off. And unlikely to produce a gamma ray burst (although still a lot to learn about the conditions producing them). Probably still safe.

 

[schoonerwest]

A gamma ray burst has approximately infinity range. But each gamma ray burst is exceedingly unlikely to hit Earth, so that's nice. But the supernova from Betelgeuse is too far away to have a real effect on Earth.

Right. I had just never heard about any gamma rays from Betelgeuse ever having an effect on earth. I didn’t even know it was a candidate to become a gamma ray burst, atleast not in the way that I’m thinking of them. Those are generally pretty rare, something like only a few per galaxy every million years. Still haven’t observed one in the Milky Way though.

 

[BasketBallJunkie-UK]

I thought Betelgeuse exploding won’t have much effect on earth. I thought it was too far away.

Its 640 mil away. 50 mil is probably a safe distance, but by astronomical distances that's pretty close. Here's the thing, we've never had one that close go supernova. Its also just theory both ways. I've heard it could fry us and I've heard we're safe. We won't know until it happens... I probably won't be alive then anyway lol

 

[Big_Blue79]

Right. I had just never heard about any gamma rays from Betelgeuse ever having an effect on earth. I didn’t even know it was a candidate to become a gamma ray burst, atleast not in the way that I’m thinking of them. Those are generally pretty rare, something like only a few per galaxy every million years. Still haven’t observed one in the Milky Way though.

Correct. I edited my post with better information; I was going off the top of my head (watched a lot of "How the Universe Works," great show).