Kepler discovers object orbiting distant star...send Sci Fi geeks into a frenzy :D

[Chase Gamwell]

The speculation is strong with this story, but I like the idea that we may have just stumbled across something that could potentially change the course of human development. Scientists are looking into an object orbiting a surrounding star that may be artificial in nature.

Its worth taking a look at the article for the sheer possibility of the discovery in question:

http://news.discovery.com/space/ali...-discovered-an-alien-megastructure-151014.htm

 

[Chase Gamwell]

In my excitement, I may or may not have messed up the title, as well...

 

[Nicole Wilson]

I saw this! How cool is that??

 

[Bernard Stacey]

He, he!
"Only 1500 light years away."
That's barely 9000 trillion miles...

 

[Stephen Drake]

Sounds to me that they discovered some power-hungry alien race that is destroying the galactic environment...send the EPA!
(Being sorta sarcastic!)

 

[Carol Rose]

Saw that posted on Facebook last week. Interesting stuff.

 

[David Steele]

We sit in a soup of dust and smoke, peering into the nothing and wondering what's out there.
But every day, that distance gets greater. Not just in terms of miles between the stars; the miles themselves are getting longer.
"The Universe is expanding" doesn't just apply to the distances between worlds. It applies to the very essence of physics.
Everything. Every last one of us.
Slowly falling apart.
So on that distant star, they watch us and say "look - down there. Look what they did, all those years ago."
And they watch us, drifting away from them.
Drifting away from each other.
Already out of reach and vanishing by the hour.
Hurtling into lonely oblivion, as the German tribes over-run the Romans.

 

[Jason Byrne]

He, he!
"Only 1500 light years away."
That's barely 9000 trillion miles...

Hey, dude — that's only 95,000,000 AU.

If they built a Dyson sphere, traveling a hundred million AU is like going to Costco. Which, by the same idiom, means we should watch out for a "gray goo" scenario...

Couple things, though — there is a very real possibility that there is a species out there that is well on its way to developing a Dyson sphere a millennia-and-a-half ago. Marc's got that right, and in poetic fashion only the desolation of space can evoke. If over the coming millennia, KIC 8462852 vanishes into a low-wavelength heat signature, then we'll know won't we!

Or if they made the Alcubierre drive work, they could show up tomorrow, look up, and say — "hey, I remember when we were putting that together, fifteen-hundred years an hour ago! Where's your BBQ?" Except it might sound more like, "ghghtbgjkhglfhgrndhghgpnghgh."

 

[Jason Byrne]

So what if our conception of God were actually a type 4 civilization?

"The power output of the visible universe is within a few orders of magnitude of 10E45 W. Such a civilization approaches or surpasses the limits of speculation based on current scientific understanding, and may not be possible... Zoltán Galántai has argued that such a civilization could not be detected, as its activities would be indistinguishable from the workings of nature (there being nothing to compare them to)."

 

[Stephen Drake]

I still think we should call Star Fleet Command and demand the EPA be taken there on the Enterprise...

 

[Chase Gamwell]

So what if our conception of God were actually a type 4 civilization?

"The power output of the visible universe is within a few orders of magnitude of 10E45 W. Such a civilization approaches or surpasses the limits of speculation based on current scientific understanding, and may not be possible... Zoltán Galántai has argued that such a civilization could not be detected, as its activities would be indistinguishable from the workings of nature (there being nothing to compare them to)."

Isn't this basically the premise of 2001/2010/3001/etc.? I mean...that seems to be the whole theme behind any kind of science fiction dealing with an uplift scenario. Either way, the thought is definitely provocative.

 

[Jason Byrne]

I still think we should call Star Fleet Command and demand the EPA be taken there on the Enterprise...

In four hundred years, I'll get right on it!

 

[Jason Byrne]

Isn't this basically the premise of 2001/2010/3001/etc.? I mean...that seems to be the whole theme behind any kind of science fiction dealing with an uplift scenario. Either way, the thought is definitely provocative.

The hypothetical Type 4 posits that a civilization of sufficient advancement could harness the power of the entire observable universe, but because of this scale the limit of our understanding and diagnostics would leave them indistinguishable from the very fabric of existence — i.e. something omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

 

[Marc Joan]

And they eat KittyKat and then throw up on the kitchen floor.

 

[Jason Byrne]

And they eat KittyKat and then throw up on the kitchen floor.

That's right! Also Bender's birthday cake!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

And they eat KittyKat and then throw up on the kitchen floor.

Let the Alien-Kitty chunder
Louder than the Kit-Craft's thunder
Tear not Feline-Tech asunder

 

[Marc Joan]

Or, the cat splat on the mat.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It sicked
This was no trick
Just lots of ick

 

[Marc Joan]

A comet's tail
Of vomit trails
Upon the tiles
In patterns vile.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Catspewed constellation
Meat-biscuity conflation
And buttlick furry hairball
Achieves new destination

 

[Marc Joan]

OK, you win!

 

[Chase Gamwell]

Let the Alien-Kitty chunder
Louder than the Kit-Craft's thunder
Tear not Feline-Tech asunder

Or, the cat splat on the mat.

It sicked
This was no trick
Just lots of ick

A comet's tail
Of vomit trails
Upon the tiles
In patterns vile.

Catspewed constellation
Meat-biscuity conflation
And buttlick furry hairball
Achieves new destination

Loving every second of this, but I ran out of popcorn hours ago.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

No winners! Just throwing the ball back.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Kepler's popcorn

 

[Marc Joan]

I'm not messing with anyone who puts 'buttlick furry hairball' into a poem. You just don't know what they might do next.

 

[James Marinero]

Hey, dude — that's only 95,000,000 AU.

If they built a Dyson sphere, traveling a hundred million AU is like going to Costco. Which, by the same idiom, means we should watch out for a "gray goo" scenario...

Couple things, though — there is a very real possibility that there is a species out there that is well on its way to developing a Dyson sphere a millennia-and-a-half ago. Marc's got that right, and in poetic fashion only the desolation of space can evoke. If over the coming millennia, KIC 8462852 vanishes into a low-wavelength heat signature, then we'll know won't we!

Or if they made the Alcubierre drive work, they could show up tomorrow, look up, and say — "hey, I remember when we were putting that together, fifteen-hundred years an hour ago! Where's your BBQ?" Except it might sound more like, "ghghtbgjkhglfhgrndhghgpnghgh."

Suppose WE originated there?

 

[Meerkat]

I have a set of lectures on the search for extraterrestrial life from The Teaching Company. They are given by Seth Shostak, (former?) director of SETI. In them, he states positively that we will discover alien life by 2020 and that it will likely be silicon-based.

I have been waiting breathlessly ever since I heard him say that.

 

[Jay Aitch]

What terrifies me, in certain respects, is the almost deification of cats currently encouraged by the internet. That and the seemingly irreversible decline of languages towards (emot)icons seems to parallel some ancient civilisations, in particular, ancient Egypt.

I'm waiting for the Schrodinger's harbinger of the Apocalypse by Fitz. the death dearth by Mr Bigglesworth, Mankind's downfall by Snowball, the end of an era by Bagheera, and of course, to be buried alive in the heart of a dead planet by (Sheer) KHAAAAAAANNNN!!!!

 

[Jason Byrne]

What terrifies me, in certain respects, is the almost deification of cats currently encouraged by the internet. That and the seemingly irreversible decline of languages towards (emot)icons seems to parallel some ancient civilisations, in particular, ancient Egypt.

I'm waiting for the Schrodinger's harbinger of the Apocalypse by Fitz. the death dearth by Mr Bigglesworth, Mankind's downfall by Snowball, the end of an era by Bagheera, and of course, to be buried alive in the heart of a dead planet by (Sheer) KHAAAAAAANNNN!!!!

 

[Jason Byrne]

Suppose WE originated there?

Like, we're the thirteenth tribe of Kobol, or something?