IF life on Earth like planets develops like here
- Thread starter HG_B
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Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
What if Roman hadn't colapsed?
We'd be a 1000's years ahead?
We'd be a 1000's years ahead?
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Or they reached their own self-annihilation crisis point and failed to get through it and have been extinct for millions of years anyway 
A T-Rex with his little forelimb digit on the button of nuclear holocaust. Now THAT is a scary thought
A T-Rex with his little forelimb digit on the button of nuclear holocaust. Now THAT is a scary thought
Rigel Stardin
SOC-13
Hardly. Your view of Earth's civilizations is too narrow. China?
A T-Rex with his little forelimb digit on the button of nuclear holocaust. Now THAT is a scary thought
:rofl:
If it hadn't been for various collapses of assorted Western civilizations alone there wouldn't have been the opportunities for a lot of advancements we take for granted today.
For example, if the Greeks hadn't self-destructed with their Peloponnesian War, the Macedonians (rude, country barbarians to the rest of the Greeks) may not have been able to rise to power and spread Hellenism throughout the known world at the time.
If Rome hadn't collapsed when it had, maybe they could have reached a greater cultural rapport and bond with Constantinople and formed a larger empire by supporting one another. If either had made better use of the sea for trade that alone might have been something else to keep Rome going longer.
Who knows? I don't know that we'd be 1000 years ahead of where we are now, but it would be a very different world. If the Dark Ages hadn't happened after the collapse of Rome, and the Renaissance hadn't flourished in Italy, but died in a worse pandemic than happened, what would have happened then? The northern Renaissance was hardly the scientific bloom it was in Italy, so maybe that would have stalled advances made by a more scientific age. Not that Rome was all that scientific, though they were awfully good engineers.
And mind you - none of this takes into account how China, Korea, India, or even Japan might have filled the vacuum left by the Western empires. Jeez - if Constantinople hadn't firmly established Christianity in Eastern Europe would the Turks had an easier time advancing west and/or actually made it to Europe and kept a lot of it? So many what if's, so little time.
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Or they reached their own self-annihilation crisis point and failed to get through it and have been extinct for millions of years anyway
A T-Rex with his little forelimb digit on the button of nuclear holocaust. Now THAT is a scary thought
It's not the tiny forelimb I'd be worried about, but the tiny brain moving it.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Restating the Fermi Paradox:
If intelligent life exists elsewhere in the galaxy, where is it?
If intelligent life exists elsewhere in the galaxy, where is it?
You are correct. But a corollary to that might be that just because there are a lot of worlds out there it doesn't mean there has to be a lot of advanced civilizations - or any at all. Let alone star-faring ones close enough to encounter.
And mind you, I'm only addressing this galaxy. Maybe some galaxy's got better rolls with their dice.
And mind you, I'm only addressing this galaxy. Maybe some galaxy's got better rolls with their dice.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
As sabredog says, perhaps they are distant, space is big, really really big.
And we might also be separated by time. We've only been "advanced" for an eyeblink in our little corner on this little rock. The universe is old, really really old. We could easily have missed untold numbers of other far more advanced civilizations flourishing and dying just because it happened before our time.
Far-trader makes an important point that a lot of people forget in this area of discussion: distance equals time in space.
We get all excited about finding some "nearby" world that might support life, but it is so far away that unless we develop the magic warp drive whatits to get us there right away the place might be uninhabitable by the time our generation ship finally makes it to the place. Even with relativistic speeds available, time and distance still play a part that isn't reflected in Traveller, but a perusal of some of the better fiction that has addressed it (like The Forever War, for one) will provide a good example of what that might be like.
We get all excited about finding some "nearby" world that might support life, but it is so far away that unless we develop the magic warp drive whatits to get us there right away the place might be uninhabitable by the time our generation ship finally makes it to the place. Even with relativistic speeds available, time and distance still play a part that isn't reflected in Traveller, but a perusal of some of the better fiction that has addressed it (like The Forever War, for one) will provide a good example of what that might be like.
Stop it. Now I feel lonely and insignificant.
Maybe tommorrow our reptilian/roman overlords will arrive and say: "hey, look at you guys!" Careful what you wish for.
It is where it is. Earth is an insignificant dot on the edge of an almost inconceivably huge galaxy. It is no paradox at all...
Maybe tommorrow our reptilian/roman overlords will arrive and say: "hey, look at you guys!" Careful what you wish for.
Or, "Hey, you guys look tasty!"
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.
