Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: alien life – Page 85

Godlike Aliens

Visit https://brilliant.org/isaacarthur/ to get started learning STEM for free, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.
Science Fiction often shows us alien civilizations so advanced they are godlike, but how realistic are they, and what would such entities be like?

Biocene 2022 Registration: https://oai.org/biocene-2022-event-registration/
International Space Development Conference Registration: https://isdc2022.nss.org.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur.
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE

Listen or Download the audio of this episode from Soundcloud: Episode’s Audio-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/godlike-aliens.
Episode’s Narration-only version: https://soundcloud.com/isaac-arthur-148927746/godlike-aliens-narration-only.

Credits:
Alien Civilizations: Godlike Aliens.
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur.
Episode 341, May 5, 2022
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur.

Editors:
Andrew Nelson.
Curt Hartung.
David McFarlane.

Cover Art:

Continue reading “Godlike Aliens” | >

Consciousness is the collapse of the wave function

Consciousness defines our existence. It is, in a sense, all we really have, all we really are, The nature of consciousness has been pondered in many ways, in many cultures, for many years. But we still can’t quite fathom it.

web1Why consciousness cannot have evolved

Consciousness Cannot Have Evolved Read more Consciousness is, some say, all-encompassing, comprising reality itself, the material world a mere illusion. Others say consciousness is the illusion, without any real sense of phenomenal experience, or conscious control. According to this view we are, as TH Huxley bleakly said, ‘merely helpless spectators, along for the ride’. Then, there are those who see the brain as a computer. Brain functions have historically been compared to contemporary information technologies, from the ancient Greek idea of memory as a ‘seal ring’ in wax, to telegraph switching circuits, holograms and computers. Neuroscientists, philosophers, and artificial intelligence (AI) proponents liken the brain to a complex computer of simple algorithmic neurons, connected by variable strength synapses. These processes may be suitable for non-conscious ‘auto-pilot’ functions, but can’t account for consciousness.

Finally there are those who take consciousness as fundamental, as connected somehow to the fine scale structure and physics of the universe. This includes, for example Roger Penrose’s view that consciousness is linked to the Objective Reduction process — the ‘collapse of the quantum wavefunction’ – an activity on the edge between quantum and classical realms. Some see such connections to fundamental physics as spiritual, as a connection to others, and to the universe, others see it as proof that consciousness is a fundamental feature of reality, one that developed long before life itself.

Aliens Created Our Universe in a Lab, Scientist Suggests

If true, we started out as a “baby universe.” Cute.

Could our universe have been created in a petri dish? Avi Loeb seems to think so. The Harvard astronomer posits that a higher “class” of civilization may have conjured up our universe in a laboratory far, far away.

“Since our universe has a flat geometry with a zero net energy, an advanced civilization could have developed a technology that created a baby universe out of nothing through quantum tunneling,” Loeb writes in an op-ed published by Scientific American last year.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX could probe Uranus on NASA’s flagship mission

Could SpaceX be heading to Uranus next? The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine seems to think it should. The organization has released its latest decadal survey of planetary science and astrobiology. According to a report by Teslarati published on Wednesday, the survey hints that NASA should undertake a flagship mission to Uranus on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket.

The Uranus Orbiter and Probe

The mission is not entirely new. Called the Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP), the proposal has been under work for several years by a team that includes scientists from NASA, the University of California, and Johns Hopkins University. Now, with SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket, the researchers feel they have the technology to make their long-held dream a reality.

Extraterrestrial Intelligence Messaging Has Changed Recently

On April 1st this year, a team of scientists led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory posted a proposed new message to be sent to prospective intelligent extraterrestrials. The coincidence of April Fool’s Day in this case should be ignored. This actually is very real. The rationale for the message can be found in an article entitled, “A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects,” which has been submitted to the journal Galaxy and is currently posted on a pre-print server for review.

The article title includes the terms FAST and SETI. If you are not familiar with FAST, the acronym stands for the Five-Hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope being built in China (see picture above) that will be the largest parabolic radio telescope in the world and capable of intercepting the faintest radio signals from across the Universe. SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, is far better known and was featured prominently in the science fiction movie, Contact, based on a Carl Sagan novel.

What kind of message is being sent? And how will intelligent aliens be able to decipher it? Since the first radios and television signals were broadcast, humanity has been streaming information into outer space with no thought of how the information would be perceived by an intelligent technically advanced civilization on the receiving end. And even before radios, sending a message to intelligent aliens was proposed. In the early 1800s an Austrian astronomer wanted to carve out a geometric pattern of trenches in the Sahara Desert, fill them with kerosene and then light it all up tobe a beacon for any aliens living nearby.

Galactic Beacon—Scientists Propose Sending Revealing Message To Alien Civilizations

The brand new “Beacon in the Galaxy” is a binary message created by scientists as an update to the old Arecibo message.

The newly proposed “A Beacon in the Galaxy”, a binary message created by scientists as an update to the old Arecibo message, might actually be more dangerous for us than beneficial. It includes key information about us – our location, our DNA structure, and even an image of the naked human body.

Should we give aliens such vital details about Earth and humanity? This question has been around for ages and countless renowned scientists have expressed their concerns in the past. Even Stephen Hawking explained that a hypothetical alien civilization could be hostile.

Is the Beacon in the Galaxy better than the Arecibo message?

While the old radio signal included important information about Earth and humanity, it was more like a postcard with difficult-to-understand images. The new “Beacon in the Galaxy” message was created like a presentation with complex illustrations and explanations.

Why Going Faster-Than-Light Leads to Time Paradoxes

►Is faster-than-light (FTL) travel possible? In most discussions of this, we get hung up on the physics of particular ideas, such as wormholes or warp drives. But today, we take a more zoomed out approach that addresses all FTL propulsion — as well as FTL messaging. Because it turns out that they all allow for time travel. Join us today as we explore why this is so and the profound consequences that ensue. Special thanks to Prof Matt.

Written & presented by Prof David Kipping. Special thanks to Prof Matt Buckley for fact checking and his great blog article that inspired this video (http://www.physicsmatt.com/blog/2016/8/25/why-ftl-implies-time-travel)

→ Support our research program: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support.
→ Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store.

THANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, H. Jensen, J. Rockett, N. Fredrickson, D. Holland, E. Hanway, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, F. Van Exter, S. Roulier, B. Smith, P. Masterson, R. Sievers, G. Canterbury, J. Kill, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, T. Wheeler, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, S. Krasner, W. Evans, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp, T. Kordell, T. Ljungberg & M. Janke.

::References::
► Alcubierre, M., 1994, “The warp drive: hyper-fast travel within general relativity”, Classical and Quantum Gravity, 11 L73: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0009013
► Pfenning, M. & Ford, L., 1997, “The unphysical nature of Warp Drive”, Classical and Quantum Gravity, 14, 1743: https://arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/9702026
► Finazzi, S., Liberati, S., Barceló, C., 2009, “Semiclassical instability of dynamical warp drives”, Physical Review D., 79, 124017: https://arxiv.org/abs/0904.0141
► McMonigal, B., Lewis, G., O’Byrne, P., 2012, “Alcubierre warp drive: On the matter of matter”, Physical Review D., 85, 064024: https://arxiv.org/abs/1202.5708
► Everett, A., 1996, “Warp drive and causality”, Physical Review D, 53, 7365: https://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.53.

::Music::

Continue reading “Why Going Faster-Than-Light Leads to Time Paradoxes” | >
/* */