What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

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Wilshire

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« Reply #15 on: November 14, 2017, 01:16:53 pm »
Very interesting. I'd like to get around to three-body problem now, and the dark-forest idea is fascinating.

lol MSJ: Malazan had the same affect on me.
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Srancy

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« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2017, 02:07:19 pm »
Assuming First Contact will ever happen

Wilshire

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« Reply #17 on: November 16, 2017, 04:35:31 pm »
Assuming First Contact will ever happen
I mean, I think the question says "if" lol. the whole thing is a hypothetical, so yeah, we're assuming that the hypothetical hypothetically happens, in this hypothetical scenario.

Another hypothetical entirely might be "what if no first contact is made" - but that's a whole different topic ;).
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TLEILAXU

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« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2017, 05:54:07 pm »
Assuming First Contact will ever happen
Maybe it's not that far off... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIC_8462852
Anyway, if first contact happens I hope this is what the aliens will see
Quote
http://i.imgur.com/7x44VOd.jpg
Also, broadcasting our location to the cosmos is fucking stupid.

Wilshire

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« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2017, 06:20:45 pm »
Assuming First Contact will ever happen
Maybe it's not that far off... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIC_8462852
Anyway, if first contact happens I hope this is what the aliens will see
Quote
http://i.imgur.com/7x44VOd.jpg
Also, broadcasting our location to the cosmos is fucking stupid.

Lol, classic humanity.
Also, way to late for broadcasting location. But hey, it was a simpler time back then and we thought that any intelligent interstellar super-civilizations were going to be as friendly to animals as we are - not to mention friendly among themselves as we are.... Oh, oh my god, we've made a horrible error!
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Madness

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« Reply #20 on: November 18, 2017, 05:07:40 pm »
I liked how Sagan dealt with communication in Contact. Otherwise, while there are a number of hypotheses, obviously, it's easy to think that communication/recognition between species would be impossible.

I suppose that would make an interesting thread, in and of itself.
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H

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« Reply #21 on: November 21, 2017, 12:50:15 pm »
I liked how Sagan dealt with communication in Contact. Otherwise, while there are a number of hypotheses, obviously, it's easy to think that communication/recognition between species would be impossible.

I suppose that would make an interesting thread, in and of itself.

Don't forget, more recently, Arrival and the issue of communication presented there, as it relates to a fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing language and time.
I am a warrior of ages, Anasurimbor. . . ages. I have dipped my nimil in a thousand hearts. I have ridden both against and for the No-God in the great wars that authored this wilderness. I have scaled the ramparts of great Golgotterath, watched the hearts of High Kings break for fury. -Cet'ingira

Wilshire

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« Reply #22 on: November 21, 2017, 03:10:28 pm »
I liked how Sagan dealt with communication in Contact. Otherwise, while there are a number of hypotheses, obviously, it's easy to think that communication/recognition between species would be impossible.

I suppose that would make an interesting thread, in and of itself.

Don't forget, more recently, Arrival and the issue of communication presented there, as it relates to a fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing language and time.

Not sure about those examples, but Watts make an interesting case in Blindsight. Capture two, torture one of them and make the other solves puzzles to make the torture stop. Eventually you'll learn how to communicate with them.

Maybe you need three so you can figure out how to properly torture the first one (likely a casualty as you discover the limits of pain and survival thresholds )
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Madness

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« Reply #23 on: November 21, 2017, 03:37:12 pm »
I liked how Sagan dealt with communication in Contact. Otherwise, while there are a number of hypotheses, obviously, it's easy to think that communication/recognition between species would be impossible.

I suppose that would make an interesting thread, in and of itself.

Don't forget, more recently, Arrival and the issue of communication presented there, as it relates to a fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing language and time.

Decent adaptation, though I still find Story of Your Life a much better suited medium.

Even there though, some hypotheses suggest that it is comically unlikely that anything resembling recognizable communication might possibly occur between interstellar species.

Blindsight...

(click to show/hide)
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TLEILAXU

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« Reply #24 on: November 21, 2017, 08:03:29 pm »
I liked how Sagan dealt with communication in Contact. Otherwise, while there are a number of hypotheses, obviously, it's easy to think that communication/recognition between species would be impossible.

I suppose that would make an interesting thread, in and of itself.

Don't forget, more recently, Arrival and the issue of communication presented there, as it relates to a fundamentally different ways of conceptualizing language and time.

Decent adaptation, though I still find Story of Your Life a much better suited medium.

Even there though, some hypotheses suggest that it is comically unlikely that anything resembling recognizable communication might possibly occur between interstellar species.

Blindsight...

(click to show/hide)
Arrival, while conceptually interesting, was still sci-fi.
It's hard to envision how we might communicate with a truly alien race since we cannot envision such a race. Even Peter Watts' Blindsight, which I love, has one particularly cringey part for the biochemically inclined.
Hint: It's related to scrambler physiology.

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« Reply #25 on: November 24, 2017, 12:42:27 pm »
It's hard to envision how we might communicate with a truly alien race since we cannot envision such a race.

+1
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Madness

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« Reply #26 on: November 30, 2017, 11:33:30 pm »
Only peripherally related but for BFK, based on a conversation he and Wilshire were having in Quorum:

Quote
Liu Cixin’s next U.S. release is Ball Lightning, a Tesla-evoking cautionary novel of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against a push to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.
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BeardFisher-King

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« Reply #27 on: December 01, 2017, 12:32:54 am »
Only peripherally related but for BFK, based on a conversation he and Wilshire were having in Quorum:

Quote
Liu Cixin’s next U.S. release is Ball Lightning, a Tesla-evoking cautionary novel of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against a push to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.
Very cool, Madness! August 2018 release date, so a bit of a wait.

I am very curious as to what President Obama thinks about dark-forest strategy, if he got that far in the trilogy. It's the polar opposite of the optimistic view familiar from Star Trek. Hide well, cleanse well......
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TLEILAXU

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« Reply #28 on: December 01, 2017, 01:21:32 am »
Only peripherally related but for BFK, based on a conversation he and Wilshire were having in Quorum:

Quote
Liu Cixin’s next U.S. release is Ball Lightning, a Tesla-evoking cautionary novel of what happens when the beauty of scientific inquiry runs up against a push to harness new discoveries with no consideration of their possible consequences.
Very cool, Madness! August 2018 release date, so a bit of a wait.

I am very curious as to what President Obama thinks about dark-forest strategy, if he got that far in the trilogy. It's the polar opposite of the optimistic view familiar from Star Trek. Hide well, cleanse well......
I haven't read the books but hasn't Stephen Hawking said pretty much the same thing for years?
Also, Ball Lightning sounds like a very cool title. Sounds like an electricity themed book.

Madness

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« Reply #29 on: December 08, 2017, 02:06:49 pm »
I haven't read the books but hasn't Stephen Hawking said pretty much the same thing for years?

Yup.
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