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<blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 6098012" data-attributes="member: 4936"><p>[sblock=My wall of text, encapsulated in this tiny place]In fairness, a hypothetical drive that doesn't involve actually traveling through spacetime doesn't violate physics. We just have no idea how to actually do such a thing. The 'hyperdrive' from this setting is therefore physically plausible, albeit entirely magical in terms of how it causes the ship to exit spacetime, then re-enter it. </p><p></p><p>The 'slow' FTL drives of course are another matter entirely. Maybe some kind of Alcubierre warp drive or something. Still leads to a huge pile of issues of course, but we can sweep those comfortably into the gap between 'what we know now' and 'what we know in The Future.' <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>As for the proliferation of various types of life...I don't know much about the math involved. My sense however is that we have a very narrow understanding of how life might develop on worlds with significantly different chemistries than Earth. The closest thing to 'alien' life we can find here that I am aware of is the life that develops around thermal vents in the deep sea; life that develops metabolisms entirely different than most other life on Earth...and even it is 'carbon based.' </p><p></p><p>We don't really know if life based on other compounds is possible. All we know is that other compounds could chemically have many of the same traits carbon has that makes it work for life here on Earth. Until we actually FIND alien life though, any features it has or doesn't have is entirely speculation. </p><p></p><p>Which is self-evident. I only bring it up to try to defuse the tendency people have when debating to assume a sort of authoritarian stance. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>At some point, when discussing alien biologies, we have to develop a more general definition of life, I think. The line that divides 'just a series of chemical reactions' from 'a living being' is grey even here. That would only get greyer when we look at really alien environments. I think there's a very good chance that a great deal of life we find in the cosmos will be chemically similar to us, largely because the life that is NOT chemically similar to us we will not find. Or will misinterpret if we do.</p><p></p><p>I also think it's fair to say that while a lot of living things will be completely different from us, beings who occupy similar ecological niches that we have, and come from similar environments, may well be physically similar to us...in a very broad sense of the term. There's no reason it HAS to be...but it's fair to say such a being would have features that are analogous to ours, because they would have experienced similar environmental pressures. They might use tentacles instead of fingers, but they'd still have to manipulate their environment dextrously, for example.</p><p></p><p>Then there's the question of intelligences that develop in radically different, but chemically similar, environments. Those, I'd argue, we have trouble recognizing even here on Earth. Why should space be any different? So it may well be that a great many sentient beings do not form these spacefaring compacts and collusions...not because they don't exist, but because only a certain type of being (the ones similar to us in evolution and traits) tend to do that sort of thing. [/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Shayuri, post: 6098012, member: 4936"] [sblock=My wall of text, encapsulated in this tiny place]In fairness, a hypothetical drive that doesn't involve actually traveling through spacetime doesn't violate physics. We just have no idea how to actually do such a thing. The 'hyperdrive' from this setting is therefore physically plausible, albeit entirely magical in terms of how it causes the ship to exit spacetime, then re-enter it. The 'slow' FTL drives of course are another matter entirely. Maybe some kind of Alcubierre warp drive or something. Still leads to a huge pile of issues of course, but we can sweep those comfortably into the gap between 'what we know now' and 'what we know in The Future.' :) As for the proliferation of various types of life...I don't know much about the math involved. My sense however is that we have a very narrow understanding of how life might develop on worlds with significantly different chemistries than Earth. The closest thing to 'alien' life we can find here that I am aware of is the life that develops around thermal vents in the deep sea; life that develops metabolisms entirely different than most other life on Earth...and even it is 'carbon based.' We don't really know if life based on other compounds is possible. All we know is that other compounds could chemically have many of the same traits carbon has that makes it work for life here on Earth. Until we actually FIND alien life though, any features it has or doesn't have is entirely speculation. Which is self-evident. I only bring it up to try to defuse the tendency people have when debating to assume a sort of authoritarian stance. :) At some point, when discussing alien biologies, we have to develop a more general definition of life, I think. The line that divides 'just a series of chemical reactions' from 'a living being' is grey even here. That would only get greyer when we look at really alien environments. I think there's a very good chance that a great deal of life we find in the cosmos will be chemically similar to us, largely because the life that is NOT chemically similar to us we will not find. Or will misinterpret if we do. I also think it's fair to say that while a lot of living things will be completely different from us, beings who occupy similar ecological niches that we have, and come from similar environments, may well be physically similar to us...in a very broad sense of the term. There's no reason it HAS to be...but it's fair to say such a being would have features that are analogous to ours, because they would have experienced similar environmental pressures. They might use tentacles instead of fingers, but they'd still have to manipulate their environment dextrously, for example. Then there's the question of intelligences that develop in radically different, but chemically similar, environments. Those, I'd argue, we have trouble recognizing even here on Earth. Why should space be any different? So it may well be that a great many sentient beings do not form these spacefaring compacts and collusions...not because they don't exist, but because only a certain type of being (the ones similar to us in evolution and traits) tend to do that sort of thing. [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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