Reply #87: This one's for fun, but responses are welcome

[Lemonwurst]

Much as I share the wishful notion that humans will someday interact with extra-terrestrials, it's mathematically impossible - as anyone can understand quite easily.

But of course all of you who've clicked on this see it's from the Examiner tabloid, so don't expect a WH press conference on the matter anytime soon...

Back to the math, now. Consider these two basic concepts ==> physical mass and time-perception; more specifically the variances in how different beings perceive the passage of time. A simple example would be the common "dog-years" ratio of 7:1 to "human-years". If we go to the supermarket for 2 hours, leaving our dog at home, Fido greets us like we've been gone for 14 hours. Because - in terms of his lifespan - we actually have. Some insects live only for 2-3 days. Though it's unlikely their perception of time is a conscious activity, think how absurdly long 1 hour of "human" time would seem to those kinds of insects.

The solar system nearest us is 4+ light-years away, and it's a funny one, with 3 stars and no identified planets. The next closest is 10.5 light-years away, with some planets we're aware of. Go much beyond that, and you're talking about solar systems so far away that we now view their suns as stars in the sky, but they're actually already burned out and have been for several million years.

Which brings us back to physical mass. Could we humans interact with an alien life-form if say, that life-form was bacterial, or gaseous? Probably not. But any classic, standing, walking, appendaged alien like we see in the movies would have physical mass, and no mass can travel at the speed of light. Half the speed of light-speed is 335 MILLION mph, and it's doubtful that any craft created by physical beings could achieve even that relatively "modest" (in terms of space travel) velocity.

Bringing it together: what kind of intelligent physical being would devise a means to travel at this high speed, then embark on a voyage lasting (at least equal to, and likely far greater than) 4 human years? If it were possible, that kind of being would likely have a time-perception ratio much different than us humans. Say, for instance, the opposite direction of dog-years - their "month" is equal to our year. In that case, their voyage wouldn't seem that long to them, but any contact between us and those beings, and even the idea that they would be able to observe our activities, has to take into account that human speech and movement would appear incredibly fast to them. And they'd likely be too slow for us to even notice their movements. You can't see a tree growing, or a mountain shifting, but they sure do move over time, don't they? And aliens on earth would pretty much have the same effect, if their time-perception and lifespan allowed them to travel such long distances for extremely long periods of time.

If you read this far, yee-hah. No, I'm not crazy, I just like playing with math concepts. And I'm no scientist, but I gave this just enough thought to assure myself that, while I absolutely do believe Earth isn't the only home to intelligent life, the universe is so beautifully immense that there is likely very little interaction between intelligent species that share a similar measure of mass, and a close enough time-perception. I also embrace the idea of being proved wrong - it's food for thought.

(edited for spelling)