Is the Interstellar Object 3I/Atlas Alien Technology?
(arxiv.org)
33 points by monkburger 2 hours ago
It’s probably an alien escape pod that ejected from their civilization when their clickbait plague reached even their scientific journal articles.
by jl6 1 hour ago
The Cold War, conspiracy theories, tabloids and the dismantling of public education really did a number on a lot of people.
Statistically speaking, intelligent life is out there. Mathematically speaking, the odds of us or them ever making contact is near 0. by jsbisviewtiful 1 hour ago
Of course it is, why wouldn't it be something mundane like always. I'll bet they've got some ulterior motives and that Elvis is with them.
by compiler_queen 1 hour ago
Let's hope so, the U.S. and the world as a whole could either use a savior or factory reset
by theearling 1 hour ago
What an exhausting defeatist mindset.
by momento 1 hour ago
lol, just having fun man, I hope it's not just some rock
by theearling 57 minutes ago
> The relevance of this is that had the object indeed been discovered earlier, then there would have been some possibility that humanity could have mounted an intercept mission, a recourse that was out-of-the-question by the time 3I/ATLAS was actually detected
The only kind of intercept mission that would make sense to me from a game theory perspective is a totally blind, large scale thermonuclear weapon strike. The first thing that it wakes up to shouldn't be a harmless probe that can only phone home the bad news. by bob1029 1 hour ago
Here's an interesting PBS Space Time video [1], "Dark Forest: Should We NOT Contact Aliens?", that goes over some of the game theory that a civilization might want to consider when deciding how visible to allow themselves to be to others.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXYf47euE3U by tzs 1 hour ago
It's not all the dark forest; sometimes it's the shine of a a warm welcome!
by nine_k 1 hour ago
I've been skeptical of anything Avi Loeb writes after watching this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY985qzn7oI&t=1440s by Teever 1 hour ago
> November/early December of 2025
I guess I'll try to keep my calendar free for interstellar contact by preisschild 1 hour ago
is that humor?
by darqis 1 hour ago
> clandestine reverse Solar Oberth Manoeuvre
is now my favourite xkcd 2326 example. by fouronnes3 1 hour ago
In many asian languages idioms of 4 characters (Chinese: Chengyu, Japanese: Yojijukugo) are used for concepts, and when many of these are packed tightly together the intent is frequently to either flaunt language ability or sound very smart.
They can also be moderately impenetrable to early language learners. by zdw 1 hour ago
Linky linky for the lazy: https://xkcd.com/2326/.
by unwind 1 hour ago
> clandestine reverse Solar Oberth Manoeuvre
Nah, I'm not really into Pokemon.
https://xkcd.com/178/ by staplung 1 hour ago
Is Avi Loeb preparing to sell you another book?
by an0malous 1 hour ago
[dead]
by JackAcid 1 hour ago