Who among us haven’t looked up at the sky and wondered what was really out there beyond our Earth? I distinctly remember being fascinated by the night-time sky as a small child and was lucky to live in a neighborhood without streetlights. We could see planets, twinkling stars, and meteors in all of their glory. It made my nerdy eight year old self feel blissfully insignificant. Pondering all of the mysteries and the “what ifs” stretched my imagination and eventually led to me being a lifelong fan of physics, cutting edge tech, and science fiction.
An already year old article serendipitously surfaced in my Google news feed today from the SETI Institute (source) that stoked the old flame of curiosity.
The Drake Equation
If you have even a mild interest in science you’ve probably heard of the Drake Equation:
Where:
N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible (i.e. which are on our current past light cone);
and
R∗ = the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fl = the fraction of planets that could support life that actually develop life at some point
fi = the fraction of planets with life that actually go on to develop intelligent life (civilizations)
fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
Moving Beyond The Drake Equation
The gist of the SETI Institute article was this...recent research has theorized that one-in-six stars in our galaxy is capable of sustaining life. If one-in-one-hundred of those planets eventually produced thinking beings, then one-in-one-hundred-million of these star systems should hold intelligent life in varying stages of evolution. If this new research is correct we should have ten-thousand intelligent civilizations in our galaxy alone. Ten-thousand!
Can you even imagine about how interesting it would be to learn about these other civilizations' history, their culture, their wisdom? Unless they land on our doorstep there's lots for us to learn before we can initiate anything resembling an open cultural exchange with another intelligent civilization.
The Caveat (there's always a catch)
Our Milky Way galaxy (not to mention the entirety of the universe) is unfathomably vast. The Milky Way is so vast in fact that the nearest intelligent civilization could be up to two-thousand light years away which would take approximately twenty-million-years to travel to using our current propulsion technology. Hey Elon, can you have your buddies at SpaceX get to work on a viable means of interstellar propulsion?
Nothing Worthwhile Is Easy
If humanity wisens up and survives long enough we will find a much faster way to traverse these long distances. As frustrating as a twenty million year journey seems there's a certain kind of harmony in the fact that we're this far apart and it's this difficult.
The enormous expanse of distance hints at a purposeful and intelligent design to this universe of ours. It all but insures that no contact is possible until civilizations are evolved/mature enough to handle the initiation of contact. This is assuming technical evolution keeps pace with spiritual and intellectual evolution.
As outlined in my novel, Alarm Clock Dawn, I'm of the belief that civilizations who don't develop technologically, intellectually, and spiritually at around the same rate they probably end up destroying themselves in a varying manor of grisly ways before they evolve into an interstellar species.
Judging by humanity's current track record, we have a long way to go before we're ready for interstellar travel but this is all so interesting to think about.
Maybe we'll get lucky and some enlightened (and very brave) civilization will drop by and pay us a visit. Many people among us believe they already have. If any of our neighbors have dropped by or do visit in the near future, I sure as hell hope some of their wisdom wears off on us.
Thank you for reading,
Eric
*I am an American novelist, poet, traveler, and crypto-enthusiast. If you’ve enjoyed my work please sign up for my author newsletter at my website. Newsletter subscribers will receive exclusive updates and special offers and your information will never be sold or shared.
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Let’s Keep In Touch
The secret of the sky and the universe is indeed not able to be thought of by humans. I always fascinated by a cluster of stars in the galaxy. In my religious scriptures , God mentioned that the sky consists of seven layers. earth, sun, planets and clusters of stars are in the first sky. Humans today do not know where heaven and hell are.
Well, this is hard to respond to because... all the assumptions are wrong.
There is intelligent life here on earth, that we do not know and do not communicate with.
We are the 11th advanced civilization of humans on this planet. We have sent ourselves back to the stone age 10 times before.
Intelligent life, out there, has already communicated with many humans, and humans with them. Of course, you have to believe psychonauts to believe this.
Technology is not a linear path. Two different planets, with the same physics rules will come up with two different technologies. It is extremely possible to never use EM radiation as a broadcast medium. And, if we look at earth, we have only done so for a blink of an eye in our recorded history. And we will soon stop using radio waves.
We already have space travel. All you have to do is a get a good pair of night vision goggles and you can watch the American Secret Space Force practice manuevers. However, space is not what we have been told. Inter-solar system media is not a vacuum. Basically everything you thought was science of space... is completely a lie.
The universe is a life making system. All the planets have life on them. Of course, we will have to radically change the meaning of life, living and intelligence. But, such is the joy of being a maturing race.
"The universe is a life making system." I love the sound of that. In my younger days I read a lot of Edgar Cayce's books and he said human civilizations have risen up several times only to destroy themselves. Ancient Hindu writings echo that. One book in particular called The Holy Science ties astrological influences to human evolution.
Any recommended reading on the true nature of space and/or the universe? I enjoyed the last book you suggested.
I like Michael Talbots book, "The Holographic Universe"
About tying astrological influences to human evolution is not quite the correct idea. One doesn't really effect the other, one is not the cause and the other the effect. It is more appropriate to say they are one and the same thing.
The Mayan calendar was a tracking of these events. That is why its predictions were so accurate. But, now we are in a new time, and the cycles have changed.
Great, thanks, I just picked it up used on Amazon and will check it out.
Great, thanks, I just picked
It up used on Amazon
And will check it out.
- ericvancewalton
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
The creativity in the whole universe is just incredible!
I would love to invite you to the ongoing scifi story contest. Maybe you want to join with a shortstory. I bet you would write something special!! :-)
It certainly is! I often thought about how similar those deep space telescope images are to our own bodies under an electron microscope. Thanks for thinking of me for the contest. Can you tell me more about it?
Oh man I can tell you, I wish I would live 300+ years and see what will be possible in terms of space expeditions :-)
If it is ok for you I post the link to the contest here. Otherwise just let me know and I delete it.
https://steemit.com/nextcolony/@art-universe/nextcolony-the-sci-fi-rpg-writing-contest-1
Would be cool if you join it :-)
Great story, Eric and it would be great to visit all corners of the universe and learn its secrets, but if this happens, then for us, most likely in another life!
Thank you @serkagan!
@ericvancewalton, It's not like that I've not pursued the Science Subject but in reality i don't have much interest when it's come to subject, but pratcial aspects gives real Enthusiasm to me. And definitely many of us hold the curiosity to know what is beyond the night sky, in my opinion the truth reflects too visible but yet deeply hidden.
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For me science is only interesting if it's taught by someone who makes it interesting. I think you're right..so much truth is hidden right in plain sight.
And most importantly humanity is bombarded with tons of Information which is inturn pushing away from the truth.
Universe is so vast and the theory of multiverse is also discussed a lot.
The multiverse theory is fascinating and I think they may be on to something there.
I am probably hearing about ths drake equation but it is probably interesting to hear about it
I too find myself wondering about intelligent life within our galaxy. I like your thought about the wisdom of distance, that hadn't occurred to me. Sometimes in my wonderings I've feared that another civilization that finds its way to earth might not be coming in peace but after considering your point about distance, I realize how unlikely it is that a civilization would go to all the trouble of going this far to conquer! Puts my mind at rest actually, lol so I can feel more excitement, less fear.
I'm so glad it put you more at ease! Most sci-fi books/movies tell the story from a fearful place because people are more drawn to that negative bias. I feel like civilizations that have the kind of tech to travel those vast distances probably have solved most of their "big problems" and probably wouldn't even need natural resources. Hopefully one day we'll meet them and find out. : )
i think you're right on both counts - fear based stories do seem to have a draw (although not for me, I generally avoid the stuff!) and I like to think that those aliens are just as curious as we are if not more. Who knows, maybe they might even want to be helpful and offer ways to save our civilization from killing itself!
The night sky has always fascinated me and I love viewing the stars and galaxies.
Definitely! It really expands your mind. How have you been?
On the mend. Today is painful. I pulled a muscle pretty good. Takes time and now I am changing my diet as the x-ray showed some arthritis and I found out starches can cause it among other things like sugar.
Also family stuff with very sick youngest brother in his forties. Cancer.
Sorry to sound so negative. LOL
Well, I am getting better every day.
I’m so sorry to hear about the challenges you’re going through. You and your younger brother will be in my prayers.
Much appreciated. :)
People have entered so much into mobile phones that they do not have the time to look at the beauty of the sky.
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Inter-solar system media is not a vacuum. Thanks for visiting my post....And definitely many of us hold the curiosity to know what is beyond the night sky,