There are very few potentially lifebearing planets within a 60ly radius, and we can't really prevent sending signals into space unless we somehow cease all radio communication across the planet.

Also, remember that the photons spread over a wider area and become dimmer, so the radio signals that may be encountered even on tau ceti c would be the radio equivalent of looking at a far-away star.

Besides, I'm pretty sure any species out there with a space military and empire would have very few reasons to go to war outside of sport. Water, hydrocarbons and minerals are hardly an uncommon resource in the universe. If there is a civilisation within a few hundred light years, then habitable planets are common enough that Earth's habitability is not war-worthy (Assuming they have a 1G gravity, 100KPa pressure and Earth-Normal atmosphere). So you'd have to ask what is so special about Earth in this circumstance to merit going to war- and even so, interstellar travel takes thousands of years. We'd see an invasion fleet coming decades in advance, and it's unlikely an artifical ship would have anywhere near the population that Earth does, meaning they wouldn't have the resources or troops to commit to full-scale invasion across the entire planet. Especially one as militaristic as our own.

but a space empire is unfeasible anyway, there'd just be remote colony worlds that operate almost entirely on their own with occasional transports and courier service; if an uprising happened on planet X, then planet Y would not even find out for at least half a decade, giving the rebels on planet X an abundant amount of time to dig in and prepare for the grand imperial fleet of Y to come and sort things out. Which is why, really, space warfare wouldn't work or exist like we see in sci-fi and why you wouldn't get big empires beyond a rough alliance of individual planets that agree to trade and open borders.

So, long story short, we don't really need to worry. All of that doesn't take into account the fact that a species evolving to our level or beyond within a distance reachable within a hundred light years is nigh-on impossible. We would know it by now if there was. Or the guv'ment would, anyway.

Why can't we just find a planet capable of sustaining life, find a way to get there, and start living there?

Because if we find aliens like the Elites we are f*cked.

We have found several potential candidates, we know how to get there. But it would take at least 4,000 yeas to reach the nearest one at the maximum estimate for achieveable human speed with 21st century technology(approx. 300km/s, with gravitational slingshots). Tau Ceti is still 6 light-years away, and that 300km/s is not even .001 of a percent of c.

Quote from: BaconShelf on July 08, 2015, 12:00:06 PM

Quote from: Pip on July 08, 2015, 11:51:43 AM

Why can't we just find a planet capable of sustaining life, find a way to get there, and start living there?

Because if we find aliens like the Elites we are f*cked.

We have found several potential candidates, we know how to get there. But it would take at least 4,000 yeas to reach the nearest one at the maximum estimate for achieveable human speed with 21st century technology(approx. 300km/s, with gravitational slingshots). Tau Ceti is still 6 light-years away, and that 300km/s is not even .001 of a percent of c.

Wow, is there any way slipspace/hyperdrive tech could be made? Is there any studies into it?

If so that would be great.

Traversable wormholes are a best bet, however if they're even possible we're talking way out of our ability to create in the foreseeable future. Even then the two mouths are created at the same point and you'll have to figure out how to move one and take a slow boat to move it to the desired position.

For another viewpoint; think about the fact that humans will not even leave the solar system in our lifetimes. We may see someone land on Mars or Europa or Titam, but that's a one off in of itself.

Quote from: kill yourself on July 08, 2015, 11:22:55 AM

If there's a species advanced enough to exterminate us chances are they already know of our existence.

And they would probably kill us if we advance too far in technology.

If they were sufficiently advanced to be able to have interstellar travel as a common thing, such as a Kardashev Type-II or Type-III civilisation, they probably wouldn't even acknowledge our existence.

Quote from: Totes not Naru or Gasai on July 08, 2015, 01:18:51 PM

Quote from: kill yourself on July 08, 2015, 11:22:55 AM

If there's a species advanced enough to exterminate us chances are they already know of our existence.

And they would probably kill us if we advance too far in technology.

If they were sufficiently advanced to be able to have interstellar travel as a common thing, such as a Kardashev Type-II or Type-III civilisation, they probably wouldn't even acknowledge our existence.

Possibilities for all types of scenarios are very common for this topic. Hell, advanced life might not want to talk with us because it might disrupt our evolution process that they could be seeing.

I wouldn't have found you if you hadn't. <3

Still, an interesting point to be made is that the survival of humanity lies in some things, but mainly that we move and seperate so much, so if one group dies, the rest are unaffected.

We go to a place and use up all resources. Then we move on.

Take that concept with space, and we have that likely scenario. But let's think about that. We were once like that, but after countries were made and such, we settled down. We became much more social, depending on other people to hunt for us, and for other people to make tools. Depending on other people is a sign of intelligence, because it allows you to do more things yourself. These relations gave birth to constant lying, drama, rumors, banter,  and social life basically. This became culture, and so here we are today.

Without those things we wouldn't be so advanced, and with those things come social relationships, and from that culture. The race we'd face would be posh, or rather not brutish. I might even say that we'd be on a similar page with them.

Our radio broadcasts have only traveled about 200 light years, and relatively speaking there are only a handful of exoplanets within that diameter. Any species sufficiently capable of travelling 200 light years in any short amount of time (let's say a generation or two) would probably have already detected us by other means (likely through observing the surrounding exoplanets and calculating ones that are likely to form life). And assuming there is an alien species on their way to negotiate their share of our planet, either peacefully or forcefully, I'd say any amount of broadcasting is irreparable and we're already screwed.

So yeah, let's keep broadcasting, because it doesn't seem very likely that a greater-than-sapient organism would be comically evil and try to murder us all just for the hell of it. I tend to go with an Ender's Game scenario where the species is so vastly different that they don't even comprehend us as intelligent, and work on eradicating humans simply because we're in the way.