Originally posted by framedragged
Turns out I have read a fair number of truth1k's posts. I'd more or less glazed over them because it seemed like Bedlam was schooling him on certain
things but I've quickly changing my stance. Oddly enough the HED thread has been one of my favorites for a long time. But I'm really glad you
pointed me to the Dulce threads 
Truth's strengths lay in other directions, but he knew a lot of people and had a good memory for stories.
There's just so many issues - not sure how you quantify any of it. One, how much older are any of the stars in the local group that can support life?
Noting that it'll have to be an Earth-like planet, since the stories rarely seem to involve environmental suits or, oddly, non-anthropomorphic aliens.
As you say, either they have to be really close, or really old. It takes a long time to search every likely star for life. And what's the average
lifetime of a race? They'd have to be old enough to develop FTL, but young enough not to be extinct. They'd have to be adventurous, which we are but
you couldn't expect every race to be, and curious, same argument, and willing to expend a lot of resources on nothing but exploration. But somehow
vulnerable to lightning. (?)
And, on top of which, your technology would have to be understandable to a vacuum tube technology. Seriously, the transistors we use today would not
be something you could look at and directly re-engineer to...a point contact transistor.
Now, oddly, a point contact transistor is very VERY close to a point contact diode, with a few changes. And we were using those in radar receivers
before Roswell. Heck, there was a big push to develop better silicon for better radar diodes. You can, in fact, turn an old point contact diode into a
point contact transistor if you've got the right sort of wire and a steady hand.
Personally, I'd bet if you got out there, you'd find a lot of Mars-y planets with no real atmosphere, or planets something like Earth but with
reducing atmospheres where chlorophyll never was evolved, or maybe old oxygen atmo worlds where everyone is...gone. Maybe you'd find nothing but cliff
dwellings and adobe huts, and you'd never be sure if it was intelligent life that just liked mud huts or some sort of bower-bird critter that built
mud dwellings out of instinct.
What you wouldn't run into would be planets full of humans with head or nose lumps that speak English.
edit on 30-11-2012 by Bedlam because:
(no reason given)
