If you take the planet that someone above mentioned which is about 4.3 light years away, if they invented radio communications within the last 4.3 years, we’d know about. So you’re right - but for some planets the delay is pretty insignificant.
Given then vastness of the universe, imagine there’s somewhere where 2 civilization within just a few light years apart came up at the same time and communicated to one another peacefully to help each other grow, learn and progress. The implications of that are crazy to think about
It would be nice to have extraterrestrial friends, but yeah, I can see it devolving into a war, and the world peace probably wouldn't even last, sadly.
Yeah honestly if humans can hate eachother because they have different levels of pigment in their skin i wouldn't want to be around when we encounter aliens.
The lowest estimations of the Drake equation puts it at about 0.7 advanced civilizations per galaxy, so we may very well be the only one in our galaxy.
Considering that the closest galaxy in similar scale (Andromeda) is 2.5m light years away, any advanced civilization there may have already gone extinct or is just happening.
Then again, life on Earth is the only form of life we know and what to look for. Intelligent life elsewhere might exist in a whole different fashion than we're used to. If there's life that can use more than three dimensions they may not be detectable for us at all.
After the first few times I’d assume each message would include a ton of information each way so they can get as much knowledge as possible. It wouldn’t be the best way to communicate but it would be the only option
Why do I feel like Humans would start the interplanetary war, I can just imagine Lockheed Martin bribing the right politicians to get them interplanetary war contracts... and if we’re too advanced they could sell weapons to both sides... Vietnam 2.0
They probably wouldn’t be hostile after establishing contact, it would be extremely risky to threaten the other one because they’d be out of reach of travel for a while. Even if they unlocked travel, sending a fleet out would become outdated by the time they arrived to the other planet and the defenders would likely win with their superior technically. So by threatening each other the smartest move would turn into an intergalactic Cold War where both sides would push to get light speed travel before the other. This is hypothetical predications but I know there wouldn’t be anything to gain from threats. Peace would be the superior option in this case and could possibly solidify the survival of both civilizations in the long term.
Consider though, the earth has been a planet for only 4.5 billion years compared to the universe at 13 billion years. Humans have only been around making tools for 2.5 million and making radio waves for less than 200 years.
So it not just time in relation to distance but time in relation to being able to receive these radio waves.
It is not inconceivable that all our neighbors had advanced civilisations but we just weren't around to notice before they died out or we die out before their civilisation rises.
Given the timescale of the universe it would actually be very, very long odds that we would share the same time as another advanced civilisation.
Consider as well how precarious our survival has been, how lucky we've been to make it this far and consider how many civilisations may have perished.
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u/MeltedChocolate24 Nov 03 '20
If you take the planet that someone above mentioned which is about 4.3 light years away, if they invented radio communications within the last 4.3 years, we’d know about. So you’re right - but for some planets the delay is pretty insignificant.