• CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
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      18 hours ago

      Tbf, while the comic implies modern day humans it doesn’t outright state it, so it could technically also be future humans visiting aliens that don’t yet have either technology, so long as those future humans still have war.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      14 hours ago

      Considering that its most likely impossible for any species outside of our detection range to ever reach us, aliens making contact with us would have to require magic. So there is no reason for them to be technologically advanced beyond what their magic is capable of.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        13 hours ago

        its most likely impossible for any species outside of our detection range to ever reach us

        How so? They could be longer lived, have greater resilience against the rigors of being in space for a long time AND have superior space faring technology!

        Hell, wormholes could theoretically exist, making the whole thing a completely different proposition!

        • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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          13 hours ago

          We can be sure that there isnt any close to us because we have observed that part of space pretty well. And if they are further away than that distance, then humanity might not exist anymore by the time they arrive even if they traveled at the speed of light.

          • ඞmir@lemmy.ml
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            11 hours ago

            Maybe they ARE travelling at the speed of light and will arrive here in the coming centuries. A lot in physics has seemed impossible until it was done. We already have multiple theories for how we can use spacetime bending to move around lightspeed

            • RamenJunkie@midwest.social
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              7 hours ago

              I think also that in order to reach us now, at the speed of light, they wouldnhave had to have left so long ago, they would never have know we were the target to hit, because we wouldn’t habe existed.

    • heliotrope@retrofed.com
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      19 hours ago

      You never know. Societies both real and ficticious can often get along just fine with some seemingly obvious gaps in their knowledge.

      Many cultures have no concept of zero, and many have no concept of left and right (direction is absolute, so north, east, south, west, etc.).

      As for fiction, take Steven Universe. The Diamond Authority managed to exist for millennia and conquer numerous planets without ever inventing the wheel, instead using flight, teleportation (via warp pads), and palanquins (which have legs).

      • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        18 hours ago

        i dont think its possible for a civilization capable of interstellar travel to avoid developing some concept of a camera. theyre pretty much required for the kind of science it takes to get to that point. even if theyre all completely blind, they would still create cameras because theres so much information in the electromagnetic spectrum they couldnt afford to ignore, they would just be interpreted differently. think about it, how would you develop an orbital launch vehicle without the ability to capture and store images? how would you learn enough about stars or space to even conceive of leaving your home planet?

        • Programmer Belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          13 hours ago

          Knowing what a camera is doesn’t imply that they can recognize our cameras. The alien could be surprised that even after developing that technology we still have wars over made up borders.

      • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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        19 hours ago

        Cultures that use absolute direction are better at navigating and their people always know which way is North. The fact that so many white people don’t know which way they’re facing is, I think, the obvious gap in cultural knowledge.

        Another big gap in western cultural technology is that most white people don’t practice any perception-altering mental techniques. Most of them don’t see a use for such techniques. But the lack of personal control over perception is a big reason for transphobia. When most white people see a “non-passing” trans person, they get upset about the social expectation to perceive a personal truth that they cannot perceive. Instead of just, using a mental technique to edit their perception of gender. White people have a learned helplessness with regards to their perceptions, and it leads to a lot of social conflict.

        A big example in the news a couple years ago was when JK Rowling erroneously perceived Algerian boxing champion Imane Khelif as a man. Instead of just changing her perceptions, Rowling started a cyberbullying feud and got sued into shutting up. And Imane is cisgender! White people can be very entitled about changing the world to fit their perceptions, because they don’t know how to change their perceptions to improve the world.

          • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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            13 hours ago

            I come from a white family, and I enjoy the benefits of white privilege thanks to pale skin. I identify as white in terms of issues of racism and ancestry. But I have left white culture behind. After all, whiteness was invented by slave traders in the 1500s to justify slavery. In Europe, people identified with ethnic groups such as their nationality or religion. In Europe, there are massive racial tensions between Bulgarians, Serbs, Hungarians, Romani, Turks… But in the new world, all of the peoples of Europe (Except for arbitrary groups like Irish and Jewish) could unite as the singular WHITE RACE, defined in opposition to the black slaves and the native Americans. It was a fiction, dozens of different ethnicities ganging up together to beat the shit out of the new victims. Whiteness is inherently colonial, because whiteness was invented to justify colonisation.

            I grew up in Australia, being taught to identify with the white colonial oppressor culture. But it didn’t work, I do not see Myself in the criminals who stole this continent for their king and queen. I have done what I can to decolonise My mind, and I continue to do so. It’s a process that will never end until all the world has said no to whiteness. Are you brave enough to leave whiteness behind? You have some great choices in front of you. You could rediscover the culture your ancestors had before whiteness was invented. Maybe you’re English, or German, or Dutch. Or you could help make something entirely new, while remembering and attempting to reconcile the past. Whiteness does not have to be your heart.

            • applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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              13 hours ago

              cool story. doesn’t change the fact that you used “white people” in a way that implies you think all white people are like that, which is bigoted. feel free to double down though im sure that will convince me.

              • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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                12 hours ago

                so many white people

                most white people

                Most of them

                When most white people

                White people can be very

                I think maybe your white fragility is having a negative impact on your literacy.

                  • Grail@multiverse.soulism.net
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                    10 hours ago

                    White and black aren’t the same. Just like cis and trans aren’t the same, and straight and gay aren’t the same. There’s a difference between punching up and punching down. There’s also a difference between insulting a group you aren’t part of, and criticising a culture you were born into. I think I have the right to criticise the environment I was raised in. And so do the people who have lived their lives being oppressed by that culture.