It occurred to me while reading about UFO whistleblower news. Why do the majority of UFO things occur in the United States rather than Russia, China, and other countries?

Edit: Thank you all for answers, they’re really helpful.

  • cynar@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Interestingly, there’s a strong argument that we are one of the first, at least locally.

    Firstly, an infinite amount of time hasn’t passed. Time actually started at the big bang (Asking what was before is akin to asking what is north of the north pole).

    The big bang also didn’t create any heavy elements, these required stars to produce. The first generation of stars could not have supported life. Later generations of star each have more heavy elements available. These allow for the formation of rocky planets. Our sun is in the earlier phase of this.

    This leaves 2 questions. How long for life to evolve (all the way to technological intelligence)? And how easy is interstellar travel?

    Life on earth seemed to pop up almost as soon as it could. That could be normal, or it could be us winning the lottery on the first play. As for evolution speed, we have no clue for comparison.

    The 2nd is the critical one. As it stands, interstellar travel seems limited to the speed of light. This, and the cast energy requirements make interstellar travel and colonisation difficult. If a local species developed this ability, it is quite likely they reached us before now, and colonisated earth. The fact we can trace our evolution shows this likely didn’t happen. The chances of such a species turning up in the window of time we are in, is almost zero. The fact we exist, without alien overseers is evidence we have won the race, at least locally.