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Originally Posted by Martian
In other words, our aliens need an energy source far more efficient than anything we can dream up, a propulsion system beyond anything we can imagine, some way of dealing with relativistic effects during the trip and some way to survive the very long amount of time it would take (remember, even a trip from our closest neighbour at 1% the speed of light would take over 40 years). They'll also need some form of construction beyond our grasp, in order to build a vehicle capable of withstanding the stresses involved in such a journey. them's some pretty advanced little green men.
I don't buy the whole advanced technology explanation; I reckon that it's an argument you can only stretch so far before it becomes an almost theistic balm. We attribute these aliens with God-like powers, only instead of describing them as divine in nature we describe them as technological. The problem is, the aliens have to obey the same rules we do and the rules as we understand them now say that it's impossible for them to go faster than light and highly unlikely that they can even get close to light speed. This is one of the many problems I have with the UFO conspiracists.
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Actually, theoretical physics has addressed FTL travel before. When you express gravity as the presence of a curvature in space-time, you can alter the properties of that local space-time as you alter the local gravity. This requires a strong nuclear force, which is one of two gravitational forces. The SNF holds an atom together, while the "weak" nuclear force is what we experience at a macro level. The WNF is what keeps your feet firmly planted on the floor.
So. As you go up the periodic table, you encounter heaver and heavier elements. As you get to the ones at the top, you encounter atoms that, while unstable and not naturally occurring on Earth, have an SNF that actually extends beyond the range of their orbiting electrons. Theoretically, this allows you to interact with that force and amplify the SNF just like any other electromagentic source of energy, like a radio or TV signal.
And since the SNF is strong enough to bind atoms together, it exhibits some exotic properties when amplified. You can, theoretically, bring two points of space-time to a single point. You can also flip the force off and on like a switch.
This is all admittedly fringey stuff, but the research is there. What I can tell you is that relativistic speeds give cosmic dust the penetrative properties of high-speed torpedoes. So if anyone is visiting from another star system, they're certainly not getting here through linear means.
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Only, if they're really aliens, they shouldn't be men at all; anyone with a basic grasp of the theory of evolution should be able to deduce that creatures evolving on another planet under different evolutionary pressures aren't terribly likely to end up with a morphology even close to our own.
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But if intelligent life is abundant, the chances of similar morphology increase. In fact, it's reasonable to deduce that the intelligent creatures with morphology close to our own would be the ones most interested in dropping by for a visit. To scout for resources and habitation, if nothing else. And they can judge this at interstellar distances, just by measuring the emitted spectra of the sun.