It doesn’t HAVE to be that intelligent life is its own doom, but it does seem increasingly likely.

101

In his essay “To Tell a Chemist” (1965), Asimov proposed a simple shibboleth for distinguishing chemists from non-chemists: ask the person to read the word “unionized”. Chemists, he noted, will read un-ionized (electrically neutral), while non-chemists will read union-ized (belonging to a trade union).

Breakthrough Starshot project is working towards accelerating a probe close to 20% of C. That’s a significant fraction of C in these terms.

Even if we could get to .25 C, that would be 80 years for the probe to get there, and then 20 more for the data to come back.

But yes, that is still VERY close.

Isaac Asimov is considered one of the greats of 20th century science fiction. Again, while most famous for writing science fiction he wrote much more than just that.

Isaac Asimov has won scores of Hugo Awards for stories and for Best Editor; dozens of Nebula Awards; several World Fantasy Awards; over a dozen Theodore Sturgeon Awards and Homer Awards; and multiple Sidewise Awards1. He has won Hugo Awards for Best Related Work, Best Novelette, and Best Editor.

He wrote 40 novels and a lot of short stories, and is a great read almost always. He also wrote textbooks because he was just amazing.

Correct!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrharctia_isabella

Nah, that’s more related to the episode named ‘Lower Decks’ I think.

Interesting read. Thank you.

Wife and I watched through it for the first time last month.

We watched it for the second time last month as well.

Actually, we started our third watch last night.

Yep. I found it fascinating. I think the version I had probably had a forward from Asimov talking about how we were wrong about guesses about Venus.

I don’t remember much else from the story except this, and the big reveal of the whodunnit. (Or more accurately the how).

There was a young adult sci fi series by Asimov called ‘Lucky Starr’ and I remember Venus was Oceanic in that one. Old old series.

Oh good. I was worried they were defenseless.

Did some checking, out of curiosity.

And yeah. Interesting as hell.

We recorded 65 dBSPL (dB of sound pressure level) ultrasonic sounds 4 inches (10 cm) from tomato and tobacco plants, implying that these sounds could be detected by some organisms from up to several feet (meters) away.

https://www.sci.news/biology/plants-ultrasonic-clicks-07895.html

Did some searching. The paper from 2019 that discussed this -

We recorded 65 dBSPL (dB of sound pressure level) ultrasonic sounds 4 inches (10 cm) from tomato and tobacco plants, implying that these sounds could be detected by some organisms from up to several feet (meters) away.

https://www.sci.news/biology/plants-ultrasonic-clicks-07895.html

Same. Would like answers.

Saying ‘nu-uh… you are…’ is right up his alley.

Lol

#hashtag-ohno-dot-gif!

I’m also one of today’s 10,000!

P! = NP sounds like a fun find.