nudge

Alpha (2018) Visually stunning prehistoric tale of survival. Has a few flaws, but it's beautiful to watch and the story is entertaining enough. Feels a bit like old adventure movies. Also the wolf/dog is great 7/10

China is planning to build a deep sea base for unmanned submarine science and defence operations in the South China Sea, a centre that might become the first artificial intelligence colony on Earth. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2174738/beijing-plans-ai-atlantis-south-china-sea-without-human-sight

My thoughts exactly. There are over two trillion galaxies in the universe, we've been around only for like 0.00001% of the entire timeline of the universe, and life - as we know it - is made up largely of four most basic elements. Given all that, I think it's highly unlikely (if not straight out impossible) that we're the only living form in all that vast space. I believe that we'll find evidence of life in the solar system (in form of some microorganisms) in my lifetime. As for other intelligent forms of life...it probably depends on how far and how advanced they are, and how advanced our technology becomes with time. Given that the universe is expanding surprisingly fast, the distances will only grow larger and it will only get harder to explore.

I'm going to buy fresh Zwiebelmettwurst tomorrow, so excited just wanted to say it was good knowing you all in case I die of food poisoning afterwards.

Yeah, still around and still announcing the numbers on your hierarchy list no doubt!

Yes it's somehow almost unfathomable haha. One of my favourite things about the Voyager 2 is The Golden Record we've put on it. Imagine if some future form of intelligent life (even better if it's some form of evolved humans) actually comes across it within a billion of years; potentially long after we're (humans as we know it) gone... and they play it, and find all those unfamiliar images, music and sounds from a civilization from distant past that is long gone... Even if the Earth and the whole Solar System is gone. So cool.

A long but interesting read about the night at Le Mans, accompanied by some absolutely breathtaking photos. Can't wait for the next race already... https://www.lemans.org/en/news/le-mans-night-the-spirit-of-endurance-long-read/50573

41 years in space... 11 billion miles from Earth, moving at 54,000km/h... Hard to grasp.

Better and more in-depth look at the Fermi Paradox: Thoughts? What is the probability that extraterrestrial life exists, whether in primitive or intelligent or completely unknown forms, in your opinion? Are we alone in an otherwise empty, lifeless universe? Or haven't we just found it yet?

Huh?

The Japanese are working on their own space missions, but they've been facing lack of funding for a while now I think... Still, despite that they have quite a few interesting things going on. They recently landed two rovers on an asteroid as part of a Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return mission. They have also numerous missions to Mars (rover) and its moons (sample return) planned; and also a whole Japanese Lunar Exploration Program which includes numerous missions to the Moon including a proposed future manned mission with a goal of creating a scientific outpost there.

Just to add, I studied Psychology and Cognitive Science and my final research was on identity haha...

No of course, and the body should be as close to the original one as possible as well, with all its imperfections and all little details. Even if cognitive dissonance wasn't an issue, I'm not particularly interested in overcoming the limitations of a human body so don't care about physical or intellectual upgrades at all... Considering it's already a copy, I'd rather keep it as "real" as possible.

No, I'd just make regular backups of my mind that would serve as system restore points and would only be used after my original body (and brain) dies. Original unaltered data, no edits, no upgrades. I'd like to keep the copy as close to the original as possible and avoid cognitive dissonance...

Hmmm I'd prefer getting my consciousness uploaded into a new body

I don't know, I kind of want to see the Galactic Empire...

Very cool animation of China's Chang'e-4 mission: First trajectory correction was cancelled due to the course being satisfactory; the second one was carried out today. Third one expected tomorrow, and then orbital insertion planned for Wednesday. No official date has been released for the landing attempt, but CASC announced shortly after the launch that the landing will take place in the first days of January 2019.

This is pretty cool...

How do you like it so far?

Nah just started Season 2 but been a bit busy with work and stuff... so two more seasons to go

I might give it a go then once I'm done with The Expanse...

No, I kind of just gave up altogether... Can I still watch it if I haven't watched the ones before it?

Also, Heavy Metal Magazine was ace when it comes to sci-fi stories and artwork... a lot of fantasy there too but more than enough sci-fi as well... we had it sort of smuggled in from the West back then, and I used to hide it from my grandma

I think I mentioned it in some other thread previously, but I never managed to get into Star Trek... I tried hard to enjoy the original series (we had reruns on tv) and The Next Generation, but I just can't. It's very unfortunate, as I love the concept and the ideas they came up with, but just can't stand the execution and campy acting... Talking about classic sci-fi TV shows, Space 1999 was class, so was The Twilight Zone... I also loved Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica. From the newer ones, Missions, Westworld and The Expanse are my favourites. Then plenty of movies; don't even know where to start... Star Wars is still my favourite franchise though (despite I didn't enjoy the last two episodes). I have a huge collection of extended universe (audio)books and it's just brilliant...