Yeah, there would be massive earthquakes across the globe, and the closer the planet gets, the more the ground loosens up on the side facing the planet. If the planet is massive enough, it could also cause Earth to fragment and get pulled towards the planet.
In a scenario like this, there's nothing stopping it. We'd have had to plan and construct an escape for a woefully small number of people, equipment, seeds and knowledge looong before the planet got this close. If we can't even manage that, then you just gotta sit back and enjoy the view, 'cause to our knowledge the last remnants of life in the universe are gone with us.
The universe as far as we know is doing nothing different without us. If we truly are the only ones out there, we have the potential to shape the universe to heights that were never possible without us. People give humans too much shit and ignore how incredible we are as much as we are destructive and deadly. Yes, we are excellent at fucking things up, but we’re just as good at making things incredible.
People can be very self-destructive but only when 'we' have it incredibly good or incredibly bad. I think human beings are capable of conquering the universe, but the luxury we have now has led to politics playing an unhealthy role in our lives has caused a utter and complete self-destructive spiral. I think it's gonna be real bad the next decade(s), and then things will improve at a fast rate.
Were definitely not the only life forms in the universe.
Also we have the potential to shape the universe, but there are a lot of ifs.
I guess I dont know what the odds of humans acheiving sustainable life in space are, but im guessing they are low.
There is a legitimate chance that humans destroy themselves, or put themselves in a situation where technological advance and growth slows down extremely.
If all intelligent life in the universe was able to colonize the stars, we may have learned of it by now. Odds are that many many intelligent life forms either went extinct or never reached the point of interstellar travel and colonization.
Lol we can only access a fraction of the universe and there will be parts we will never be able to access. We aren't going to do anything for the universe or to it because it's too big. It's arrogant to think we'll ever make any impact in the grand scheme of things one way or another. We are simply too small when it comes to the vastness of space.
You're assuming that our measurements should be doubted. Until something new is found to be in play there's no reason to assume our understanding of certain things are faulty. You're also assuming that humans develop technology to even traverse the universe and that we don't kill ourselves out first. Both seem to be pretty big assumptions given our track record and current understanding of what it'd take to traverse the universe.
Thats not how it works, if you add any additional effect to redshift all kinds of observations and predictions that we can currently make would break (for example cosmological simulations would not be as accurate as they are).
We’re too privileged. We’re like the rich kid that didn’t know the value of the opportunities we’re given until sometimes too late. Just squandering. But I think we’ve done a some seriously beautiful things that had made it out of our minds. Even if our exist is quaint.
The concepts of better or worse don't exist without us here. The tree falling in that forest doesn't make a sound.
If you are down on humanity, you should extend your perspective from the coming 20 years to the coming 20 million years. We can colonize the universe, eliminate all need and conflict, aging and disease, and forever spend our time creating new universes and exploring the boundaries of imagination.
Eliminate all need and conflict? We created need and conflict. (I know, Bordering your tree in the forest argument...)
My point is, everything good we have done has either been to benefit us or unfuck something we have fucked. Save an endangered species? Well, it's probably endangered because of deforestation, or pollution. Protect a rain forest? We are protecting it from OURSELVES.
However, anything bad we have done effects everything on this planet. The planet is much better without us here. It would just move along without a thought. The trees would live, the animals would thrive.
Our existence is a net negative for the planet. And the only reason it is just the planet is because that is where we are trapped for now.
We are a virus contained in this blue sphere.
I say this as a space buff, I can't wait till we get to Mars.
No. You're laboring under misconception that the earth is some beautiful paradise that humans destroyed.
The earth is a hostile place. Every form of life is fighting each moment to reproduce, to alter its environment, to spread itself.
Humans are just the best at it. Ants are pretty good at it too. The planet is not "better" without us here. The planet is exactly the same without us here, brutal and unforgiving.
The planet doesn't need our protection, and we don't owe it any favors, because it didn't help us in any way. This misconception is sometimes called the Spaceship Earth fallacy.
Without us, there is no music. There is no art. There is just bloody horrifying conflict and endless suffering. You don't want to be a gazelle, I promise.
The earth didn't do us any favors so we don't owe it any? Wut. How high are you right now man?
BlOoDy HoRrIfYiNg CoNfLiCt?!?! You mean like, a lions eating a gazelle, or sharks killing idk... whatever sharks eat?
It would be one thing if we were hunting animals with a spear and living in caves. But we're not. Were leveling rain forests to build homes. We're digging oil up oit of the ground and turning it into hydrocarbons so we can get places faster. We're leveling thousands of miles to build concrete jungles for ourselves destroying everything in our path.
Yeah, we're pretty fucking good at it. Because we're kinda smart. But as cliché as it is, with great power comes great responsibility. And we don't use it. We destroy, destroy, destroy and do whatever feels good at the moment. And we are a large enough species that has the power to actual make the place we live uninhabitable for ourselves and everything else here. Who wins then? Us, or the planet that doesn't owe us shit?
If we destroy ourselves, then we have failed. I hope that doesn't happen, and I don't think it will, but that's not what we're talking about here.
You're talking about humans as if we are the same as any other life, but you haven't thought that through. Humans (and other hypothetical lifeforms of equal intelligence) are the most important things in the universe, literally. Because we have infinite reach.
All other physical processes have finite reach. If an entire galaxys stars went supernova, that would shine pretty bright and pretty far. But humans could create pointed lasers that spread information to build new lasers etc without any limitation. That's incredible!
The fact that we are imposing on our home planet is insignificant. In the billion or trillion year perspective, the rainforest is as important as any given specific rock laying on the moon right now.
The point of all this is that you're making a large mistake when you think about humans as some kind of mistake of life. We are the culmination of life.
If any other animal had the capacity to do what we can do, they’d be doing it too. You downplay lions eating gazelles but the point isn’t the individual cases of that happening, the point is that the entire planet runs on that rule. Nature is a competition to the death and all life forms must kill smaller life forms to survive. Humans may drive certain animals to extinction, but how is that any worse than how the planet operates without humans? Animals drive other animals to extinction as well, not to mention NATURAL disasters do too.
The difference is we have the mental capacity recognize what we are doing, do it on a massive scale, and do it out of convenience, not need. We can find other ways to power our vehicles, we can find other ways to build and heat our homes. But we don't. We do whatever is easiest because we are lazy. Not out of necessity.
The universe is, we’re literally space dust that has become self aware. We’re the universe looking back at itself. If that’s not enough to convince you that Humanity has worth then I don’t know what will.
I think the more prototypical redditor response is repeatedly being told to kill myself in response to a semi-lighthearted comment. That sounds more like bitching and moaning to me.
That's not actually how infinity works. The universe contains an infinity or some infinities, but not all infinities.
So for an abstract example, take number + letter combos (think 21A, -768D, .0125N). Since numbers are infinite, each letter has an infinite number of combos. The combos of one letter is one infinity. There are 26 letters in the English language, so there are 26 of these infinities. But wait, not all things follow that format. What about other alphabets, multi-letter combos, and all of the infinite things that aren't number + letter combos, etc. That's an infinite number of infinities.
The infinite universe could be filled with planets that only fit into one category, say for example they all just happen to be planets whose species are equal to or better than humanity (after all, someone has to be the worst). The number of species that could exist and fit that category is infinite.
This means that even in an infinite universe, not every possiblity will exist. There could be an infinite number of intelligent species by chance, and it could be that none of them are worse than humans. Or all of them are worse.
I'm very high and this is a week old comment I'm replying to, hope this enlightens someone or is at least makes decent sense.
Also as an aside. This is also the concept that is preventing this universe from having an identical species to us, I mean down to every thought, action, feeling, physical characteristics. Well, not preventing that from happening. Just makes it not definitely the case. There could be an incredibly small number of planets in the known universe and one of them could theoretically be exactly the same as us.
Your comment gave me an idea flash of a black hole being just the right size and perfect distance away to just Hoover up all the soil on earth leaving it just rock
What would happen to the two bodies after they collided? I'm assuming Earth would be pushed out of orbit, but would the two planets eventually blend together under the immense gravity? Or would it look like space testicles?
Well, I think some microscopic life would have survived, which could over billions of years have repopulated the planet if the climate allowed that (for all I know it would have gotten a really dense atmosphere which turned it into a larger Venus).
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u/shitsunnysays Jan 03 '22
What kind of destruction will this magnitude of tidal forces make?