Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post Reply
User avatar
andmar74
Posts: 389
Joined: Mon May 24, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Denmark

Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by andmar74 »

It's fun to speculate and this text shouldn't be taken too seriously.
I'm going to explore the idea of a civilization sending berserkers to Earth to kill off intelligent life.
It's not a new idea but I'm going to mix in some known science and technology, and technology that are possibly soon coming.

Recently I saw (again) the movie "Edge of tomorrow" with Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Here part of the story is that Berserkers came with an asteroid and humanity is loosing the war against them.
Now, we know that interstellar objects regularly passes through our solar system, because we have detected Oumuamua (2017) and Borisov (2019). Borisov seems to be a normal object, comet like, while Oumuamua is nothing like we have seen before. Avi Loeb has speculated that Oumuamua could be made by extraterrestrials.

Last month, a paper was published in Nature where scientists have looked at how many stars close to the sun, could see Earth as a transiting planet, within the past 5000 years and the next 5000 years. We have found many exoplanets with the transit method, so if there are civilizations on any exoplanets nearby, they could equally find Earth that way. The result is that at 1715 stars within 100 pc, civilizations could have found Earth within the last 5000 years.
Furthermore, with the next generation of telescopes soon coming online, we can scan exoplanets for signs of life. So any civilization with a bit more advanced technology than we currently have, could see there's life on Earth. They could possibly detect that some life is intelligent.

A possible solution to Fermi's paradox, is "it's the nature of intelligent life to destroy others". The motivation for sending Berserkers could be that they know where our technology is headed. Soon we have AGI and maybe our technology will be a threat to the Galaxy. Can they do it? We are actually exploring concrete ideas to send small starships to our nearest star system, the "Breakthrough starshot project". Maybe as many as 1000 starships will be launched. Is Oumuamua such a starship that missed Earth? More likely I think, Oumuamua is a scout ( remember I'm just speculating, I'm not saying Oumuamua is sure to be an artificial object). So we have been spotted and Oumuamua has sent the message to the nearest Berserker base.

We need more data about the interstellar objects drifting through our solar system ( we have just found 2 so far). The Vera Rubin observatory will give us the data. Vera Rubin will map small objects in the solar system and it is expected that the number of cataloged objects will increase by a factor 10-100. The observatory should be fully operational by October 2023.
User avatar
funkervogt
Posts: 1171
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 3:03 pm

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by funkervogt »

After inventing the first AI, we'll task it with all kinds of important things. How do we cure human aging? A few weeks later, it creates several new medicines. How do we make a nuclear fusion power plant? Again, it solves the problem.

Eventually, someone would ask, are aliens real? After examining all of the data we've accumulated on UFO sightings and alien abductions, imagine if it said "Yes," and that they've been visiting Earth for many years.
User avatar
andmar74
Posts: 389
Joined: Mon May 24, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by andmar74 »

Eventually, someone would ask, are aliens real? After examining all of the data we've accumulated on UFO sightings and alien abductions, imagine if it said "Yes," and that they've been visiting Earth for many years.
Not sure about how good the data for UFO's are, but there are certainly a lot of astrophysical data collected through the years, and with every new telescope there's a huge increase in the amount of data available. For example, the Vera Rubin observatory will collect something like 20 Terabytes every night. It wouldn't surprise me if a superAI in a few years will find something.
User avatar
andmar74
Posts: 389
Joined: Mon May 24, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by andmar74 »

https://youtu.be/tNCh6iQGbuk
Will the Galileo Project find Extraterrestrial Technology? With Dr. Avi Loeb
User avatar
Yuli Ban
Posts: 4631
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by Yuli Ban »

I dunno, it just seems more likely that if you wanted to destroy intelligent life, you'd send something less corporeal, like a massive cobalt-salted antimatter bomb traveling at relativistic speeds.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
User avatar
andmar74
Posts: 389
Joined: Mon May 24, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by andmar74 »

I dunno, it just seems more likely that if you wanted to destroy intelligent life, you'd send something less corporeal, like a massive cobalt-salted antimatter bomb traveling at relativistic speeds.
I'm assuming the aliens don't have access to some highly advanced technology. If it's true that AGI from us is a threat to civilizations in our Galaxy, they are late as AGI seems imminent. One might wonder how advanced berserkers have to be to win a war against us.
User avatar
Yuli Ban
Posts: 4631
Joined: Sun May 16, 2021 4:44 pm

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by Yuli Ban »

Even if they're low-tech somehow, I'd still go for a biological victory.

Don't get me wrong, a berserker warrior force makes for an interesting story. I just don't see it as a good measure of destroying an alien race.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
User avatar
andmar74
Posts: 389
Joined: Mon May 24, 2021 9:10 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Berserkers a threat to life on Earth?

Post by andmar74 »

The Event Horizon talks to the two scientists who made the paper I mentioned above, about how many star systems could see Earth transit our Sun.

https://youtu.be/W5CV6exdqcg

Are We Being Watched? With Dr. Lisa Kaltenegger and Dr. Jackie Faherty

00:00:00 Intro
00:00:39 Bio
00:02:15 Who can see us transiting?
0:06:16 Gaia Mission
00:09:25 Average timespan that an Exoplanet can see Earth
00:12:50 Earth has broadcast a biosignature for billions of years
00:20:44 We Produce Radio Signals
00:25:21 TESS NASA Mission
00:30:50 How would Alien scientists study Earth?
00:37:28 Somewhere in the Galaxy Earth is in a textbook
00:41:00 Unambiguous SETI signals
00:50:45 How many worlds will be able to watch us?
Post Reply