Someone - I forget who - made the observation that either: (a) we're alone in the Universe; or (b) we're not; and that (c) either is staggering.https://twitter.com/hrheingold/status/1171920444435288064 …
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As with many excluded middles though it's a surprisingly dodgy binary. What does "alone" mean in a relativistic universe?
Make it "in our backward lightcone", and it's just as remarkable a dichotomy, and a lot more precise. Another approach would be to use a natural spacetime foliation to define "alone", but I like the simplicity of the backward lightcone...
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Yeah, backwards lightcone is pretty good. In particular we* are in the backwards lightcone of any sentient species in the milky way that is in our backwards lightcone. * for values of "we" that may be preverbal homo sapiens ancestors
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This type of clarification is, BTW, one of the things that make Twitter both fun and stimulating. Thanks! (There's some nebulous line between "pedantic correction", which T also brings, & "stimulating clarification". Fun thinking about what puts something in the latter category)
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