Are aliens FTL humans?

EnumaElish · May 15, 2016

What do you think of the following scenario*? Aliens are future humans who discovered faster than light travel. They propagated throughout the universe. In so doing they travelled back in time, to our time, or even earlier times.

*I read this in a popular space opera novel. It may have been Charles Stross or Alastair Reynolds. But I am not certain.

Simon Bridge · May 15, 2016

It's a popular trope.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-szarek/are-ancient-aliens-really_b_4380799.html

FTL implies causality violations ... most authors just ignore it, or they want to use the grandfather paradox for plot purposes.

EnumaElish · May 15, 2016

Thanks for the news article. Here's another thought - also thunk by someone else first. If aliens are future humans who flew back in time to teach us about pyramids so we can advance and eventually become them, travel back, and teach our ancestors ... and round and round ... *where* did the idea for pyramids come from in the *first* place?

Drakkith · May 15, 2016

Welcome to the world of temporal paradoxes... keep a watch handy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causal_loop

newjerseyrunner · May 16, 2016

Any and all discussions about timelines that interact with themselves makes me think of this.

EnumaElish · May 16, 2016

All grammar is relative?

Noisy Rhysling · May 17, 2016

EnumaElish said: ↑

All grammar is relative?

Relativistic.

Dr Wu · Jun 30, 2016

Perhaps this explains why a certain high-up member of the conspiracy establishment has a thing about reptilian shape-shifters (who secretly rule the world). Perhaps they're just humanoid speculators from the future, hoping to make a killing on the stock market?

Noisy Rhysling · Jun 30, 2016

Dr Wu said: ↑

Perhaps this explains why a certain high-up member of the conspiracy establishment has a thing about reptilian shape-shifters (who secretly rule the world). Perhaps they're just humanoid speculators from the future, hoping to make a killing on the stock market?

Changes in the money flow would have a butterfly effect and eliminate the supposed beneficiaries of such changes.

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Are aliens FTL humans?

EnumaElish

Simon Bridge

EnumaElish

Drakkith

Staff: Mentor

newjerseyrunner

EnumaElish

Noisy Rhysling

Dr Wu

Noisy Rhysling

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