First of all, the Earth has been around for a very very long time. Even slowly expanding aliens should have hit us by now.
Yes, this explains it only if we are in the very small window between the yellow and red fronts.
We would never see it coming. [...] Or have them just do the minimal amount of destruction necessary so they aren’t visible from space.
Us seeing it coming is not the problem; it’s the next civilization along not seeing our destruction that’s important. And it’s not clear at all that you can easily do “the minimal amount of destruction necessary”, especially since we have nuclear weapons that are likely visible if fired en mass. More to the point “just shoot them all, it’s cheap” is true if you don’t care about being observed (you can Dyson suns for the energy, and have visible shielding mechanisms for probes that shoot through the very dusty interstellar—not intergalactic—space). I’m not yet convinced that it’s easy or cheap to do it a c-comparable speeds and discreetly.
we have nuclear weapons that are likely visible if fired en mass.
Would we be able to detect nuclear weapons detonated light years away? We have trouble detecting detonations on our own planet! And even if we did observe them, how would we recognize it as an alien invasion vs local conflict, or god knows what else.
The time slice between us being able to observe the stars, and post singularity, is incredibly tiny. It’s very unlikely two different worlds will overlap so that one world is able to see the other destroyed and rush a singularity. I’m not even sure if we would rush a singularity if we observed aliens, or if it would make any difference.
Yes, this explains it only if we are in the very small window between the yellow and red fronts.
Us seeing it coming is not the problem; it’s the next civilization along not seeing our destruction that’s important. And it’s not clear at all that you can easily do “the minimal amount of destruction necessary”, especially since we have nuclear weapons that are likely visible if fired en mass. More to the point “just shoot them all, it’s cheap” is true if you don’t care about being observed (you can Dyson suns for the energy, and have visible shielding mechanisms for probes that shoot through the very dusty interstellar—not intergalactic—space). I’m not yet convinced that it’s easy or cheap to do it a c-comparable speeds and discreetly.
Would we be able to detect nuclear weapons detonated light years away? We have trouble detecting detonations on our own planet! And even if we did observe them, how would we recognize it as an alien invasion vs local conflict, or god knows what else.
The time slice between us being able to observe the stars, and post singularity, is incredibly tiny. It’s very unlikely two different worlds will overlap so that one world is able to see the other destroyed and rush a singularity. I’m not even sure if we would rush a singularity if we observed aliens, or if it would make any difference.