[magnetaress]

Originally Posted by Lune [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Space only expands that fast outside gravity wells, ie only outside galaxiy clusters and filaments. If a single intelligent species made it to the stars in either our galaxy or Andromeda only 100 million years ago (nothing in cosmic timescales), they could have a von nuemann probe around every star in the galaxy by now (assuming well under sublight speed, even.) Nevermind 1 billion years, 2 billion years and potentially tech we can't even conceive of.

Not saying it's likely but it is absolutely possible that the universe is teeming with life and life's junk. But in that universe, are we interesting enough? Probably not.

Always thought the expansion was more of a gradient. So the further out the faster it's going. At that distance it's not really ripping anything apart it's all just moving away faster than we can reach it. This doesn't imply acceleration. Like it's not faster just cuz it's farther. Just that the far stuff is just too fast to catch upto within a single light year. Close stuff isn't even necessarily running away from us. In our species potential life time it's likely we'll be in proximity to another star aswell. I forget which. It's all googleable. Questions like those are fun stuff.