He is trying to word a message that can be understood by people who don’t know enough about science to understand how much energy it takes to move a tiny bit matter to lightspeed, or that we still don’t have a theory for faster than lightspeed travel that doesn’t break the known properties of the universe.
Ant-like species seem unlikely to develop meaningful interstellar travel. To advance to the level of research and resource processing likely required to reach Earth, or even just communicate with other species seems like it would’ve developed commerce at some point, even if it’s a utopian collectivist society, they need some sort of resource allocation methodology and would need to agree to focus finite resources on free developing the kind of tech necessary for interstellar travel.
I mean yeah, interstellar bugs might be a thing but contact with them would be far less exciting than contact with a truly intelligent spacefaring race.
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In this context “money” is shorthand for resources. He’s not talking about literal coins and banknotes.
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He is trying to word a message that can be understood by people who don’t know enough about science to understand how much energy it takes to move a tiny bit matter to lightspeed, or that we still don’t have a theory for faster than lightspeed travel that doesn’t break the known properties of the universe.
He wasn’t speaking literally about money.
Ant-like species seem unlikely to develop meaningful interstellar travel. To advance to the level of research and resource processing likely required to reach Earth, or even just communicate with other species seems like it would’ve developed commerce at some point, even if it’s a utopian collectivist society, they need some sort of resource allocation methodology and would need to agree to focus finite resources on free developing the kind of tech necessary for interstellar travel.
I mean yeah, interstellar bugs might be a thing but contact with them would be far less exciting than contact with a truly intelligent spacefaring race.
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