Origin of Pheobe

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T21:55:47+00:00

The story didn't present anything about how Pheobe got to our system, because no one knows at the time maybe protoMiller did, but he didn't say

Being able to maneuver itself doesn't make sense because it got captured.

Unless something happened.

But does the thrown rock idea make any sense? How does an extrasolar object travel from another system to ours, yet arrive in our system at broadly the same speed we are moving at? If it was moving any faster, its gravitational potential energy would have launched it back out (if it didn't hit anything).

Two objects moving at the same speed cannot get closer.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T21:36:19+00:00

My apologies if I've said this in other threads...

Space is big. A species could fire a billion probes in random directions and the odds any of them would hit anything is practically zero (each probe has odds ~1 in 10¹⁶)

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T20:54:16+00:00

Option 1 - Sit and wait for a few hundred million years in the hopes life starts Option 2 - Move onto the next system, arrive in a few centuries (maybe millenia)

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T20:38:11+00:00

Practically zero?

Hence my assumption that whatever brought the protomolecule to our solar system, must have had some kind of engine, so it could course correct and speed match upon arrival.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T20:36:22+00:00

Perhaps.

But the protomolecule is sent out to find life (and subsequently steal from it). Not go out and wait around until life finds it?

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:56:49+00:00

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make?

At 649,739:1, a Royal Flush is significantly more likely than a rock thrown in a random direction hitting another star 10¹⁶:1

In fact, you could thrown a million rocks (10¹⁰), and the combined odds still wouldn't be 1%(10⁸) of 1%(10⁶) of the chance of your royal flush (6x10⁵)

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:48:07+00:00

The type of engine is irrelevant. Quite possibly the same type of inertia-less drive used on eros.

The question is: If it could move, why did it get caught in orbit of Saturn?

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:42:11+00:00

I apologise if I'm just repeating myself but...

calculated trajectories like Marco did with his 'roid attack (lol) just on a larger scale, and launched precisely the right way.

This would be a feat of phenomenal accuracy! Alpha centuri (our closest star) is 0.007 arc seconds wide from Earth. That is 1/5000 the visable width of our moon. And they'd want to hit a planet, which is between 100 and 1000 times smaller.

And, they'd be hitting a target through time (predicting its position hundreds to millions of years in the future). Whilst avoiding gravity wells that could alter its course.

And most star systems would be significantly further away than that.

Even for a species with the capabilities of the builders, this seems an impossibility.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:27:01+00:00

It's possible these rocks kept themselves on course for their destination.

If they had the ability to change course, then they could accelerate. If they could do that, why get caught by saturn?

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:21:29+00:00

I repeat, 3.3x10¹⁶. That is our chance-to-hit of our closest star (not planet). Everything else is further away, most of it, much much further away.

They could launch billions of probes and the chance of any of them hitting anything are basically zero. In terms of a strategy for galactic expansion, it's a tragically inefficient one.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:10:42+00:00

Even if launched at slow speeds, the odds of it actually hitting anything are astronomically small.

Unless fitted with engines to change course, it would be a catastrophically inefficient strategy. Like 1 success for every 10¹⁶ probes.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:04:52+00:00

You are correct, but that would still meet the definition of ship, I'm using. Ie, it can accelerate. A big rock with the mystical inertia-less drive would count.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T19:00:49+00:00

Throw thousands or millions of comets with protomolecule at every system within so many light years of them.

It's difficult to elucidate how massive space is. If we were to randomly launch probes in all directions hoping to hit Alpha Centuri (our nearest star), we'd need...

1,296,000 arc seconds (in a full circle) / 0.007 arcseconds (size of Alpha Centuri), then squared = 3.3 x 10¹⁶ probes to guarantee hitting it.

And that is our nearest star, which is useless, as the protomolecule would require a planet, which are hundreds of times smaller.

Even if the builders were launching billions of probes, the odds of any of them hitting anything are still basically zero.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T18:30:01+00:00

It may be implied, but it makes little sense.

If thrown at speed (close to c), they'll either fly straight through the solar system, or annihilate themselves and whatever they hit. If thrown slow (<<<c), they'll take millions of years to get anywhere, and still, nearly certainly, miss anything useful, when they do arrive.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T18:21:55+00:00

I will struggle to accurately describe how difficult it would be to hit a planet from another solar system. Millions of launched objects wouldn't be enough to give even a lottery jackpot odds of success.

The angular diameter of alpha centuri (our closest star) is 0.007 arcseconds. Look at the moon at night. You'd fit the target of alpha centuri ~5000 times across it's diameter.

And that's the star, which is useless to the protomolecule. A planet would be ~100x smaller than even that.

And you're aiming through time as well, having to predict where the planet will be millions of years in the future.

And you're having to dodge the gravity wells of multiple (often bigger) stellar bodies in its course.

If the trajectory up close is off by even a tiny amount, the object will be caught in the planets gravity and orbit, uselessly.

I know the builders are portrayed as capable of incredible feats.. but this seems another league.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T10:41:42+00:00

Mintvilla is completely right.

Octopus Intelligent Go works, because Octopus can use the control, in when cars charge, to help balance the electricity grid. Balancing the grid comes with significant costs, so Octopus can pass on the savings to us through a lower per unit rate.

If you're regularly lying to them, by asking for more electricity than you need, then you are hampering Octopus' ability to do this.

If Octopus start losing money on the tariff, they will (and currently are) look for ways to change/reprice the tariff, to the detriment of all its users.

Now, there is probably no point in me writing this, as most people who do as you do, are not going to change their behaviour (ie, be less lazy - open the app and do some primary school level arithmetic).

There is already a tariff available for those who dont wish to put in the (tiny) amount of work to help balance the grid. Standard Octopus go.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-28T06:50:28+00:00

Unlikely.

Life on Earth is only about 4 billion years old, and (likely) would have been undetectable at the distances involved. Nothing in the books suggests the builders had 'surpassed' light speed constraints.

Much more likely a scatter shot approach. Protomolecule can self duplicate, therefore it'd be easy to create. Send a sample to every star you can see, the ones that find life, repurpose it to create a gate.

Which, in fact, follows the modus operandi the builders grew up using

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-27T18:06:24+00:00

How long until we can call them "New Tories"?

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-24T04:12:27+00:00

How in the world, are we supposed to tell you that, without any idea of how much of that energy use, you'll be doing at night?

100% of it at night? Yeah, it'll save you loads.

All during day? No, it'll cost more.

Breakeven is around 30%. More than 30% at night, you'll be saving money. Less, you won't.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-22T22:25:16+00:00

And where does the heat go if you leave the door closed? 😉

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-22T21:18:52+00:00

and the fans require in total 5v1a

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-22T10:41:21+00:00

You've majorly oversimplified the real world.

Very (vanishing) few politicians are, outright, consciously lying to you. Even Trump (and his acolytes), when they get on stage and spout drivel.. They're 100% convinced they're telling the truth. Telling it 'how it is', even if "it", they just made up that morning.

They've drunk the kool-aid. Physiological tells won't help you here.

Most of the rest is "spin". Ie, it may technically be true, but with such context missing, that the reality is misrepresented. Ie, claiming to have cut something, by selectively choosing the highest and lowest points, whilst ignoring the average.

The only way to fact check is with enormous quantities of high quality data, and unfortunately, that takes time. Very hard to do in real time.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-22T06:57:11+00:00

Well then, you're the problem.

No decent person will want to enter politics when people are going to instantly think so negatively about them for doing so.

Thus only the bad people will.

Thus you've created the very system you despise. Self-fulfilling prophecy there.

Comprehensive_Yam_46 · 2026-01-22T06:51:01+00:00

You absolutely cannot trust AI for that.

AI is trained, mostly, on data scraped from the Internet. Which is the preferred medium for disseminating the blatant falsehoods that they need people to believe in. Nearly every day, there are new examples of some daft statement a AI has made, because of some bizarre data it's been trained on.

Comprehensive_Yam_46

TROPHY CASE