> Hey, I have a quickee Astrophysics question which I don't know the current answer to. If I pick any direction in the universe and keep traveling in a straight line will I come back to where I started? Assuming my speed is not a limiting factor..

I am really not an astrophysics or even a physics! I am just faking it. Thus I am the wrong person to consult with such astrophysics questions. :) I am turning into a metaphysicist, which is much easier because of my Chinese background. So in that regard, my answer would be, yes, you will get back to where you start. From my own metaphysical findings, all things are in some sort of cycles, so one always gets back to where one starts, but every time not exactly the same, always a little different. I think somehow there's a physical explanation to this....

> Is the SETI a waste of time because they are looking for the wrong types of patterns in signals from deep-space, or they are not looking in the right place/wrong frequency?

I think (not as a scientist, but as myself) that the types of patterns in signals and place/frequency they choose to look for in the deep-space is scientifically reasonable, so it's possible for them to discover something, but highly unlikely, at least for now. Also, astrophysicsts or scientists don't necessarily have any privilege in this type of discoveries--why should they? But as true as any other endeavors, if we don't try, we will never get anything, anywhere.

> What about the question of what does it mean to be or have intelligence? I hope that is a question that we deserve the answer to, because I am very interested in that one..

Of course we should try to answer this question about what intelligence really is/means. But I think this question is very open-ended. I don't know whose answer to this question is definitive, but I am sure different people have different answers. I think in a way (philosophically? sorry again), "intelligence" is a human defined value, and like most values (such as "smart", "good", "useful"), it's quite subjective. Seriously, I think "intelligence" means the ability to learn, to evaluate and cope in order to get where it sets out to go. But first of all one must know how to clearly define where one wants to go or achieve, and then the ability to get there is an indicator of one's intelligence, although one doesn't necessarily get there to be intelligent (just the ability).

You are in the artificial intelligence business, so you must have a lot of very interesting thoughts on this. Definitely a very interesting question to explore!

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