"... if given some time in between to do so."

I swear, I heard Zane, loud and clear, saying "Release the Fragen!!" :-D

No Regrets.

I think they mean the Alliance will pay Earth for the resources. Even if they can all agree on a value estimate, distributing the payment will be insanely complicated and contested. Good luck, Alliance!

That's why they're going to have a Headquarters, to administer the claims and ensure fair compensation.

(And to sign autographs and pose for pictures.)

EDIT: I posted doubting ChatGPT's estimate here, but apparently I was wrong. We don't know exactly how many stars there are beyond about 20ly out because red dwarfs are dim and hard to see, but extrapolating from the density of known stars within 20ly, an estimate of over 10k is actually reasonable. Huh, TMYK.

yeah, don't use chatGPT for stuff like this, it isn't a search engine nor does it do calculations.. it's just a text generator that produces statistically probable textual outputs based on the training data (mostly stolen websites and social media logs in the case of chatgpt), regardless of actual content. it just knows the question is one that a number will answer, and then outputs a random number to be that answer.

a quick search using a real search engine and limiting things to physics and astornomy sites, i find the lower end answer is about 5800 stars, and probably more given we're bad at finding red dwarfs.

and given how few exosolar planets we've found so far, we can't actually say how many might have planets. odds are many would but the 80-95% figure is chatGPT pulling random numbers out of its ass.

Earlier versions didn't do calculations, but current ones do! LLM capabilities advance quickly and they're more capable than you might think. For quick-and-dirty, low-stakes estimates like this one, ChatGPT is the right tool for the job.

Here's how the estimate was calculated, if you want to check the math: https://chatgpt.com/share/6818ae36-d884-800b-bfd3-ccf7c8544b59

My biggest concern is what humanity stands to lose to the aliens.

Humanity can't do a thing to police all that space, and seeing as it's their territory, there's no legal way that another species could police it for them.

Meaning that anyone could swoop in, take whatever they want from human space, and suffer no consequences.

Humanity is going to be ruling a strip mined husk by the time they can reliably traverse space.

Why would they? Look at where the Alliance is on the map, and look at where the humans are. And look at the size of the Alliance. It currently explored less than 1% of the stars that are already nominally in its territory. Space is big.

It's less about upholding, "space is big" indeed, so it's more like a failsafe against blocking the expansion of the newcomer with various "we had plans for that star for 200 years already, get lost"

Here's a line of questioning Zane might not be ready to answer.

"How long have you been watching us?"

"If you didn't know we existed until you showed up, why are you here?"

"If you didn't know we existed until you showed up, that means you've only just started exploring around here. How do you know the 120 light-years around us aren't also inhabited?"

"If there is another civilization within 120 light-years, what happens when the Alliance discovers them and tells them that their planet belongs to us?"

To be fair, if there were a sophont species near our level within 120 ly of Earth, we would very likely already know, thanks to radio signals and our SETI programs.

The more interesting situation would be a potential precursor for such a civilization. How close to a space age would they need to be to be recognized as having rights (of not being messed with) per Alliance legalese that conflict with ours?

I suppose that if either kind of "competitor" is found, the Alliance would expect us to participate in an arbitration process per their rules to find an answer to the arising questions.

Based on what I see in the wiki site that accompanies this comic, human technology is somewhere around 700 years behind the Raharr, if you assume a similar pace of development. But on Earth, radio communication has only existed for about 125 years. So any civilization more than 65 light-years from here could not have had time to notice our radio noise and send a reply that we'd have received, unless they have a means of FTL communication. Remember that, in Contact, human civilization didn't start broadcasting signals strong enough to pass into outer space until the 1930s.

And I'm not even going to go down the timey-wimey rabbit hole of what "simultaneous" means when you have FTL travel.

I think the Sashli means a 120 LY radius sphere centered on Sol, so a 240 LY diameter sphere total, or roughly 500 stars (Wolfram Alpha)

Although who knows whose years they mean in "light-years".

I'd go for Bir Tawil, between Sudan & Egypt.

If the only qualifier is "neutral" ... it doesn't get more "neutral" than here. (Bonus if you use your antigravs and stay above the Kármán line above it.)

That's similar to how I was thinking. The only unclaimed landmass in the world is Antarctica, but the reason it's unclaimed is that it's so inhospitable. My next thought was to build an artificial island in international waters somewhere in the middle of an ocean. I doubt anyone wants to build a house where space debris might fall on their heads, but maybe the Alliance could solve that problem as part of their construction project.

I would think that the only neutral space on earth would be the UN, as that is what it was created for, as well as giving easy access to all the ambassadors within the local area , as well as the easy travel from NY to the rest of the world. As to the local star systems , they don't have to give us light drive , just ask for transport to each system or at least the computer files on them.