
The brightest stars in the most distant visible galaxies are probably* dead** by now***, but the chances of you picking one of them at random over all the brighter nearby objects seem low. Visible nearby stars are likely to have billions of years left on the clock.
*Assuming the galaxy is light years further away than the total lifespan of the supergiant (which formed late enough for us to still observe it today).
**Dead via supernova and/or collapsing into a black hole, the former being quite a bright event that lingers for thousands/millions of years, the latter potentially brighter still if it has a lot of stuff to feed on.
***The speed of light is the speed of causality. Nothing that occurred in a distant galaxy thousands of light years away can affect us until their changes in information, mass and energy actually reaches us, so their past IS our present and our past IS their present.
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big bag of bollocks.
The most common stars, invisible to the naked eye, will last for thousands of billions of years.
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 17:02,
archived)
*Assuming the galaxy is light years further away than the total lifespan of the supergiant (which formed late enough for us to still observe it today).
**Dead via supernova and/or collapsing into a black hole, the former being quite a bright event that lingers for thousands/millions of years, the latter potentially brighter still if it has a lot of stuff to feed on.
***The speed of light is the speed of causality. Nothing that occurred in a distant galaxy thousands of light years away can affect us until their changes in information, mass and energy actually reaches us, so their past IS our present and our past IS their present.
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big bag of bollocks.
The most common stars, invisible to the naked eye, will last for thousands of billions of years.

does that mean that they are alive too ?
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 19:01,
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From a far extragalactic outsider's perspective you haven't even dreamed them yet.
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 19:31,
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Next to a flooding brook, and in need of total rebuilding, and grade I listed.
Bargain!
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 13:15,
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Bargain!
![Challenge Entry: The Self-Sabotage Industry [challenge entry]](/images/board_posticon_c.gif)

Throw out those self-help books and workout VHS tapes, and design books, posters and de-motivational products to make you feel utterly dreadful instead. Suggested by Rich.

Not many Photoshoppers left anywhere, as far as I can tell.
We got 472 entries for Demotivational Posters in 2006, so let's see how much that goes down by!
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 9:51,
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We got 472 entries for Demotivational Posters in 2006, so let's see how much that goes down by!

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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 9:59,
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if you've gone back to floppy discs, doesn't it?
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 10:10,
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Hopefully my tape deck doesn't chew it up.
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 10:12,
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Mon 9 Jun 2025, 18:47,
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Thu 12 Jun 2025, 12:56,
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