Ai Andromeda Sensor data 2+ million years old

I'm just gonna paraphrase my post from the other thread, with some edits to account for context and the fact that I originally goofed on actually looking up the number of lightyears between the Milky Way and Andromeda, instead just using Arcian's figure out of context:

Right now - or rather, in 2185 - we can point our ultra-mega-telescopes - that are, nonetheless, limited to lightspeed - at Andromeda, and see what was there 2.5 million - not billion - years ago. As 2.5 million years is a relatively short stretch of time in astronomical terms, there's a very good chance that any habitable planets that were there 2.5 million years ago will still be there now--y'know, once you've accounted for cosmic drift and such. Earth, for example, has been able to support complex land-based life for at least the last 363 million years, and will only cease to be habitable somewhere between 1.75 and 3.25 billion years from now.

We won't know exactly what we're getting into - that's the point of the game, after all; we're explorers - but the chances of every 'Golden World' candidate - assuming we chart more than a couple - having become uninhabitable in that 2.5 million year window should be infinitesimally small.

To sum up: this is a nonissue, so far as practicality is concerned. Indeed, it's actually pretty much perfect for giving the game an interesting set-up: we can know where most of the habitable/valuable worlds are ahead of time, but not exactly what we can expect to find on or around those worlds.

Not really. Geological and astronomically speaking 2 million years isn't much.

This thread again?

I'm not sure whether to copy-paste the answers already given, post links, or just give up. I'd suggest reading up on Arcian's thread before pushing this line of thought too far. MEA will have some asspulls and head-scratchers, but this is not one of them.

Edit: Edited after rereading posts I'd skimmed and misinterpreted.

To add to what KirkyX  said, and to bring in what some of us had mentioned in the other thread, telescopes would have phenomenally greater capability in 22C. We could build vast arrays at the edge of the Milky Way, achieving some amazing images. Or, we could link telescopes at distant points via comm buoy, maybe even as far apart as the distant corners of the galaxy, really adding incredible "depth perception" to our imaging. (Stellar parallax is generally impossible to perceive with stars being so distant and your eyes being centimeters apart, but imagine the ability to see the universe in "3D" as it truly exists.)

The imaging we'd achieve with passive sensors might be 2.5 million years old, but it would be phenomenally detailed. It would be plenty detailed enough to justify an exploratory expedition in a science fiction game.

The inevitability of some of the data being out of date is built into the storyline, anyway. For those who haven't read the GI article, I'm about to spoil its contents. When Ark Hyperion arrives in Andromeda at Habitat 7, the first targeted human Golden World, things "aren't as expected". The atmosphere is highly volatile. Communication with the Nexus and other Arks is impossible, and Hyperion suffers some catastrophe.

At some point, you guys have to give the writers some credit. They aren't idiots. If you've thought of it, they've likely thought of it, too. Maybe they will view it your way, maybe not. We just have to wait and see.

I don't think anyone is expecting these "Golden Worlds" to be idyllic, shirt-sleeves worlds like Earth, Virmire, or Terra Nova. They are hoping to find habitable worlds, places that can be made livable. Livable and pleasant aren't necessarily the same thing.

I'm sure they hope some of these worlds will prove to be halfway decent places, but they are mostly looking for water, manageable temperatures, suitable atmospheric composition, etc...

That we know of.

Which also leads to the point that, in the ME-verse, Reapers have been scouring the galaxy of intelligent life for a billion years or more.  Andromeda, in addition to being an older galaxy, hasn't had that problem (that we know of)

Considering they confirmed there aren't relays there, I think it's almost sure the Reapers never traveled to Andromeda.