10 replies to this topic

[UM-Bot]

Image credit: Hajor, Wikimedia

Fred Flynn: All things considered, it seems likely there is other intelligent life in the universe. The long standing questions have been: why don't we hear them communicating with each other and why haven't they contacted us? This article addresses the second question. One does not have to think very hard to imagine that we are not interesting. Our egos don't like that idea, but what could we possibly offer, what exchange can we imagine that would benefit a species, an advanced species from another world?

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[Arbitran]

Great article. Very well-written and cogent.

[Bling]

Yes good article indeed, I've never thought of things that way - thanks!

[fran123]

How true. Anyone looking down on our planet and seeing the constant conflicts and massive numbers of people living in poverty and starvation must think we are the most un-civilised beings that exist. I live here and I think that way!.

[Babe Ruth]

An excellent article, and I agree we are 'civilized' only in our own minds.

We have been visited in the past, and there is ample evidence of that.  I suspect this planet might be visited for its mineral wealth among other things.

[Occams Razor]

I think this article is almost spot on. Almost. However, when it comes to why or how an alien species would become hostile I think something quite important has been overlooked. The only thing they may want from us is our planet itself. Not the water, or minerals for the reasons stated, they are all abundant in the galaxy and are bound to be a lot closer to them than we are.

Habitable planets with liquid water, a protective magnetic field, a nice breathable atmosphere (yes, I know they might not breathe air as we do, but they probably would if they were interested in our planet) are the right distance from the star and have a usable temperature range, and that rotate, are probably not common at all. Look at all of the exoplanets we have discovered so far, hundreds of them apparently. How many are like the Earth in that they have all of the attributes that make them habitable, none.

Most of them are too close to, or too far from their star, or they don't rotate, or they don't have protective magnetic fields. I suspect our planet is very valuable indeed. A technologically advanced alien species may not be war like at all, yet be put into a position where they have to take our planet just to ensure the survival of their own species. They may feel terrible about having to annihilate the human race but have absolutely no choice. Then we would be screwed, there would be nothing we could do about it. We could be on a list of planets that due to the present level of technology of the resident species, meaning planet bound, would be easy pickings.

If, heaven forbid this did happen, I think they would do it biologically, so there would be no physical damage to buildings or other infrastructure for them to clear up. They would just spray a bio-weapon into the atmosphere, so there would be no rag-tag band of gutsy individuals who could work out a way of thwarting their plans, we wouldn't even know it was happening. Our structures etc may be of use to them. If they left it for 2 or 3 years they wouldn't even have any nasty smells to deal with, they would just sweep up all the bones and move in. This may account for some of the alien abduction stories, they would need to take some DNA samples from a wide variety of races to ensure complete eradication.

With regard SETI. As we know radio signals can travel across the galaxy it's well worth listening, you never know your luck. Of course radio may be very 'old hat' to a species that can travel around the galaxy on a 'willy nilly' basis. They would have to come up with something considerably faster than radio waves to communicate with their star fleet. So they may have discarded radio communications a very long time ago, that's why I suspect SETI haven't had much luck.

Edited by Occams Razor, 15 September 2012 - 12:26 PM.

[Elysiumfire]

The article offers up some thought-provoking ideas with which I can agree with. Yet, the author writes about man's arrogance and then calls Europa as 'one of our planets', it seems he continues the theme. Europa is no more one of our planets than it is our moon. Yes, it is in our solar system neighbourhood, but none of the planets are owned by us, not even earth, we just happen to have evolved on it...it doesn't make it ours to own.

Of course, we'd seek to defend it against an interstellar aggressor, but as the author rightly states, and agreed with by earlier posters, our planet is currently the only one in our neighbourhood that is capable of sustaining organic life forms. There are probably any number of reasons why extraterrestrial visitation hasn't occurred yet, from a hostile atmosphere, viruses and bacteria, the absence of real usable resources, and of course, the life forms already extant on the planet's surface and in its water environments.

If we ever do, or have been visited, I doubt very much that it will be by a life form, but more by a drone. Interstellar exploration will always be mapped more safely and more efficiently by pilotless drones sending signals back to some receiving station following many miles or years behind. They could then go through the data to see if there is anything worth investigating themselves. If we survive ourselves long enough, this scenario is our actual destiny.

Currently, we are not evolved enough, mature enough, nor peaceful enough to warrant contact, but possibly surveyance from a distance, with the odd drone entering our atmosphere for closer inspections. Whether this is happening, or has happend...who knows?

[Mr Right Wing]

UM-Bot, on 13 September 2012 - 01:54 PM, said:

Image credit: Hajor, Wikimedia

Fred Flynn: All things considered, it seems likely there is other intelligent life in the universe. The long standing questions have been: why don't we hear them communicating with each other and why haven't they contacted us? This article addresses the second question. One does not have to think very hard to imagine that we are not interesting. Our egos don't like that idea, but what could we possibly offer, what exchange can we imagine that would benefit a species, an advanced species from another world?

View: Full Article

Ants and bees have civilization.

Do we attempt to communicate with them?

[jroman]

If aliens find human whose technolgies less advanced than theirs, they won't contact us unless we have FTL technology.

[libstaK]

It beggars belief that an alien civilisation would ever have to make themselves known to us in the repeated sense ufologists seem to believe with the abductions especially.  Look at how far we have come with understanding the human genome - in a completely non invasive way.  All they would need is the slightest single contact and wham they know all there is to know about life on this planet, heck they may even have the technology to read all that at a distance, what seems like magic today yadi yada and all that jazz ....

[Halmista]

Very nice article.....and I completely agree on the arrogance of mankind thinking that we are that special. For all we know we are just apes compared to the standard of the more intelligent races out there.

                 Still it could also be our ignorant to think that all life on the universe would have similar anatomies to us humans  hence: they may not even need air or water to live.
                  We really are not that special compared to the billions of possible organisms that our universe has spawned.