Will we every find ET for Real? Do we want to? by Connorflynn

TALK STORY

Will we every find ET for Real? Do we want to?

POSTED BY: CONNORFLYNN
UPDATED: Monday, January 17, 2005 11:14
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Friday, January 14, 2005 11:51 AM

Interesting article about whether we as a wrold will ever encounter Extraterrestrial Life.

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/et_betterodds_050114.html

I guess my questions are, Do we really want to find Extraterrestrial Life? How would we handle it? Would it survive if it was less advanced then we are? Would we survive if it was more advanced then us?

Pretty scary if I don't say so myself hehe.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 1:45 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Quote:
Originally posted by Connorflynn:
Interesting article about whether we as a wrold will ever encounter Extraterrestrial Life.

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/et_betterodds_050114.html

I guess my questions are, Do we really want to find Extraterrestrial Life? How would we handle it? Would it survive if it was less advanced then we are? Would we survive if it was more advanced then us?

Pretty scary if I don't say so myself hehe.

Do we wanna find it ?
At this point, no, too many religious dogmas would have an issue with mankind not being the only form of intelligent life and social upheaval would be massive.

How would we handle it ?
Badly, as history shows, mankind as a whole has an awful, awful track record when they run into anything new.. how was it said ?
What they do not understand, they fear, and what they fear, they destroy.

Would it survive being less advanced ?
Hell no, look at any human cultures that have clashed in that respect, one is always nearly annihilated by the other.
History has sharp teeth.

Would we survive being less advanced ?
Not if they have a single ounce of sense in their heads, they'd be damned smart to wipe us out as soon as they figured out most of the above, combined with the rapacious, selfish and utterly, utterly, destructive nature of mankind.

I know that might sound pretty cruel, but anyone with a good knowledge of our history isn't gonna dispute it.
Sorry.

-F

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Monday, January 17, 2005 3:47 AM

SGTGUMP

Good article. I expect that if ETs are very much like us, then yes we are going to fight them shortly after we meet. But if they've mastered the ability to travel between stars, the average nuke probably won't impress them much. Plus they could do a lot more damage from space than we could do from the ground.

But I like the idea of a large community of space faring species up there moving around and getting by. Kind of like The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, or Titan A.E. Hopefully they won't really care about the discovery of some new species from, where was it? Earth?

I think that if we could get off of this planet and join an intergalactic community, it would probably be one of the best things for humanity. As for the religion issue, I think that when people see something with their own eyes, they are going to believe it. If the church says that aliens are only here to gain our confidence before they take us back to their home planet and cook us, that's a chance we will have to take. If their intentions are malicious, then we will have to fight them.

Either way, pretty exciting.

“War is behavior with roots in the single cell of the primeval seas: eat whatever you touch or it will eat you.” - Frank Herbert

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Monday, January 17, 2005 4:53 AM

GREENFAERIE

I think the real question is: do the ETs want us to find them?

After all, why would they want a bunch of barbaric idiots to join their club? Better off to let us prove we won't kill the planet before they even give us the chance for first contact.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 5:18 AM

CYBERSNARK

Quote:
Originally posted by sgtgump:
I think that if we could get off of this planet and join an intergalactic community, it would probably be one of the best things for humanity.

Agreed, sort of.

I believe that civilizations evolve psychologically just as individuals do. We are now on the cusp of a world-spanning society; we're reaching a plateau that we simply will not exceed on our own. In developmental terms, we as a species are ready for the first day of pre-kindergarten. It's time to meet people who, for the first time in recorded history, will not be in any way related to us.

Yeah, it'll cause social upheavals that'll tear us apart, and I say that's good. Frankly, i think this society could use a few upheavals. It will mean the end of the world as we know it (literally, because the resulting society will be completely different from what has existed before).

If they're smart, the aliens will put in one appearance, something highly public and world-wide, because anything less will be suppressed by the conservative PTBs (if an XT walks up to a Mars Rover and waves at the camera, the only data that will get out is that the Rover stopped functioning. No reason will be given). After making their presence known and incontrovertible, the aliens should withdraw to safety and watch. When the dust settles, the survivors will be ready to deal with them.

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 5:36 AM

DIEGO

I think another interesting question is how real ETs would compare to our hypothetical creations which seem to be tightly bound into humanity's psychological and mythic dreams. Sometimes aliens are benevolent gods, othertimes they are monsters from space, and they even work the whole angel and demon schtick too. Hopefully, we'll check our collective baggage and deal with any real entities without preconcieved notions. Of course, any real civilization would certainly be a let-down for many people. How can anything real live up to so many conflicting expectations? And the folks on this stread who pointed out that religions and many other status-quo oriented groups would have reason to resent contact are quite correct. Then again people although people keep blinders on most of the time, we are capable of great change and adaptation. We could adjust to the paradigm shift. Not all at once—it took a long time for all of society to adjust to Copernicus or Galilleo, and we're still in post-Darwin lag. I rather like how in Babylon Five contact with aliens and the exchange of ideas gave rise to new religions life the Foundationists. Humanity adjusts.

But about whether we as a people would desire contact, I'm an optimist and a scientific idealist. I think if there is other life or even other intelligence out there then we will be poorer as a species for not discovering them. As the National Enquirer says, "Inquiring minds want to know" (then again the Enquirer indicated that we've already had contact with myriad aliens!

) It's equally interesting if we are alone, but this is something we have to ascertain for ourselves.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 6:12 AM

FINN MAC CUMHAL

I’m inclined to believe that without a doubt extraterrestrial life exists somewhere in the Universe and probably in our galaxy.

I’m also inclined to believe that they have never visited our planet and will probably never do so and we will probably never find them or visit their planet(s) or meet anywhere in between.

I could be wrong, but I see both of these as being a statistical likelihoods. So any discussion of actual extraterrestrial contact is, in my opinion, quite academic.

However, if I were to venture a guess I would have to say that I have no fathomable clue what would happen. So much depends on the characteristics of the lifeform that we encounter, and there’s no way to predict what those characteristics would be. If the civilization were more advanced then us, then I would have to ask, what does that mean? Have you ever heard the conjecture of the super-advanced microbe? Given what we know of biology, probably not terribly likely, but it’s impossibly to rule almost anything out.

All in all, I think the typical apocalyptic assumptions about human/extraterrestrial contact are probably too pessimistic, because they are based on an overly pessimistic assumption of human nature, an almost innate fear of the unknown, and the assumption that an extraterrestrial lifeform will have enough in common with humans for both to seek some advantage in eliminating or dominating one or the other.

This is where science fiction, I think, plays a more important role then science. Our ability to imagine, analyze and speculate about the consequences and human responses to scientific and futuristic events is sort of like a big brainstorming session. But that’s a little off topic.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 6:22 AM

CONNORFLYNN

Hehe, I figured I'd throw this link out there too. All I could think of when I read this, was the Pepsi Commercial with the Martians putting the Rover up on blocks and stealing it's tires all while the lone guy at NASA gulped down his soda.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6824

At any rate it's pretty interesting nonetheless, particularly since they believe it gets cleaned when the Rover is powered down for the night. Not that I think some Extraterrestrial elves are at work to shine it up every night LOL.

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Monday, January 17, 2005 11:14 AM

THATWEIRDGIRL

I think a bit like Finn on this topic.

I think it is likely that somewhere, not near here, there may be other lifeforms. They won't be contacting us nor us them in any forseeable future.

As much as I wish it to be, I have difficulty imagining it in the now or the next seven generations of now. While earthlings may branch out a bit, I suspect thousands, if not millions, of years to pass before other intelligences are acknowledged.

Conflict? Too many unknowns to guess. Will humans be hostile and judgemental for all eternity? Will humans become empathetic or knowledge driven? Hard to say. It may depend on the species we meet. It may depend on the location of the meeting: passing in space, landing on their world, them landing on ours. It may take a particular ambassador to quell the animosity. Who knows. We very likely will just wink out of existance when the highway crew clears the way.

www.thatweirdgirl.com

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