"The reason aliens aren't doing crop circles anymore"

[Akhenaten]

Whoever said anything about mistakes?

You did. Right their in this post:

The above posters are right. However their might be a delay between the unmanned probes and when the aliens arrive. Probes might have looked at Earth 200 years ago and decided everything is OK for takeover. Now when they arrive they find we might put up resistance and so leave.

Twice . . .

They look at a world, see people who use only primitive technology. Then a few centuries pass. The natives mess up the environment or use all the natural resources. This would make it unsuitable for their purposes.

Then I worry how they will deal with the natives.

Is this seriously the sort of thing that you worry about?

They may not be hostile but when Europeans settled the rest of the world the natives did not do very well. For example in Australia many were shot. Others were given diseases. After all they were about to go extinct. Australia's constitution (written in the 1890s) was very racist. If the aliens are refugees they will have an incentive to be hostile to the natives.

What in the name of Hathor does this drivel have to do with crop circles?

 

[Akhenaten]

Which makes my point even more likely to be true.

Point?

 

[Acleron]

The number I've heard bandi(coot)ed about is 200.

It is quite disconcerting for an Aussie driving in Norfolk to come across a road sign warning you to watch out for wallabies.

And there is a colony in Sussex. Now all we need is a field of poppies

 

[welshdean]

Well they say you learn something new every day... I thought crop circles were the tread pattern from the Jolly Green Giants sandals.
Ho Ho Ho!

 

[SusanB-M1]

I find this confusing. Crop circles need to be seen from some altitude above ground level to see the whole picture. What can you actually see while "in" one?

Walking round it, we could get a much better idea of how much space it had taken up and how the stalks had been laid flat in circles and lines. Also it was a huge field and from the edge to the circle was quite a way, but I'm not good at judging distances, I'm afraid.

 

[EHocking]

And there is a colony in Sussex. Now all we need is a field of poppies

It's as though we've had this conversation before.

 

[Miss_Kitt]

Teenagers doing crop circles: It's a stereotype. ... ...

I still don't see why woo-woos think that it's aliens. I suppose they'll start sending us USB drives with Microsoft Word files on it seeing that any extraterrestrial being would of course use our language system according to justintime's source Stupid and pompously arrogant beyond description to assume that ET intelligence would use a socially-constructed system of expression that was invented by Earthlings.

The debates rage on about the existence of ET intelligence. ... ...

Attributing an unknown to another unknown is fallacious and requires a leap of logic bigger than Becher's Brook at the Grand National.

Shortened for length and bolding added.

I just wish to point out that Jane Goodall didn't expect the chimpanzees to learn English; she learned their key vocalizations and behaviors to make them feel at home. It makes a certain amount of sense that the smarter, more sophisticated entity would learn the simpler one's "language" though perhaps only to learn how to manipulate them (think dog training).

I think crop circles are a sort of rural graffiti with a shorter lifespan. Some is truly art, some is property damage, and all of it should really only be done with permission of the landowner. But, the argument that "ETs wouldn't try to use our language" seems weak to me.

Just my thoughts, MK

PS Enjoying this thread, and that sand circle was stare-at gorgeous.

 

[Miss_Kitt]

I beg to differ. You must be one of those right wing politicians out to cull the badgers. This is a job for the badgers. Although I admit I think every job is a job for the badgers.

Okay, first, I want a badger hat like that! (And to look like that at my age, fwiw.) Secondly: Brian May led the protest?! Dr. Brian May, guitar deity and astrophysicist? He gets cooler by the second.

Thanks for sharing, Senex!

 

[AdMan]

I think crop circles are a sort of rural graffiti with a shorter lifespan.

That's a good way to put it--I see them that way as well.

Some is truly art, some is property damage, and all of it should really only be done with permission of the landowner.

It may be art, but unless the landowner has given their OK it's always property damage and illegal. Farmers hate circles, unless they're compensated for the lost crops.

 

[arthwollipot]

It's not very recent news, is it?

I never said it was new. But it seemed relevant.

 

[Cuddles]

Far easier to send a remote-controlled probe isn't it.

Why couldn't crop circles be made by a probe?

 

[tuxcat]

Why couldn't crop circles be made by a probe?

The generally held consensus among alien lovers is that ET life is regularly visiting earth for unspecified reasons and doodling in farmers' fields. None of them, that I know of, have mentioned probes. Well except the bizarre rituals of sex toys that is.

 

[Mudcat]

Whoever said anything about mistakes?

Your narrative would certainly make it sound as if the aliens made a mistake, regardless of whether or not you specifically use the word 'mistake'.

They look at a world, see people who use only primitive technology. Then a few centuries pass.

This sounds like a mistake to me, and one that an advanced space faring race would be unlikely to make.

The natives mess up the environment or use all the natural resources. This would make it unsuitable for their purposes.

And what, prey tell, would their purpose of invading be?

Then I worry how they will deal with the natives. They may not be hostile but when Europeans settled the rest of the world the natives did not do very well. For example in Australia many were shot. Others were given diseases. After all they were about to go extinct. Australia's constitution (written in the 1890s) was very racist. If the aliens are refugees they will have an incentive to be hostile to the natives.

Are you really comparing the actions of men long dead with the actions of an unknown race of beings from a distant planet that are at a stage of development far in advance of ourselves?

 

[rjh01]

Whoever said anything about mistakes?

Your narrative would certainly make it sound as if the aliens made a mistake, regardless of whether or not you specifically use the word 'mistake'.

They look at a world, see people who use only primitive technology. Then a few centuries pass.

This sounds like a mistake to me, and one that an advanced space faring race would be unlikely to make.

The natives mess up the environment or use all the natural resources. This would make it unsuitable for their purposes.

And what, prey tell, would their purpose of invading be?

Then I worry how they will deal with the natives. They may not be hostile but when Europeans settled the rest of the world the natives did not do very well. For example in Australia many were shot. Others were given diseases. After all they were about to go extinct. Australia's constitution (written in the 1890s) was very racist. If the aliens are refugees they will have an incentive to be hostile to the natives.

Are you really comparing the actions of men long dead with the actions of an unknown race of beings from a distant planet that are at a stage of development far in advance of ourselves?

An alien species does some survey work and it takes a few hundred years, if not a few thousand years, before they can act on that information due to factors outside of their control is not in my view a mistake. In the meantime of course things can change. The natives can go from being pre-industrial to having nuclear weapons. And even using them.

What the purpose of invading would be is unknown. They could be refugees or they could be after our oil and other natural resources or maybe they need to demolish the earth in order to build a highway (ref: Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy LOL) or some other purpose. None of which we would come off very well.

 

[GlennB]

Uh, couldn't it just be that there's been a steep hike in fuel prices on Planet Alien, or maybe a crash in property prices or a sudden rise in unemployment, and they're all having to tighten their alien belts and skip these recreational jaunts to Earth for a while?

Makes sense to me

 

[Mudcat]

An alien species does some survey work and it takes a few hundred years, if not a few thousand years, before they can act on that information due to factors outside of their control is not in my view a mistake.

Knowing that your data might be a few hundred to a couple thousand years out date is not the mistake. Believing it to be accurate and current and acting on it would be the mistake. And, again, it's not a mistake I believe that an advanced space faring race would likely commit.

They could be refugees or they could be after our oil and other natural resources or maybe they need to demolish the earth in order to build a highway or some other purpose. None of which we would come off very well.

I'll address each suggestion one by one.

Refugees: From what exactly? Interstellar war? Supernova? Rise of the machines? Outbreak of a zombie virus?

Resources: So let me get this straight. They're critically low on resources on their home world and the plan is to blow what precious little they have to launch an attack on distant planet that, even if it pays off, won't see any returns for a hundred or more years long after the situation either resolved itself or killed off the whole race? Seems legit.

Space highway: What, you're channelling Khan now and are unable to grasp that objects moving through the depths of space can move in three dimensions?

 

[AdMan]

Why couldn't crop circles be made by a probe?

The generally held consensus among alien lovers is that ET life is regularly visiting earth for unspecified reasons and doodling in farmers' fields. None of them, that I know of, have mentioned probes. Well except the bizarre rituals of sex toys that is.

Is that "floating glowing ball" theory now not a big thing among crop circle believers any more after that video hoax?

Those floating spheres were so small, they couldn't be more than some kind of probe.

 

[Acleron]

It's as though we've had this conversation before.

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/imagehosting/26614e387efda7d43.jpg[/qimg]

Did we? Can't remember, must have been stoned at the time.

 

[Garrison]

An alien species does some survey work and it takes a few hundred years, if not a few thousand years, before they can act on that information due to factors outside of their control is not in my view a mistake. In the meantime of course things can change. The natives can go from being pre-industrial to having nuclear weapons. And even using them.

Sorry Harry Turtledove beat you to the punch with that one:

WorldWar

 

[tuxcat]

Is that "floating glowing ball" theory now not a big thing among crop circle believers any more after that video hoax?

Those floating spheres were so small, they couldn't be more than some kind of probe.

Probably. Alien lovers can never make a consistent claim. A bit like corpse-talkers and vase-throwers. Goalposts are forever shifting, "evidence" is forever being made in Adobe AfterEffects, natural phenomena shoehorned into their piles of nonsense and so on.