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Intelligent life elsewhere?

If advanced alien civilizations are out there, they need to visit us immediately. I want my own functioning holodeck, and I want it now!
 
a holodeck would be cool, although I fail to see how light could form substance-like objects.
 
I suppose if you are a Christian then you believe god made earth and then made us in his image and put us here. The Bible doesn't mention him making other worlds. So that might well mean Christians cannot believe in alien life?

But if you believe life is merely a seamless extension of the laws of physics and it is just down to the right environment, and you take into account the size of the universe, then you have to take it on probability that life and possibly intelligent life does exist elsewhere.

Seeing as we don't really know exactly how life formed, we cannot be sure it exists elsewhere, in my opinion.
 
cheddar said:
If advanced alien civilizations are out there, they need to visit us immediately. I want my own functioning holodeck, and I want it now!
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I'd assume an easier solution would be Matrix-wise, as an alien race with enough knowledge in biology and computer science could probably replicate the human sensory feedback with technology.
 
Kosh3 said:
...if you're smart enough to conquer space, you're also smart enough to conquer yourself and your base inclinations, such as war and extermination, through adopting high moral principles etc.

In other words, you don't get to have Einstein's cracking space travel without also getting Einstein's (or, somesuch other brilliant invididuals) advancing the moral status and awareness of ones species. The two develop hand in hand. The underlying (reasonable) assumption being that intelligence accords with moral virtue.

And really, who's gonna travel millions of light years to smash up a puny civilization such as ours. Thats a bit like driving 200km to step on an ant for the hell of it. You just wouldn't do it.
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I'm with Hawking on this one - there's no guarantee that a godlike super-advanced alien race will be any more compassionate than an amoeba.

Einstein may have been a pacifist, but he was just one man. Every civilisation, no matter how advanced, will contain a mix of indiviuals - some brilliant and pacifist, some brutal and psychopathic. It's not necessarily the pacifists who will lead that society and determine how it uses its resources.

And if you think there's nobody out there who wouldn't drive 200km just to be an a$$hole, you need to meet more people...
 
Well, perhaps the best proof that there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is the fact that they haven't visited us. :-)
 
I certainly agree that given the size of the universe, there is a chance (how "good" a chance I can't say) that intelligent life was flourished on another planet.

That said, I don't think for an instant that said life are bunch of gray, scaled down, James Carville look-a-likes with an odd penchant for practicing interspecies proctology on schizophrenics and denizens of the trailer parks.
 
Intelligent life evolved at some othe solar system is quite possible IMHO. Would such a species pose a threat to us? I speculate that the answer is no.

I think we tend to project our fears in what is unknown. So, based in our history, what are our fears? Conquest, slavery, looting of natural resources and material goods, anihilation of our culture, raping of our females, genocide... So, we project it, and fear that aliens will behave like this.

My question is: Why would they?

- To erradicate competition?
What would a say, 100My-old civilization have to fear from us?

- To use us as slaves?
Why not use machines or genetically engineered creatures specifically projected for such roles?

- To get our natural resources?
There are all sorts of elements at asteroid belts, nebulae, dust rings, rocky planets and gas giants around. Desert star systems are quite probably much more numerous than systems with intelligent life.

- To colonize our rock?
Why not "[add alien plane name here]form" desert worlds? And why advanced aliens species would need to live in planets, anyway?

- To rape our females?
Why would aliens feel atracted by human females or males?

I know, I know, I'm answering questions with questions...
 
They might have a completely alien set of motivations that you cannot possibly begin to second guess.

Seems pretty irresponsible for some people to take it upon themselves to send out a gold plaque with a picture of us and a map on how to get here.
 
Correa Neto said:
- To eradicate competition?
What would a say, 100My-old civilization have to fear from us?
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For one thing, they might fear what we would be like in 100m years.

Also, you're still assuming that they would act on fearful impulses. They might just be jerks. Or maybe they would think it's fun to blow up random planets. They're aliens! All bets are off!

- To get our natural resources?
There are all sorts of elements at asteroid belts, nebulae, dust rings, rocky planets and gas giants around. Desert star systems are quite probably much more numerous than systems with intelligent life.
- To colonize our rock?
Why not "[add alien plane name here]form" desert worlds? And why advanced aliens species would need to live in planets, anyway?
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Simple energy and temporal efficiency - much easier and quicker to take over an existing viable ecosystem than to make your own.

- To rape our females?
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Stop watching Star Trek re-runs and adult anime.
 
Underemployed said:
For one thing, they might fear what we would be like in 100m years.
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By then they would be 200My-old...

Underemployed said:
Also, you're still assuming that they would act on fearful impulses. They might just be jerks. Or maybe they would think it's fun to blow up random planets. They're aliens! All bets are off!
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Including the notions of "being a jerk" and "fun". I agree -up to a certain point- that the bets are off. Because the bets of an aggressive behavior are also off.

And note I have not used the term "fear" in the litteral way. Eliminate a civilization -or invade a country- may be a "rational" decision, based in projections of future events. At least according to some POVs...

Underemployed said:
Simple energy and temporal efficiency - much easier and quicker to take over an existing viable ecosystem than to make your own.
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Who needs an ecosystem when the task is to exploit raw materials? Asteroids have, for example, metallic iron and nickel. In our planet's crust, processing Fe and Ni ores demands more complex proccesses, since these elements are usually within oxides, hydroxides and silicates. So, "harvesting" asteroids, dust rings and perhaps nebulae can be more efficient and faster.

As for the takeover of an ecosystem, note that its just valid if the alien species shares a number of features with ours. Heck, since "all bets are off", an alien species may not be "biological " at all, but composed by machines and have no need at all for an atmosphere or an ecosystem... Or even for a planet.

Underemployed said:
Stop watching Star Trek re-runs and adult anime.
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Why? War of the worlds and similar SF can be as dumb when it comes to alien species concepts as ST or SW... And still be fun.
 
Splossy said:
They might have a completely alien set of motivations that you cannot possibly begin to second guess.

Seems pretty irresponsible for some people to take it upon themselves to send out a gold plaque with a picture of us and a map on how to get here.
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As there may be alien motivations for not invading or just ignoring that we can not guess.

Gold plate? TV emmissions are doing a better job. Should we stop watching TV by fear that evil aliens might use them to home on us?

We are already doing a fairly good job on eliminating ourselves. No need to fear the aliens. Fear the human.
 
Splossy said:
They might have a completely alien set of motivations that you cannot possibly begin to second guess.
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"I read of one planet off in the seventh dimension that got used as a
ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into
a black hole. Killed ten billion people." "That's mad." "Yes, only
scored thirty points too."

Douglas Adams, Restaurant at the end of the Universe
 
In address to a number of people who're skeptical of "evil aliens", I don't think it's a question of projecting our fear as much as it is an objective look at the primary components needed to get an intelligent life-from into outter-space, as well as a critical look of the evolution of our own moral code, and objectively considering whether or not our own existance to another intelligent life-from is in their benefit.

How valuable to Them would it be have empathy for us? If they could travel to our world, their technology and mathematic skills would be simply beyond us, and probably their life-span as well. They would either have been evolved to have, or made for themselves, bodies far better suited to handle the rigours of the universe, and perhaps even survive over thousands of years. They probably would not care for our resources, and would spit at our social code... but they might care to study us. That would be my wager -- we would be their science fun, and it would probably seem incredibly cruel to us.

And this is all assuming that science in the next few thousand, or million, or billion years will not change to such a radical level that denies us even comprehension.

Now, perhaps if we were able to evolve to a point where we could threaten them as much as they could us, we may form an alliance, but as of now, we might as well be the Neanderthals who can send funny little machines to a couple planets around our pitiful sun.
 
Eric Idle said it best:

So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely it is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
Because there's bugger all down here on Earth.
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Whenever I picture a squid next to an ant next to a giraffe next to some algae next to a Redwood next to a jellyfish next to a gorilla next to a dog next to a shrub....

I can't help but to think that there are many different ways for life to evolve.
 
DoubtingStephen said:
Can you imagine someone using a billion dollar airplane to drop bombs on people living in adobe structures who are not concealing any weapons?

Is the scenario you describe really much more ludicrous than current events here on Earth?
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I think a more appropriate analogy, sly political comments aside (some people just LOVE to slip them into every conversation), would be dropping bombs on people accidentally while engaging in warfare against some other enemy. In other words, Earth getting wiped out, intentionally or unintentionally, as a result of warfare not specifically directed against us.

Or being demolished for a new hyperspace bypass.

The motivations could be endless. Who could understand an alien mind?
 
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mercuryturrent said:
In address to a number of people who're skeptical of "evil aliens", I don't think it's a question of projecting our fear as much as it is an objective look at the primary components needed to get an intelligent life-from into outter-space, as well as a critical look of the evolution of our own moral code, and objectively considering whether or not our own existance to another intelligent life-from is in their benefit.

How valuable to Them would it be have empathy for us? If they could travel to our world, their technology and mathematic skills would be simply beyond us, and probably their life-span as well. They would either have been evolved to have, or made for themselves, bodies far better suited to handle the rigours of the universe, and perhaps even survive over thousands of years. They probably would not care for our resources, and would spit at our social code... but they might care to study us. That would be my wager -- we would be their science fun, and it would probably seem incredibly cruel to us.

And this is all assuming that science in the next few thousand, or million, or billion years will not change to such a radical level that denies us even comprehension.

Now, perhaps if we were able to evolve to a point where we could threaten them as much as they could us, we may form an alliance, but as of now, we might as well be the Neanderthals who can send funny little machines to a couple planets around our pitiful sun.
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The odds of having a war against aliens that are roughly on an equal footing, technologically, are even more incredibly remote than finding any aliens out there in the first place. So if two races are to meet in space, the odds are that one is going to always be WAY in advance of the other. If all alien races think the same way as us, the less advanced race is going to do everything possible to avoid warfare.

See Babylon 5 - "In The Beginning" for a fictional example of what happens to Earth when they get involved with an enemy that is only relatively a little more advanced than they are. Basically, humanity comes about two inches from extinction in very short order before some people stop the insanity.

Unfortunately, if we ever encounter an alien race that decides they want to do away with us the situation will probably be more like "War of The Worlds" or "Independence Day" only there won't be any computer viruses or real viruses to save us. And it will probably happen much faster.

Or it may turn out to be something like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where either the biological nature of the aliens or their advanced technology makes it such that we get taken over and we don't even know it until it's too late.
 
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