22 replies to this topic

[OrbitalResonance]

Is deliberately trying to flag down aliens a good idea? We have no idea what their intentions might be.

I personally love the idea, mainly because I think that aliens that have the capability to get here would not destroy us. They would not need our resources since there are many more sources of material outside the earth. These sources would be from dead objects and not involve destroying a biosphere. I am sure their scientists would be fairly interested in studying us. Much like alot of scientists love to study lower life forms on this planet. C'mon ants are plenty interesting =D We could already be a 'nature preserve' and wouldn't even know it.

In terms of aliens already being here, I have the notion that there is not another alien civilization for thousands of light years in any one direction.


http://www.centauri-...ms.org/?p=17861

[Nom du Clavier]

Is deliberately trying to flag down aliens a good idea? We have no idea what their intentions might be.

I personally love the idea, mainly because I think that aliens that have the capability to get here would not destroy us. They would not need our resources since there are many more sources of material outside the earth. These sources would be from dead objects and not involve destroying a biosphere. I am sure their scientists would be fairly interested in studying us. Much like alot of scientists love to study lower life forms on this planet. C'mon ants are plenty interesting =D We could already be a 'nature preserve' and wouldn't even know it.

In terms of aliens already being here, I have the notion that there is not another alien civilization for thousands of light years in any one direction.


http://www.centauri-...ms.org/?p=17861

The Earth a nature preserve? I wish http://www.futuretim...tyle_emoticons/animate/banana.gif
I voted 'don't care' because a) I don't believe there to be an alien civilisation anywhere near us, b) if there are there's already been electromagnetic signals floating around for a few decades, c) faster-than-light travel still looks to be theoretically impossible, last I checked, d) we're not interesting enough for an advanced race to send a fleet of generation ships to study us when chances are we'll have destroyed our civilisation by the time they get here

I mean I'd like to believe humanity will be around in some shape or form 10k years from now, but I'm all but convinced we will be at the rate we **** things up at the moment. By 'we' I mean mostly govts and their masters: megacorps.

/cynic
(no bananas were harmed in making this post)

[CamGoldenGun]

I like the idea of another species coming to meet us but to be honest, I sort of think the Star Trek philosophy will prove to be right; If there are aliens near by, they won't associate themselves with us until we advance past a certain level. It's sort of like giving advanced technology to a civilization that's not ready for it otherwise. Do I think anyone will respond to radio signals though? Not a chance. Doesn't it take 6 months for a signal to reach Pluto? On another note Stephen Hawking said that we should stop, who am I to argue?

[Shimmy]

If you take all life on earth, as far as i'm aware humans are the only species who have any real concept of caring about the preservation and feeling of other species. So it could be possible that valuing life other than our own is a very rare trait. You could argue that us being the only advanced species destroys that argument and that after a certain level of advancement its natural to start caring about other life, but I see no way to prove this either way with our test sample size of one. Plus many humans don't care about other species anyway. I believe rather than asking aliens to find us and allowing them to do whatever they want to us, it makes a lot more sense for us to find them (might take a bit longer), which should mean we have the technological edge and can control the situation how we see fit.

[Caiman]

I don't think we'll ever make contact with an intelligent alien race. The chances of there being one anywhere near within a million years of our level of technology, either side of the coin, is probably pretty low. We'll either detect but never be able to communicate with an advanced race beyond anything our science fiction has ever dreamed up, or we might find remenants of a long dead culture. Either that or a swarm of self replicating von neumann probes will eat their way through our solar system before we know what's going on...

[OrbitalResonance]

Time and Distance is extreme in this Universe. Magnificent Isolation.

[someone]

I would say "no" because, we don't really know who's ruling them, it's just like going to a nation no one heard about and you know they have advanced technology, and they may be ruled by someone like Hitler, or worse. I would also say "no" because like someone else said "we aren't ready for it". It's just like giving a intelligent monkey, the ones that learn how to recognize patterns and use primitive tools, and giving them a hunting rifle, instead of them going out and catching their own food, (let's say they do know how to use it), they will probably go bonkers with it. Again, we may not find one, Sci-Fi reference, In Halo, they find a bunch of Forerunner Artifacts such as a AI and shield worlds, and robotic combat drones as well as the array itself, but they never found a forerunner itself, and in our current situation, it is actually understandable why they died out, they did make a race greater than them angry (Precursors), and the Forerunners won, however, the Precursors unleashed a parasite on them, and they were forced to sacrifice themselves by using the array. Back to reality: the culture can die of a massive civil war, overpopulation, or even angering a greater species and getting killed. If we can contact aliens, there is always that chance we could piss them off, and soon enough, they can wipe us out.

[OrbitalResonance]

In Halo, they find a bunch of Forerunner Artifacts such as a AI and shield worlds, and robotic combat drones as well as the array itself, but they never found a forerunner itself

And the immature covenant derived all its tech from the forerunners. And killed weaker civilizations with it. Practically none of their tech was invented on their own.


Humans were a target in halo rather than just being assimilated into the covenant because we has some sort of genetic compatibility with forerunner tech. The last of the forerunners chose our species as the 'reclaimer' or something like that. You hear guilty spark talk about it alot. This registered us all as artifacts with the prophets artifact detection thing. This scared the head prophet and threatened to rip the covenant apart if it ever got out. So he just labeled all humans an abomination and began wiping us out. D=

[Trezoristo]

To me too it seems unlikely we'll ever encounter intelligent live. On the one hand the boundaries within which we believe live can exist have only increased over time, up to the point that it wouldn't surprise me at all if, within the next few decades, we find microbes on other planets or moons in our solar system. That and the size of the universe means it is likely intelligent live exists somewhere. But as long as the speed of light is absolute (and right now I believe there is no reason to think it is not - except that it would be really cool), the part of the universe we can expect to go is really not that big, and the chances of finding intelligent live in it are probably small.

[Keitaro2011]

I think it's a good idea. I think any species that would be capable of visiting us would have no reason to harm us, since they would almost certainly have the technology for mind uploading and wouldn't need to take over biospheres. As for the distance to the nearest intelligent civilzation, if there are only 10,000 in our galaxy (That's .0000001% of all stars), then the nearest one would be 500 lightyears away! Therefore, each civilzation would have an average territory of 500 lightyears which would contain an average of 10 million stars. I'm pretty sure that an encounter with us wouldn't be a conquest.

[someone]

I think it's a good idea. I think any species that would be capable of visiting us would have no reason to harm us, since they would almost certainly have the technology for mind uploading and wouldn't need to take over biospheres.

As for the distance to the nearest intelligent civilzation, if there are only 10,000 in our galaxy (That's .0000001% of all stars), then the nearest one would be 500 lightyears away! Therefore, each civilzation would have an average territory of 500 lightyears which would contain an average of 10 million stars. I'm pretty sure that an encounter with us wouldn't be a conquest.

I kind of change my idea now, probably, we won't even meet them for a thousand years, but I still would not contact them if they had technology better than us, if we piss them off slightly, we may not live

[Time_Traveller]

I think it'll be a good idea but won't find for a few centuries.

[Flatfingers]

I'm with Shimmy -- no, thanks. If there are aliens, when we meet them I want us to be on a roughly equal footing. That's assuming they have feet. And not tentacles. In which case I want us to be better-armed. That's assuming they have arms, of course....

[atoblade]

I voted yes. I think that the chances of Aliens coming all this way with advanced technology to eat us is pretty unlikely. If they can get to us without too much trouble then they can get to planets that are uninhabited for resources. I can't see anything they would see useful we have, any tech we have would likely be in-superior to their. So in my opinion they would either study us, ignore us or help us.

[Caiman]

I voted yes.

I think that the chances of Aliens coming all this way with advanced technology to eat us is pretty unlikely. If they can get to us without too much trouble then they can get to planets that are uninhabited for resources. I can't see anything they would see useful we have, any tech we have would likely be in-superior to their. So in my opinion they would either study us, ignore us or help us.

It depends. A civilisation capable of interstellar travel is instantly capable of wiping out all life on a planet, easily. Perhaps an alien race might be on a singular mission to ensure they act pre-emptively and wipe out life on any other planets they encounter, just in case one day we rise up and have the same idea. Better to be safe than sorry, eh

[OrbitalResonance]

Perhaps an alien race might be on a singular mission to ensure they act pre-emptively and wipe out life on any other planets they encounter

Boy that would suck... lol

[someone]

They probably would wipe us out, I mean, what kind of alien would risk us killing them

[OrbitalResonance]

They probably would wipe us out, I mean, what kind of alien would risk us killing them

If they could wipe us out i hardly think we are anywhere near or will ever be a threat to them. They would always be ahead of us.

In terms of wiping out, all they would have to do it send a large tungsten projectile at some percentage the speed of light at us.

[Craven]

If they could wipe us out i hardly think we are anywhere near or will ever be a threat to them. They would always be ahead of us.

Exactly. No reason to kill us, no need to be afraid of us.

[Caiman]

large tungsten projectile at some percentage the speed of light at us.

Anything striking the Earth at a measurable percentage of the speed of light would devastate the planet.