23 replies to this topic

[Chronicle]

Chances are that we aren't alone in the Universe. I know that for sure. But when do you think we will come into contact with them? And if we do, will they be friendly or hostile? The U.S. government actually has made preparations for an alien invasion. And if aliens do come to earth, we probably wouldn't stand a chance if they attacked us. If an alien civilization is advanced enough to travel far enough to get here, they would have a much higher level of technology. But they wouldn't come to us directly. They would send robots first and that would cut off our chances of reasoning with them and trying to be friendly since robots do not feel sympathy. So our best bet would be to stop sending radio signals out into space and advertising our location to the universe. What do you think?

 

Also, this is my first post of the forums. I'm happy to be a new part of the community

[Italian Ufo]

This  can only be a speculative prediction

[Thaizasaskand]

In which case, welcome to the forum!

 

I agree that we should stop advertising our location to the rest of the galaxy. Not only could that increase the risk of danger if successful, but I think that there are better uses of the money spent on that.

 

I do believe in extra-terrestrials and I do believe that we will come into contact with them one day. I don't think that that will happen for a long time though.

[OrbitalResonance]

I agree that we should stop advertising our location to the rest of the galaxy. Not only could that increase the risk of danger if successful, but I think that there are better uses of the money spent on that.

 

The leakage is inadvertant noise from our civilization.

 

To answer the question i would say 10,000+ years. I think we are remote.

[razer1994]

It could happen any time if we are contacted. If no aliens find us or attempt to ever make contact, it will depend on how fast we can spread throughout the galaxy. Left to humanity to be the starter, I say it could take thousands of years.

[FutureOfToday]

I voted for after 2050. I do believe strongly in the existence of life on other planets, but I highly doubt the technology to contact them will be available before 2050.

[Malgidus]

I am going to stick with Fermi's paradox and say "Never", but by never, I mean there will never be anything like a sci-fi Universe of various alien races. I think it more likely that:

• we are a statistical abomination, but yet we exist because we can observe the Universe (Anthropic principle) (a very lonely Universe indeed)
• we are just one of a myriad of computer simulations or ancestor simulations (mathematically inelegant)
• intelligent life develops to the point where they reach black hole like conditions and fold away into a Singlarity / Omega Point. (not very "imperialistic")

However, it's still possible there is Intelligent life in various stages of development (but likely not Type II or Type III civilizations anywhere near us) throughout the Universe. Or civilizations that don't reach a singularity or attempt to embed their intelligence into the universe, etc. But assuming FTL is not possible (yes, we might be able to play a few tricks and bend space to go a little faster--but probably within an order of magnitude or so), so it is unlikely that we could possibly contact them within millions and millions of years.

[Practical Mind]

I peg it at 2035 - 2045. I am subscribed to the point of view that life is nearly ubiquitous (and present in Solar system as well on some level, although likely not technological). 

 

Panspermia or not panspermia, the Earth was formed from the same elements which are present throughout the Universe and our galactic neighbourhood. If you give 1,000 cooks the same ingredients, don't you think that more than one will be able to produce something edible? It's very unlikely that no other stars were bombarded by stray rocks and radiation of all kinds. 

 

The key would be us reaching a level where the humankind can detect technogenic deviations in outer space. 

[razer1994]

I bet there are millions of civilizations in this galaxy alone.

Edited by razer1994, 07 April 2013 - 03:30 AM.

[Time_Traveller]

I think we'll contact extra-terrestrials after 2050 and until we travel out of our solar system.

[midnightr]

Not anytime soon considering we're only going to have sub-light speeds. Perhaps in a thousand years or so. 

[Squillimy]

aliens will drop down to earth the second a world peace treaty / earth union  is signed / established. lol just kidding but that would be cool. I personally think after 2050. probably around 2100. seems realistic

[Raklian]

Guys! We already contacted an extraterrestrial on July 20, 1969.

 

That extraterrestrial was Neil Armstrong.

 

Let's be careful how we throw about the word 'extraterrestrial'.

[Colonel O'Neil]

Think how racist some people are to our own kind, can you imagine how they would act towards extraterrestrials? It would destabilise the entire belief system of the religious world. People wouldn't be able to justify the ridiculous myths that religion tell us, like we were created in the image of God. People would either stop believing or direct their anger to the extraterrestrials. I think that it's fully likely that even if aliens did visit us it would be covered up by the governments of the world. In any case it's far more likely that the extraterrestrials would send probes rather than ships with them onboard. The date really is speculation. We have no evidence that they even exist (though denying the possibility is arrogant), so how can we come up with a date? Could be tomorrow or never! I personally hope that they don't come until we have the technology to protect us in case they turn out like their scifi cousins. I regard the work of SETA as not only a waste of money considering the state of the world economy, but also as potentially dangerous. remember what happened to the native population's of South and north America?

[Squillimy]

on the contrary many people believe in extra terrestials and they wouldn't change their religious beliefs due to many studies. infact the catholic church has already considered this possibility due to emerging attention on the topic and they agree as well.

 

from surveys taken extraterrestial contact would not really cause mass panics, because most of the world (atleast the developed world) already believes them to exist, and although there would be shock there would be no true suprise as most people already consider it a possibility. Think about it; we talk about it all the time. We constantly are in a state of wonder, we talk about it on forums and we talk about it to our friends. It's the go-to topic about science even when it's not the appropriate situation to speak about actual science, like when somebody is high or drunk.  The mind boggles at these things and even the most un-intellectual un-informed of us think about extra-terrestials at some point.

 

I personally don't think they'd come to harm. if they wanted something from us they could probably take it without harming us. Morally speaking it's pretty fucked up to do what we did to native americans, but remember they didn't kill them they displaced them, and killed them when they revolted. If aliens wanted to occupy earth they'd probably just move in next door not kill us. Because of advanced technology we have today if they wanted to displace us (say, take the united states of america), we could do so without dying in the process by, for example, moving to canada. (not taking economics and politics into the question). But thats just my opinion. We probably wouldn't even fight back because we'd realize we'd have no chance. They would be probably capable of antimatter space weapons, genetic and viral warfare, and possibly even dark matter energy weapons we can't even conceive of

Edited by Squillimy, 09 April 2013 - 12:38 AM.

[SG-1]

I really don't think any extraterrestrial would want to destroy Earth.

 

If you are advanced enough to fly over to another planet in another star system you are probably advanced enough to get your materials from other planets that aren't inhabited or just manufacture them using pico or smaller technology.

What would be useful to an alien species on Earth, besides good conversation with humans?  Oil? Water? Gold (or any element)? Soil, slave labor (robots are much better at lifting and doing stuff anyway).

 

It just doesn't make any sense, if you wanted diamonds there are entire planets or old stars that are made of solid diamond, planets that are much richer in elements that are uninhabited etc.

 

 

 

The only reason I can see an alien species would destroy us was if a terrorist alien went full retard and went on a galactic killing spree, and we aren't being monitored by anyone.  I think it is more reasonable that an alien species would make decisions with a hive-mind like mentality.  Communication would be instant between everyone, and intelligence would be high enough through augmentation to process loads of information.  People would hear about any going-ons  in their civilization and probably every known civilization.  Protests would ensue if there was a bad decision being made, people would be there with the means to stop anything stupid from happening instantly.

 

Maybe we are just being watched.  Maybe they have contact with some people here?  Maybe someone on this forum is an alien in human disguise? I mean androids will probably be indistinguishable from humans this century it wouldn't be a stretch at all to believe an alien species would hide themselves as human.  Those UFO sitings don't make sense unless they are just spreading the idea of aliens being there.  Aliens would be smart enough to get around Earth incognito.

[Squillimy]

i think there's a large possibility aliens already know of us. They would understand and adhere to reasons not to contact us, and they would study us strictly for scientific pursuit. I mean, we study lesser species just to gain knowledge whether or not that knowledge is necessarily usable. it's just for the sake of knowing, it's interesting!

 

If an alien did exist, i think they'd likely be a university student studying things such as international relations or human culture from an educational standpoint, or maybe they'd just use some sort of crazy technological means to gather loads of information about the human race simultaneously. i doubt they'd just walk around looking at humans because you couldn't really grasp the culture of the human race as a whole from this viewpoint. But who can know for sure right?

 

They'd likely disguise themselves as weird, squirrely and unapproachable looking human being, in order to not gain attention from others. They wouldn't want to be attractive and draw attention to themselves haha.

 

Who knows, we couldve came into contact with an alien sometime in our lives, maybe we even held the door open for them, and they repaid us by secretly/discretely letting us find a $100 dollar bill on the floor lol.

Edited by Squillimy, 09 April 2013 - 06:24 AM.

[Colonel O'Neil]

hmm maybe I was being too paranoid. You're arguments make sense. But make no mistake most people definitely do not believe in extraterrestrials. It is still considered loony to admit believing in them. I like sg1's idea of a hive mentality, but I still don't believe that we would actually ever see them. They would just use probes. Although it is possible that they are already here, it seems highly unlikely-space is just too big! Although it is possible that aliens are here already

[Squillimy]

Well most people believe in the possibility, but they don't believe in them 100%, or they simply are not sure. It's not so loony any more (much less than it was say 100 years ago), when you consider the numbers and the more focus we've been putting on outer space recently, especially with the discovery of extrasolar planets

 

and yea i agree they'd probably use probes, but it'd be really cool if they wanted to witness us in action while in person. this would give them a much more hands on approach then sending a robot to relay information. It is unlikely but hey we never know.

 

Also about the hive mind, this could actually lead to more consensus on the act of actually going on said killing spree, or doing harmful things to other civilizations. I agree it is unlikely for someone to kill a civilization / identity of people for no reason, lol although ironically the human race has done this already. but we've never met aliens so we have no idea what theyd be like.

 

An awesome gift that an alien civilization could give to us is an encyclopedia galactica, in book form so they wouldnt have to share any actual technology. It would just be a gift to enlighten us a little, without giving us knowledge or technology that could greatly harm society.

[Colonel O'Neil]

[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]squillimy[/font]-

 

what do you mean an encyclopedia galactica? Isnt that a book full of knowledge? Why would they want to do that? I find it highly unlikely that they would have any altruistic reasons for helping us.

 

As for the loony argument, im still not convinced. I agree that its reasonable for people to open to the possibility (which more people are) but to outright say you you believe in aliens (which I do btw. The statistical probability is overwhelming and I just really want there to be!) will still make people think you are weird.

 

Remember that the vast majority of people who claim to see UFO's are regarded as either liars trying to get famous or half-wits who search for a paranormal explanations when there are perfectly good ones available (according to skeptics)

 

I personally dont think they have visited us before (or at least hope so). I would like to believe our progress has been just that-ours.