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Will aliens be friendly or hostile?

Will aliens be hostile or friendly

  • Friendly

    Votes: 31 53.4%
  • Hostile

    Votes: 18 31.0%
  • We are alone

    Votes: 9 15.5%

  • Total voters
    58
  • Poll closed .
Can you make the toilet paper overhand/underhand partisan too?

Those crazy librul bastards don't even use toilet paper because they don't want to harm a "poow wittle twee!"

Pansy-assed bastards want us to use those fancy french ass-fountains.

It's disturbing, I tell ya!
 
Those crazy librul bastards don't even use toilet paper because they don't want to harm a "poow wittle twee!"

Pansy-assed bastards want us to use those fancy french ass-fountains.

It's disturbing, I tell ya!

Correct. We chose to use our outstanding tickets.
 
I'll probably be in the minority, but I'll say friendly. Anyone who can travel that far probably has figured out how to coexist peacefully.

That and egoftib keeps up relations by smoking ragweed or some chit.

Or they've gained the means to do so by conquesting others and building an empire. :cool:
 
The most likely thing to happen will be that they consider us uninteresting and completely ignore us.​

Probably not. Based on our own experience, the most likely reason an advanced civilization would first travel to our solar system is for scientific exploration. Since planets with life are presumably few and far between, the earth and its lifeforms would probably be highly interesting to them, if only from a laboratory perspective. That doesn't mean they'd want to 'make friends' or see us as anything more than lab specimens. But I do think they'd examine us in great detail.

The second most likely thing is that they will consider us or our planet a natural resource of some kind and will take possession of whatever they need.​

It's unlikely that a civilization so advanced that it can accomplish interstellar travel would come here because it had 'run out' of food or oil or hydrogen or plutonium or arable soil. It's unlikely that such a civilization would require our solar system or our planet for 'natural resources.' There would no doubt be plenty of sources of natural resources to be found much nearer to their home planet. And I've got to assume that the reliance on consumption of 'natural resources' will be a problem that such an advanced civilization may well have overcome anyway.

The third and least most likely thing will be that they find us interesting after all, will respect our life and become benevolent friends.​

There's really so much speculation involved in this that it's hard to say one way or the other. We can imagine a civilization so advanced that they would have difficulty 'communicating' with us at all in any way that they would find meaningful. Much as we lack the ability to communicate with the great apes except by teaching them the most rudimentary language skills using visual aids. We tend to view our communication with the great apes as something less than profound. I think the aliens might feel the same about communication with us.

But for some reason I'm now reminded of that old saying... "A dog is man's best friend!"

;)
 
The most likely thing to happen will be that they consider us uninteresting and completely ignore us.​

Probably not. Based on our own experience, the most likely reason an advanced civilization would first travel to our solar system is for scientific exploration. Since planets with life are presumably few and far between, the earth and its lifeforms would probably be highly interesting to them, if only from a laboratory perspective. That doesn't mean they'd want to 'make friends' or see us as anything more than lab specimens. But I do think they'd examine us in great detail.

The second most likely thing is that they will consider us or our planet a natural resource of some kind and will take possession of whatever they need.​

It's unlikely that a civilization so advanced that it can accomplish interstellar travel would come here because it had 'run out' of food or oil or hydrogen or plutonium or arable soil. It's unlikely that such a civilization would require our solar system or our planet for 'natural resources.' There would no doubt be plenty of sources of natural resources to be found much nearer to their home planet. And I've got to assume that the reliance on consumption of 'natural resources' will be a problem that such an advanced civilization may well have overcome anyway.

The third and least most likely thing will be that they find us interesting after all, will respect our life and become benevolent friends.​

There's really so much speculation involved in this that it's hard to say one way or the other. We can imagine a civilization so advanced that they would have difficulty 'communicating' with us at all in any way that they would find meaningful. Much as we lack the ability to communicate with the great apes except by teaching them the most rudimentary language skills using visual aids. We tend to view our communication with the great apes as something less than profound. I think the aliens might feel the same about communication with us.

But for some reason I'm now reminded of that old saying... "A dog is man's best friend!"

;)
 
Unless there is something fundamental to the laws of physics that is unknown to us, even if there is a very, very advanced alien civilization out there somewhere in the universe, there is no way that they could ever travel this far to visit us anyway.
 
Unless there is something fundamental to the laws of physics that is unknown to us, even if there is a very, very advanced alien civilization out there somewhere in the universe, there is no way that they could ever travel this far to visit us anyway.

I think it's fair to say the MOST of the things which are fundamental to the laws of physics are unknown to us. I read a very interesting piece by a top physicist recently which flatly stated that with every new discovery we make, a dozen new questions are raised. There may be some debate about this, but I think the consensus is that we are not getting closer to identifying the laws of the universe... we're simply in the process of identifying and categorizing all the questions.

:2wave:
 
they will be very friendly right up to the moment that the entree is served

What amazes me is the number of people who voted "we are alone". That reflects either incredible ignorance to the size of the universe or incredible arrogance that "God" thinks we are so special he broke the mold after he made Earth.
 
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Disdainful and disparaging, is my guess.

Kind of the way liberals act toward those who disagree with them. But in this case the aliens would be justified in adopting a superior manner toward humanity.

EDIT: By the way, I didn't vote because there was no "Other" option.
 
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Disdainful and disparaging, is my guess.

Kind of the way liberals act toward those who disagree with them. But in this case the aliens would be justified in adopting a superior manner toward humanity.

EDIT: By the way, I didn't vote because there was no "Other" option.
and like alot of atheists too
 
Probably not. Based on our own experience, the most likely reason an advanced civilization would first travel to our solar system is for scientific exploration.

It's unlikely that a civilization so advanced that it can accomplish interstellar travel would come here because it had 'run out' of food or oil or hydrogen or plutonium or arable soil. It's unlikely that such a civilization would require our solar system or our planet for 'natural resources.'

Because of the incomprehensible number of planets out there this creates the overwhelming likelyhood of there literally being millions of advanced civilizations out there.

I personally believe it to be very likely at least a couple of them do nothing but expand like a growing bubble. Probably out numbering humans much more than a trillion to one. Taking over every useable solar system that increasingly becomes within their reach. Like a growing bubble consuming everything in its path. Like a swarm of locusts or an expanding colony of ants.

I picture these lifeforms doing nothing but rapidly multiplying and perhaps even through evolution lost any sense of emotion or compassion and only have a sense of driving their proliferation as a species. Perhaps we had a stroke of luck that Earth is so far off by itself compared to many other groups of planets. Perhaps the reason why SETI does not pick up signals is because most advanced civilizations were smart enough not to advertise their presence. Perhapse sending out radio waves will attract the advanced predators like a pack of wolves running toward a deer call.
 
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As former SC Senator Fritz Hollings might have said, "They's a whole lotta assumin' going on out theah!"

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of novels and short stories have been written about what "First Contact" might be like. All of them could be equally valid or invalid, since we know virtually nothing about life on other worlds... if there even is any intelligent life elsewhere in our galaxy.

Some here likely know of the Drake Equation. Here's a brief explanation for those who might be unfamiliar with it:

N= R x Fp x Ne x Fe x Fi x Fc x L

where:

N is the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and

R* is the average rate of star formation in our galaxy
fp is the fraction of those stars that have planets
ne is the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
fℓ is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
fi is the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
fc is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
L is the length of time such civilizations release detectable signals into space.

Frank Drake formulated his equation in 1960 for SETI. The Drake equation is closely related to the Fermi paradox in that Drake suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would form, but that the lack of evidence of such civilizations (the Fermi paradox) suggests that technological civilizations tend to destroy themselves rather quickly.

Drake's values give N = 10 × 0.5 × 2 × 1 × 0.01 × 0.01 × 10,000 = 10.
Using optimistic assumptions:
N = 20 × 0.1 × 0.5 × 1 × 0.5 × 0.1 × 100,000 = 5,000 hi-tech civilizations
Using pessimistic assumptions:
N = 10 × 0.5 × 2 × 1 × 0.001 × 0.01 × 500 = 0.05 (we are probably alone)

...con't below...
 
So, if we figured that there were 5 high-tech civilizations in our galaxy at any given moment...the nearest could easily be tens of thousands of light-years away.

Even if we assume the (imo, highly optimistic) 5000 technological civilizations, the nearest could be dozens or hundreds of light years away.

SETI's lack of success would probably argue that the more optimistic equation values are probably too high, and the nearest civilization (if there is one) is more than a thousand light years away. Long way to come visit.

Now, let's consider ways and means... currently we have little theoretical basis for faster-than-light travel, mostly just some speculation based on hypothesis considered "fringe" by the scientific establishment. Yet, as someone noted, we are probably vastly more ignorant of the true physical laws of the universe than we think we are. Note how the extrasolar planet search has revealed results drastically different from what the scientific establishment expected.

So...there's relativistic (near-c) space travel, using theoretical time dilation to make the journey seem livable. Approaching c (light speed) using reaction drives systems we can conceive of but not yet build, would be very expensive for even a very small payload. There's also the cosmic ray and micrometeor problems, due to blue-shift and ultra-velocity impacts respectively. Unmanned seems more likely than manned, barring some kind of reactionless drive system and advanced navigational shield.

There's also the slow-travel "ark" or "cold sleep" concepts, with decades or centuries passing in transit, and travellers either in suspended animation, or else living and dying by generations during the transit. Still expensive and difficult, but the possibility of live visitors exists.

Only with the relativistic ship would a civilization likely travel more than a few dozen light years from home.

Now, FTL (faster than light)... no real theoretical basis, more like scientific speculations such as the Alcubierre Warp Drive (a mathmatical construct which could theoretically exceed lightspeed, but the energy requirements are enormous). Even more speculatively, wormholes, hyperspace, etc. What the "speeds" and limitations of such an FTL drive might be, we could not know and speculation is probably useless.

SO, we probably only get visitors in sublight ships if they are pretty close by, less than a hundred light years...and SETI results suggest that is unlikely. Even then, a giant fleet with invading armies is improbable given the massive resources involved in such an effort.

Of course, extremely advanced aliens might not need a huge army to exterminate us... but would aliens necessarily be that much more advanced?


...con't....
 
My personal opinion? Earth is a preserve in the galactic map. Remember the photograph of the natives in Brazil, shooting arrows at the airplane taking their picture? That's Earth.
amazon460x276.jpg
 
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Some people seem to assume that aliens capable of traveling between the stars must necessarily be so far ahead of us in technology that we are like Stone Age people by comparison. Some think that aliens would be so far ahead of us culturally and socially that we would be like fire ants to them.

Maybe...maybe not.

As speculated in Pournelle/Niven's book "Footfall", relatively primitive aliens could have gotten a "boost" to their technology by encountering the remains of a perished advanced civilization that had once existed on their own homeworld.

Contrariwise, an alien species would not have to be so much more advanced than us in many areas of technology to construct some sub-light vessels...just more focused on space travel than we seem to be.

For all we know, FTL might be something that an alien race no more advanced than we are now, could stumble over thanks to an Einstein-level genius having an inspirational thought.

There is a theory that says that when a species develops advanced technology, that evolution ceases...they no longer are shaped to their environment, but rather shape their environment to suit themselves.

Aliens might not be any more sophisticated socially than we are.

Conflict is a possibility. Peaceful exchange of ideas is also possible. It is also possible that we are alone in the galaxy.

Odds are good that we won't know until we go see for ourselves.

G.
 
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There is a theory that says that when a species develops advanced technology, that evolution ceases...they no longer are shaped to their environment, but rather shape their environment to suit themselves.

A recent documentary I've seen on space travel suggests that humans will likely begin to evolve dramatically once they adventure into space. For instance, even after a few generations of colonizing a body such as the moon, or Mars, our population would begin to select for traits which favored lower gravity. It might be tough to understand how natural selection would work for an advanced society in which every child is nurtured, well-fed, and protected. I believe the assumption is that those who adapt the best will be the most desirable physically, as well as the most healthy emotionally, and thus more likely to produce offspring.

;)
 
For all we know, FTL might be something that an alien race no more advanced than we are now, could stumble over thanks to an Einstein-level genius having an inspirational thought.

The universe is estimated to be about 12 billion years old

Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old

Earth had to start over at least 3 times because of major disasters in which the most developed species were wiped out.

Humans have only been developing for around 40 thousand years

These factors make it likely that we are Billions of years behind in evolution of some other civilizations
 
The universe is estimated to be about 12 billion years old

Earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old

Earth had to start over at least 3 times because of major disasters in which the most developed species were wiped out.

Humans have only been developing for around 40 thousand years

These factors make it likely that we are Billions of years behind in evolution of some other civilizations


Are you considering the factor in the Drake Equation, where a technological civilization is assumed to have a limited span of time in which it is capable of communicating on an interstellar level... including the possibility that high-tech civilizations destroy themselves eventually in most cases?

There was also the point that once we reach a certain level of technology, and start shaping the environment to suit ourselves, rather than being shaped by it, that evolution (for us) comes to a halt? The reasoning being, in one aspect, that instead of our "weak and unfit" dying off early, they are instead kept alive through medical technology and often reproduce.

Some speculate that self-directed "evolution" through genetic engineering and techno-augmentation would replace "natural" evolution.

Others speculate that past a certain point in development, a super-advanced species would cease to be intrested in the physical universe and transcend into some sort of "higher state of being".

Of course, its all speculation... even evolution itself is just a theory used to explain available data, and may be another field in which our ignorance exceeds our assumed knowlege.

Stars billions of years older than ours are also known to be deficient in heavier elements (in astrophysical terms, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, the stuff of life), and therefore less likely to have habitable planets with advanced lifeforms. The fact is WE might be the oldest intelligent life in the galaxy...we have no way of knowing at this point.

G.
 
A recent documentary I've seen on space travel suggests that humans will likely begin to evolve dramatically once they adventure into space. For instance, even after a few generations of colonizing a body such as the moon, or Mars, our population would begin to select for traits which favored lower gravity. It might be tough to understand how natural selection would work for an advanced society in which every child is nurtured, well-fed, and protected. I believe the assumption is that those who adapt the best will be the most desirable physically, as well as the most healthy emotionally, and thus more likely to produce offspring.

;)

Larry Niven was (is) fond of speculating along those lines, especially about the effects of gravity on human adaptation. Whether this would result in speciation or actual "evolutionary" advancement is speculative, but intresting.

The dramatically varied planets we've already found in the exoplanet search ongoing, has lead to a lot more speculation on what we might find in terms of earthlike worlds. Some scientists have begun to speculate that Earth might be among the smallest and least-massive worlds capable of supporting life, and that many other terrestrial planets might have much higher gravity.

One of the intresting things about the explanet search, and the unexpected results, is how humbling it is to realize how little we really know.

G.
 
Are you considering the factor in the Drake Equation, where a technological civilization is assumed to have a limited span of time in which it is capable of communicating on an interstellar level... including the possibility that high-tech civilizations destroy themselves eventually in most cases?

I think that the probability of that happening is very high.

Might be a good explanation of why we haven't been visited yet.

There was also the point that once we reach a certain level of technology, and start shaping the environment to suit ourselves, rather than being shaped by it, that evolution (for us) comes to a halt? The reasoning being, in one aspect, that instead of our "weak and unfit" dying off early, they are instead kept alive through medical technology and often reproduce.

This is happening today, its horrible. It is devolution.
Instead of supporting the best we have let ourselves become supporting the weakest.

Some speculate that self-directed "evolution" through genetic engineering and techno-augmentation would replace "natural" evolution.

We are about to start that, so I can see that for sure

Stars billions of years older than ours are also known to be deficient in heavier elements (in astrophysical terms, including carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, the stuff of life), and therefore less likely to have habitable planets with advanced lifeforms. The fact is WE might be the oldest intelligent life in the galaxy...we have no way of knowing at this point.

G.

Don't forget that Silicon may be a life supporting element.
We don't know yet what other elements may be the building blocks of life.
 
including the possibility that high-tech civilizations destroy themselves eventually in most cases?

Others speculate that past a certain point in development, a super-advanced species would cease to be intrested in the physical universe and transcend into some sort of "higher state of being".

Unfotunately I can see self destruction as a very real possibility for humans..

I can see the possibility of people intentionally living in a dream state in the far future...it would be like an addicting drug for some.

Some astrophysicists entertain the thought of the possiblility of energy based life forms...what's your take on this?
 
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While it is pretty hard to conceive of an energy based lifeform, using no matter whatsoever, that could maintain its internal order in such a way as to maintain sapience...it's pretty hard to rule it out too, since we're engaging in speculation about things know almost nothing about.

I'm looking forward to the new exoplanet searches, using new methods to find worlds of Earthlike mass. I expect some exciting (and unexpected) results.

G
 
I used to think about this a lot as a kid. Do to machines we really have stopped evolution. In the way that we are used to thinking about it. But who knows what being exposed to massive amounts of wireless routers and cell phones is doing to our insides when it comes to evolution.

I think the next big hit for evolution is definitely going to come from lineages of people that stay in 0 gravity. It's prolly how you get to live to 1,000. Unless we procrastinate on space colonization and gain noticeable evolution through merging technology and body perfectly.

I can't wait till humanity creates a "The Hub" that can copy ALL data from your head and implement it into an afterlife program on your deathbed into a giant fully replicated digital world. Then you could even have points in the digi world where they can go and see into the real world and have a tv screen display the dead love one and converse with them.
 
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