Anybody Out There?
The sheer humungousness of the universe would suggest (to me anyway) that it’s highly unlikely we’re the only semi-intelligent beings inhabiting the place. Setting aside the rather fundamental problems of travelling the unimaginable distances involved, we’ve been putting our message out for quite some time – primarily via this lot.
The much respected electro-voice now suggests that it may not be in our interests to even bother trying. Quote:
I wonder how we’ll see this in a few thousand years – if we survive that long?! |
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Either we will need to fear them or they would be wise to fear us. |
On some levels, I agree with Hawking. Humans, as genetic constructs, have existed for something like 200,000 years, and have a recorded history of about 15,000 years or so (depending on how you define "recorded"). Can you imagine interacting with a species that has a recorded history (and requisit advances) stretching back a million years? A billion? We might literally have more in common with an ant than with them. The prospects of developing a health relationship seem limited, unless evolution has led their sentience to be not utterly dissimilar from our own.
On the other hand, if a species can jaunt from system to system, I doubt resources are much of an issue for them. Once you're able to get into space easily, there's basically an infinite amount of resources (e.g., moon-sized diamonds). The only thing that makes Earth "special" resource-wise is life and its by-products, which would probably have little or no value to them as a resource in the traditional sense. Anything earth life could produce, could probably be done by the aliens themselves (e.g., generating oxygen), so turning Earth into a mining colony would probably be a waste of time. The worst case scenario would be for a species, having an extremely long view of the future, to perceive humans (or any other non-homeworld life) to be an inevitable threat and wipe us out. Given how different we might (will) be, it may well be less meaningful to them than kicking over an ant hill. A guide to first contact has been proposed. Study it carefully oh yee guinee pig. |
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Have you read 'Footfall' by Niven and Pournelle? also their 'Mote in God's Eye' - puts forward a different scenario re resources |
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That is to say, extermination could be logical depending on how much of a self-absorbed prick species you are. Hence my advice to whatever species first stumbles upon our lovely system is: Run. If you value your future, run! |
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In another sense, "we" have been evolving for 3.5 billion years. That's a sizable chunk of the known universe. For all we know, ours are the oldest forms of life in the whole shooting match, assuming we're not the only ones ... |
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jesus fuck, when humans encounter other slightly less technologically advanced humans they waste no time ass raping their culture and enslaving them. What the hell is going to happen when we are the weaker party? They'll throw a blanket of smallpox over the whole fucking planet. Unless they are, you know, enlightened beings, in which case they will probably just plant a mostly harmless sign and be on their way.
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They might come to serve humans. :|
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