Extraterrestrials: Hope or Threat

Status
Not open for further replies.
:D
7c9b36e4f1344e7ee3f3169a077da416.jpg
I think they're trying to find out or maybe deny who the culprit is.
 
The daily life of these people was much simpler than ours, they practically dedicated themselves to survive by spending all their energy to obtain food and little else. Any means they had to obtain information was always controlled by the religious caste.

That's not entirely accurate. There is an incorrect assumption that primitive life was one of constant toil, but many recent primitive tribes have shown that they can get their nutrition out of just a few hours labor per day. This of course is highly dependent upon local conditions, of course (I've seen the case made that the development of more complex systems of thought is driven in part by seasonal change, requiring one to plan ahead for the predictable dark times). And the rise of a religious caste is dependent upon society reaching a level of "free time" to support an entire caste that does not devote its time to scrounging for the basics of life.

Most of the existence of humanity on Earth has not had a system of writing. the ability to record thoughts and observations is kinda vital to the development of science, and science is kinda vital to actually understanding reality. And the development of writing seems to require a reasonably sophisticated agricultural society; it also seems that private property rights need to be understood and protected, as much early writing seems to involve merchants keeping records. So that's something else we can expect from aliens: if they are intelligent and successful, they'll not only understand the scientific method, they'll probably be capitalists.
Merchants live off surpluses and can only exist in organized agricultural societies, but agriculture has also been a curse for humanity. We still talk about hydroponic agriculture in future Martian colonies and orbital arcologies. In my opinion a more advanced species will have discovered the secret of photosynthesis to make food from sunlight.
 
For those who have ears,

spock.jpg


there are a lot of materials about the population of other planets of the Solar system. And many of these sources are more than a thousand years old.

Which means they can be safely ignored. A thousand years ago, people believed a whole slew of patently false things... diseases were caused by out of balance humors or demons or witches; the stars were just little points of light in the sky; the Sun went around the Earth; Kings and serfs and slaves are all neato-keen institutions worthy of respect and maintenance; the "faith of a child" was actually a *good* thing. People then weren't stupid... but they were ignorant, and they were often quite wrong. If they couldn't be expected to understand the nature of *fire,* they sure as hell couldn't be expected to understand the nature of life on other worlds. People in the past did not have access to wisdom that we don't. All they had was access to less facts and lack of access to the scientific method, the most important development in all human history.
We all know where Vulcanized rubber technology came from.
It seems to me that Spock forgot to shave this morning.
 
In my opinion a more advanced species will have discovered the secret of photosynthesis to make food from sunlight.

More advanced societies will have the functional equivalent of replicators. Desktop chemical processors hooked up to desktop Mr. Fusion generators, hooked up to the toilet to turn yesterdays food into tomorrows, no living beings anywhere in the food production process.
 
You laugh, but somewhere right now someone is reading your post and deciding to create a religion around it.

Uh... yeah... uh... oh boy...

Gee, I hope not...

You're gonna be *thrilled* when you discover which of the two of us is considered the Prophet of Galactic Overlord Q, and which of us is considered the Dark Enemy. Of course there will be the heretical offshoots of Q-entology who reverse the roles.
 
Igvas and Raruggs

Anti-humanity, which in the future may threaten to invade our Layer. The book "The Rose of the World" was written in 1958, it is the only source on this problem. These are not aliens, but our neighbors. They live on the inner surface of the Earth, in four-dimensional space.

Based on what we evidently see and know, currently humanity is its own worst enemy that we have to worry about. As an engineer, I'd strongly recommend to concentrate on solving the manifest problems that we demonstrably do have as a priority over obsessing about imaginary ones. Note the emphasis on *priority* - I enjoy creative and productive armchair speculation as much as the next guy, but let's not lose focus.
 
Last edited:
For those who have ears, there are a lot of materials about the population of other planets of the Solar system. And many of these sources are more than a thousand years old. If we discard the children's game "I believe - I don't believe", then we can make a fairly complete and objective picture on this issue.
Planet Jupiter - population of Domination, planet Saturn - population of Thrones, Mars - Forces, Sun - Powers, Venus - Beginnings, Mercury - Archangels, Moon - Angels, Earth - People

View attachment 686600
Thanks for the drawing, I find especially fascinating the flying eyes of Seraphin and Thrones, they seem designed for aerial reconnaissance.
According to an ancient legend, a man named Ezekiel observed flying wheels and winged humanoids when walking near the Chebar River in Caldea, 25 centuries ago.

The celebrated biblical passage may only be a made-up story, but archaeology and paleontology have proven time and time again that every myth and legend have a base of truth.



There is a fascinating (well, at least to me) example of what can happen when an evidently rational and scientifically educated person starts to take ancient lore like that of Ezekiel seriously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceships_of_Ezekiel
Note an example of his previous work: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700027338/downloads/19700027338.pdf
 
Last edited:
For those who have ears, there are a lot of materials about the population of other planets of the Solar system. And many of these sources are more than a thousand years old. If we discard the children's game "I believe - I don't believe", then we can make a fairly complete and objective picture on this issue.
Planet Jupiter - population of Domination, planet Saturn - population of Thrones, Mars - Forces, Sun - Powers, Venus - Beginnings, Mercury - Archangels, Moon - Angels, Earth - People

View attachment 686600
Thanks for the drawing, I find especially fascinating the flying eyes of Seraphin and Thrones, they seem designed for aerial reconnaissance.
According to an ancient legend, a man named Ezekiel observed flying wheels and winged humanoids when walking near the Chebar River in Caldea, 25 centuries ago.

The celebrated biblical passage may only be a made-up story, but archaeology and paleontology have proven time and time again that every myth and legend have a base of truth.



There is a fascinating (well, at least to me) example of what can happen when an evidently rational and scientifically educated person starts to take ancient lore like that of Ezekiel seriously: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spaceships_of_Ezekiel
Note an example of his previous work: https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19700027338/downloads/19700027338.pdf
Archaeology and paleontology have proven time and time again that every myth and legend have a base of truth.

The legend of Troy was unearthed in Hissarlik, the Universal Flood was the rupture of the dam between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the legend of Atlantis was unearthed in Santorini and possibly the climatic consequences of the eruption of the volcano affected the water level in African lakes and were recorded in Egypt for posterity as the seven biblical plagues. There are still many myths to investigate and legends can help modern science look for things that we would not otherwise know have existed.
 
Archaeology and paleontology have proven time and time again that every myth and legend have a base of truth.

The current planetary civilization could utterly collapse. Nuclear war, Carrington event, apocalyptic pandemic... each could erase large fractions of the population and reduce survivors to pre-technological savagery. High civilizations could eventually re-emerge, and one day, some 4,000 years from now, some steampunk-level archaeologist with some crazy theories could dig up Manhattan and prove once and for all that New York was a truly historically validated place, and therefore the legends of Spider-Man were real. A few decades later other teams on the far side of the continent could prove once and for all that the long string of rust across the Sanfrankarko wasteland was actually the Golden Gate Bridge, and that proves that the still ever so slightly radioactive crater on the north end must be where Starfleet Headquarters was located. This announcement will unintentionally kick off the Two Hundred Years War between the Vgerites and the Q-entologists.
 
Archaeology and paleontology have proven time and time again that every myth and legend have a base of truth.

The current planetary civilization could utterly collapse. Nuclear war, Carrington event, apocalyptic pandemic... each could erase large fractions of the population and reduce survivors to pre-technological savagery. High civilizations could eventually re-emerge, and one day, some 4,000 years from now, some steampunk-level archaeologist with some crazy theories could dig up Manhattan and prove once and for all that New York was a truly historically validated place, and therefore the legends of Spider-Man were real. A few decades later other teams on the far side of the continent could prove once and for all that the long string of rust across the Sanfrankarko wasteland was actually the Golden Gate Bridge, and that proves that the still ever so slightly radioactive crater on the north end must be where Starfleet Headquarters was located. This announcement will unintentionally kick off the Two Hundred Years War between the Vgerites and the Q-entologists.
In Francis Carsac's novel "First Empire," archaeologists from the future discover a science fiction library and believe that these books relate real historical events. The discovery makes the great scientific council think that interstellar travel is possible and politicians think they could create the Second Empire. Then they provide the necessary resources and humanity manages to escape to the stars... without knowing that they are the first. Perhaps in our time something similar could have happened if Einstein had dedicated himself to playing the violin professionally.
 

Attachments

  • 120.jpg
    120.jpg
    656.1 KB · Views: 9
Returning to the original "What might aliens be like?" speculation - has anyone seen "Captive State"?
 
Just the trailer to date. Had other things on my mind around the time it came out.
 
A Protocol, use a Game Show Host, once they have landed the Host come's out, well Johnny what have our ET guests won today; Well Bill, a new car, a diamond ring and a fir coat not to mention the complete set Ginsu knifes, strong enough to cut through your ship but sharp enough to thinly slice up this tomato, and the world goes wild!
 
I think if they look like Vulcans, act peacefully and are well-spoken, we'll listen while hidden snipers watch their every move. Then, after some interval, we might let our guard down, a little. If they are hideous or look like gelatinous blobs, we'll probably shoot first and ask questions later.
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D
 
A recent presentation on the Fermi paradox. Key points: 'paradoxes' are often semantic, or depend on accepting certain arbitrary assumptions, so what are we really asking? Since there are many, many potential solutions and yet all are to varying degrees problematic, we need to think differently. David Kipping proposes the weak anthropic principle and survivorship bias on a galactic scale.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUgb2OPpdM

https://www.amazon.es/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011

https://www.amazon.com/Eerie-Silence-Renewing-Search-Intelligence/dp/0547133243
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
 
It may not be easy to travel to our solar system for some reason unknown to our astronomers. Perhaps the structure of space-time prevents passage to their FTL ships. Perhaps the Oort cloud contains something that prevents them from passing through it. Maybe they want to come but they can't. Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
 
It may not be easy to travel to our solar system for some reason unknown to our astronomers. Perhaps the structure of space-time prevents passage to their FTL ships. Perhaps the Oort cloud contains something that prevents them from passing through it. Maybe they want to come but they can't. Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
Or perhaps there's a big sign/warning on all interstellar maps and outside the Solar system that says some thing to the effect of "Avoid Earth - too many idiots live there"
 
  • Like
Reactions: zen
It may not be easy to travel to our solar system for some reason unknown to our astronomers. Perhaps the structure of space-time prevents passage to their FTL ships. Perhaps the Oort cloud contains something that prevents them from passing through it. Maybe they want to come but they can't. Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
Or perhaps there's a big sign/warning on all interstellar maps and outside the Solar system that says some thing to the effect of "Avoid Earth - too many idiots live there"

No, that can't be it.

:)
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi
 

Attachments

  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-00-Period-8865edfac3adf51e47f84ea12073d80b-3.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-00-Period-8865edfac3adf51e47f84ea12073d80b-3.jpg
    252 KB · Views: 4
  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-22-Period-cadillac-eldorado-1959-jpg.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-22-Period-cadillac-eldorado-1959-jpg.jpg
    212.4 KB · Views: 6
  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-15-gm_motorama_catalog_61.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-15-gm_motorama_catalog_61.jpg
    176 KB · Views: 6
  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-02-Period-Cadillac-1956-Series-62-Coupe-de-Ville.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-02-Period-Cadillac-1956-Series-62-Coupe-de-Ville.jpg
    142.9 KB · Views: 6
  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-07-1959-Cadillac-Cyclone_a.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-07-1959-Cadillac-Cyclone_a.jpg
    117.4 KB · Views: 6
  • Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-03-Period-Drawings-Oldsmobile-1959-98-convertible.jpg
    Iconos-Aletas-y-cromados-03-Period-Drawings-Oldsmobile-1959-98-convertible.jpg
    102.5 KB · Views: 7
It may not be easy to travel to our solar system for some reason unknown to our astronomers. Perhaps the structure of space-time prevents passage to their FTL ships. Perhaps the Oort cloud contains something that prevents them from passing through it. Maybe they want to come but they can't. Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
Or perhaps there's a big sign/warning on all interstellar maps and outside the Solar system that says some thing to the effect of "Avoid Earth - too many idiots live there"
Maybe ET has such a high standard of living that only idiots would want to come here... Does an inhabitant of Graz want water from a Bedouin?
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi

It's not just the cars but the behavior of the people.
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi

It's not just the cars but the behavior of the people.
I agree, that was the best generation, they survived the crash of 1929, defeated fascism and reached the Moon, their only mistake was to create the baby boomers.
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi

It's not just the cars but the behavior of the people.
I agree, that was the best generation, they survived the crash of 1929, defeated fascism and reached the Moon, their only mistake was to create the baby boomers.

Oh, oh, please. I'm a so-called Baby Boomer. I grew up around a lot of nice, friendly people...
 
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi

It's not just the cars but the behavior of the people.
I agree, that was the best generation, they survived the crash of 1929, defeated fascism and reached the Moon, their only mistake was to create the baby boomers.

Oh, oh, please. I'm a so-called Baby Boomer. I grew up around a lot of nice, friendly people...
Me too;)
 

Attachments

  • hanoijane6-2.jpg
    hanoijane6-2.jpg
    29.3 KB · Views: 5
  • Manson1968.jpg
    Manson1968.jpg
    18.4 KB · Views: 5
My family has a property in a small town in southern Spain where I like to spend a few days in summer. The place still lives in the fifties, there is only a shop, a bar and a detestable road access. For seventy years the locals envy the wealth of Marbella, one of the most important tourist cities in the country that can be seen from the mountains where the small town is located. For seventy years the locals have wondered the same thing as Fermi... Where is everybody?:D

I still live in the fifties. Much nicer here...
Hi

It's not just the cars but the behavior of the people.
I agree, that was the best generation, they survived the crash of 1929, defeated fascism and reached the Moon, their only mistake was to create the baby boomers.

Oh, oh, please. I'm a so-called Baby Boomer. I grew up around a lot of nice, friendly people...
Me too;)

The guy on the right looks vaguely familiar. I hope you don't think he's a typical Baby Boomer.

:)
 
It may not be easy to travel to our solar system for some reason unknown to our astronomers. Perhaps the structure of space-time prevents passage to their FTL ships. Perhaps the Oort cloud contains something that prevents them from passing through it. Maybe they want to come but they can't. Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
Or perhaps there's a big sign/warning on all interstellar maps and outside the Solar system that says some thing to the effect of "Avoid Earth - too many idiots live there"
“You don’t have to be mad to work there, but it helps”
 
Perhaps there are many civilizations in the Galaxy but we are the most advanced and the humility of political correctness prevents us from considering that possibility.;)
And perhaps we're alone, because we're the first. Yes, that sounds like arrogance, but consider: the universe is about 13,000,000,000 years old. That sounds like a lot. But the stelliferous era will last something like 100,000,000,000,000 years. We are in the first 0.013% of the era of the universe where stars are burning. But the universe itself could functionally exist for a total of 10^100 to 10^220 years. We currently reside in the very first blip of time in the universe. The *vast* bulk of the lifespan of the universe will occur long after all the stars have gone dark and the galaxies exploded and even the last of the monster black holes have evaporated into nothing.
 
I thought we were 'mostly harmless'? Maybe it's the cricket or naming a country Belgium.
 
A recent presentation on the Fermi paradox. Key points: 'paradoxes' are often semantic, or depend on accepting certain arbitrary assumptions, so what are we really asking? Since there are many, many potential solutions and yet all are to varying degrees problematic, we need to think differently. David Kipping proposes the weak anthropic principle and survivorship bias on a galactic scale.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUgb2OPpdM

https://www.amazon.es/Universe-Teeming-Aliens-WHERE-EVERYBODY/dp/0387955011

https://www.amazon.com/Eerie-Silence-Renewing-Search-Intelligence/dp/0547133243
The problem I have with Webb is that he requires every solution to be 100% effective or it must be invalid when in fact few are mutually exclusive and they can have a cumulative effect. I have the same view of the Great Filter - there may be no single gateway we pass and think, 'Phew, that was lucky!' Instead there might be an effect of 'erosion' or death by a thousand cuts. If not killed, what's left over may be 'vivisected' into something quite unrecognisable.

Finally, to flourish in interstellar space - and therefore to have a Darwinian advantage - one has to be adapted to it. Descendants of fish do well on land but fish do not. Beings adapted to interstellar space might find planets and stars inconvenient and only abstractly interesting compared to the more abundant and accessible dark matter.

Interesting, albeit rather philosophically dense essays here:


https://www.academia.edu/16674149/A_Kantian_Wontian_Solution_to_the_Fermi_Paradox

The author discusses 'Cantians' (they can't travel) versus 'Wontians' (they can travel if they want to, but they won't contact us). They make a lot of theological arguments, but stripped of those, it boils down to

Perhaps all advanced civilisations are Wontians because they are simply indifferent to anything we care about, including communication with beings such as us. If life is ubiquitous, this might be the best solution to the Fermi Paradox.
 
Last edited:
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Primates have been around for up to 85 million years. 'Modern humans' for 300,000 years. Radio has been a thing for around 130 years. Rocketry to reach space for 80 years. Only 4 satellites have escaped the heliosphere within the last decade or so. Within 300,000-2 million years they will pass nearby stars.

So if it takes roughly 4-5 billion years before a planet can send barely a handful of satellites to local stars it would seem rather fanciful that the galaxy would be littered with probes. And all four of ours will be functionally dead on arrival. We can barely detect a small asteroid between the earth and moon, a dormant probe could easily sail by an alien civilisation without any notice. Pioneer 10's flyby of HIP 117795 at a distance of 0.75 light years in 90,000 years time will be the closest flypast of the Voyagers or Pioneer 11 will make. I'm not confident we'd spot a Voyager probe passing that near to us.
 

There's not a planet in our solar system that can sustain life and the nearest star is over a thousand years away, I mean, that doesn't even qualify as futile.
 
The Earth is 4.5 billion years old. Primates have been around for up to 85 million years. 'Modern humans' for 300,000 years. Radio has been a thing for around 130 years. Rocketry to reach space for 80 years. Only 4 satellites have escaped the heliosphere within the last decade or so. Within 300,000-2 million years they will pass nearby stars.

So if it takes roughly 4-5 billion years before a planet can send barely a handful of satellites to local stars it would seem rather fanciful that the galaxy would be littered with probes. And all four of ours will be functionally dead on arrival. We can barely detect a small asteroid between the earth and moon, a dormant probe could easily sail by an alien civilisation without any notice. Pioneer 10's flyby of HIP 117795 at a distance of 0.75 light years in 90,000 years time will be the closest flypast of the Voyagers or Pioneer 11 will make. I'm not confident we'd spot a Voyager probe passing that near to us.
You point out the incredible acceleration of technology in your post. What can you foresee humans achieving in the next 500? 1000? 100,000 years? Parts of the universe are billions of years older.

That said IMHO the universe exists for us to observe, we are it’s only observer. We observe therefore it exists.

Circular? Yup but whatcha going to do? ;)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom