What will happen when we make contact???

[nlivo]

I was reading an article that got me thinking...

In my opinion, it is crazy to think that we are the only ones in the whole universe (...or galaxy. Basically just everything that exists). When we do make contact with whatever/whoever is out there (it'll happen one day), what would happen? It would easily be the biggest news in history but how would this change us? Eventually we would be able to travel from here to this "new" place. How would this affect our lives? Would it at all?

To me, this is amazing to think about. I won't be around when it happens (I'm 16), but just imagine the world's reaction. There have been people living their lives this whole time. The idea of Jesus would fade (IMO). Newton and Einstein's laws might just turn out to be completely "old news" to their standards.

What do you think would happen (in all seriousness)?

 

[PowerFullMac]

I was reading an article that got me thinking...

In my opinion, it is crazy to think that we are the only ones in the whole universe (...or galaxy. Basically just everything that exists). When we do make contact with whatever/whoever is out there (it'll happen one day), what would happen? It would easily be the biggest news in history but how would this change us? Eventually we would be able to travel from here to this "new" place. How would this affect our lives? Would it at all?

To me, this is amazing to think about. I won't be around when it happens (I'm 16), but just imagine the world's reaction. There have been people living their lives this whole time. The idea of Jesus would fade (IMO). Newton and Einstein's laws might just turn out to be completely "old news" to their standards.

What do you think would happen (in all seriousness)?

It could happen tomorrow, you cant suggest you wont be there hwen it happens.

Plus, there are theories that you could possibly stay alive for about 400 years, they done something similar with worms.

Back on topic, yes I think it will be cool, like Doctor Who but without the death (hopefully)

 

[mkrishnan]

Newton and Einstein's laws might just turn out to be completely "old news" to their standards.

Newton and Einstein's laws are kind of old news by our standards.

As for when it would happen, if you assume that some species out there is intelligent enough to find a way to contact us, there's no reason to have any expectation about when it could happen, because their technological development wouldn't be tied to our calendar. Unless they're like the Vulcans and they won't talk to us cuz we ain't got no warp drives.

Seriously, who knows? I think ultimately it would be an amazing experience, but it wouldn't have that much impact on the essence of who most of us are. If people still want to believe in God or religion, they will find a way to persevere -- I don't think pointy eared aliens will stop them. A few people might have the opportunity to get their eyes opened paradigmatically by such an experience, but I think people would still be people.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

The government will cover it and attempt a hybrid breeding programme that goes horribly wrong. The hybrids will become superhuman and will look down upon us normal humans and attempt to eradicate us. Meanwhile the original alien race will be pissed at America because they barged there way onto their planet and started drilling for oil and as a consequence initiated a galactic war between us, the aliens and the superhumans.

 

[mkrishnan]

The hybrids will become superhuman and will look down upon us normal humans and attempt to eradicate us.

And they have a plan.

 

[Queso]

The first bit of communication is going to be slow as. Let's say they're local, which according to some theories is actually more likely as the right atomic makeup for complex life is here in our corner of the galaxy. So let's say they've picked up an episode of I Love Lucy from 1953 which take 40 years to get to them, obviously at the speed of light or thereabouts. Firstly, unless their technology is vastly superior to ours it's going to be 2033 when we receive their first response, and 2073 by the time our response to that reaches them again. Personally I think humans being humans it will be hundreds of years of small communication before we trust them enough to constantly stream information about ourselves in their direction, even if they start off by doing exactly that. In the meantime religions will absorb the information by talking about god's timescales and the like, and Internet conspiracy theorists will do their best to convince us the transmissions are actually coming from the Arizona desert.

So assuming the contact actually pulls us together rather than apart, technology continues to advance, and neither we nor the aliens poison our respective worlds and wipe ourselves out in the meantime we would probably be looking at first meeting with these people in a few thousand years time.

And that is assuming they're local. Any more than 50 light years in any direction and the time starts to stretch out between events, perhaps becoming next to impossible if more than a few hundred light years distance must be traversed.

And of course, it's quite possible this process has actually already begun and we're not being told...

 

[PowerFullMac]

So let's say they've picked up an episode of I Love Lucy from 1953 which take 40 years to get to them...

Ahh... Stelaing ideas from Futurama, now, are we?

Oh yeah, and there could esily be water on Mars (or have they already found it?) that could support life, so maybe the Marsions are watching us right now!

 

[Queso]

Ahh... Stelaing ideas from Futurama, now, are we?

I thought that was supposed to be Single Female Lawyer

Oh yeah, and there could esily be water on Mars (or have they already found it?)

Proof

 

[nlivo]

And that is assuming they're local. Any more than 50 light years in any direction and the time starts to stretch out between events, perhaps becoming next to impossible if more than a few hundred light years distance must be traversed.)

Hmmm, we (humans on Earth) might not even be here by the time we make contact then.

 

[iGav]

Personally I think humans being humans it will be hundreds of years of small communication before we trust them enough to constantly stream information about ourselves in their direction,

But aren't we already inadvertently doing just that?

And that is assuming they're local. Any more than 50 light years in any direction and the time starts to stretch out between events, perhaps becoming next to impossible if more than a few hundred light years distance must be traversed.

Unless the theory of the Multiverse is a correct one of course.

 

[Melrose]

I don't think we will ever make contact, because I don't believe in life in outer space (outside the man in moon).

I don't think other things would fade either, Newton's laws (I assume you refer to gravity et al) or Einstein's laws (E=mc2 I presume) or belief in Jesus. These are things (qualification: Outside being a Christian, which is religious preference) that actually apply here - whither or not we believe in them does not make them any less true. You know, like 'If you don't believe in gravity, what is it sticky feet that keep from flying off into space?' kind of thing.

I am Christian and I believe in creation, so therefore a belief in Jesus would not fade no matter what the consequences. But again, that's religious preference. I recognize that and I'm not trying to pick a fight, just sayin'...

 

[Queso]

I don't think we will ever make contact, because I don't believe in life in outer space (outside the man in moon).

So you believe that this entire universe, with it's millions of galaxies, each containing millions of stars, was created solely for humans? If you don't mind me saying so, that idea is so way out there you'd need the Hubble to detect it.

 

[Melrose]

So you believe that this entire universe, with it's millions of galaxies, each containing millions of stars, was created solely for humans? If you don't mind me saying so, that idea is so way out there you'd need the Hubble to detect it.

eh, to each his own. I don't want this to turn into a flame-thing...

 

[Queso]

eh, to each his own. I don't want this to turn into a flame-thing...

Fair enough. I'd rather this didn't disappear to PRSI either. If an admin wishes to remove my post to make sure that doesn't happen then go for it

 

[nlivo]

I don't think other things would fade either, Newton's laws (I assume you refer to gravity et al) or Einstein's laws (E=mc2 I presume) or belief in Jesus. These are things (qualification: Outside being a Christian, which is religious preference) that actually apply here - whither or not we believe in them does not make them any less true.

No, I didn't say that making contact with others in space would then make these theories false...I meant that these theories might have been figured out waaaay before Einstein and Newton figured them out. That was just a small example I thought up quite quickly. Basically I am saying, that the things in history that we look up to and think how amazing it is that someone discovered them, are so archaic in comparison to these "new" beings that we start to question the intelligence of them.

This was only a small part of what might happen if we made contact with others. I am more interested in just people's reactions and how this would effect them.

 

[Abstract]

If we ever made contact or saw it land, it would end up in the 3rd tier trash mag, as nobody would believe the story.


I've always been more concerned with time travel. If time travel is possible, then there may be people from the future here right now, and they're betting on the big sports events, becoming really rich. Oh, and good ol' Doc Brown will have to figure out a way to fix that damn flux capacitor again.

 

[Melrose]

Nlivo: I read your post but apparently didn't understand it the way it was meant.

As far being figured out ahead of us here on earth, in this thread's hypothesis, then I would say it's entirely feasible to say they've been figured out ahead of time.

I do agree that so much of what we perceive as 'intelligence' is dated - I mean, as you say, looking back on such practices as bleeding a patient because it cures sickness and that kind of stuff, some of the things we have now that we are so great or smartly-done could in a relatively short time become outdated and the laughing-stock of future generations.

 

[PlaceofDis]

If we ever made contact or saw it land, it would end up in the 3rd tier trash mag, as nobody would believe the story.


I've always been more concerned with time travel. If time travel is possible, then there may be people from the future here right now, and they're betting on the big sports events, becoming really rich. Oh, and good ol' Doc Brown will have to figure out a way to fix that damn flux capacitor again.

i agree on the alien thing. it'd have to be a huge, almost inescapable 'landing' for everyone to believe as we're so desensitized to the concept.

time travel: if people from the future are here, whats to say that they're not tampering with the course of events?

no, people from alternate realties/dimensions are the most worrisome.

 

[Abstract]

Yes yes, you may be right about those people from alternate dimensions. It would be like time travel, but instead of travelling back and forth through time, these people would "slide" from one dimension to another. These sliding people, whom I will call "Sliders", could travel to alternate forms of our world.

Good idea, PlaceofDis.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

The chances they are at a similar level of intelligence and technology is remote.

Either they will "show us the way" or think we are the tastiest damn protein they have had in long time.

Remember the Twilight Zone episode that featured an alien book titled "How to Serve Man"?

It was a cook book.

 

[Queso]

time travel: if people from the future are here, whats to say that they're not tampering with the course of events?

More worryingly, what's to say they aren't going to go back to yesterday tomorrow and therefore change today?

Either they will "show us the way" or think we are the tastiest damn protein they have had in long time.

I wouldn't eat us if I were them, but then I know where we've been

 

[PlaceofDis]

More worryingly, what's to say they aren't going to go back to yesterday tomorrow and therefore change today?

I wouldn't eat us if I were them, but then I know where we've been

how would we know if they changed yesterday though.

and we might just end up being the best junk food in the universe.

 

[Sun Baked]

Well, the Christians would suddenly become the evil savages who don't worship the right god.

Can you say religious karma.

Naughty little savages polluting their own world, lets take our 1x Gods there and make them see the error of their ways and convert them.

 

[velocityg4]

I am feeling a bit pessimistic at the moment so here is my take.

I think that if or when we do make contact like that Carl Saigon series (The Universe 'I think') that the Aliens will either be in the Stone Age or so far beyond us that we could not even grasp their science and technology.

If in the stone age it would have to be by some ultra high speed travel or warping of space. Then red cross, other aid associations, educators, naturalists and anthropologists would completely f*** up the race. This would be achieved by interfering with their development, giving aid and little tastes of technology before they are ready. That or corporations would get there first and offer beads and such for all the planets land and use up all the resources. Don't believe me look at most third world nations today many were in the stone age and at a relatively stable balance then the above happened, some of the players were different, but the outcome is the same the societies were not ready and proper infrastructure and education was never put in place by the advanced interfering nations so those nations are in large part in anarchy with constant government changes.

If the race is extraordinarily advanced either they will be smart enough to not give us any technology or aid at all. That or the above could happen to us. Unless the nations are stable and wealthy enough to quickly handle the transition such as Iron Age Japan took on the Modern Industrial Age.

Or the race will be thousands of years beyond us and tell us that indeed faster than light travel is impossible as are any wormholes, warp or anything else and all that will be possible is radio contact.

 

[MrSmith]

time travel: if people from the future are here, whats to say that they're not tampering with the course of events?

Everything we do is tampering with future events.

When my Mum was young seeing a black man was almost a public affair. Bananas, too - though that doesn't really assist my train of thought... Anyway, if the green men come down then we'd get used to them pretty fast. Life has always adapted and if we aren't wiped out we'd soon settle into a groove. If for no other reason than the human mind must cope.

The most interesting question is what stance religion would take. I guess the most obvious is that God created everything including the little green men. Of course the little green men wouldn't recognize [enter god of choice] so I guess they'd have to wait outside the church/mosque/temple.