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What will happen when we make contact???
- Thread starter nlivo
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Along those same lines, are we the contactor or the contactee.
The former might happen, in the fulness of time.
The latter, not if they have any sense at all. (See above post.)
PS: It still amazes me that those who believe in creation STILL think that we are the only game in town. That is chutzpah.
The former might happen, in the fulness of time.
The latter, not if they have any sense at all. (See above post.)
PS: It still amazes me that those who believe in creation STILL think that we are the only game in town. That is chutzpah.
Larson running out of material?
Ah, the 'what-happens-if-I-go-back-in-time-and-kill-my-grandfather' scenario...
Sorry, I just realised I failed to answer the question put forward.
I believe that the contact would be not unlike that in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At least that's what we should hope .... and pray, if you got 'em.
I believe that the contact would be not unlike that in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At least that's what we should hope .... and pray, if you got 'em.
Not necessarily mutually exclusive. The Bible says God created all things. Do they include alien civilizations? Who knows. Seems unlikely from our interpretation of modern and ancient cultures, though. If alien beings did exist, do they worship God too? Guess we'll find out if/when we make contact
I feel that if even if there are other alien beings out there, sufficiently advanced to a similar state of intelligence as us, I still think the probability of making contact with them is ridiculously small.
Ah, very cleaver, Mr., "Smith", is it?
What do they call you on your home planet, and do you require a liaison. (I come real cheap.)
What do they call you on your home planet, and do you require a liaison. (I come real cheap.)
But I agree, and at the risk of disturbing the Force (going PRSI) my point was aimed at this post.
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/5605712/
Actually, there may not be intelligent life out there, which might explain the lack of any aliens turning up:
I like this theory as it suggests that we are all creators of what is to come 'next'. And what a way to go...
I'll put the pipe down now.
- Life begins to develop on planet
- Intelligent lifeforms emerge, ask questions about their origins
- Lifeforms are fascinated by Big Bang, and try to re-create its conditions to learn more about it (CERN)
- This risks re-creating a big bang
- Big Bang
- Repeat
I like this theory as it suggests that we are all creators of what is to come 'next'. And what a way to go...
I'll put the pipe down now.
But, I think the most important question here is "Will they use Macs or PCs?"
If its inteligent life, you know its gotta be a Mac!
There, fixed that for you.
I think contact is jumping the gun a little. We'd be lucky enough to detect extraterrestrial life, much less intelligent extraterrestrial life. Even if that were to happen tomorrow, I we wouldn't make contact within my lifetime.
I understand that the next Start Trek film will be about the creation of the federation of planets, and how it was before Earth became so important in that context of economic integration
I'm actually curious about that film, and how it may address certain practical issues with meeting other civilizations.. picture this: UFO shows up and little green men with all good intentions pop out.
Will we learn their language? Will we choose one Earth language for them to learn? Spanish? Cantonese?
How do we pick the place to have them land? If they need to set up a camp for a few months while we show them our maths symbols and the whole Rambo trilogy where will they settle?
Should we give them an iMac and unlimited access to the internet so they have a look at Wikipedia, or should we try to filter out strategic information? ...
etc.
etc.
I'm actually curious about that film, and how it may address certain practical issues with meeting other civilizations.. picture this: UFO shows up and little green men with all good intentions pop out.
Will we learn their language? Will we choose one Earth language for them to learn? Spanish? Cantonese?
How do we pick the place to have them land? If they need to set up a camp for a few months while we show them our maths symbols and the whole Rambo trilogy
where will they settle?Should we give them an iMac and unlimited access to the internet so they have a look at Wikipedia, or should we try to filter out strategic information? ...
etc.
etc.
The best assumption we can make is that the laws of physics we know today are "mostly correct". That means they are close approximations to to nature. In other words we can expect refinments but nothing that would toss out Einstein and Newton in a wholesale way. So no "Star Trek" or "Star Wars" style faster than light communications or travel. OK Maybe I'm wrong but I'd say million to one ods is that I'm not.
That said I think Life is relativly common but tecnology is very rare after all humans have been on Earth for a million years and just invented radio decades ago, Complex life existed for hundreds of millions of years and humans just in the last million. Each milestone between simple life and technology is a one and a million event. But space is big and there might be many civilizations. But space is big and the sppeed of light is not THAT fast, Radio signals from Earth have only traveld less then 100 light years and at that distance we could not detect our own signals. We currently do not have technology to detect a signal except if iti s a "mega transmitter" aimed right at us.
So, while there may be some one out there finding them will not be easy can statistically is unlikely we will find them.
Centuries from now when we do find each other, at first we may be so different that we will not have much to talk about. And it will be painfully slow. We might say "3, 5 and 13 are prime numbers", then 200 years later they say "yes and so is 17" and then it goes on from there.
There is just now way to loose that 200+ year "ping time". We will have to build a robot spacecraft and send it off on a 1,000+ year long trip they mught send one our way
Like I said "Space is big."
That said I think Life is relativly common but tecnology is very rare after all humans have been on Earth for a million years and just invented radio decades ago, Complex life existed for hundreds of millions of years and humans just in the last million. Each milestone between simple life and technology is a one and a million event. But space is big and there might be many civilizations. But space is big and the sppeed of light is not THAT fast, Radio signals from Earth have only traveld less then 100 light years and at that distance we could not detect our own signals. We currently do not have technology to detect a signal except if iti s a "mega transmitter" aimed right at us.
So, while there may be some one out there finding them will not be easy can statistically is unlikely we will find them.
Centuries from now when we do find each other, at first we may be so different that we will not have much to talk about. And it will be painfully slow. We might say "3, 5 and 13 are prime numbers", then 200 years later they say "yes and so is 17" and then it goes on from there.
There is just now way to loose that 200+ year "ping time". We will have to build a robot spacecraft and send it off on a 1,000+ year long trip they mught send one our way
Like I said "Space is big."
I doubt we will ever see the actual biological "men". But there is a fair chance we will get to meet the robots they built eons ago. In a couple centuries humans will be able to build robot spacecraft that can travel at (say) a tenth of the speed of light. We might be rich enough to build thousands of these every year. We might assume some other civiliation might do the same thing. If the robots were very sophisticated they could build copies of themselves. If that ever happens the galaxy would be blanketed with robots in a few hundred thousand years.
I'm quite surprized that some other civilization has not already done this. Why is the galaxy not already blanketed with robots ten times over? I think there are only a few answers to this question
(1) there were no other technological civilizations much before us, so we'd be one iof the first (very un-likely) or
(2) The Galaxy is blanked with probes but all of them are programmed to remain un-detectable
(3) One a civilization become advanced enough they stop carring about contacting others and don't.
In the search for life outside of Earth the only hard fact we know is that we have not found anything. Whatever model of the universe we have must include this fact.
I'm quite surprized that some other civilization has not already done this. Why is the galaxy not already blanketed with robots ten times over? I think there are only a few answers to this question
(1) there were no other technological civilizations much before us, so we'd be one iof the first (very un-likely) or
(2) The Galaxy is blanked with probes but all of them are programmed to remain un-detectable
(3) One a civilization become advanced enough they stop carring about contacting others and don't.
In the search for life outside of Earth the only hard fact we know is that we have not found anything. Whatever model of the universe we have must include this fact.
(4) The advanced civilisations have agreed amongst themselves not to interfere with developing races until they've proved they're mature enough*
*© Gene Roddenberry
Well I think life (intelligent or otherwise) on other planets is possible; it happened here so the probability is not zero, and given the vast amount of planets hopefully at least one other is bound to have some life on it... but that's been said before....
As to the probability that the life out there can hear our broadcasts into space, discern what they are and respond to them only serves to lower the probability of a return signal. Add the time it takes to reach other systems and respond back and you've got a long, uncertain wait ahead!
Now imagine if the aliens treated our signal like a telemarketer call during dinner!
As to the probability that the life out there can hear our broadcasts into space, discern what they are and respond to them only serves to lower the probability of a return signal. Add the time it takes to reach other systems and respond back and you've got a long, uncertain wait ahead!
Now imagine if the aliens treated our signal like a telemarketer call during dinner!
... just when I thought I had forgotten that show, thanks Abstract.
5) although intelligent life is common, it is not distributed in uniform manner. Earth may be in a scarcely populated part of space;
6) The Great Spaghetti Monster decided to create many planets with intelligent life, but placing one in each galaxy so the creatures would never find a way to meet. (ramen!)