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[Imbarkus]

The galaxy is massive, but there are a ton of planets in it, maybe it's filled and teeming with life and the only reason we haven't noticed any is because we've been lucky. The chance might be small that they stumble upon us, which is why I think the destruction-hypothesis is more likely to happen as we do broadcast our existence into every direction.

We are isolated by both space and time. How long have we been intelligent enough for us to contact aline life? 50 years? And what are the odds we will still be here in another 1,000 years, intelligent, ready and available to be contacted or conquered?

With our Solar System's lifespan of 4 billion years, we are already a needle in a haystack to run across, even if alien life has been regularly tromping around our solar system.

This is our isolation within time, without even bringing up relativity and its impact on our isolation within space.

We will not be meeting any alien species, guys. They probably lived and died millennia before us, or will millennia after. What are the odds our worlds would develop civilizations at roughly the same time frame?

 

[Rom1944]

Think about if we someday control space travel and find a primitive alien race i think that we probably will take advantage of them (research, zoo, exotic pets) why will they behave different?.


Edit: hehe i see what you did there thanks for correcting my spelling.

I don't think we would. Maybe 100 years ago, but I don't think we would now, and I don't think we would in the future.

 

[Hilbert]

Think about if we someday control space travel and find a primitive alien race i think that we probably would take advantage of them (research, zoo, exotic pets) why will they behave different?.

I don't think we would. Maybe 100 years ago, but I don't think we would now, and I don't think we would in the future.

 

[Raist]

Not saying humans are superior to animals, but the inverse is clearly not the case.

That doesn't make a lot of sense.

 

[teruterubozu]

I don't think we would. Maybe 100 years ago, but I don't think we would now, and I don't think we would in the future.

There's a profit in there somewhere.

 

[Razek]

But wouldn't a super intelligent race understand that all life is important? Obviously we don't because humans suck, but the aliens would be better than us.

Why should they? To the cosmos life isn't important. It just happened and just is. Just another part of the universe. So if we get rid of the absolute you leave the relative, which leads to the concept of moral superiority. This is a flawed concept with no true right or wrong answer. There is no evidence to suggest that higher intelligent space fairing beings would be morally 'good'.

 

[MrPing1000]

 

[The Adder]

I always thought an organism that can travel the vast distances of space would be so far advanced that the idea of violence isn't even part of their existance.

This idea has always bugged me. I've always felt that just because human evolution has resulted in us getting less violent as we get more intelligent, why would that mean any other species would have the same results?

 

[V_Arnold]

There's a profit in there somewhere.

Yep, the "there is a profit in there" system is currently reaching levels where we either shake that system off our backs and start respecting ourselves and each other or we will not be able to "conquer" anything anymore. iSpaceShuttles? Please.

This idea has always bugged me. I've always felt that just because human evolution has resulted in us getting less violent as we get more intelligent, why would that mean any other species would have the same results?

It is not human evolution, it is life itself. Think about how complex bodies work with their cells operating in harmony to ensure the survival of the larger body. Think about where multi-celled organimsm would appear if every cell would only care about itself. (Not that that level does not exist, but levels above exist as well.)

 

[Kai Dracon]

We are isolated by both space and time. How long have we been intelligent enough for us to contact aline life? 50 years? And what are the odds we will still be here in another 1,000 years, intelligent, ready and available to be contacted or conquered.

With our Solar System's lifespan of 4 billion years, we are already a needle in a haystack to run across, even if alien life has been regularly tromping around our solar system.

This is our isolation within time, without even bringing up relativity and its impact on our isolation within space.

We will not be meeting any alien species, guys. They probably lived and died millennia before us, or will millennia after. What are the odds our worlds would develop civilizations at roughly the same time frame?

Saying "we will not" is a pretty big claim with so many unknown variables.

Mind you, what you're pointing out is a big topic, yes. The issue of time scale is very important. However, you also can't limit your thinking to imagining alien life always was, and always will be, limited to the present human scale of lifespan and time. Hell, there's no way of knowing if humans will remain limited to their current scale of lifespan and time for all that long.

For instance: civilization develops technology, transcends to digital lifeforms, becomes effectively immortal. What is 100,000 years, or one million years, to something like that?

I think what's far more safe to predict, is that the odds are exceedingly low we (and by 'we' I mean we as we would recognize ourselves today!) will encounter any alien life that is much like ourselves. Organic, at our level of biological and cultural complexity, our capacity for intelligence. The window for such a species developing the capability for space travel then using it, may be very small before the species evolves dramatically with accelerating technology.

As someone else once put it: "if we go into space and meet aliens who we can comprehend on our own terms, then one of two things will be happening. We'll be astronomically fortunate to have met in the right timeframe, or we're meeting the avatars of vastly superior beings who are lowering themselves to our level so that we even realize we're standing in front of something that, long ago, used to be like us."

Edit: oh, and one thought about the whole "but will the aliens be good!" thing.

You best hope that, any civilization that masters traversing the galaxy, possessing the great knowledge and science required for that - and thus, the power - has taken a long look at the universe and come to at least one conclusion: that organized structure is valuable and should not be wantonly or thoughtlessly destroyed.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

The chance of there being an intelligent and technologically-advanced alien species within the radius of our broadcasts is incredibly low.

If there is such a specie, it's not sure they'll be searching for us in any meaningful way.

If they are searching, it's not sure that they'll find us - as much as you think we are SCREAMING into the void of space, there's a lot of radio sources in the Universe and finding one and correctly identifying it as a signature of intelligent life is very hard and requires luck.

If they find us, it's not sure that they care.

If they care, it's not sure that they can do anything about it - Modern physics doesn't allow faster than light travel and, science fiction hopes aside, it maybe completely impossible. In that case, the only way aliens can travel effectively through interstellar space is at relativistic speeds (a significant percentage of the speed of light). It will take them years to complete the journey and even accelerating spaceships to relativistic speeds requires technology that doesn't exist yet and may never exist.

If they can do something about it using undiscovered magical alien tech, it's not sure they'll want to destroy us rather than interact with us peacefully.

If they want to destroy us it's not sure they'll succeed. We have nukes and we have the advantage of actually living on this planet - sure this is a pretty dismal scenario for humanity but I wouldn't say we stand no chance.

The bottom line is that you don't need to worry. The chances of humanity ever encountering another intelligent specie are incredibly slim - especially during our life time.

There's no reason whatsoever for them to actually get into a conventional war if their intention is to destroy us.
If they have extra-system travel capabilities, they could probably strap a rocket (or several) on an asteroid and nudge it our way - if it's big enough it'll instantly destroy human civilization so long as we stay on this planet.

Why would they do it?
Because it might be their only chance of destroying us, before we for some reason possibly attempts to do the same to their planets.

It is not human evolution, it is life itself. Think about how complex bodies work with their cells operating in harmony to ensure the survival of the larger body. Think about where multi-celled organimsm would appear if every cell would only care about itself. (Not that that level does not exist, but levels above exist as well.)

You're conflating the harmony existing within a particular community of cells, and the relationship between all cells. A lot of cells are intent on destroying other without regards for them or some balance, the only reason they stop is because their target end up destroyed.

 

[The Adder]

It is not human evolution, it is life itself. Think about how complex bodies work with their cells operating in harmony to ensure the survival of the larger body. Think about where multi-celled organimsm would appear if every cell would only care about itself. (Not that that level does not exist, but levels above exist as well.)

"Working together" and "Evolving beyond violence" are two entirely different concepts.

 

[Rentahamster]

Completely wild hypothesis, as I have no idea about the mechanics of space-organism travel without intelligence, but it's a possibility no matter how far-fetched.

Considering the environment of space itself, I'm hard pressed to come up with any sort of evolutionary pressures that would compel life to become multicellular or even more complex, considering that due to all the radiation, a more complex organism would be more prone to damage. Of course, that just might be a failure of my imagination. That's always a posibility.

The galaxy is massive, but there are a ton of planets in it, maybe it's filled and teeming with life and the only reason we haven't noticed any is because we've been lucky. The chance might be small that they stumble upon us, which is why I think the destruction-hypothesis is more likely to happen as we do broadcast our existence into every direction.

The chance isn't just small, it's incredibly small. You need to think of this in terms of time as well as space. To even be in reachable proximity to one another is a small possibility, but to also be in the same time period where we have compatible means of communication and detection is an even smaller possibility.

Having serious discussions about the facts that our planet is noisy and if that is dangerous to our continued existence.

I'm not too worried about the "noisy" argument as laid out in the OP. We've only been broadcasting radio waves for a short period of time, and the range on our broadcasts is very very small (relative to the rest of the galaxy) before it gets attenuated and diverged into near oblivion.

Even if the aliens had tech capable of picking out our incredibly weak transmissions amongst the noise out there, they'd have to have the listening devices pretty close by to detect anything that we've broadcast in the short time we've been broadcasting.

 

[Imbarkus]

Saying "we will not" is a pretty big claim with so many unknown variables.

Mind you, what you're pointing out is a big topic, yes. The issue of time scale is very important. However, you also can't limit your thinking to imagining alien life always was, and always will be, limited to the present human scale of lifespan and time. Hell, there's no way of knowing if humans will remain limited to their current scale of lifespan and time for all that long.

For instance: civilization develops technology, transcends to digital lifeforms, becomes effectively immortal. What is 100,000 years, or one million years, to something like that?

I think what's far more safe to predict, is that the odds are exceedingly low we (and by 'we' I mean we as we would recognize ourselves today!) will encounter any alien life that is much like ourselves. Organic, at our level of biological and cultural complexity, our capacity for intelligence. The window for such a species developing the capability for space travel then using it, may be very small before the species evolves dramatically with accelerating technology.

As someone else once put it: "if we go into space and meet aliens who we can comprehend on our own terms, then one of two things will be happening. We'll be astronomically fortunate to have met in the right timeframe, or we're meeting the avatars of vastly superior beings who are lowering themselves to our level so that we even realize we're standing in front of something that, long ago, used to be like us."

Edit: oh, and one thought about the whole "but will the aliens be good!" thing.

You best hope that, any civilization that masters traversing the galaxy, possessing the great knowledge and science required for that - and thus, the power - has taken a long look at the universe and come to at least one conclusion: that organized structure is valuable and should not be wantonly or thoughtlessly destroyed.

Excellent point, got me thinking.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Considering the environment of space itself, I'm hard pressed to come up with any sort of evolutionary pressures that would compel life to become multicellular or even more complex, considering that due to all the radiation, a more complex organism would be more prone to damage. Of course, that just might be a failure of my imagination. That's always a posibility.

To be honest with you, I'm had a pretty hard time as well.
Maybe it's possible, maybe it's not. This is still pretty interesting stuff to speculate, gotta be what xenobioligists do all day.

The chance isn't just small, it's incredibly small. You need to think of this in terms of time as well as space. To even be in reachable proximity to one another is a small possibility, but to also be in the same time period where we have compatible means of communication and detection is an even smaller possibility.

I agree that the chances are small, but the gist of the whole argument is that we're balancing that small chance against the extinction of our species.

I'm not too worried about the "noisy" argument as laid out in the OP. We've only been broadcasting radio waves for a short period of time, and the range on our broadcasts is very very small (relative to the rest of the galaxy) before it gets attenuated and diverged into near oblivion.

Even if the aliens had tech capable of picking out our incredibly weak transmissions amongst the noise out there, they'd have to have the listening devices pretty close by to detect anything that we've broadcast in the short time we've been broadcasting.

You're right about signals, I don't think they are likely to lead aliens to us (but there's the above) but the vessels we send out look like they might last a pretty long time and will be just as good of an indication if they manage to stay relatively intact as they travel outwards in space.

Though, by the time they are found asteroids might no longer be a threat to us here on Earth.

I'd be more worried about the prospect of self-replicating killer probes sent out by some genocidal species. Now those have a pretty good chance of coming in contact with us as they spread exponentially with each object of resource they find, process, and use to build further self-replicating killer probes.

 

[Rentahamster]

I'd be more worried about the prospect of self-replicating killer probes sent out by some genocidal species. Now those have a pretty good chance of coming in contact with us as they spread exponentially with each object of resource they find, process, and use to build further self-replicating killer probes.

Maybe, but how those things even come into existence in the first place seems highly highly improbable, and the chance they even come near us in the first place seems highly unlikely, given the vastness of space.

I agree that the chances are small, but the gist of the whole argument is that we're balancing that small chance against the extinction of our species.

Sure, but there comes a point when the possibility of outright extinction becomes so small that it's detrimental to plan contingencies for them. There are much more reasonable things we can do to prevent extinction of life on Earth than worry about aliens.

You should read this short story. I think you might like it.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/

PDF version: http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-collide.pdf

 

[Atrus]

This is a problem more Science can solve.

Spoiler

By giving us better weapons

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Maybe, but how those things even come into existence in the first place seems highly highly improbable, and the chance they even come near us in the first place seems highly unlikely, given the vastness of space.


Sure, but there comes a point when the possibility of outright extinction becomes so small that it's detrimental to plan contingencies for them. There are much more reasonable things we can do to prevent extinction of life on Earth than worry about aliens.

You should read this short story. I think you might like it.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/

PDF version: http://robinhanson.typepad.com/files/three-worlds-collide.pdf

Well, the plan to survive an earth-shattering asteroid consists of colonizing other planets and locations in space - which we will have to do anyway sooner or later, but I get your point.

Thanks for that link, I'll give it a read.

 

[Reuenthal]

Here are my views, warning they are highly speculative and I doubt anyone would agree and some of this enters fan fiction territory but then this is an issue of speculation and fan fiction scenarios.

I believe the chance of a life is small although the vastness of universe so enormous it isn't unlikely to me that it exists. The chance of intelligent life is smaller. The chance of advanced intelligence for civilization is smaller. And the chance of a civilization uninterrupted managing to be a space faring civilization even smaller.

The distances, the largeness of space, the issues of time, all these make encountering such civilizations more unlikely and frankly I don't believe humanity will ever meet a space faring alien civilization. However the vastness and sheer incomprehensibility of the size and enormous possibilities of the cosmos leave me with doubts despite beliefs. Also I believe that alien life exists, although I am unsure if anything exists that is as intelligent as humanity, I doubt that alien space faring civilization that will meet humanity exists.


We know nothing about alien intelligence so assuming how they would act is quite hard.

Anthropomorphizing them, it is possible that they would destroy us, that they would subjugate us or that they will cooperate with us, again though looking to benefit or maybe even in mutually beneficial ways. Humans can behave in different ways so it isn't really easy to conclude even what humans would do in that position. Even human intelligence that is not incomprehensible has many available ways it could act, so an alien intelligence could also do all of the above and it is not predictable how they would act.


As for how humanity will react, again it is not set in stone and there will be different reactions.

There will be the sentiment of alien savior of adoring them.

Fear will be another reaction.

If we are weaker than the aliens we might more enthusiastically seek ooperation due to fear a reaction that one sees from the weak.
Although considering the leaders of humanity will be the strong of humanity maybe that view will not be the dominant and even if it is, we will plan in what way to handle the alien threat and be scared shitless regardless. Meeting an alien space faring civilization will be very scary and we will think of ways of facing that scary prospect as well.


If we are not weaker than the aliens then a cooperation among equals sentiment will be more powerful but again scared a lot and trying to think of what we can do about them and the consequences of doing so. Of course understanding them would also be paramount. What exactly humanity would do in the face of this alien appearance is simply not set in stone and there will be multiple perspectives. If we can't completely eliminate them and we lack the knowledge of knowing that we can do so, then I doubt we would commit to a war unnecessarily.

A reaction to the aliens will be bigger calls for human cohesion and humans uniting to be stronger under this new other threat. Which itself would not be an easy endeavor as uniting people of different nations in a ways that would allow to make united policy is not easy. Furthermore the alien savior sentiment will be fought from propaganda from the elite and dislike from the others against that idiocy and it will just be a loud moronic minority.

If we are the ones who meet an alien civilization and we are stronger again I can see all alternatives available although most likely I see us benefiting from them although not outright turning them into slaves, it will be a relationship where we would use them to our advantage mostly.

The scenario where a relatively advanced civilization destroys a less advanced one on the level of reaching the same level of the extremely advanced one due to fear it is not really impossible. So alien-human relationship is unpredictable and the different reactions will be determined based on various factors.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

I never expected somebody other than me to make this OP. I would steer OP to read the discussion on this topic listed on Atomic Rockets, if he has not already done so.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

Here are my views, warning they are highly speculative and I doubt anyone would agree and some of this enters fan fiction territory but then this is an issue of speculation and fan fiction scenarios.

I believe the chance of a life is small although the vastness of universe so enormous it isn't unlikely to me that it exists. The chance of intelligent life is smaller. The chance of advanced intelligence for civilization is smaller. And the chance of a civilization uninterrupted managing to be a space faring civilization even smaller.

The distances, the largeness of space, the issues of time, all these make encountering such civilizations more unlikely and frankly I don't believe humanity will ever meet a space faring alien civilization. However the vastness and sheer incomprehensibility of the size and enormous possibilities of the cosmos leave me with doubts despite beliefs. Also I believe that alien life exists, although I am unsure if anything exists that is as intelligent as humanity, I doubt that alien space faring civilization that will meet humanity exists.


We know nothing about alien intelligence so assuming how they would act is quite hard.

Anthropomorphizing them, it is possible that they would destroy us, that they would subjugate us or that they will cooperate with us, again though looking to benefit or maybe even in mutually beneficial ways. Humans can behave in different ways so it isn't really easy to conclude even what humans would do in that position. Even human intelligence that is not incomprehensible has many available ways it could act, so an alien intelligence could also do all of the above.


As for how humanity will react, again it is not set in stone and there will be different reactions.

There will be the sentiment of alien savior of adoring them.

Fear will be another reaction.

If we are weaker than the aliens we might more enthusiastically seek ooperation due to fear a reaction that one sees from the weak.
Although considering the leaders of humanity will be the strong of humanity maybe that view will not be the dominant and even if it is, we will plan in what way to handle the alien threat and be scared shitless regardless. Meeting an alien space faring civilization will be very scary and we will think of ways of facing that scary prospect as well.


If we are not weaker than the aliens then a cooperation among equals sentiment will be more powerful but again scared a lot and trying to think of what we can do about them and the consequences of doing so. Of course understanding them would also be paramount. What exactly humanity would do in the face of this alien appearance is simply not set in stone and there will be multiple perspectives. If we can't completly eliminate them and we lack the knowledge of knowing that we can do so, then I doubt we would commit to a war unnecessarily.

A reaction to the aliens will be bigger calls for human cohesion and humans uniting to be stronger under this new other threat. Which itself would not be an easy endeavor as uniting people of different nations in a ways that would allow to make united policy is not easy. Furthermore the alien savior sentiment will be fought from propaganda from the elite and dislike from the others against that idiocy and it will just be a loud moronic minority.

If we are the ones who meet an alien civilization and we are stronger again I can see all alternatives available although most likely I see us benefiting from them although not outright turning them into slaves, it will be a relationship where we would use them to our advantage mostly.

Can't really disagree with much here.
Because we're dealing with such a massive unknown, there are countless of possibilities!

 

[Rentahamster]

I never expected somebody other than me to make this OP. I would steer OP to read the discussion on this topic listed on Atomic Rockets, if he has not already done so.

The part in your link about the prisoners' dilemma is explored cleverly in the short story I linked previously.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/

 

[SquiddyCracker]

I never expected somebody other than me to make this OP. I would steer OP to read the discussion on this topic listed on Atomic Rockets, if he has not already done so.

I was completely inspired to make this thread by that exact link
Pretty interesting site, thanks to whoever linked it in whatever thread I saw it in.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The part in your link about the prisoners' dilemma is explored cleverly in the short story I linked previously.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/y5/the_babyeating_aliens_18/

I have made a thread about that before, lol.

I was completely inspired to make this thread by that exact link
Pretty interesting site, thanks to whoever linked it in whatever thread I saw it in.

Haha, the three of us here are in good company! I want to say it was me that linked you to it, because I've posted links to that site probably a dozen times over the last 18 months or so, but I can't be sure because I've seen other people link it too

 

[Zaptruder]

Setting aside the improbability of meeting an alien species on the basis of the drake equation and all that...

There's another hurdle to overcome that has been little considered.

Virtual Reality.

That is... to develop star faring technology, you need computers. If you have computers, you'll naturally gravitate towards sensory stimulation, which leads to VR. Which leads to infinite experiential possibilities.

Which doesn't satiate our curiosity for exploration, but it does mean that societies that are space faring are inevitably in a state of experiential post-scarcity. Meaning that there's no point conquering other planets for resources.

Additionally, running parallel to computing and VR development is AI - by the time any civilization gets to a tech level high enough for crossing interstellar distances, they'll also have developed AI technology that can man their space ships and report back the results.

While you may say that this is a uniquely human-centric point of view... I would argue that the nature of progress is not at all human-centric - that patterns in progress repeat in evolution, in societies and cultures and in technology.

 

[sleepykyo]

An alien race that is capable of extensive interstellar travel and warlike wouldn't last too long. The weapons possible at that tech level could level planets with ease. They'll nuke themselves before any significant expansion.

They don't have to be warlike amongst themselves. They just have to share human and it isn't just human nature. Everything preys on something beneath it. Humans would be inferior to them and exploited in whatever manner they saw fit.

 

[Norml]

water is abundant throughout the universe, liquid water is the rare, but a fair amount of moons/planets have ice (europa has oceans under ice).

for resources, what is considered common on earth could be extremely rare in other parts of the galaxy. any race that can reach us will only do so by wormholes (if that's possible) and could be in and out quickly. the real problem would be locating us.

They found stars make water.

Only when the gas jets are far enough away from the star do they rapidly cool and turn back into liquid. At this point, the water droplets are essentially bullets of water moving something like 80 times faster than the average round fired from a rifle. And there’s a lot of them. The amount of water ejecting from the star is equal to the amount that flows through the Amazon every second, researchers say.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/ar...ng-star-spewing-water-jets-interstellar-space

Only unique thing on earth should be life which seems to be very rare.

 

[ChubbyHuggs]

I totally did it with Tali.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

They don't have to be warlike amongst themselves. They just have share human and it isn't just human nature. Everything preys on something beneath it. Humans would be inferior to them and exploited in whatever manner they saw fit.

More specifically, they don't have to be benevolent or kind, they just have to be disciplined on the macro-level enough to prevent their own destruction out of rational self-interest. I certainly wouldn't call humans a kind and benevolent species, but we've managed not to nuke ourselves to death because we all understand the consequences and nobody wants it.

 

[maomaoIYP]

Considering the age of the universe, it's highly unlikely that only Earth contains intelligent species.

At the same time, it is also highly unlikely that any other intelligent species would be roughly at the same level of technological advancement as us, given the age of the universe. They would either be so much more advanced that they would see no need to talk to a race that is so much less significant than their own, or so much more backward that they wouldn't know how to respond.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Considering the age of the universe, it's highly unlikely that only Earth contains intelligent species.

At the same time, it is also highly unlikely that any other intelligent species would be roughly at the same level of technological advancement as us, given the age of the universe. They would either be so much more advanced that they would see no need to talk to a race that is so much less significant than their own, or so much more backward that they wouldn't know how to respond.

As the saying goes, "We will find apes or angels, but not men". Regardless, there should be a whole galaxy full of post singularity aliens, and at least a couple should have wandered our way by now.

 

[iamblades]

As the saying goes, "We will find apes or angels, but not men". Regardless, there should be a whole galaxy full of post singularity aliens, and at least a couple should have wandered our way by now.

The first point may be true, the second isn't though.

If the other species didn't evolve in our galaxy (especially if they are outside of the local group or the virgo supercluster) and FTL is physically impossible it would be unrealistic to expect them to reach us yet.

There are places in the universe where your hypothetical alien species could have evolved that are now permanently unreachable to us because they are travelling away from us faster than the speed of light.

 

[ZiZ]

1- lure them here
2- beat them up and take their ships
3- invade their home planet.
4- have Captain Kirk alien relationships.

 

[Uchip]

the chances of them being attractive to us
1 in 1000000000000000000

unless they are advanced enough to take any form D:

 

[Forkball]

I always thought an organism that can travel the vast distances of space would be so far advanced that the idea of violence isn't even part of their existance.

Or they are so advanced because never-ending warfare has caused them to focus on one-upping their enemies in a technological arms race. Which sounds more likely?

 

[Stark]

As the saying goes, "We will find apes or angels, but not men". Regardless, there should be a whole galaxy full of post singularity aliens, and at least a couple should have wandered our way by now.

Makes me wonder if those creatures considered paranormal on earth (believe them or not) are aliens.

 

[Uchip]

Or they are so advanced because never-ending warfare has caused them to focus on one-upping their enemies in a technological arms race. Which sounds more likely?

they would have discovered renewable resources and not bothered travelling space for any reason other than exploration

 

[ZiZ]

well theoretically speaking, seeing as how most of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy, chances are there could be life forms made from either of them.

 

[Haly]

well theoretically speaking, seeing as how most of the universe consists of dark matter and dark energy, chances are there could be life forms made from either of them.

Um.

What?

 

[SquiddyCracker]

they would have discovered renewable resources and not bothered travelling space for any reason other than exploration

What if continuous warfare between eachother has lead to them equate societal&scientific progress with warfare?
It would make perfect sense for them to seek out aliens species and engage in warfare with them, as they might result in even more progress for both species.

They might even be thinking that they're doing us a favour.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

The thing is, if there is a civilization that travels lightyears without any problems, then they probably have seen other civilizations. So why should they come here? Are we that interesting to them?

 

[teruterubozu]

Humanity is moving inward, not outward. We are exploring inner space - our minds - through cyberspace, TV, media, etc. Our interest in outer space is waning as a species. Our desire to travel outward physically is diminishing (as I type this from the comforts of my home). There needs to be a concerted, humanity-level desire to seriously explore outer space, but I think that innate desire (that we used to have as "explorers") is dying.

At best, one of our robots may encounter alien life, but that may be it.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

The thing is, if there is a civilization that travels lightyears without any problems, then they probably have seen other civilizations. So why should they come here? Are we that interesting to them?

Whether we meet squishy aliens or not is irreverent, their self-replicating unmanned probes should have finished exploring the whole galaxy by now. Who knows, maybe there's one parked behind pluto.

 

[Osietra]

Um.

What?

It's perfectly feasible, life exists in videogames, so why not other stuff?

 

[Raist]

I don't understand why people say "life is super rare". It'd be like saying that dogs are super rare because you've only seen one after looking within a 5m radius around your house.

 

[SquiddyCracker]

It's perfectly feasible, life exists in videogames, so why not other stuff?

Yeah, it makes perfect sense.

 

[GungHo]

What resources do we have that couldn't be obtained far easier from asteroids or uninhabited moons?

Orange kittens.

All our history of encountering less technologically developed civilizations has not worked out very well for them.

It helped that we brought them our infectious diseases.

 

[R2D4]

No way they could have achieved space travel with those hands.

 

[Danneee]

If we would be one of the first aliens they meet then it might make sense to befriend us. If not then there's really no reason beyond studying us for fun I guess.
We're pretty harmless to everything outside of our own planet.

 

[Lovely Salsa]

why do people think that other civilizations will NEVER visit us? Maybe they already did

Think about it

Lets say there's a civilization 100ly away from us and they are far more advanced than we are. They can travel at 99,9% of the speed of light. What exactly is stopping them from getting here? If they were to travel here, it would only take them like a year or so to reach us (those traveling in the ship)