What if we Discovered Alien Life

[AiliailiA]

You know there is a bacteria that survives on sulfur. If we transport these bacteria to Io (or whatever the heck that volcanic moon is called), then we would create a new civilization.

I'm not sure infecting Io with bacteria counts as "creating a new civilization".

Some kind of life may be possible there, but it seems rather nasty. The surface temperature is around -72ºC but around volcanoes it goes over 1000º and it's hard to see how hot life could get from one spot to another over time. It's not completely impossible. There may even be some water there.

The worst thing is radiation. Some kind of plasma belt around Jupiter irradiates Io with 37 Sieverts a day. Yuck.

[Pag-Aalisa]

Extraterrestrial life sending out signals to the cosmos? Please.
If there are any extraterrestrial forms of life, it is most likely unicellular, or maybe simple multicellular organisms.

Why? We don't know how long their evolution has been going on. I don't see how it's unlikely that extraterrestrial life wouldn't create an elaborate biodiversity like here on earth. Given enough time, something would've evolved to be at least plant-like.

Hell, maybe two or more sentient species might coexist on an alien world. (It'd be interesting if we lived with Neanderthals)

[JuNii]

hmmm.... it's times like these that I like to ponder some quotes.

"After all, only the human race would surround it's planet with powerful weapons that all point back at itself." - Hal Jordan DKR2

"We come in peace - shoot to kill, shoot to kill, Shoot to kill" - The Firm

"I think the most convincing sign of Alien intelligence is the fact that they haven't tried to contact us." - Calvin

[Seperates]

Get me a long enough lever and a firm place to stand, and I can move the world.

Don't forget the slave master with the whip and hundreds of other slaves being used as cheap free labor.

That's a common misnconception. The Egyptians rarely, if ever, used slaves for laborers. I haven't not done enough research on the Celtic culture to know whether or not they did, but looking at history, I doubt it.

[Pope Joan]

C.S. Lewis, noted Christian apologist, believed in alien life and wrote stirringly about it.

Maybe back in 1850 the insights of geology and astronomy could assault the foundations of faith, but not today.

Not for thoughtful believers anyway.

I love you Joan, but no matter how "thoughtful" you are, insights into geology, biology, astronomy, archeology, theological history, philosophy, neurology, cosmology, etc. etc. all point to either A) An apethetic God that created the universe, but then left, so you still base your actions on secular logic.
Or...
B) That the concept of God and other dieties were a way for primitive peoples to explain what they did not understand, so that they could live their lives without the constant psycological feeling of anxiety that they couldn't explain something, completely shaped and invented by man-kind that changes with the times, always dogging behind a couple of steps, but never being completely dropped.

If you like that comfort, fine. But I prefer knowledge over comfort.

Walter Burkert, Austrian anthropologist (how rational sounding!) says that religion is part of our evolutionary heritage since it is rooted in fear and fascination (anxiety being one evidence of this) with the unknown. What lies over the horizon? What is it like to be dead? Suppose I could see with the eyes of an eagle, or feel the feelings of a woman? A shaman can tell us, he will somehow sense these things. Thus the battle prophets of early Israel were used by captains to tell (a) where the enemy armies were located and (b) whether the goods guys would win or lose. They used a sacred ephod containing odd bones which they cast and interpreted.

Sounds a little silly to us.
But are we or can we ever be truly free of anxiety? Of guilt?
Scientists may deplore it, but there will always pop up a desire for the certainties of religion.
The roots run so deep.

[AiliailiA]

On the subject of interstellar travel: it isn't necessary to travel faster than light in order to go exploring. Travelling at near-light-speed would allow a person or alien to get to a distant system in a short subjective time (arbitrarily short, depending on how close to light-speed they can travel). The round-trip scenario is pretty bad, so no trade, and the energy requirements are huge, but at least it is theoretically possible.

I think people get hung-up on the idea of a 'galactic empire' and decide that without FTL travel there isn't any point in going anywhere (getting back home decades or centuries later washes out any trade possibilities, quite apart from the energy costs). But there is a motivation still for near-light-speed travel: curiosity. Even humans sometimes set off into the unknown, without knowing they will get back. Aliens might think likewise.

[Terra Agora]

I would ask if they have hot womenz like those blue things in Avatar.

[Seperates]

I love you Joan, but no matter how "thoughtful" you are, insights into geology, biology, astronomy, archeology, theological history, philosophy, neurology, cosmology, etc. etc. all point to either A) An apethetic God that created the universe, but then left, so you still base your actions on secular logic.
Or...
B) That the concept of God and other dieties were a way for primitive peoples to explain what they did not understand, so that they could live their lives without the constant psycological feeling of anxiety that they couldn't explain something, completely shaped and invented by man-kind that changes with the times, always dogging behind a couple of steps, but never being completely dropped.

If you like that comfort, fine. But I prefer knowledge over comfort.

Walter Burkert, Austrian anthropologist (how rational sounding!) says that religion is part of our evolutionary heritage since it is rooted in fear and fascination (anxiety being one evidence of this) with the unknown. What lies over the horizon? What is it like to be dead? Suppose I could see with the eyes of an eagle, or feel the feelings of a woman? A shaman can tell us, he will somehow sense these things. Thus the battle prophets of early Israel were used by captains to tell (a) where the enemy armies were located and (b) whether the goods guys would win or lose. They used a sacred ephod containing odd bones which they cast and interpreted.

Sounds a little silly to us.
But are we or can we ever be truly free of anxiety? Of guilt?
Scientists may deplore it, but there will always pop up a desire for the certainties of religion.
The roots run so deep.

Oh, of course, it will always be here, so long as humans have some gaps in our knowledge. But I am comfortable with uncertainty. Chance, probability, and luck are all part of the game of life. I will never know everything in this world. But I will not delude myself about fact either.

[Great Nepal]

Extraterrestrial life sending out signals to the cosmos? Please.
If there are any extraterrestrial forms of life, it is most likely unicellular, or maybe simple multicellular organisms.

Hurrya!!
'ld Human Ego...

Why exactly wont there be a much more technologically advanced species in billions of trillions of planets throughout the galaxy?

[Melkor Unchained]

Finding an inhabited exoplanet might have profound effects on our culture/society, but actual contact with them would still be pretty unlikely even if they were relatively close to us. Consider for instance that media transmission among our species has moved from analog to digital in the span of about fifty years--there's no saying where another civilization might be in that regard. It's possible they don't have radio yet; perhaps they never will; or they've moved on to technologies we don't understand yet.

But what's really interesting to me about all this is we have gone from being utterly unsure about the existence/rarity of extrasolar life to being almost 100% positive it's out there somewhere. I personally believe we are very likely to discover and possibly even observe extraterrestrial life in my lifetime, but still consider actual contact to be something of a longshot.

[AiliailiA]

Extraterrestrial life sending out signals to the cosmos? Please.
If there are any extraterrestrial forms of life, it is most likely unicellular, or maybe simple multicellular organisms.

Hurrya!!
'ld Human Ego...

Why exactly wont there be a much more technologically advanced species in billions of trillions of planets throughout the galaxy?

There would be.

Even life like ours, dependent on heavy elements from supernova explosions and subsequent stellar formations, would surely have happened trillions of times across the universe. It is ridiculous to assume that our solar system is exceptional, that it is at such an extreme of universal conditions that it is unique in all the universe. We were not sure that every star has a planetary cohort, but we have seen big planets like Jupiter and small planets like our own around nearby stars. The unlikely idea that our local planets were caused by a close encounter with some other star is ... well, busted. Planets are very common around stars. There are trillions of trillions of trillions of stars, and at most two orders less of planetary systems.

We are a common planet, around a common star, in a common galaxy. There are trillions of planets like ours out there. And that's only considering planets like ours where we know life is possible. There could be life in gas-clouds, or in stars, or in dark matter.

And I'm comfortable with that. It's like having a trillion brothers and sisters, some a billion years old and some not to be born for one or two or ten billion years. Whatever happens here on earth, or even in our galaxy, there are trillions like us out there. Stickin' it to entropy, and living the life. Yay for life!

[Melkor Unchained]

Whatever happens here on earth, or even in our galaxy, there are trillions like us out there. Stickin' it to entropy, and living the life. Yay for life!

I love this quote. Fuck entropy!

[Sociobiology]

But what's really interesting to me about all this is we have gone from being utterly unsure about the existence/rarity of extrasolar life to being almost 100% positive it's out there somewhere.

most of that is due to how freakishly easy life is and how quickly life arose on earth. basically in earths history as soon as you had liquid water you had life, and chemical experiment have found it is almost guaranteed to happen given liquid water and a cyclic heat source.
multi-cellular life on the other had may be unlikely, a second data set will help with this (mars).

[Lucantis]

You know there is a bacteria that survives on sulfur. If we transport these bacteria to Io (or whatever the heck that volcanic moon is called), then we would create a new civilization.

I'm not sure infecting Io with bacteria counts as "creating a new civilization".

Some kind of life may be possible there, but it seems rather nasty. The surface temperature is around -72ºC but around volcanoes it goes over 1000º and it's hard to see how hot life could get from one spot to another over time. It's not completely impossible. There may even be some water there.

The worst thing is radiation. Some kind of plasma belt around Jupiter irradiates Io with 37 Sieverts a day. Yuck.

Still. If we can somehow create a new species (I call it Bioforming) to meet a moon's conditions, put some special canister, and transpot it to that specific moon, then we can create a new civilization (humans have created a lot civilizations.............they include existing countries and non-existing countries).

[The Alma Mater]

I'm not sure infecting Io with bacteria counts as "creating a new civilization".

Some kind of life may be possible there, but it seems rather nasty. The surface temperature is around -72ºC but around volcanoes it goes over 1000º and it's hard to see how hot life could get from one spot to another over time. It's not completely impossible. There may even be some water there.

The worst thing is radiation. Some kind of plasma belt around Jupiter irradiates Io with 37 Sieverts a day. Yuck.

Still. If we can somehow create a new species (I call it Bioforming) to meet a moon's conditions, put some special canister, and transpot it to that specific moon, then we can create a new civilization (humans have created a lot civilizations.............they include existing countries and non-existing countries).

We however would not be around to see the results - since that method would take a few million years.

[Furthermore]

Fear.
Followed by curiosity.
Follwed by, if they are near, an investigation.
Pictures.
Awkward pause.
If they are pretty intelligent and friendly/harmless looking/curious, it will dissolve into sending videos of ourselves and making odd gestures after a good while.
Insert religious arguements.

We will probably visit them first to keep the aliens away from our planet.

[Lucantis]

Still. If we can somehow create a new species (I call it Bioforming) to meet a moon's conditions, put some special canister, and transpot it to that specific moon, then we can create a new civilization (humans have created a lot civilizations.............they include existing countries and non-existing countries).

We however would not be around to see the results - since that method would take a few million years.

And by then we would find other civilizations in Alpha Centauri and other star systems.

[The Alma Mater]

We however would not be around to see the results - since that method would take a few million years.

And by then we would find other civilizations in Alpha Centauri and other star systems.

I am quite certain that by then there would be no beings you'd call "humans" anymore.

[Lucantis]

And by then we would find other civilizations in Alpha Centauri and other star systems.

I am quite certain that by then there would be no beings you'd call "humans" anymore.

Don't be so sure. Humans are unexpected and are not to be underestimated.

[New Alaxia]

hmmm.... it's times like these that I like to ponder some quotes.

"After all, only the human race would surround it's planet with powerful weapons that all point back at itself." - Hal Jordan DKR2

"We come in peace - shoot to kill, shoot to kill, Shoot to kill" - The Firm

"I think the most convincing sign of Alien intelligence is the fact that they haven't tried to contact us." - Calvin

I like the last one.

[Belfras]

We have already met aliens.


Birmingham.

[Occupied Deutschland]

If history is anything to go by there are two possibilities:
ONE:
We discover alien life & Civilization. Invade their planet, shoot their pets and rape their women.
TWO:
We discover alien life & Civilization. Before we can invade their planet, shoot their pets and rape their women our planet is invaded our pets are shot and our women are raped by recently discovered aliens.

[Seperates]

I am quite certain that by then there would be no beings you'd call "humans" anymore.

Don't be so sure. Humans are unexpected and are not to be underestimated.

That is only however, if we figure out how to break the speed of light within the next 200,000-ish years. By then we will probebly have changed in a couple fundemental ways from our current form.

[The Pink Followers]

Alien life? I have aliens doing my gardening.

*reads thread*

Oh, those aliens. I'd have them do my gardening as well.

[AETEN II]

I'd imagine they'd be a bit like us, besides, why try to conquer a world inahbited by humans, we're not exactly small fry you know, I'd imagine it'd be like star trek-first contact, we invite them to a bar and have a few swigs and sign a peace treaty.