Extraterrestrial Discussion Thread

[San Lumen]

What's to say they are not already here and chose not to make first contact. if they can get here they likely have technology far beyond ours and a understanding of physics vastly greater than us.

We would know if they were here.

And how do you know that?

[Kannap]

I've already got seven suitcases packed in case the TARDIS starts whooshing outside my house.

[Northwest Slobovia]

I doubt they would know we were inhabited

It would not exactly be difficult for them to figure out given they already have the technology to go from one part of the universe to another.

If we wanted to, we could figure out if anybody's home, within the limits with foreseeable technology (that is, engineering that requires no new science).

But I'm always amused by claims of "if they can do X, surely they can do Y!". I mean, if they can put a man on the moon, they can surely cure the common cold!

Or in other words, unrelated technologies can develop or not independently. Early space pioneers (Von Braun and Tsiolkovsky, for example) knew nothing of computers or radio, and assumed astronauts would do the math needed for spaceflight on slide rules and other analog calculators.

Edit: but as to the OP's comments, life elsewhere seems inevitable. Everything else about it (multicellularity, intelligence, tool use, etc, etc) is up for grabs. So far, we have only one planet to reason from, and we'll just have to see what we find.

[Ifreann]

They likely exist given the shear size of the universe. That being said, they have no reason to come here.

I would argue they have many good reasons to avoid us all together.

Such as?

[Kannap]

I would argue they have many good reasons to avoid us all together.

Such as?

*wildly waves arms around gesturing at everything*

[Bombadil]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

[Neanderthaland]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

It's hard being a rabbit living among hyenas.

But there have been a lot of laughs as well.

[Bombadil]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

It's hard being a rabbit living among hyenas.

But there have been a lot of laughs as well.

It's like when the bear asked the rabbit if he had a problem with shit sticking to his fur.. how we laughed at the surprised expression of the rabbit at the twist in that tale.

[Prosa]

I think the biggest thing we could currently find would probably just be some kind of early-Cambrian isopod-esque abomination.

[Northwest Slobovia]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

African hyenas rarely concern American rabbits, or even European rabbits. I have serious doubts about FTL travel, so I don't worry about Zeta Reticulan lizardmen hyenas.

[La Paz de Los Ricos]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

Considering there's a whole galaxy of mining resources out there, and any intelligent life would have to be pretty far away from Earth, they'd just be wasting resources coming to us.

Coming halfway across the galaxy just to kill us seems kind of unnecessary, but I guess they're aliens, and we don't know how they think.

[Northwest Slobovia]

I think the biggest thing we could currently find would probably just be some kind of early-Cambrian isopod-esque abomination.

Yeah, and they probably think we're pretty ugly too.

[Bombadil]

Whether they do or not I'm not sure it's wise for us to be blaring out our presence to the universe, we're like a rabbit stuck on a mound crying for attention without knowing whether there's hyenas or just other rabbits out there.

Odds are there's hyenas.

African hyenas rarely concern American rabbits, or even European rabbits. I have serious doubts about FTL travel, so I don't worry about Zeta Reticulan lizardmen hyenas.

They could be observing us already given the nanotechnology of printing software onto quarks that can zip back and forth.. we're a 24hr show called Earth Island and let me just say.. 2020 has been a spectacular season.

[Northwest Slobovia]

African hyenas rarely concern American rabbits, or even European rabbits. I have serious doubts about FTL travel, so I don't worry about Zeta Reticulan lizardmen hyenas.

They could be observing us already given the nanotechnology of printing software onto quarks that can zip back and forth.. we're a 24hr show called Earth Island and let me just say.. 2020 has been a spectacular season.

Hey! They owe us a cut of the advertising money! Launch the rabbit space armada!

[Bombadil]

They could be observing us already given the nanotechnology of printing software onto quarks that can zip back and forth.. we're a 24hr show called Earth Island and let me just say.. 2020 has been a spectacular season.

Hey! They owe us a cut of the advertising money! Launch the rabbit space armada!

Manipulating us into voting for Trump and then launching the virus in election year was genius on their part, pure popcorn television.. luckily we've sent David Bowie in a cosmos Tesla off to thwart their nefarious intentions.

God Speed David Bowie.

[Oppermenia]

Well, the universe is vast. It's so big that the human mind can't even comprehend. And when we talk about the universe, it's the observable universe we're talking about. There could be much more out there than we think there is. The scope of the universe, I don't think a lot of people realize, is so big that to a human it might as well be infinite.

With the scope of the universe, I believe there's bound to be intelligent life like humans out there somewhere. They're probably far away from us, but I believe they're out there. Probably not like UFOs visiting Earth, though, but there could be advanced civilizations. However, if aliens were advanced enough to visit us and cause all this phenomena, we probably wouldn't know. They likely wouldn't want to interfere with our development, as the transition from how things are now into a world of aliens and tech we once thought was sci-fi would be disastrous, just chaos. They would probably just watch us and nothing more, and meet us when we're ready.

[Shanghai industrial complex]

Take a towel with you before you go on a space trip.

[Island Zero]

I think aliens are real and I'm fearful of them. It could be possible that there are no other alien creatures that are as advanced as humans. It could be possible that they all died before humans rose. It's nothing we can be sure about. The concept of humans being alone is terrifying, but so is the concept of humans not being alone.

I would be far more scared if we are alone.

I don't think that's scary, honestly. Just extremely sad.

[Jedi Council]

I would argue they have many good reasons to avoid us all together.

Such as?

Any civilization that has advanced enough to have mastered space travel is going to find our little planet incredibly primitive.

We are a combative, emotional, and irrational species. Of course, we have many good qualities, but unless there was a damn good reason, I highly doubt a technologically superior race would seem us worthy of contact.

[Grimmsland]

Probably exists somewhere.

Probably doesn't kidnap rednecks for weird sex.

Well, if they were going to kidnap someone for that, a redneck is the best choice, because everybody would write it off as “just another crazy redneck,” and nobody would believe it. Just saying.

I know such a person who claims he and his buddy Lance were out fishing in a pond and they saw an orb light and then they awoke later on the bank. Prior to telling me this story he said "you can't tell anyone about this" all serious. I asked him if his asshole was hurting when he woke up.

[Grimmsland]

I think aliens are real and I'm fearful of them. It could be possible that there are no other alien creatures that are as advanced as humans. It could be possible that they all died before humans rose. It's nothing we can be sure about. The concept of humans being alone is terrifying, but so is the concept of humans not being alone.

I would be far more scared if we are alone.

Me too! That's a dreadful thought. I'm so doomer about humans that I'm hoping aliens exist and are better "people" than we are. My hope is that they would be immune from deceit (which would require extra-sensory perception) and be just slightly more on the benevolent side than malicious. Also they'd need to be more powerful than human technology or else they would be attacked for not bowing to the will of malicious humans in either sharing technology or conspiring against against other humans. So I hope they'd be powerful and decent and not hesitate to neutralize humans who gave them any shit.

Edit: more powerful than human weaponry. Just because they have the technology to get here doesn't mean they'd necessarily possess weaponry. They'd need to be able to avoid human weapon technology by neutralizing it some way or by showing theirs as more powerful and unmitigated.

[Albrenia]

Unless the aliens are in need of organic materials and for some reason cannot synthetically produce them, I don't see much reason for them to want to destroy us. Unless they're just genocidal pricks.

[Grimmsland]

Except that this planet is already inhabited, so coming to this planet would likely be more of a nightmare.

I doubt they would know we were inhabited

There are places dedicated to sending out and attempting to receive sounds (or something) in space. They aren't doing this for nothing.

What was that gold record that was sent out in something? IIRC Sagan had something to do with it. It had like an encyclopedia level of information ranging from music to diagrams of where earth is located etc.

[Albrenia]

I doubt they would know we were inhabited

There are places dedicated to sending out and attempting to receive sounds (or something) in space. They aren't doing this for nothing.

What was that gold record that was sent out in something? IIRC Sagan had something to do with it. It had like an encyclopedia level of information ranging from music to diagrams of where earth is located etc.

It's on the Voyager probe. It has directions using the stars to our home. It's only recently left our solar system though.

[Jedi Council]

There are places dedicated to sending out and attempting to receive sounds (or something) in space. They aren't doing this for nothing.

What was that gold record that was sent out in something? IIRC Sagan had something to do with it. It had like an encyclopedia level of information ranging from music to diagrams of where earth is located etc.

It's on the Voyager probe. It has directions using the stars to our home. It's only recently left our solar system though.

And has yet to pass the theorized Oort cloud which indicates the limits of the Suns gravitational pull.

It hasnt even left our cosmic front porch, much less our back yard.