What if we Discovered Alien Life

[Archnar]

lets say SETI picks up a signal and its comfirmed to be from an alien race.
What would the impact be on the world?We have the Star-Trek senerio were
a the world is united and hunger, war, money, dieses, are phased out.Or there is the
War of the Worlds idea were they invade and Destroy the planet.

This could be happening soon since the Kepler Space Telesope has found 1200+ exoplanets in The Habitble Zone
and The Allen Telescope array has Been Turned back on by SETI.

[Marcheria]

How appropriate. I'm watching close encounters of the third kind right now.

[New Alaxia]

Honestly, Nothing would happen for many years until we made physical contact. In the meantime, there would be a lot of media hype and NASA parties

[Dizyntk]

I would say neither. Just because we pick up a signal does not nessecarily mean anything that most people don't already suspect. You also have to ask, where did the signal originate? How far away is the planet that it came from? If it is a signal that came from a star 500 light years away then I don't think it would cause any unification on humanity's part. And unless you could prove that the sourse of the signal possessed FTL travel they would not be a threat to us in the form of an invasion.

[Zeth Rekia]

We'd eat them. All of them. Their children... all eaten too.

[Veblenia]

I imagine people would be really excited for a few months, and then it would dawn on most people that we have no real way of interacting with these beings. By the end of the year the topic would be relegated to academia, conspiracy nut fringe groups, and NSG.

[Casta Nal]

That's a big if. Very big if. SETI only listens for rare signals that are intact from the other end of the galaxy.

[Euronion]

well it would depend how advanced they were, if they were say in the modern age like us, then we wouldn't have to worry about them for a while since it takes around 10,000 years for our fastest ship to go from Earth to Alpha Centari (our nearest solar system). If they were asvanced lets say 1000 years ahead of us, I think we should try and avoid contact for a while until we get a better picture of their culture from watching their TV and stuff (if we cna decode their language) to see if they are friendly or hostile, and we better hope to god that they aren't watching our TV, if they have we are all screwed. they may think our cultural is still free love, groovey, bell bottom jeans, and affros (not sure how to spell that, too b ad there is no hippi smiley) :hippi:

[Khyrta]

Well, I think the world would be divided in half honestly. You'd have all these nerds and geeks out there (like me ) who would just absolutely go INSANE with awe and ecstasy.

Then you'd have a scenario much like that in the book Saucer by Stephen Coonts. Religion would literally go bunk. It makes you wonder sometimes if there really is life out there and the governments just don't tell us because they're all chicken turkey of the effects such a discovery would have on religion, education, even their illusion of control over a country.

At least, that's just my opinion.

As Orson Welles once broadcasted, "With infinite complacence people went to and fro over the Earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar drift-wood which, by chance or design, man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space."

[Eaglleia]

You've forgotten one scenario-What if we're more advanced?

[New East Ireland]

Well, there would be people who would say, "Yay aliens!" and others who would say "Crap, aliens!"

[Cthag-antil]

lets say SETI picks up a signal and its comfirmed to be from an alien race.
What would the impact be on the world?We have the Star-Trek senerio were
a the world is united and hunger, war, money, dieses, are phased out.Or there is the
War of the Worlds idea were they invade and Destroy the planet.

This could be happening soon since the Kepler Space Telesope has found 1200+ exoplanets in The Habitble Zone
and The Allen Telescope array has Been Turned back on by SETI.

The impact upon the world would be profound.
Certainly many people will have to reconsider their world view.
I don't fear an alien invasion, any species sophisticated enough to cross the vast distances of space probably does not require planets to inhabit and or exist upon...there is boundless more readily accessable natural resources in space...our asteroid belts for example.

SETI have a mountain to climb though as they always did..picking up extra terrestrial civilization signals from the depths of space is going to be unlikely for many years possibly thousands...due to the statistical probabilites involved.
Communicating with an alien civilization would be considerably more difficult/unlikely, via radio waves anyway.

Direct contact with alien life is far more likely, assuming they can fold space or otherwise manipulate spacetime etc to reach here.

[Jagalonia]

You've forgotten one scenario-What if we're more advanced?

That's my thoughts....>.>

[Great Nepal]

I personally wouldn't be surprised if that happens... but I would say world will unify -- in what speed and what form it will take, will be dependent on type of aliens encountered....

If they are peaceful - it will take long time for world to unify and will likely be mini-federation (ie. no, aliens are NOT going to accept humans as their overlord but humans will maintain quite large alliances etc)...
If they are hostile - World will be unified within few days, then it will go mental with space imperialism.

[Marcheria]

You've forgotten one scenario-What if we're more advanced?

You know, that's something I've thought long and hard about. A long time ago, I had a thought: What if we meet them, and it turns out we knew what they were all along? What if we thought they were just made up and it turns outt they're real? A ship lands on the White House lawn and a Klingon steps out? A Wookie? Elvis?

[Khyrta]

Personally, I'd be all "Hell yeah!" and then be dying to hijack one of the extra-terrestrials "flying saucers". Now THAT would be the thrill of a life time

[Great Nepal]

You've forgotten one scenario-What if we're more advanced?

If we are more advanced, we will never actually encounter them.

[Vitius]

Ugh, random capitalizations.

It would depend on what type of alien life. Alien life could mean an extremely small organism (a cell, for example) from another planet or an entire intelligent species much like ourselves. The latter would obviously be more profound, but the former could obviously give truckloads upon truckloads of new funding to space organizations like NASA and the RFSA.

[Zeth Rekia]

I personally wouldn't be surprised if that happens... but I would say world will unify -- in what speed and what form it will take, will be dependent on type of aliens encountered....

If they are peaceful - it will take long time for world to unify and will likely be mini-federation (ie. no, aliens are NOT going to accept humans as their overlord but humans will maintain quite large alliances etc)...

Sensible.

If they are hostile - World will be unified within few days, then it will go mental with space imperialism.

Doubt that.

[Cthag-antil]

You've forgotten one scenario-What if we're more advanced?

That is possible but unlikely given that by the time any alien signals reached here the radiowaves themselves may be centuries/thousands/millions of years old from the point of origin.

In all likeliness any intercepted radio waves of intelligent origin would probably have been transmitted so long ago the civilization responsible may well have become extinct.

[AiliailiA]

lets say SETI picks up a signal and its comfirmed to be from an alien race.
What would the impact be on the world?

Extraordinary possibilities undreamed of by our lowly mammalian imaginations. I'm talking about porn of course.

[Great Nepal]

If they are hostile - World will be unified within few days, then it will go mental with space imperialism.

Doubt that.

Why? If they are hostile, they will invade and most likely occupy earth for few decades. But latter, resistance movements will overthrow aliens and rob technology and go mad.

[Idealismania]

We'd eat them. All of them. Their children... all eaten too.

nom nom nom

I think our reaction would depend on how far away the signals came from. If they came from very far away, then the alien civilization would either probably be way more advanced than the initial signals show because of the time it took for the signals to travel. Either that or they wiped themselves out or had some sort of major event to set them way back. But if the signals came from somewhere closer like say one of the closer stars in our galaxy then I would imagine at least the space program would get a boost in funds again.

[Sol Bella]

Well, as long as they don't talk like 17th century Europeans, I think we'll be fine. Just don't accept their offers of blankets or food at first.

....more serious, that woudl greatly depend on the civilization. If WE discovered a less-advanced or equal-tech race, well, that would be something. That varies even more. If there's an extremely advanced one, hopefully they should be advanced enough to care for the environment, wildlife, and less-advanced races.

...and if it's the other way around, let's hope that Avatar doesn't happen.

[New Alaxia]

Doubt that.

Why? If they are hostile, they will invade and most likely occupy earth for few decades. But latter, resistance movements will overthrow aliens and rob technology and go mad.

That's assuming us humans are smart enough.