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Subscribe to RSSAre there scenarios in which the aliens would consider terminating our command with extreme prejudice? That sounds almost exactly like the premise of "The Day the Earth Stood Still."
A study that reviews a host of sci-fi scenarios for contact with extraterrestrials stirred up such a ruckus today that NASA had to step in and distance itself from the research. The controversy focuses on the idea that E.T. could well decide that we're a threat to interstellar order, and therefore we have to be stopped before we spread.
The report itself, published in the journal Acta Astronautica, covers ground that's familiar to dedicated fans of E.T. lore. For example, the premise of the 1951 sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still" is that universalist-minded aliens see our civilization as so rooted in violence that it's better to snuff us out than let us ruin the neighborhood. (The 2008 remake, starring Keanu Reeves, recycled that idea with an environmental theme.)
Then there's the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" scenario, in which Earth is destroyed merely to make way for a new stretch of intergalactic infrastructure.
"At the heart of these scenarios is the possibility that intrinsic value may be more efficiently produced in our absence," the researchers write.
The most familiar sci-fi scenario is the one in which the aliens are as selfish and territorial as we are, and want to wipe us out or enslave us and take our stuff. Think "War of the Worlds" or "Independence Day." In such cases, the researchers note that there's the potential for big payoffs ... if we prevail.
"Humanity benefits not only from the major moral victory of having defeated a daunting rival but also from the opportunity to reverse-engineer ETI [extraterrestrial intelligence] technology," they write. Indeed, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman joked last weekend that a fake alien invasion might be just the thing to spark an economic turnaround.
The researchers touch on more benign scenarios as well — for example, the "Star Trek" scenario, in which helpful aliens welcome us into the United Federation of Planets because we're all basically good guys (as opposed to those evil Klingons, until they become good guys, too). And then there's something like the "E.T." scenario, in which the aliens mostly just want to stay out of our way.
The 33-page study reflects at length on the potential risks.
"The possibility of harmful contact with ETI suggests that we may use some caution for METI [sending messages to extaterrestrial intelligence]," the researchers write. "Given that we have already altered our environment in ways that may be viewed as unethical by universalist ETI, it may be prudent to avoid sending any message that shows evidence of our negative environmental impact. The chemical composition of Earth's atmosphere over recent time may be a poor choice for a message because it would show a rapid accumulation of carbon dioxide from human activity. Likewise, any message that indicates widespread loss of biodiversity or rapid rates of expansion may be dangerous if received by such universalist ETI."
In short, let's keep our environmental bad habits on the down low, so as not to get the sad-Keanu E.T.'s on our case.
The basis of the brouhaha
By themselves, these ideas are not all that, um, alien. For years, sci-fi author David Brin has advised keeping quiet about our existence, and celebrity physicist Stephen Hawking agrees. U.N. officials and scientific experts also say the messages we direct toward any aliens we come across would have to be carefully managed.
So what's the big deal? Well, one of the authors of the paper, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, happens to be a postdoctoral student working at NASA Headquarters — and that highly tenuous connection to the world's most influential space agency sparked a huge wave of scare headlines. It started with The Guardian's story, and rolled onto The Drudge Report's webpage with a headline reading "NASA REPORT: Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civlizations..." Another variant was this one: "NASA: Aliens May Destroy Humanity Over Greenhouse Gases."
Eventually, NASA had to send out a Twitter update saying "Yes, @drudge and @guardiannews are mistaken about an 'alien' report. It's not NASA research. Ask the report's author...." The space agency followed up later with two more tweets, emphasizing that it was not involved in the study and saying that Fox News and CNN "have it wrong."
In each case, NASA linked to a lengthy clarification and apology from Domagal-Goldman, who made clear that the study was not a "NASA report," that no NASA funding was expended on it, and that he spent none of his working hours on writing the paper. He said his two co-authors, Seth Baum and Jacob Haqq-Misra of Pennsylvania State University, "put in the vast majority of work on it."
"It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation," Domagal-Goldman wrote.
He admitted that including the NASA affiliation turned out to be a "horrible mistake":
"I did so because that is my current academic affiliation. But when I did so I did not realize the full implications that has. I'm deeply sorry for that, but it was a mistake born out of carelessness and inexperience and nothing more. I will do what I can to rectify this, including distributing this post to the Guardian, Drudge and NASA Watch. Please help me spread this post to the other places you may see the article inaccurately attributed to NASA.
"One last thing: I stand by the analysis in the paper. Is such a scenario likely? I don't think so. But it's one of a myriad of possible (albeit unlikely) scenarios, and the point of the paper was to review them. But remember — and this is key — it's me standing for the paper ... not the full weight of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. For anything I have done to mis-convey that to those covering the story, to the public, or to the fine employees of NASA, I apologize."
This isn't the first case where the NASA connection has become entangled in scientific speculation. In March, the space agency took great pains to distance itself from NASA researcher Richard Hoover's claims to have found evidence of outer-space organisms in meteorites.
In Domagal-Gordon's case, the substance was far less controversial. As I've tried to point out above, the views expressed in the paper aren't that far off from the typical science-blog fare. I'm willing to bet a goodly sum of quatloos that Domagal-Gordon will go on to have a fine career in science ... and also that this won't be NASA's last P.R. kerfuffle over E.T.
More about aliens:
- Hollywood remakes an alien
- What would you ask the aliens?
- Why we love to fear E.T.
- The alien files on Cosmic Log
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page or following @b0yle on Twitter. You can also add me to your Google+ circle, and check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
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You know, The Bible states that this world is the devil's realm, "1 Peter 5:8
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"
ET may be right.
I think you missed the point of the article. Besides, where do E.Ts fit in with your fundaMENTAList theology that states that the earth is the center of the universe?
Fundamentalist theology comes from fundamentalist theologians. The Bible never portrayed the Earth as the center of the universe. In fact, I don't believe there's anything in the Bible that rules out the possibility that God created other life on other planets far, far away or may in the future. A thorough familiarity with the Bible makes it seem unlikely but not precluded.
I think your post just proved that humans ARE evil! We are self-centered enough to think we are better than everyone and everything because God made us so. I wouldn't be surprised if aliens just eradicated all humans of this planet for the good of the Universe. Being young isn't an excuse for being stupid, and while humans still thinks that power over other humans is the natural order of things and if you don't believe like I do attitude, we would be dangerous to other life.
I agree with you!! I think that they are doing research on us. They are angry because we have destroyed the environment, we continue to kill each other for no reason, and always at war. These are just a couple of reasons among many. I also think that they are a little intrigued and find us entertaining. They live among us! Now there are enough resources for all, but when everything goes downhill and we really piss them off?
If the fundamentalists would look at the first few passages of Genesis they will see that it says, 'God created the Heavens and the earth', man was somewhere later.
How about we all pretend that we will be progressing at about the same rate as any galactic or extra-galactic neighbors we have? And how about we all just pretend that they, the ET's will have enough problems on their plates without being overly concerned about us... unless we do something truly foolish like try to take their home planet from them.
As interesting and entertaining as sci-fi adventure is, and this idea that there is a group of 'experts' that are actually discussing the possibility that we are the bad guys is sad.
The Day the Earth Stood still is a good example of 'Holier than thou' interfering types. We get it already here, and you don't have to go far in the history books to find it. Well meaning group A goes to homeland of misbehaving group B to tell them how to live. Group B doesn't like it.
How would you like to have some jerk come into your house and tell you what to eat, how to dress, how much water to use, when to wake up, where you can go, when you can go... you wouldn't.
Let's just get over ourselves already, the arrogance of some of the people that angst over this sort of thing before it's an issue is mind boggling. We don't have the tech for it to become an eventuality yet. Lets burn one draw bridge at a time alright?
There is no WE who destroyed the environment.
Western civiliazation DESTROYED THE ENVIRONMENT!!!
Although it isn't about pointing fingers it is the truth.
Although, through attempts to utilize & control foreign raw materials as well as other countries our ways spread like a disease.
One huge factor is the fact that money and greed played a major role when it came to the selling of gas and the oil and car companies not allowing for new technology to be used in oreder to extend gas mileage in vehicles.
Well over 60 years ago a technology was created that would allow for cars to run on 100 miles per gallon.
The person who invented was killed and Shell purchased his patent and hid it forever.
Hey! There is plenty of blame to go around. This is not something new. Civilizations have been founded, rune the land around them then collapse since the first cities were ever built.
For instance, there are hundreds of mounds in the deserts of Iran. They are the remains of cities built thousands of years ago. When they were founded, the area around them was lush. Then as more people moved in, they began to over farm the land. After a while the land could no longer support them. Then they abandoned the city because of desertification of the land around them.
This ruining of the environment has been going on for a very long time. Western civilization has ruined its fair share of the environment, but so has all other civilizations of the Earth that has ever existed.
that was farming...
It can't compare to the destruction now caused by so much greed.
What I'm really trying to say is that our societies will not survive if we plan on progressing by using capitalism only as the vehicle.
The concept of using one system of rewarding needs to be enhanced and balanced so that we can all grow in harmony.
In other words people should not only be rewarded in $$$$$.
Because of greed we need a balance to prevent this from overflowing like it is.
I just want to turn up the noise given the world's current condition involving its health.
It may not be able to compare, but it is a part of the cumulative effect.
I hope you keep turning up the noise about environmental wasting. I would also hope you keep things in prospective. This is not a you did it, or a they did it. It is a we did it. All of us did it. From the first human to the last, we can all take a piece of the blame. We can all take responsibility for fixing it too.
It is a matter of getting our human priorities stright. Of learning what is of real importance.
How can we with a Brick wall (GREED) in the way.
Apology for the finger but this has to be confronted.
My parents always said that if you are going to do something then do it right or else don't do it at all especially when it affects others.
Since we are so bad, why would we want to go to another planet and mess it up as well. Save $$$ and forget about ET's. Spend our money to improve our planet. We really do not need to explore space.
I'm going to have to grow more fingers and toes. I can no longer count the people who think like this with the ones I have now.
Are you talking about a planet like Mars or Venus? Not much chance of us messing those planets up. We couldn't make Mars more of a desert planet, and Venus's hellish green house effect, with 900 degrees surface temperatures, couldn't be made worse by us. I doubt we could mess them up any more than they already are.
As for us not needing to explore space, that is a short sighted, and suicidal notion. With over 9 billion people on this planet, we can not afford to draw inward. If humanity is to survive the long term, we must explore space. We will never solve our Earthly problems by confining our species to this planet.
The capacity of this world to support us has been pushed to the breaking point. This world can not be expected to feed an ever growing population of humans, forever. Indeed, if we are to solve the problems of hunger, over population and the other things, we have no other choice than to harvest the infinite resources of outer space.
Ok, write this down and remember I said it, on this date, August 22, 2011.
When ET discovers our existence, probably through a trace of our radio transmissions or through superior telescopic capability they will find what is left of a beautiful blue marble. A planet fairly unique in the universe. Not the only water world, ET probably lives on one as well and has spent a long time and a lot of their money equivalent looking for another water world like their own. They will break the bank to create a way to get here.
They will observe the planet and decide that this beautiful blue water world, or at least what's left of it, is besieged by a cancer or virus (Humanity!) and that if they can eliminate the problem (read: US!) the planet has the ability to heal itself and rectify our mismanagement of it over time.
ZZZZZZZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!
A bio-engineered virus, a "super-flu" is introduced and in less than a decade all mammalian life is exterminated leaving plant life, insects, birds and sea creatures unaffected. Given a year or two for the earth to reclaim our bodies into it's over-all bio-mass and the earth, our beautiful blue marble is ready for colonization by ET.
The ET are not evil. They probably do not even recognize us as sentient. Afterall, look at what we've done to each other and our environment. Hardly the work of intelligent creatures. We are a cancer on the living organism that is this beautiful and unique world and they will rid the organism of it's disease and nurse it back to health for their use.
The late great human race. Nothing more than a cancer. A mindless virus or bacteria destroying a unique and beautiful organism, their host. Bye-bye cancer. Hello paradise!
Mark it down boys and girls. Maybe the Mayans have it right and ET will be here in December of 2012. Who knows? The sooner the better as far as I"m concerned.
One thing is for sure, we ARE a cancer and we ARE KILLING our world. If we were truly intelligent, sentient beings don't you think we'd stop?
I agree with with Skip to a point, but remember our government. If intelligent life from another world came to this planet, the army ,air force, and marines would be on hand to insure that everything goes wrong that could go wrong. We would look very unfriendly with all the weapons of the world pointed at them. Our governments think they are so intelligent that they could rule the universe better then intelligent life smart enough to travel light years to get here when twenty some years after going to the moon we don't know how to go back, and need another twenty years to learn how to do it again.
Talk like that sounds real philosophical, but we certainly are no cancer. We are merely a living organism. An organism, who like all others, are using the resources of their environment to survive.
Billions of years ago oxygen was rare in the Earth's atmosphere. Then cyanobacteria evolved, and other photosynthetic organisms. These creatures began adding massive quantities of oxygen into the atmosphere, forever changing it. At that time oxygen was a poisonous gas to most life. They unknowingly created an ecological disaster for the earth of that era.
Shall we consider the cyanobacteria a cancer? Shall intelligent aliens come to Earth and restore the environment to a state such as it was billions of years ago? Perhaps they would do this in order to "rid the organism of it's disease and nurse it back to health for their use".
Saying things like we are a cancer, or a disease is counterproductive. Just like the cyanobacteria, there was a time when we did not realize the impact of our actions on the environment. Unlike them, we have evolved to a point where we have taken notice of the environmental changes. We have the realization of this and are trying, weakly, to stop the destruction.
For those that believe in the "Big Bang Theory" over the "Genesis Theory" think about the following:
Genesis: Paraphrasing: God created the Heavens and the Earth from the Void (emptiness or nothingness).
From Hawkings, The universe was created from a singularity explosion. Hawkings said that the Singularity came from "nothingness".
God created the Earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th. Big Bang says the Universe will go into a final frozen rest stage in a few more billions of years.
God created Man and Woman and all the animals of the Earth for them, but Adam didn't like Lillith as being too independent so he cast her out and God created Eve who was more subservient to Adam. History of the Earth says we homo Sapians are not the first humanoid people on Earth. We may have thrown out the first groups such as Neanderthal or interbred with them.
By looking at the Bible that was printed about 2,000 years ago or so, the Big Bang Theory being thought of by people such as Einstein and others that were brought up in Religious homes, shows that those people that wrote the Bible may have already known or theorized about the universe coming about through the Big Bang and the only way they could extrapolate the information was to think their God did it. Those people back then were a lot smarter than we give credit for. Einstein and others mearly had the idea in the back of their minds when they were listening to their parents and brought it forth.
The only question is did God create the Universe, or did the Universe create God? It seems religion and science are in complete agreement on how the Universe began. It began from nothing.
Also being as the whole universe is most likely made up of the same elements and mathmatically animal life may probably all have the same type of shapes to enable it to travel, Aliens may already be like us.
I very much like your Big Bang/Genesis analogy theorizings, Del. Something along those lines did occur to me also. "..And let there be light". Anyway, the Hadron Collider may come up with answering your question of who was created first - God or the Universe?
This is a commonly held misconception. There was no explosion, and the universe did come from something. People often believe it was an explosion because of the name "Big Bang"
The term "Big Bang" was coined by Fred Hoyle.
Current theory is that two branes collided, and that gave rise to our universe.
This may, or may not not, be provenwith experiments being carried out at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Now, I am not saying God did not do this. I firmly believe God's domain is not confined to this universe. Nether is God a separate entity from the universe. Rather, God is the universe and all other dimensions of time and space. God is all things seen and unseen. All things are a part of God.
Thanks for the links, James - be interesting to see what other theories abound besides Big Bang. As what you say about a God - I cannot conceptualize a God of that vastness. I prefer Him a little nearer - like terra firma. Don't like to think of Mankinds' whinging and complaining crossing the vastness of Space/Time...!
You're very welcome Teresa!
I guess it is easy for me to envision a multi-dimensional/timeless God because since I was a child I was told God is everywhere, has always existed and will always exist. If that is the case, God can not be bound only to our plane of existence. God can not be bound by things known or unknown.
Thinking of God in terms of being nearer is very correct too! If God is everywhere, God is near as well.
What if? Tray "Why wouldn't"
What if? Tray "Why wouldn't"
Yep. Repeating it didn't help at all...
They have nothing to worry about, we wont make it, period.
Were still hanging around the trees debating if facts are in actual fact, true.
"What if E.T. thinks we're evil?"
He/she/it would be right.
This article is one of the silliest screeds I have had the misfortune to read.
It is simply more anthropomorphic tripe, postulating that "space aliens" think like we do. I wager if such beings do exist, and can actually travel interstellar distances, they would look at us as little more than insects, or not even notice us at all.
The article actually offered a few different perspectives on this. "Thinking like us" in terms of greed and exploitation of a new found colony, was just one.
Anyone remember "Dark Skies"? There are more than one type of aliens that have been here a very long time and continue to monitor and at times, "interfere" in the course of events on our planet. Its much more complicated than good vs evil. This is a resource rich planet. There are many elements and volatile compounds that are rare in the galaxy that can be found here. The rarest of which is life and the genetic constituents of life. People joke that aliens come light years to probe human rectums, but not so funny when you consider there are bacterial strains that can be found no where else in the galaxy except there.
Bottom Line: If you think we are the only intelligent life to have evolved in this galaxy (not to mention other galaxies or dimensions), stay there, its a nice safe place to park your mind. The best interpretation of the historic record and latest research is not only are we not alone, but the government has known about it for at least 60 years. Beyond that, we can only speculate, and I like way "Dark Skies" went about doing that. That show inspired X-Files, but was way better.
"when you consider there are bacterial strains that can be found no where else in the galaxy"
Um, last I checked, there was not only bacterial strains, but life of any kind not found anywhere else in the galaxy except here....
Just saying.
And you know this as a fact because?
I think we are likely to find life right in our own solar system once we develop the technology to enable robust exploration. Europa (a Jovian moon) is an exciting candidate. We could still find life beneath the surface of Mars. Enceladus and Titan (moons of Saturn) are considered strong possibilities by astrobiologists as well.
As far as beyond our solar system, even with our extremely limited methods for detective other planetary systems (we can't really detect planets that are as small as earth yet), the number of discoveries has exploded in recent years. Planets are everywhere, it's just a matter of odds on whether one can support life. Given the vastness of the galaxy, I would think it's a safe bet. Intelligent life is out there.
Could you name one single resource that isn't far more abundant and more readily available elsewhere, even in our Solar system?
Are they coming for gold? easily obtained from the asteroid field.
Iron? again the asteroid field.
Water? oooooooH how about the rings of Saturn and the Oort cloud?
Hydrogen? that would be a tough one wouldn't it? Ah, no... there's that big honking planet called Jupiter for that, there's also Saturn, Neptune and Uranus for all the gasses that might be conceivable for a resource.
I also find it difficult to accept that any of what we consider nutritional items found on our little rock would be palatable or even digestible by creatures from another system. People that fear an alien invasion are arrogant in the 'center of the universe' concept that they complain about some others being.
The aliens in Monsters are from Europa, I think. They are very cool aliens. Just don't tread on them.
geckotan:
They recently found DNA in Meteors that look surprisingly like ours. The Earth may have been seeded by something not from our planet unless the DNA was from the fellow that picked up the Meteorite.
Yeah - and we skipped from Chimp to humanoid... Something like that!!
Could you please post a reference? I have heard of them finding proteins, but not DNA.
I believe C. S. Lewis used this idea half a century ago as a main part of his plot in the Narnia Chronicles - that creatures of the same God in other planets who had not "fallen" and become twisted by evil would have to quarantine such as we are.
Also in 'Out of the Silent Planet" and its sequels..
Agree on C.S. Lewis' "Space Trilogy". Short books Out of Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength. Not to forget his "Screwtape Letters".
Only modern day author I can think of at the moment that mixes Christianity into his writing as science fiction is Casper Parks.
Everyone remembers C.S. Lewis for his Narnia stuff. Doubt we would ever see his other books done as films. I read and reread that Space Trilogy several times over the years and recommend it.
The "Screwtape Letters", that's a good one. Screwtape totally cracks me up. He's so . . . logical.
As a fellow Earthling, I can only say that I have no particular fondness for my own species, having seen so much evil, greed, depravity, and utter cruelty. If there is other life in this universe, let's hope it is of a much higher order, or that its too far away to meet. I have family and friends that I love. But, overall, it would be best for the human race to die off. I'm sure that, given time, we'll take care of that too.
wow..i couldn't have said it better myself....truly Bravo!!!!!!
It has been said: Beauty is in the eye of the Beholder. :)
I know there is lots of bad, bad stuff out there - but there is also such beauty, such compassion, such love and wonder and amazement and genius and inspiration out there. :)
The 'Flowers? or the 'Weeds?' As any expert gardener would do, he would cull or remove dead, dying or invasive species to clean up, maintain and ensure the health of the 'rest of the plants' in the garden.
An advanced species wouldn't kill us all off I would hope. We originated on this planet and our designs for space travel could easily be "managed" by the others. With Earth's population burgeoning we could stand a little 'culling.' Say about three billion or so. On the other hand, if they want this planet and us, they will take it. Not without a fight of course, and that scenario would be disastrous for them and us anyway. A genetically engineered organism would kill us off a lot faster than ray guns.
We've come a long way in the last couple thousand years, and we can clearly do much better. I hope that with time that we can evolve as a species to rise above the "evil, greed, depravity, and utter cruelty". Hopefully it doesn't have to come to our dying off. Think Star Trek!
Until free transportation and replicators are invented we will continue to fight over everything. A way to generate free/cheap power would go a long way to solving a lot of society's ills. There will always be depravity and utter cruelty but that can be minimized when the world is no longer fighting over every morsel of food or penny there is to be had.
How unfortunate for you Karen that you choose to see the only the evil side of humankind, while ignoring selfless acts of courage and kindness that media often ignores because it doesn't sell well enough.
Just do an internet search of heroic acts 2010, 2011, etc and you can find many examples of humans' better nature.
I know what I choose...
You do realize that there can be no good without evil? Judging the entire race as evil due to the depraved hatred and cruelty that we are inundated with in the news is just wrong headed. There are many more good people than there are evil ones on this little rock we call earth.
For every Mother Theresa, we have an Osama bin Ladin. For ever Lincoln, we have a John Wilkes Boothe. For every Harry Truman, we have a Joseph Stalin.
every Churchill has his Hitler.
If we last long enough, we'll discover interstellar travel and start colonizing worlds. That's an easier way to make contact with aliens.
This is wrong on many levels, all of which should be apparent to anyone with a science background. To begin with, the odds are that any intelligent beings we encounter are going to be orders of magnitude more advanced than us. If the scale of time that highly advanced civilizations survive and grow is on the order of thousands or millions, maybe hundreds of millions of years, than we are but freshly hatched insects in comparison. No truly advanced ET's are going to feel the least threatened by us, if they even bother to look here. Any resources they might need will be easily obtained in ways much more elegant and efficient than by attacking other planets.
On the use of caution in broadcasting our violent culture to the cosmos: it has pretty well been established that "They" will not be watching "I Love Lucy" or news footage of the Vietnam War, simply because the signals have become garbled noise by the time they leave the solar system.
Mitchell Grant has it correct - this report was anthropomorphic tripe worthy of a second-rate sci-fi writer.
Admittedly the odds of contact are very slim but that doesn't mean we shouldn't consider the possibilities. That would be foolish.
While I agree that "they" probably won't be watching "I love Lucy" your wrong to state that they wouldn't have the ability to isolate that "garbled noise" and recreate it. If there is ever any physical contact with aliens it will most likely be because the aliens have developed faster than light technology. It would be unwise to infer ANY limits on a civilization that can develop FTL and all it's connotations.
ET may not exactly think we are evil. But they do think we are uncivilized and under developed (pretty much the way Americans think about some third world countries). Luckily for us most aliens are pacifists. They are harmless and friendly. However, the US military/intelligence community does not want the truth about advanced aliens visiting from outer space to be revealed, since that would undermine US military and economic dominance of the world. The agencies have spread disinformation about aliens trying to make them seem dangerous. This elaborate coverup has been going on for almost 60 years. See ufocoverup.org for more info
InjunTrouble-
"But they do think we are uncivilized and under developed (pretty much the way Americans think about some third world countries). Luckily for us most aliens are pacifists. They are harmless and friendly."
And you know this how? That's a pretty ignorant statement to make.
Don't Bogart whatever you are smoking.
Have you looked at the economic state of they US recently? We're not dominating squat.
Cover-ups rarely (never) last more than a year or two or three. People can't keep their mouths shut. Since 60+ years have been "air tight" compliance it makes your statement very unlikely, I would say I wouldn't worry about those pesky aliens, they fall in the same catagory as the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.
Well,
Here is my far out view of Aliens. Since I selected "other" here it is. Its rather complex.
1949AD. A star ship manned by good aliens is passing through our solar system on a scientific mission. They notice, that one of the tribal powers on the Earth is in contact with a race of evil Aliens, in which the good aliens have defeated several times before. The Good aliens approach the chief of this tribe on the Earth. The Aliens say they noticed this evil alien race and that the good aliens will get rid of the evil aliens and then make Earth's Solar System a National Park so to speak, complete with Game Wardens to make sure no one else bothers the Earth.
The chief of this very powerful tribe ask if there is technology in it for them. The Good Aliens are rather shocked by the chiefs remark and then they tell the Chief no but they will get rid of the evil alien. The Chief of this powerful North American tribe says no that they would rather put up with having to allow these evil aliens to experiment on them in exchange for space tech.
Dejected, the Good Aliens leave but they do take out several of the Bad Alien Space Stations in orbit of Jupiter.
2011. The Good Aliens have returned and have determined that they will have to intervene anyway, seems the bad aliens are now playing with the economy of the Earth and are taking way too many Earth People as test subjects.
What do you all think?
I think you need to double up on your meds, bless your heart.
its just a story, a what if situation... but Thanks for the advice Fireball
I'd buy and read that book if you were able to publish it. Sounds like it has great potential as a fictional story based on modern ideas floating around out there.
Scientific "studies" show 4 out of 5 aliens prefer the taste of human brains compared to brain brand X.
We're doomed!
Hate to tell you this, but that story has been written, and probably much better.
why would you hate to tell me that ? infact i hope you do it sounds like a story i'd love to read, what is the book and who is the author ?
Few people know that in 'Farewell to the Master', the original story that the 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' was based on, the ROBOT Gnut (who became Gort in the movie) actually gave the orders and was in charge. In the adaptation, a robot master was deemed unacceptable to the sensibilities of film goers in the 1950's, so Klaatu was made the master.
See:
Anywho - IMO as a long time SF fan, I sadly doubt that there are other intelligent races in this galaxy. With our galaxy being somewhere between 10-13 billion years old, if intelligent life were prolific, then surely we would have had solid evidence of such life by now. I don't think we need worry about encountering aliens, good or bad.
What I would find very depressing is the possibility that not only are things like wormholes or FTL travel really and truly not possible, but that out of the many trillions of galaxies in our universe, that we may be the ONLY intelligent life that managed to develop!
The odds that we are the only intelligent life in the universe are low. The widley accepted theory is that the universe never ends; it is infinite. If that is true then what happens once will happen multiple times.
BTW... You need not be depressed. They have already proven FTL and to a lesser extent worm holes at the nano level. Check out the BBC program on it. I belive it was called "parrel universes" but I'm not 100% sure of the name.
As long as star travel is nearly impossible, we are not likely to meet very many aliens. Those that we meet are likely to be highly developed artificial forms. (Partially intelligent biological life, such as ours, does not appear to be sustainable in the long run.) Artificial intelligences are not likely to be very interested in either us or our planet. If they are, it will be to help themselves, not us.
I always liked Hawking's metaphor-- Europeans vs the American Natives.
Here is one group, relatively primitive but with a working writing system, a strong social order and trade-- and all the problems inherent in that: war, famine, coups, etc. And here you have another, comparatively advanced-- traversing unfathomed distances across an inaccessible ocean, bearing strange weaponry that harnessed thunder, riding animals no one had ever seen before, gilt all in shining metals (armor) and bearded. The two were woefully disparate. In the end, the technologically advanced Europeans conquered the major cultural centers of North and South America (with a little help from disease, at times brought inadvertently and at others, intentionally). It's a rough blueprint of what could happen when our own, human culture is confronted with a profoundly more advanced alien culture that we don't understand. The natives believed that the Europeans were gods of some kind. There are people today who would make the same assumptions about extra-terrestrials (They are angels! They are demons! They are the second coming of christ! They are Shiva! They are Krishna! It is the 12th Imam! Etc...) These sorts of confusions will not bode well for humanity as a whole, as it may lead to misinterpretations of intent. Those with advanced scientific knowledge (for humans) will have a leg up, but even the most austere Aztec astronomers had their books burned by the Spanish...
We are Evil...read the news headlines. If any intelligent alien life is observing us they know this is a planet of pain and suffering. IMO they will avoid us like the plague or destroy us before we are capable of long distance space travel.
Nah. Considering how nature itself is evil. Animals eat other animals. Weather cold, hot, famines, meteorites, volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, and all manner of things can destroy us, the aliens will probably recognize that as part of their own evolutionary history. This is one point not brought up in the article, simply put, we got this far, why on earth would some advanced civilization not "cut us some slack?"
Yes, other ET life would indeed have had their own evolutionary history. But, just as we have evil dictators - my expectation is that they too will have their equals. Let's just hope they have been overcome just as we are trying to overcome ours.
Haha, well they may just test their planet destroying rays on Venus first.
I think when they get here they are going to fatten us up and then throw us on the grill.
Andrew, who do you think is at the top of the food chain? Think about it!
lol, "To Serve Man" comes to mind.......It's a cookbook!
The Aliens already know we are evil and thats why they limit their contact because if we caaught one of them we would kill tghem a disect their remains and put them in a museum for every one to admire. We are a people who hate others, steal land for oil, polute and crap in our own back yards. The way things are going on earth with polution, disease and global warming its only amount of time before we kill ourselves. Problem solved for the Aliens who will wait it out then come to earth after we are all dead and take it over for its mineral properties, or whats left of it. If you were an Alien why come down now and start trouble or even loose your life by contacting stupid human erthlings!
Interesting post JKS. Remind me not to come over to your house for a backyard cookout.
Again with the broad brush stroke calling all Humans evil. No, they wouldn't look upon as as evil, benign or malignant. They would look upon us as we would a small (or large) but hitherto unknown race of cave dwelling hominids that survived until present day. They would see us as P.R.I.M.I.T.I.V.E.S.
Be real. We are so screwed up, how the hell do we export this much evil? No way.
Besides, it's far more likely we'll "snuff ourselves out" before any direct alien contact anyhow. Maybe it's what all advanced civilizations do since we can't seem to find any amoungst the billions and billions of stars out there.
Seeing that so many others share my view that "we are the evil ones" actually gives me a little hope.
I assume nothing, until we have a good cross section of alien civilizations to compare ourselves to. s I said elsewhere, we may only be average in our degree of 'evil,' as much as we might like to think otherwise.
We're probably not exceptional or special...even in that.