Researchers on our planet pay way more attention to some forms of life than others and it could be the same with these hypothetical interstellar species - maybe convergent evolution has led to countless similar situations and nobody's rushing out to do their thesis on yet another planet full of bipeds who like hitting each over the head and burning each other's dwellings down.
Aliens
- Thread starter frogwoman
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Researchers on our planet pay way more attention to some forms of life than others and it could be the same with these hypothetical interstellar species - maybe convergent evolution has led to countless similar situations and nobody's rushing out to do their thesis on yet another planet full of bipeds who like hitting each over the head and burning each other's dwellings down.
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
Watch the movie Prometheus.
For some ideas about how to handle this topic really fucking badly.
krtek a houby
Saoirse don Phalaistín!
Seen it, can't remember it much
8ball
As seen on TikTok
Or maybe they'll come here and ignore the local monkey infestation in order to marvel at the quite stunning and diverse beetle population.
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
For what it's worth I agree with you, I don't think these phenomena are artificial but it will be millennia before we ever know if indeed we ever do. The hedghogs, squirrels and birds who frequent my garden must see my house and garage or my car but have no conception that they are artificial or play a role in human civilisation.
I personally don't think there are any early stellar empires (something like 1.1 to 1.5 on the Kardeshev scale and thus possible candidates for invaders as per Hollywood) anyway near us else they would have interacted with us by now.
If there are aliens close by then they're either too primitive to detect or so advanced that they can stop us detecting them. I agree that I don't think there are many planets with intelligent life on them in the galaxy though I suspect non-intelligent life is fairly common.
- "Amazing beetles, but habitat has become significantly degraded." - "Come for the beetles, stay for the moths" - "I thought there would be more beetles."
8ball
As seen on TikTok
"You are 10,953,175th in the queue. Please hold."
This has been my experience with IT support at work this week.
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Try to convert them probably.
And, they probably have an equally annoying religion based on going out and converting the unconverted as well. They can keep each other busy for a millenium or two.
8ball
As seen on TikTok
The Catholic Church used to fund S.E.T.I. for exactly this reason.
If any space Mormons ever try to make contact I'm joining the Starship Troopers.
NoXion
his soul is marching on
Even the most common and mundane organisms are still subject to much study. If primitive and violent sapients are indeed common throughout the universe, then there will certainly be those wondering why that is. There will be those looking for patterns, similarities and differences among all the different primitives that somehow manage to still keep cropping up.
Even something as common and "boring" as sand has more than one person studying it on this planet alone. And interstellar alien civilisations will, by definition, be orders of magnitude larger in population than our piddly one-planet civilisation. A single Dyson swarm around one star could contain enough alien astronomers for each of them to be assigned their own star in the galaxy to study.
I think popular science fiction has done society kind of a disservice, by failing to impress upon people just how titanic even just an interplanetary civilisation could get, never mind interstellar or galactic civilisations. Quantity becomes a quality all of its own.
Those animals might not realise that houses and cars are artificial constructs, but they certainly know enough to fear humans as potentially harmful agents. This is where I think the analogy breaks down, because as far as we can tell, there are no agents out there to fear. Just a great wilderness that might be intimidating in its vastness, but certainly doesn't display any malice.
T & P
|-o-| (-o-) |-o-|
Demons sent by Satan to confuse us and doubt our faith.
NoXion
his soul is marching on
Protestant fundamentalists are a special kind of ignorant. The Catholic Church, long practised in the art of reconciling religion with reality, basically looks at the prospect of aliens and thinks "ah yes, potential converts".
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
No doubt they were intrigued by the possibility of meeting vulnerable underage aliens.
Cid
Proper break this time
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
Sand is far from boring. You can't build civilization without it and its versatile properties.
Puddy_Tat
🐈⬛
Probably a bit like how they reacted to dinosaurs.
Missing from the scrolls - “It’s a test from God”
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NoXion
his soul is marching on
Quite so! Hence the quotes. But how many people would be willing to pay to sit through a presentation on the subject of sand?
The size and age of the universe, the time taken for life to become intelligent, then to discover intergalactic travel, without being wiped out or wiping itself out, then actually making a journey upwards of thousands of years, if travelling at light speed was possible…
Occam’s razor says nah. Based on what we know.
Occam’s razor says nah. Based on what we know.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Yes, They might particularly like to communicate with other delicious tasty meat based organisms,
Yuwipi Woman
Whack-A-Mole Queen
LOL. Me and about three of my engineer friends.
NoXion
his soul is marching on
To be fair, the curiosity could be based on how best to exploit, plunder, colonise and... er... eat the underling species. But I prefer your take NoXion
I wanted to come back to this and give it the attention that I feel is deserved. Yes, there is indeed a dark side to curiosity, the quest for knowledge is fought for with a double-edged sword. It banished smallpox indeed, but it also invented appalling chemical weapons that cause bodies to literally tear themselves apart. And who knows what self-inflicted horrors could be awaiting us in the future? I don't blame anyone for having nightmares.
But the way I see it, that just makes it all the more important that the realms of human possibility are not completely colonised by those who would seek to render us into merely technologically-advanced monsters and labour units. Part of the appeal for ordinary folks of modern-day industrialists like Elon Musk is that they appear to offer a brighter future, in contrast to the wearisome cynicism engendered by the "There Is No Alternative" neoliberalism that has risen to prominence in the wake of the collapse of the USSR. Musk's vision is a deceptive one of course, appearing to be more populist than it really is. But I believe the desire for a better future is a genuine one, even if it is currently being poorly-served. I think that abandoning that impulse towards hope would be a grave mistake.
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littlebabyjesus
one of Maxwell's demons
If there is other intelligent life out there that wonders if there is other intelligent life out there, I doubt we will ever see it. Distances are too big.
But if it exists elsewhere, I suspect that evolution constrains solutions to certain kinds of things. Starting off as something like a cell with a membrane to distinguish me/not me. Some kind of replicating code. At some point, certain organisms evolve that make their living by eating other organisms rather than fixing energy from a star or vent or whatever. To get to intelligent life that is able to reflect on its own existence, you would need something like multicellular organisms, probably mobile like animals, and probably with a psychology that has evolved in the context of both intraspecies cooperation and intraspecies competition.
I suspect that they'll be fucked up like us.
But if it exists elsewhere, I suspect that evolution constrains solutions to certain kinds of things. Starting off as something like a cell with a membrane to distinguish me/not me. Some kind of replicating code. At some point, certain organisms evolve that make their living by eating other organisms rather than fixing energy from a star or vent or whatever. To get to intelligent life that is able to reflect on its own existence, you would need something like multicellular organisms, probably mobile like animals, and probably with a psychology that has evolved in the context of both intraspecies cooperation and intraspecies competition.
I suspect that they'll be fucked up like us.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Me!
SpookyFrank
Don't swallow the cap
Pfft, who needs windows or semiconductors?
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