Is earth defenceless?

[Longinius 1]

Quote[/b] ]If there is a race with good enough technology to get here they sure as hell will have the technology to kill us all before we knew they were coming.

I find it extremely unlikely that a race would come to earth just to kill us. If a race can get so far without killing themselves with theire own technology first, that means they are probably more peaceful than humans. If a race is more peaceful than humans they are not going to attack us.

Europeans were more technologically advanced than indians, and managed to cross the great ocean without killing themselves. Wanna ask an indian if the Great White Man came in peace?

Quote[/b] ]The only possible intrest in earth they might have is us, not like we have some minerals etc. that they can't grab anywhere else. Unless the are so much smarter than us, like comparing a human to a dog, and they decide to have pets. Ok so that's unlikely.

Not really. Slave labor. Food. Hunting for sport. Maybe they need something we have that can't be found in many other places. Maybe they just like to fight.

Why would aliens have to think differently than we do? They of course don't. The can be veryy nice guys, or evil bastards.

[Mr. Snrub 0]

Why would aliens have to think differently than we do? They of course don't. The can be veryy nice guys, or evil bastards.

Many people believe that if an alien civilisation has progressed far enough technologically to cross vast distances of space with relative ease (including the distance needed to reach Earth), then that technological development would be paralleled socially/morally. That is to say, as civilisations progress scientifically, they also become less belligerent - more enlightened. This seems to be the case with us humans - we're still killing each other en masse, but with less gusto and enthusiasm than in times past.

Whether this holds true for alien species remains to be seen, although it would be unlikely to be an axiom.

On the other hand, we'd have to assume that a technologically superior race is rather powerful in their own sector of the universe (weak races would probably be concerned with protecting their immediate interests, not with galavanting around the universe). Power tends to breed arrogance (at least among humans), and aliens visitng Earth may wish to exert their power over us.

Who knows? It's tempting to assign human qualities (ie. arrogance, belligerence, morals) to all sentient life, but aliens may be goverened by emotions completely unlike those of humans, if they have emotions at all. Similar biology through a similar process of evolution need not imply similar mental processes...

I'm more inclined to think that any alien race sufficiently advanced to visit the Earth, and using mental processes based on logic, wouldn't have more than a passing interest in us. We wouldn't be all that advanced relative to them, and therefore wouldn't pose much of a threat, at least not for a while yet. The resources unique to the Earth, and which we would conceivably fight them for (ie. those resources we would rather keep - fossil fuels, humans etc.) would probably be considered too primitive to be of any use, and humans may be deemed too unstable to interact meaningfully with.

[Grizzlie 0]

So we have 2 kinds of danger:

1) Aliens - only hope is they rather would be like ET, not like Martians from War of the Worlds

2) Natural - asteroids, ect. - again hope they would miss.

Is hope and pray the only thing mankind can do???

Masters of the Earth???

Do we really has to meet one of those dangers to start thinking of them seriously?

[ozanzac 0]

Is hope and pray the only thing mankind can do???

Masters of the Earth???

Do we really has to meet one of those dangers to start thinking of them seriously?

Should we really care? We die when we die. Why make a big fuss over it? Why live in fear of it?

Seriously, why live in the shadow that the fear of death presents us. Just get on with your lives. Why worry about something that's imminent? Why even dwell on the thought of death, why even dwell on the unknowns from space that could harm us? Why dwell on it as an individual when you as an individual can't do much about it anyway! Anyone of us could be hit by a bus tomorrow, or live for eternity.

Theres more crazy talk going on here than at an old folks home!

[Grizzlie 0]

If so, so why we r trying over and over to make our lives longer, without pain, we r trying to resolve problems of natural disasters, and just ignoring biggest disaster we can meet?

[ozanzac 0]

If so, so why we r trying over and over to make our lives longer, without pain, we r trying to resolve problems of natural disasters, and just ignoring biggest disaster we can meet?

I don't know why people try to prolong life well beyond their life expectancy. Family perhaps? Maybe they just love life, or feel they have a commitment to those who surround them? I can't speak for all, I know I'm not looking forward to old age, as the body eventually loses its functions and the mind slowly numbs, at my age, thats not enticing at all in my view.

What I am saying, is that we should not live in fear, or be afraid of the unknowns of space, be it E.T's or astroids.

Sure we can try to plan for such catastrophic events such as an asteroid hitting Earth, but it's not like we can practice for such an event either, as I imagine our response to an impending disaster would be an untested, last ditch effort, likely of failing anyway!

Extrapolated thinking like this could come up with a possible solution, but hey, why worry, why care when our deaths are inevitable anyway.

As a side note, please, tell me, how would you behave if you were told that an asteroid, capable of wiping out life as we know it was on a collision course with earth within the next two days, and NASA or someone was putting togeather a plan to avert disaster.

Would you :

a) Go about your life normally, with complete faith that the mission will suceed.

b) Party like there really is no tomorrow.

or c) Take advantage of the utter chaos that would ensue?

Personnally I'd take a combination of B and C. Take advantage of the ensuing chaos to party as hard as I can possibly party.

Basically, what I'm tryna say is let the so called "experts" deal with (read: worry about) the problem, after all, in the big picture, we're all basically just lemmings anyway!

edit: Yay, I'm no longer a .. , I'm a Member!

[bn880 5]

Who knows? It's tempting to assign human qualities (ie. arrogance, belligerence, morals) to all sentient life, but aliens may be goverened by emotions completely unlike those of humans, if they have emotions at all. Similar biology through a similar process of evolution need not imply similar mental processes...

I think emotions are the basis for survival, and don't ask me the details, but I think they will have the exact emotions as we do, at least the general ones.

I can guarantee you pain, anger, jealousy, love, but not humor, perhaps because I have not thought about it. this can be deduced from evolution. Anyway, expect to look more less into a mirror, with odd features, but never the less human looking. That is unless genetic engineering somehow tranformed the race. And we see only their specialists.

I like this space talk... gets the brain working.

[Guest]

Chances that life exists somewhere in the Universe? Almost 100%

Chances of meeting life from another planet? Almost 0%

Why? Because of the huge distances involved. Taking the assumption that physics are the same across the Universe, how fast do you think an alien spaceship could travel? How would they know out of all the Universe to head this way?

The Universe is big....I mean really big!

[Acecombat 0]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?

[bn880 5]

Chances that life exists somewhere in the Universe? Almost 100%

Chances of meeting life from another planet? Almost 0%

Well yes I agree... very much agree. Our existance is so short, that we would be enormously _blessed_ to actually meet intelligent alien life.

Imagine exchanging information with such a civilization!

Disclaimer: I am kind of assuming we won't be here for ever, and even a hundred thousand years is a very short time relatively speaking.

[bn880 5]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.

[The Frenchman 0]

nnnnnnoooooooooo , i will bite them and i will flee

The French tactics!  

Look who's talking IKEA man!

[Mr. Snrub 0]

Who knows? It's tempting to assign human qualities (ie. arrogance, belligerence, morals) to all sentient life, but aliens may be goverened by emotions completely unlike those of humans, if they have emotions at all. Similar biology through a similar process of evolution need not imply similar mental processes...

I think emotions are the basis for survival, and don't ask me the details, but I think they will have the exact emotions as we do, at least the general ones.

I can guarantee you pain, anger, jealousy, love, but not humor, perhaps because I have not thought about it. this can be deduced from evolution. Anyway, expect to look more less into a mirror, with odd features, but never the less human looking. That is unless genetic engineering somehow tranformed the race. And we see only their specialists.

I like this space talk... gets the brain working.

Emotions are the basis of human survival, as we are social animals who depend upon one another (through relationships, which leeds to breeding etc.) to further the species. It is conceivable however that an alien species may have developed a reproduction method (god knows what it could be - I don't really fancy theorizing about it ) that doesn't require the same level of emotional activity that occurs in humans.

I agree that emotions/moods/behaviours are likely to be part of any developed alien psyche, but whether those emotions resemble those of humans is, at the moment, impossible to predict. So far, our knowledge of evolution is limited to one planet, and even then we don't know absolutely everything. Even the slightest difference in conditions (ie. atmospheric, environmental) between Earth and an alien world may have exaggerated the biological/mental differences between humans and the dominant alien species.

Personally, I think it's feasible that an alien civilisation advanced enough to travel to Earth may have deemed any emotions they have as irrelevant, or even a hindrance to the logical furtherment of their race. In that situation, emotions may have been artificially suppressed, or even genetically altered/removed. Perhaps they realised that the very reason for emotions (procreation) was redundant, as they had developed more efficient methods of reproducing - cloning perhaps?

Should we meet any advanced alien races, I wouldn't be suprised if they were guided by logic and pragmatism more than any emotions...

[theavonlady 2]

Should we meet any advanced alien races, I wouldn't be suprised if they were guided by logic and pragmatism more than any emotions...

Where have I heard that before?

[Acecombat 0]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?  

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.  

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?

[theavonlady 2]

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?  

This subject has itself caused some big bangs here on the forums in the past.

[Mr. Snrub 0]

Should we meet any advanced alien races, I wouldn't be suprised if they were guided by logic and pragmatism more than any emotions...

Where have I heard that before?

LOL, probably not too far off

But then again, pragmatism isn't necessarily benevolent in nature. Unless we are either a threat or a possible worthwhile ally, I don't think we'd be of anything more than of fleeting interest, if not completely ignored. If there's one other alien civilisation out there, there's more than likely millions of civilisations, many of which would be more advanced than us - we'd probably be on the more primitive end of the spectrum, given the age of the universe and all, and therefore of little concern...

[Grizzlie 0]

@The Frenchman Well - i would prefer to use chair than teef

Hmm - i think (and hope) that we will first meet peacefull ET's. Those more aggresive or destroyed themseves yet, or r too busy destroing others, and don't care about little planet in Galaxy peripherials

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?  

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.  

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?  

at least they can explain SOMETHING, which is more than the opposition

[theavonlady 2]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?  

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.  

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?  

at least they can explain SOMETHING, which is more than the opposition

You must admit at least my warning above was prophetic.

[Acecombat 0]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?  

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.  

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?  

at least they can explain SOMETHING, which is more than the opposition

I am not bashing the scientists for trying to find out , but theyre theorys in the end lead to one question WHY ? To which they will never ever have the answer.

So there explaining it to us as to how the universe came in to being is futile

[bn880 5]

I agree that emotions/moods/behaviours are likely to be part of any developed alien psyche, but whether those emotions resemble those of humans is, at the moment, impossible to predict. So far, our knowledge of evolution is limited to one planet, and even then we don't know absolutely everything. Even the slightest difference in conditions (ie. atmospheric, environmental) between Earth and an alien world may have exaggerated the biological/mental differences between humans and the dominant alien species.

Personally, I think it's feasible that an alien civilisation advanced enough to travel to Earth may have deemed any emotions they have as irrelevant, or even a hindrance to the logical furtherment of their race. In that situation, emotions may have been artificially suppressed, or even genetically altered/removed. Perhaps they realised that the very reason for emotions (procreation) was redundant, as they had developed more efficient methods of reproducing - cloning perhaps?

Should we meet any advanced alien races, I wouldn't be suprised if they were guided by logic and pragmatism more than any emotions...

No I do not believe it is impossible to predict. Even with different environmental conditions, the end result of thousands of years of evolution will be very similar to ours. The main point is, how different of an environment do you think there will be? Do you not agree that the most intelligent life forms develop onthe surface of a planet? That they learn to use tools, think for survival, are generally physically weak and incapable of surviving ontheir own? The whole concept of how intelligence increases in evolution to a level that we see in us is based on social behaviour necessary for survival of weaker and weaker animals, but always more and more intelligent.

There is no way out of it, face it, we are not essentially special, we are a standard product of nature. An invevitable result where conditions permit evolution to continue long enough.

EDIT: My view on this is not coming from a lack of consideration, actually I used to have the idea that alien life would be completely different from ours, until I thought about much longer, and learned along the way. So this is my "new" take on it if you will.

[Acecombat 0]

Bn 880 i dont agree with your reasoning on a life form not being in a energy (ized)form , why cant it be like that?

Surely you must agree that there are dimensions through which normal human vision fails.

I had read a very interesting scientifically explained theory on this i'll post later for you to read

[bn880 5]

Sure, in fact there may be various things around us that can be considered alive, if not everything being part of a living system, it depends on your definition of life. I am talking about life as we know it and can contact...

there are various possibilites of life forms even forming in space, from whatever is "floating" around. however I don't believe these will be lifeforms we will recognize or find "useful", or any means to communicate. It depends on what you consider life to be. If you really think about it, what makes a single celled organism alive, and a grain of sand not? is it DNA? or is it the mobility factor? because not all organisms even move...

[bn880 5]

What i wanna know is how theuniverse came in to existance?

That's a little harder to figure out isn't it.

Especially with the scientists handing us that Big Bang theory when they cant even explain that why did the Big Bang happened or where did that material come from?

Personally I don't have the slightest idea about the 'start' of the universe myself. So... just remember that time itself is our interpretation, it's not necessairly the "be all and end all" of what's out there. We might be stuck in a concept of time, while there is another reality which unifies all time into a single viewpoint. I don't know.