Reading the "UFO spotted in Chicago" thread I decided to put on my little tin hat and play along for a while and make believe thatI believed in UFO’s and the like. Personally, I take more of the Carl Sagan approach to UFO’s and Extra Terrestrials, I think that it is a mathematical improbability that we are alone in this universe, but I must ask the philosophical question as to why they would want to visit us…
I think there is a reason they would want to scoot around in the background, and remain unseen, perhaps because they know the fallout that would come after their discovery… Knowing that curiosity can lead quickly to fear which can lead to anger, they would choose the cloak and dagger method and stay behind the scenes.
What do others think? Skepticism aside for a moment - why would an alien wish to be seen by us earthlings, and conversely why wouldn’t they?
Under most scenarios that involve alien contact through spaceship travel, we couldn’t actually pose a threat to the aliens. A few exceptions would be if they were actually from within this solar system, or if they were not much technologically superior to us, except for the spacecraft propulsion system, and it’s something that could be easily discovered once we had one to play with or knew that it existed.
I’d say it’s more likely that they’d be studying anthropology, and trying to keep the experiment free of outside influences.
It’s also a mathematical improbability that they would be able to find us.
But what’s interesting to me is that in most popular sci-fi stories(e.g. Star Trek), the aliens are pretty much just like us. Whether they are Evil-doers, or do-gooders, scientific explorers or conquering warriors, they act a lot like us.
Now that is a mathematical improbability. If contact ever occurs, the aliens will be so weird and , well, other-worldly, that we will be terrified of them. So SETI is a nice idea, but it won’t work.
If you want to see real alien brains in action, you don’t have to look at other planets–you can see them here, in your own city. Go to your local shelter for autistic adults. Intelligent people, sometimes capable of brilliant math computations or musical talent—but we still can’t communicate with them meaningfully.
It shames me that I know this, but…they kinda explained on Star Trek: The Next Generation why that was so. According to the episode of which I speak, a species of alien (our very ancient ancestors) grew, evolved, and became capable of interstellar flight. And what they found disappointed them greatly, for there were “none like us” (now, whether that means that the galaxy was just empty, or that there was alien life of a sort so weird they couldn’t deal with it, I don’t know). So, these ancestors seeded various likely planets in the galaxy with their own DNA, which grew and evolved along vaguely similar lines everywhere it took hold. As a result, you have humanoid aliens throughout the galaxy, and the wardrobe department has a much easier job.
Look at the news! You get reports of drooling idiots making pilgrimages to see a piece of toast/tree/door/salt stained sidewalk that might, possibly, vaguely look like it might faintly resemble the Virgin Mary if you look out of the corner of your eye and squint.
Ye gods! Imagine what would happen if unearthly beings made their presence known! We’d be selling saucer-shaped pancakes on eBay like crazy!
[QUOTE=DiggitCamaraCarl Sagan tried to put it in numbers, but, honestly, I don’t know exactly how probable such an event would be.[/QUOTE]
Not Sagan (who did popularize it), but Frank Drake..
Few people dispute the equation itself; all the dispute is what numbers need to be plugged into it.
Basically, though, if the aliens have the technology to come to Earth (which is far advanced of ours, since we are stuck with C as a speed limit), they have the technology to keep hidden from us if they want to. They probably have the technology to destroy us if they needed to, so there’s no reason to fear us, either.
