I sometimes think about various advanced alien civilizations communicating with each other. And Star Trek notwithstanding, I don’t think it would be in person. Different planets have different gravities and different atmospheric pressures. Plus as the War of the Worlds ironically suggests, think of the native bacteria, viruses, etc. and how that would affect these alien species.
No, I think most interplanetary congress would be virtual and simulated. It may be even now as we speak. Why we haven’t been invited to join the club yet, I honestly don’t know. Which brings up another interesting point.
How will our first contact with advanced ET’s be? The Science Channel for one says it will be with advanced robots. How that will all work out—and when–I honestly don’t know. But it is interesting to muse about even now.
Anyone else agree with me, or have similar thoughts on the matter?
If you are not talking about Star Trek-type magic, then, no, you cannot have a remote “interplanetary congress”. For example, when you are on the telephone with Mars, you must have noticed that every time you say something, it takes roughly 10-40 minutes to hear a response.
Plus, I just said that they couldn’t tolerate different gravities, atmospheric pressures, etc. I didn’t say they couldn’t be close by. Maybe, e.g., they could be in adjacent rooms, with controlled gravities, atmospheres, etc. But thanks for your reply .
Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter? I really want to hear your replies.
I strongly suspect the reason is that we are an aggressive, greedy, savage species. We are just one millennium removed from chucking spears, shooting arrows, and firing cannon balls at each other’s wooden ships. We have absolutely NOTHING to offer a truly advanced civilization.
I suspect that if any other advanced civilizations exist in the universe, the chance of them even finding about we exist is extremely close to zero if the laws of physics work as we imagine. We can only be detected by someone not more than 200 light-years away, which in galactic (or intergalactic) terms is almost rubbing shoulders. There is no club and without faster-than-light travel (impossible in our current understanding) there can’t be one.
More to the OP, if somehow trips of thousands of light-years are possible and civilizations cold detect each other in such ranges, then, avoiding direct physicalk contact would be of the essence and doing Zoom with the Vulcans would be a first step.
Yes, we’re so closely adapted to our particular narrow range of land-based Earth conditions that aliens are probably so different, and require such different living conditions, that their patterns of thought and methods of communication may be difficult or even impossible for us to understand. Look at dolphins and whales-- they seem to have some sort of ‘language’ that conveys some level of information to each other, but we don’t understand it. How much different would aliens be?
On the other hand, I sometimes think that maybe, just maybe, any technologically advanced alien species might have a parallel path of evolution to us-- it would only happen on land, because it would be difficult for a water species to create technology. It would have to have something resembling arms with hands and fingers to manipulate objects with fine motor control. It would have to have similar problem-solving abilities to us. There are parallels on Earth where completely different species-- insects, birds and mammals-- all separately evolved flight. So a technological alien species would not look human except for funny-shaped ears like, say, Spock; but just might look and act like something not too unrecognizable from us.
We’re still doing all that, just with more advanced weapons.
But…some may think that a more advanced civilization would have evolved beyond the need for violence and exploitation, and therefore be ‘better’ than us primitive, violent types. That very well may be true, but there’s no guarantee that would be the case. It may be more like a ‘Columbus discovering the New World’ situation. Stephen Hawking thought that if we get discovered by an advanced alien civilization that it wouldn’t go well for us at all.
You are absolutely correct. In fact, the evidence thus far is rather discouraging. Despite all of our astounding technological advancements, we’re pretty much the same species we’ve always been. Who is to say that, assuming we survive, another 5,000 years of technological advances will be any different?
I had an idea once to write a science-fiction story suggesting that all of the UFOs are aliens visiting Earth to witness a solar eclipse. My understanding is that it’s an anomaly of the size and position of the Earth, Moon and Sun that allow a total solar eclipse and you would not see them other places.
Illegal Alien by Robert J. Sawyer (1997). Aliens visit Earth and observe a total solar eclipse. Their scientist host speculates that Earth may be the only planet in the entire universe whose moon covers its sun perfectly (with only transits or occultations occurring on other planets). Although it is not explicitly stated in the novel, Sawyer has noted that the eclipse was the historical eclipse of August 11, 1999, which allows the reader to ascertain the time the novel takes place.
OK, well, I had an idea when I was a kid for a totally original science fiction story:
Future space-traveling humans discover an intelligent, culturally advanced but technologically more primitive species on another planet. The humans then subjugate them and exploit their resources, while telling themselves they are doing it for the native species’ own good.
What’s that-- it’s been done like a zillion times before already? Who’s this ‘James Cameron’ guy?
I always envision something akin to the Vogons from HGTTG where an alien civilization simply takes whatever it needed without regard for the current inhabitants. And the disparity in technology would be such that we would be unable to effectively wage war against them. For example, showing up in giant ships to take all our water, deconstruct all the mass in our solar system to build a Dyson Sphere, or simply disintigrate the planet altogether to make way for a hyperspace bypass. IOW, an alien civilization is no more “waging war” against Earth than a homeowner wages war against ants with his lawnmower.
I like the idea Larry Niven came up with in the story “Assimilating our culture, that’s what they’re doing.”
It turns out that the alien invaders really are bloodthirsty, human-eating monsters, but 1.) they’re incredibly civilized, and 2.) it requires far too much expenditure of energy, resources, and effort to actually go to earth, round up the people, and bring them back home (a la the Damon Knight story and Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”).
So what they do is to take DNA samples from people, generally without their knowledge, and take those back home, where they can grow portions of human anatomy to barbecue at their leisure, without having to move all that mass around the universe. They even offer to pay us interstellar credits for the use of our DNA.
The evil part is that, if we don’t accept the royalties on our bodies, they’ll still eat them, because there will be bootleg editions. The only difference is that we won’t get paid. And we’ll have saved our honor by not capitulating.
Huh I read the thread title and was thinking of sexual congress and intercourse with aliens was what the OP would be about.
Anyone remember the Harlan Ellison story about alien contact where these gelatinous blob like aliens appear on Earth and start having sex with everyone and everything until people literally die because it’s so enjoyable, and they can’t bring themselves to stop or break away, haha!
