Quote:
Originally Posted by Robh
Another question.
If life originated on two planets in our Solar System then it must be a lot easier for life to originate than we thought. Why are we not seeing this in the Universe at large (the Fermi Paradox)? Advanced civilizations should have conquered the problems of large distances and be leaving evidence everywhere. There's been plenty of time for communication signals to reach us from billions of light years out.
Regards, Rob
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What do I think of the Fermi Paradox??...nothing but pure speculation based on no evidence at all. We are not seeing the presence of life in the universe at large for quite a few reasons. The main one being our level of development. It's not that there aren't intelligent civilisations out there, just a simple matter of statistics would tell you that we would one of the most primitive. Why??. Because most of the stars which are and could be bearers of intelligent civilisations are older than our own star. All things being equal, that would mean they have had longer to evolve on their home planets than we have here and their technology would subsequently be further advanced. However, given how complex and varied things could and can be, it's really a moot point even trying to come to terms with advanced intelligence and technology in terms of the way we conceptualise it. Except for those civilisations that are fairly close to our own level of development...within 10000 years or so, we would have no idea if they were even here, even if they, themselves, took the time to be bothered with us!!!. Even those species close to our own developmental curve would, except for those few at our stage of technical development, probably have ways and means of communicating we haven't even thought of yet. It's most likely that we're sitting right in the middle of a great cacophony of babbling civilisations, but we have no way of even hearing them. They would know we're here...we send out our "smoke signals" and have been doing so for nearly 100 years. But someone that only has a blanket and fire, or a set of drums to communicate with would be totally unaware of the "radio signals" that completely surround them. They'd have no concept of a radio...it just wouldn't have occurred to them.
Now, regarding their presence here on Earth....and this is where the big bogey of the "UFO" comes into it. It is the sheer height of intellectual and academic hubris and arrogance for any scientist to just dismiss out of hand that what so many people have seen and experienced as being what many try to explain them away as being. Just because we have no way of getting from, say, Earth to 18 Scorpii, at present, doesn't mean that someone else can't. The arrogance of thinking that out present science is some sort of paragon of reality....that what we know is going to be the basis of all further truth or theory, is something many scientist are too fond to foster upon the general public. Even amongst themselves. We know full well ourselves that there are possibilities which may allow for us to be able to travel the stars, but just because we still labour under our present theoretical and empirical constraints doesn't mean that we are not going to be able to do it ourselves at some point. It just means that we can't see the answers at present and don't want to entertain that maybe someone else is smarter than we are and does know the answers. Or that our grandchildren or their grandchildren will know them also. Heck, we may even be able to do it ourselves now, if we really put the effort and money into doing the research and maybe entertain some of the more wild and radical ideas people come up with. There, it all boils down to the society we live in and how we operate, because it will only be done if there is an imperative (usually sociopolitical and military-industrial-financial given present societal paradigm) to do so. Our scientific paradigm is an integral part of this and cannot be dismissed from this. One influences the other.
So, given all this, what is the probability that we're being visited right at this very moment by people from other worlds??...100%. Would we know they're here??. Yes, and would we react to them in exactly the way we have....yes. I would expect most scientists (publicly, and many privately) to react the way they have. I would also expect the governments and all the other institutions to react the way they have. They have everything they stand for to protect, secrets to keep and whatever else to uphold and keep going.
So far as the aliens are concerned, what would we know of their motives or intentions. Given the wide variety of reports of what our experiences with them have been, I would suspect and expect their behaviours to be just as varied and infinite as our own. There are most likely civilisations out there we'd think of as angels and paragons of virtue and civilised manner. Then there are others that even we would most likely cringe at...and there would be every colour of the spectrum in between the extremes. I find no contradiction in a species coming here and abducting people from this planet, for whatever reasons those aliens see fit. Even if that reason was to try and fix some genetic disorder or manufactured stuff up within their own species. It would be their desperate attempt to prolong their own kind. They may have even tampered with our own genetics...how would we even know it hasn't already happened. We've only just scratched the surface of genetics, barely even figured out our own genome. They may even be coming here just to observe us like we observe animals in the wild....the possibilities of reasons is endless. You only have to look at our own reasons for doing things to see just how diverse and varied those reasons could be.
No, they're here and they're out there as well. It's about time we face that reality and deal with it in a civilised and reasonable manner because the day's late and it's only a matter of time before the truth of the matter is literally forced upon us. Whether that be intentional or not. Better we acknowledge their presence and deal with it than hide behind self imposed walls of denial and/or intellectual/cultural hubris, hoping the "problem" just goes away or is just a figment of our imaginations.