Intelligent life is common in the Universe: Free Public Debate

[marki]

And the depletion of our resources.

Mark

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by casstony

Our intelligence gives us the capacity to destroy ourselves.

Our adversarial nature suggests we will destroy ourselves.

Our nature is the key part of our current dilemma. History dictates that we, the sheeple, will once again be enthusiastically led to war by an opportunistic tyrant. I say 'we' since human nature is the same around the world and any powerful nation could turn to fascism. It's always possible that things could be different this time, in the sense that anything's possible, but history usually repeats. I think we will likely be put to the test by the economic stresses of the coming decade.

Not to mention degradation of our biosphere.

Like I said....our intelligence won't destroy us, it's what we chose to do with it that either does or doesn't. We have the capacity to do good or bad....it all boils down to choice. Yes, we are a predatory species, but that doesn't make us self destructive. What makes us self destructive, or not, is our choices and what we intend to do with them. For the most part, we do good and we co-operate with our fellows. If we didn't, we wouldn't be where we are now. We would've self destructed long before we got to our present stage of development, if we ever got out of the trees at all.

It's down to this....a dysfunctional society, and we need to make major changes to it, now. If we don't, then we'll reap what we sow.

[marki]

Don't forget decadance, western society is heading there fast. In the end didn't the Romans get too fat to fight?

Mark

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by marki

Don't forget decadance, western society is heading there fast. In the end didn't the Romans get too fat to fight?

Mark

That's all part of being dysfunctional. Eventually you get to a state of supreme inertia and lethargy and your society falls apart. Someone bigger and uglier than you are comes along and knocks you off your perch, or you just slide into the abyss and disappear under your own effluent.

[marki]

Originally Posted by renormalised

That's all part of being dysfunctional. Eventually you get to a state of supreme inertia and lethargy and your society falls apart. Someone bigger and uglier than you are comes along and knocks you off your perch, or you just slide into the abyss and disappear under your own effluent.

Haha .

I am not sure about us being so self destructive anymore. Too many opposing teams have enough gear to fry the entire face of the Earth. I think it has forced our species to grow up and though the politicians may burp and fart they all know that if they release their weapons it will mean their own anilation. This to me is the highest form of self preservation which is built into each and everyone of us. We choose not to die so we must negotiate. I believe our species will be around for a long while yet .

Mark

[renormalised (Carl)]

So do I....I think we'll have a rather long tenure here, in one form or another.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

So do I....I think we'll have a rather long tenure here, in one form or another.

I disagree. Every other major species has been wiped out at one stage of the planet's evolutionary cycle, I do not believe humans will be any different.

Dave

[Lumen Miner (Mitchell)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

The other 'gedanken' argument if an alien species millions of years ahead of us pass us by regularly and do not bother to communicate, Why?

When was the last time you tried to communicate with ant nests in the desert?

But, if the ants had set up lil' radio transmitters and were pinging me, I would be interested. Maybe that's just me though.
I do get the point though... We are nothing but a mess, of under-developed slime.

Originally Posted by DavidU

Intelligent life is rare here on Earth. Lets hope things improve out there.

That can be said for common sense also. It would seem to be not so common these days.

Customer- "Excuse me, do I really need a caulking gun to use this caulking tube"

Me- "Yes, you do, we have some cheap ones though"

Customer- "But do I REALLY need to use the gun?"

Me- "Yes sir, it needs a compression device to make it come out"

Customer- "But where does it say in the directions I need it??"

Me- "I'm not sure if it will actually say it, but I guess it is just assumed"

Customer- Stares at me like i'm trying to rip him off.

Me- "Well actually, to tell you the truth, I think they are just trying to get more money out of you. Just take it home, try a stick and push it up the tube"

Wonder how much he got out.... Geez i'm cruel, got to get out of customer service...

Originally Posted by sally1jack

I think there probably is life somewhere out there, growing under a rock or something. We always assume that life else where is more intelligent than us maybe is maybe isn't.
If they are anything like us they will wipe themselves out long before interstella travel is close to being possilbe.Look at us we can't even get to mars, even to get out of our solar system is still science fiction.

I think we need to fix up ours world so someone would want to come.We have 3 big problems as i see it. Poverty , Population & politicians. Solution Feed,Reduce ,eradicate
Phil

Tell you what would, really call in the inter-planetary police. Start jettisoning nuclear rubbish into outer space.... See how long the enviro geeks, take to coming knocking on our front door step.

Originally Posted by casstony

I think it's likely the universe is teeming with life, but I wonder if it is ever possible for a civilisation to evolve beyond our present self-destructive level of intelligence. To do so the aliens would need to have a passive nature, but then how could they evolve in the first place against other competitive species?

I disagree, a passive nature is not needed. Given our level of evolution, I find it hard to blame ourselves for our current conditions. It would not how ever take a passive natured person to realise fossil fuel are not the way to go....
Like I said though, green energies were not available to us when our industrial needs required them.... So I can not hold us to blame... However recently I could not say the same...

Originally Posted by Rod66

I tend to think that any sentient species is worthy of contact by another, regardless of how primitive they are. Have we not come far enough now to be able to speculate about future technology to at least have a go of understanding it..

Perhaps they know better, than to contact a primitive species. Would destress our own natural evolution

I think it more likely that advanced species may in fact protect those less advanced civilisations (like ours) for fear they could easily be wiped out by more advanced ones, or worse, be enslaved by them. Also imagine what we might do with a little of their technology.. we are after all no less warlike than the ancient romans. I think we need to get to a certain level of cultural maturity before they would consider contacting us, rather than think of us as ants..

I agree

Of course a few crashed ufo's would be handy to help us along

Originally Posted by Galactic G

If the idea of an "Infinite Universe" is correct then there is intelligent life out there. In fact, in an "Infinite Universe" there must be another forum (called 'IceInSpace') debating this question right now.

You might be thinking parrallel universe, in a different time continum... Even if there was an "Infinite Universe", there would not necessarily be another "Iceinspace" forum. As infinite would suggest, there are infinite possibilites of occurances. Chances are the "Iceinspace" ticket would not come up again anytime soon... could do though.

I get what you mean though...

Originally Posted by Inmykombie

I find it quite bazzar that some members of the public can report seeing something strange in the sky when they just pop outside "just walking the dog" or something, and all of us that spend hours upon hours upon hours under the stars have not seen anything unusual.

In the 40 years I have spent looking at the sky, I have not seen anything strange.

Our money would be better off trying to feed the people that need it instead of looking for something that just isnt there.

I agree with a previous post that says we are all alone....

Geoffro.

I don't find it that "bazaar", there are many people out there with minds not so adapt to the uniqueness of our universe... Bits of space junk, aurora's satellites etc. Would all look weird to a lay person. The brain plays funny jokes sometimes. Add a few beers to the equation and you have yourself a sighting.

Originally Posted by Inmykombie

Fair enough, but no-one else I know has seen anything strange either.
Maybe if I did see something, I would have a deifferent view.

Please enlighten us with what you have seen.

Perhaps they don't come out for us "non-believers"








Interesting topic...

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by marki

I am not sure about us being so self destructive anymore. Too many opposing teams have enough gear to fry the entire face of the Earth.

mmhh... that's the problem Mark. Too many matches lying around left by the "responsible people" but there's a bunch of "no good kids" around bound to pick one up and start a major drama. The odds don't look good.

[marki]

Originally Posted by multiweb

mmhh... that's the problem Mark. Too many matches lying around left by the "responsible people" but there's a bunch of "no good kids" around bound to pick one up and start a major drama. The odds don't look good.

Well if you look on the bright side (scuz the pun) if it happens you will not be aware of it for very long.

Mark

[avandonk]

Maybe we should ask the Aztecs, Mayans, North American Indian, Australian Aboriginal, Africans and many more what happens when a technologically superior mob invade your homeland and strip it of resources and treat the local population very badly. This is historical fact not conjecture!

Can anyone remember the sci fi movie where the aliens were taking humans to a better place. The 'hero' in the movie worked out that the aliens Book 'To Serve Man' was a cook book!

Bert

[marki]

Originally Posted by avandonk

Maybe we should ask the Aztecs, Mayans, North American Indian, Australian Aboriginal, Africans and many more what happens when a technologically superior mob invade your homeland and strip it of resources and treat the local population very badly. This is historical fact not conjecture!

Can anyone remember the sci fi movie where the aliens were taking humans to a better place. The 'hero' in the movie worked out that the aliens Book 'To Serve Man' was a cook book!

Bert

Bert it never seems to occur to anyone that we may be the most advanced species in the universe. I shudder to think of the consequences for other lifeforms if that is the case.

Mark

[avandonk]

Mark we glibly define ourselves as being at the apex of evolution. Yet we ignorantly destroy the very thing that gives us life. We are all on a finite sphere called spaceship Earth and we are all damaging it through greed. The web of life on our planet is what nurtures all of us. If we damage this we damage ourselves. To me this is self evident. I could at this stage spout a lot of data but I won't.

When I was a young lad in the fifties we used to swim in the Diamond Creek at Eltham and there were Platypuses (i) in the same place and we just ignored each other. The creek was teeming with fish and the full lot of other species. It is now being slowly being brought back after it turned into a sewer.

We do not need to fear aliens as we are doing a very good job of ruining our planet all by ourselves.

Bert

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by marki

Bert it never seems to occur to anyone that we may be the most advanced species in the universe. I shudder to think of the consequences for other lifeforms if that is the case.

Don't have to look that far. We eat most of the other life forms locally. Picture that. First spaceship to reach earth lands in a KFC car park. Two chooks walk down the ladder...

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Don't have to look that far. We eat most of the other life forms locally. Picture that. First spaceship to reach earth lands in a KFC car park. Two chooks walk down the ladder...

The Grand Emperor of the Chookonian League hears of the news transmitted back to Fowlon, war is declared to save their Earthly brethren and the insidious monkeys are wiped off the face of the map

[GeoffW1 (Geoff)]

Originally Posted by kinetic

And also remember that since the invention of radio transmission
and subsequent television and everything else we broadcast, that
the bubble of these transmissions is something like 75 or 100 light
years big now....

Steve

Hi,

The aliens are not out there viewing I Love Lucy or Bert Newton. I was quite relieved when I found that out.

Those signals were broadcast by omni antenna and quite true, propagate as a bubble, rather than a beam, from Earth. They however degrade and "smear" quite quickly, and would not be intelligible (well, maybe even at broadcast ) much beyond our Solar system.

Cheers

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

The Grand Emperor of the Chookonian League hears of the news transmitted back to Fowlon, war is declared to save their Earthly brethren and the insidious monkeys are wiped off the face of the map

Galactic News Flash : "War started - Earth gets Egged!! "

[marki]

Originally Posted by avandonk

Mark we glibly define ourselves as being at the apex of evolution. Yet we ignorantly destroy the very thing that gives us life. We are all on a finite sphere called spaceship Earth and we are all damaging it through greed. The web of life on our planet is what nurtures all of us. If we damage this we damage ourselves. To me this is self evident. I could at this stage spout a lot of data but I won't.

When I was a young lad in the fifties we used to swim in the Diamond Creek at Eltham and there were Platypuses (i) in the same place and we just ignored each other. The creek was teeming with fish and the full lot of other species. It is now being slowly being brought back after it turned into a sewer.

We do not need to fear aliens as we are doing a very good job of ruining our planet all by ourselves.

Bert

Bert you will get no argument from me on this one. Our species has been the most destructive ever to evolve on this planet. I am begining to think we have past the point of no return and are on the slippery slope of self extinction.

Mark

[renormalised (Carl)]

Headlines in the "Galaxy Bulletin"..."Earth Hen-Pecked"

[marki]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Headlines in the "Galaxy Bulletin"..."Earth Hen-Pecked"

"Sanders to face charges of salt and battering"

Mark