CycleChat Ivestigates - Alien Life

[Alex321]

Just a thought, humans and other mammals get wiped out next year, so after the world has settled down a bit, the next order* evolves and becomes intelligent to our prehistoric standards, eg, farming and building, say late Stone Age level, next step is metal use, bronze, then iron. Where will they get the ore from? We have already used up the easiest deposits, and if their technology improves, rare earths etc will be even harder to find. So it seems technological society as opposed to merely intelligent is a one off in the Earth’s history, barring something massive happening.

*The clever money is on cephalopods, apparently.

Well cephalopods might well be the most intelligent life on the planet if the mammals were wiped out, but would be unlikely to use that intelligence in ways early humans did, since it isn't easy to farm or build underwater without much more advanced technology than stone age.

 

[markemark]

Why do you believe any beings advanced enough to have developed star travel woulod be aggressive?

Humans mighht still be, if we ever develop it, but aliens are unlikely to think in similar ways to us.

Impossible to know for sure but I suspect to reach dominance over the rest of the species and the planet’s resources to achieve such evolution would require aggression.

I firmly believe that to become advanced we need aggression and single mindedness. However that will also be the downfall.

 

[Oldhippy]

Similarly why is the presumption always two legs, two arms configuration. We as a species know that our laws of biology and physics are unmovable and yet we are constantly discovering anomalies that shouldn't be or don't fit. What we do then is try and make it fit the stuff we are convinced is correct. Anyone with knowledge to either cross interstellar distances or dimensions you'd think physics would be easily overcome. A species that far advanced may be totally unrecognisable.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

Why do you believe any beings advanced enough to have developed star travel woulod be aggressive?

Humans mighht still be, if we ever develop it, but aliens are unlikely to think in similar ways to us.

Statistically we know that 100% of all advanced species are aggressive

but as we are working on a sample size of one then this is not very meaningful

but it is the only evidence available

like a lot in the area of science which is why a lot of it is only just above the level of guesswork

 

[Oldhippy]

100 percent of life has an inbuilt need to survive and reproduce but only few lifeforms here are violent for the sake of it.

 

[Drago]

The only known advanced life form in existence is often violent for the sake of it.

 

[Oldhippy]

Some ape species in particular do this from what we've learnt over decades of research.

 

[Oldhippy]

Sharks for example aren't violent, they are an eating machine. Yes, it is violent if you are at the wrong end of one but we are a mere fortunate food source if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

[Dogtrousers]

They would clearly not bother to come here in person but would use woo science to probe and set up a wormhole VPN, then obviously the first thing they'd do would be to seek out the world's premier cycling forum. In fact they are probably already here.

Now, who is, and who isn't ...

 

[Oldhippy]

Imposing human concepts on everything around us is foolish when it comes to stuff we currently do not fully understand.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

They would clearly not bother to come here in person but would use woo science to probe and set up a wormhole VPN, then obviously the first thing they'd do would be to seek out the world's premier cycling forum. In fact they are probably already here.

Now, who is, and who isn't ...

I have some ideas!

more importantly

if any Alien life is in "the other place"

then
a) they are aggressive
b) we are probably OK because they will just argue with themselves for centuries and never get anything done

 

[Oldhippy]

Would any of us visit a zoo and attempt serious discussions with any animal there to try and garner their opinions on existence. No, similarly we may be totally inconsequential to a lifeform that is so far removed from our experience. For all we know, other species we share the planet with may have a complete society that we have no way of observing or understanding.

 

[Beebo]

Impossible to know for sure but I suspect to reach dominance over the rest of the species and the planet’s resources to achieve such evolution would require aggression.

I firmly believe that to become advanced we need aggression and single mindedness. However that will also be the downfall.

The speed of our development has been amazing too.
Humans were living with nature 10,000 years ago. The pace of change has ramped up massively in the last 300 years. That’s less than 20 generations.
And the violence follows an evolutionary trend, in that once we have secured food and shelter, we turn to protecting the tribe. It happened in every culture in the world to some extent.
Humans are selfish, it’s what drives us forward and what will ultimately destroy us.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Statistically we know that 100% of all advanced species are aggressive

We know no such thing

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

We know no such thing

OK - advanced species that we currently have contact with

i.e. us