CycleChat Ivestigates - Alien Life

[Punkawallah]

Q. Did God put all his eggs into one basket ?

Which of the 2700 recorded deities in human history are we referring to, here?

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Distinguishing between alien life that is intelligent and that which is not is like discussing how many angels dance in the head of a pin, or whether Russell's Teapot is willow pattern or a nice arts and crafts design.

Expecting a technological civilisation just like ours has been for all of ... ooh ... 120 years is the result of watching too much Star Trek.

Not that there's anything wrong with watching too much Star Trek of course

Who mentioned "just like ours"?

If we were ever to detect an alien civilisation, it would likely need to be *far* more advanced than us, in order to leave a detectable footprint at light years distance.

I don't expect this. It's just too remote.

Which leaves the question as to simple or complex life elsewhere as unknowable.

 

[Punkawallah]

What's the big deal with intelligence?

Indeed. We have evidence of the dinosaurs manning the planet for some hundreds of millions of years, but not of their ‘intelligence’.

 

[Punkawallah]

The universe is so large (infinite even) that there absolutely must be intelligent life out there. But making contact with us would depend on a number of highly improbable things:

They would need to develop a social/scientific intelligence similar to our own, to even comprehend leaving their planet.
The likelihood of their planet having the materials needed to build a ship would be very low.
The time frame for doing all of this would have to be exact, and even if they left 10,000 years ago it might take them 1000 light years to reach us. Given that they can't travel at the speed of light, it would take longer. Even if they had sussed out cryogenics, they would probably find the Earth to be dead, with maybe a few cockroaches and Keith Richards strolling around in a daze

Or riding a Raleigh Pioneer.

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Indeed. We have evidence of the dinosaurs manning the planet for some hundreds of millions of years, but not of their ‘intelligence’.

We can guess, based on the remaining ones (birds).

 

[Punkawallah]

We can guess, based on the remaining ones (birds).

Which also have not left evidence of their ‘intelligence’ (other than our observation of such)

 

[roubaixtuesday]

Which also have not left evidence of their ‘intelligence’ (other than our observation of such)

I think we agree - detecting a non - technological alien species would likely be impossible.

Technology, I think requires intelligence.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Which also have not left evidence of their ‘intelligence’ (other than our observation of such)

They were too clever to leave any evidence behind. They were very careful about that.

 

[Punkawallah]

They were too clever to leave any evidence behind. They were very careful about that.

Just so. It took us 300,000 years to reach our present state of ‘civilisation’. One inopportune meteor and a few millennia and no-one would know we had been here.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Who mentioned "just like ours"?

If we were ever to detect an alien civilisation, it would likely need to be *far* more advanced than us, in order to leave a detectable footprint at light years distance.

I don't expect this. It's just too remote.

Which leaves the question as to simple or complex life elsewhere as unknowable.

Yeah, I think we agree on the unknowable bit.

 

[markemark]

I think we agree - detecting a non - technological alien species would likely be impossible.

I don’t agree at all. This is by far the likeliest discovery. Planets with an atmosphere that is “likely” from organic life and very unlikely to occur naturally. This could be animal, vegetation etc. I suspect we will have telescopes capable of scanning large numbers of planets' atmospheres to find one.

 

[Dogtrousers]

My pet theory is that there is life on the moon but we missed it because we didn't know what we were looking for. You know a bit like that episode of Star Trek with the Horta (I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!) but a smidge more subtle.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

The chances of intelligent life on other planets must be high, as there isn't much on planet earth. Plenty of pond life still !

You need to get out of Manchester

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Indeed. We have evidence of the dinosaurs manning the planet for some hundreds of millions of years, but not of their ‘intelligence’.

The rich dinosaurs left in flying sauruses

 

[Punkawallah]

The rich dinosaurs left in flying sauruses

You’ll get your own coat on the way out, then?