Alien Intelligence
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
We really only have ourselves and Earth life to compare. What if, on the universal scale of intelligence from bacteria to intelligent, we just aren't that far above the level of bacteria? None of the truly intelligent species in the universe talks to us for the same reason you're not trying to communicate with the bacteria in your gut.
As a species we have a terribly high opinion of ourselves.
As a species we have a terribly high opinion of ourselves.
There were some Sci-Fi stories written by guys like CM Kornbluth and John Campbell also featured non-human protagonists.
IMHO, it is easy to imagine and write about alien physiologies. The trick is to figure out how those alien life forms THINK in different ways from us. What are alien ethics? Cultures? Gets tricksy...
IMHO, it is easy to imagine and write about alien physiologies. The trick is to figure out how those alien life forms THINK in different ways from us. What are alien ethics? Cultures? Gets tricksy...
A few others:
The TV show Farscape - only one human character.
Thinking about it, it is, in some ways, an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs - the John Carter (of Mars) stories are similarly about a lone human among aliens.
Everyone remember the movie "Enemy Mine"? Starred Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset Jr.? It was based on a novella by Barry Longyear. The Enemy Papers is a collection of that novella and related works, which includes "The Talman", which is, in essence, excerpts from the holy book of the Drac culture. Devastatingly interesting read.
The TV show Farscape - only one human character.
Thinking about it, it is, in some ways, an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs - the John Carter (of Mars) stories are similarly about a lone human among aliens.
Everyone remember the movie "Enemy Mine"? Starred Dennis Quaid and Louis Gosset Jr.? It was based on a novella by Barry Longyear. The Enemy Papers is a collection of that novella and related works, which includes "The Talman", which is, in essence, excerpts from the holy book of the Drac culture. Devastatingly interesting read.
MechaPilot
Explorer
If there are other intelligent life forms (as in having at least human-level intelligence) in our galaxy, we probably won't meet them. If they truly are intelligent, they will cross the galactic street the moment they see us coming.
Even if we were at some point to meet them on even terms (equal levels of technology), they had better not be insectoid, arachnidian, serpentine, or several other types of creatures or we will likely attack them on sight. People have ingrained fears (perhaps genetically so) of insects, arachnids, snakes, and various other potentially dangerous creatures.
The day we discover an intelligent insectoid race is the same day we'll start building a boot-shaped battle-cruiser to wipe them out of existence.
Even if we were at some point to meet them on even terms (equal levels of technology), they had better not be insectoid, arachnidian, serpentine, or several other types of creatures or we will likely attack them on sight. People have ingrained fears (perhaps genetically so) of insects, arachnids, snakes, and various other potentially dangerous creatures.
The day we discover an intelligent insectoid race is the same day we'll start building a boot-shaped battle-cruiser to wipe them out of existence.
Homicidal_Squirrel
Adventurer
There is no guarantee that another intelligent life-form would be able to find us. Earth is but a speck of dust in the vastness that is the universe. Also, if they were intelligent, they'd avoid us.
Ryujin
Legend
The first is why while I tend to believe that there must be other intelligent life in the universe, I very much doubt that it has ever visited us. You've got the limiting factors on development of intelligent life. Then consider how long such a culture might exist, without destroying itself. On again to whether or not they would develop space travel, let alone something that would make interstellar travel viable. On top of that consider that we've only created an intelligent EM "footprint" that's, at best, something less than a 300 light-year bubble.
300? We weren't emitting radio in the early 1700s! And it will stop soon. We're transitioning to communication methods which don't leave Earth (fibre optics, mainly). It might be that civilisations emit radio signals for a brief blip before developing beyond the need to do so. We're nearly there! If that's the case, the probability in a 13 billion year old galaxy of you listening at exactly the right 50 years are infinitesimally tiny.
Alternatively, there might be billions of subspace messages whizzing past us every second, but we haven't invented a subspace receiver yet, so we can't hear them! Maybe radio is as primitive as smoke signals.
Ryujin
Legend
Radio waves radiate in all directions. The diameter of the sphere is twice the amount of time that we've been transmitting
I was considering that as astronomical phenomena radiate electromagnetic waves, even a vastly more advanced civilization might still monitor them. It is, however, a valid point that not bothering with such old tech would further limit the possibility of alien visitation. That sort of helps make my point though
The only thing that would act in favour of alien visitation would be something that would make them look in very specific locations, like the "alien seed" theory, that has no evidence to support it.
The first commercial radio station went on the air in 1920. So, that footprint is more like a bubble 95 light years across. Call it 100, just for sake of rounding the number.
We don't have an accurate measure, but by star density estimates, there's something like 10,000 to 14,000 stars in that sphere.
Our Sun is spectral type G - there are 511 stars of this type in that sphere.
About 22% of those stars probably have Earth-sized planets in their habitable zones. That makes for about 100 potential worlds to hear us, before we even start to consider anything particularly exotic.
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