Aliens: Yes Or No?

[MGibster]

Here's a scary thought. It's entirely possible we're the the oldest and most technologically developed species in the universe.

 

[Scribe]

Here's a scary thought. It's entirely possible we're the the oldest and most technologically developed species in the universe.

I almost wish that was true, but then its been a long week.

 

[Morrus]

Here's a scary thought. It's entirely possible we're the the oldest and most technologically developed species in the universe.

Almost anything’s possible.

 

[GMMichael]

Next poll: Is there intelligent life on Earth?

That's sort of where my answer came from:

What if there's no intelligent life outside our solar system? What if there's only unintelligent life? Think about it: societal knowledge can advance by building on previous knowledge, even without an Einstein here or there. That society just needs the ability to record and update. So, what we see here on Earth are the mental rejects/social introvert aliens who have the ability to jump hyperspace, but not the brainpower to do anything useful with it besides get caught on amateur video.

 

[Dausuul]

With our sample size of one, we know far too little to assert anything with confidence. We don't know how likely it is that life arises on a given planet, or makes the countless evolutionary innovations needed for sapience, within the limited period during which that planet is habitable. (Earth has a window of maybe 5 billion years, and it took 4 billion to evolve us.) We don't know how difficult it is to make the leap to interstellar travel without self-annihilating first. And we don't know what aliens with a million-year head start on us would become, whether we would even perceive them as living things. They could be all around us at this moment.

But if I have to pick one, I pick "no intelligent aliens." It is the simplest explanation for the fact that we have seen no evidence whatsoever of life beyond our own world.

 

[Dausuul]

That's sort of where my answer came from:

What if there's no intelligent life outside our solar system? What if there's only unintelligent life? Think about it: societal knowledge can advance by building on previous knowledge, even without an Einstein here or there. That society just needs the ability to record and update. So, what we see here on Earth are the mental rejects/social introvert aliens who have the ability to jump hyperspace, but not the brainpower to do anything useful with it besides get caught on amateur video.

It could well be that intelligence is merely a bootstrapping process, necessary for life to leap from a planetary surface to the stars, but worthless -- indeed, an active hindrance to survival and growth -- once a certain level of technology is achieved. Perhaps the end state of a technological civilization is an eruption of self-replicating entities, hurtling outward in all directions at close to the speed of light, devoid of thought or emotion but possessed of unimaginable power, and bent on transforming the entire universe into more of themselves.

In that case, we would not be aware of them until the tidal wave was almost on top of us. We would see stars going dark suddenly, and the darkness racing across the galaxy toward us. Although the destruction would in fact be going a bit slower than light, to us it would appear to move much faster (due to superluminal motion). And when it got to us, that would be the end of humanity and of life on earth. The only way we could survive, if you want to call it that, would be to transform ourselves into the same thing before it got here.

Sometimes I think Lovecraft was an optimist.

 

[Vael]

 

[Andvari]

It is the simplest explanation for the fact that we have seen no evidence whatsoever of life beyond our own world.

Then again, that's like concluding whales don't exist after investigating a single teaspoon of water pulled from the ocean.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The universe is too big for me to not believe in intelligent aliens. It's also way too big for me to believe that any of those species have ever come to Earth.

 

[Dausuul]

Then again, that's like concluding whales don't exist after investigating a single teaspoon of water pulled from the ocean.

And saying "Aliens must exist somewhere!" is like concluding the Loch Ness Monster does exist, after the same amount of investigation.

If there were a "We don't know and it's absurd to make any kind of definitive claim" option, I'd have picked that. But if I have to make the absurd choice and say yes or no, I'm going with Occam's Razor here.