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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1937633" data-attributes="member: 177">Yes.&nbsp; One of the tricks to working with &quot;hard&quot; sci-fi si to pick where you get technological advancement.&nbsp; These &quot;scanners&quot; make a good example.Really, for gethering information over distance, we have very few available options.&nbsp; Unless we are going to open ourselves up to Star Trek exotics, we are pretty much left with teh electromagnetic spectrum.&nbsp; We can only &quot;scan&quot; by shining a light on the thing and catching what bounces back.&nbsp; We have to place a reciever on the far side if we want to catch what passes through.&nbsp; That is a horribly stringent limitation.&nbsp; Basically, if you don't have line of sight, you cannot &quot;scan&quot;.&nbsp; And there goes many of your problems right there.&nbsp; Limit the ability to gather information at a distance by not allowing much in the way of exotic information gathering, and you have to get people on the ground to learn much.Now, now.&nbsp; Anyone with proper understanding of evolution, ecology, and physiology should know not to speak in abosolutes.&nbsp; Biology doesn't work that way.&nbsp; As the old saying goes - despite carefully controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, light, and medium, the organism will do whatever id damn well pleases.It is very possible that a critter will have totally alien thought processes.&nbsp; It is possible that those processes will be very much like our own.&nbsp; The biology will do what it darned well wants, completely ignoring all our theorizing about what it absolutely will or will not do.&nbsp; And, our ability to work out how other critters think may currently be limited, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way forever, or that the aliens won't have superior abilities in that regard, enabling them to initiate the communication.&nbsp; Orson Scott Card, in his books about Ender Wiggin, put it very well - there are grades of alienness.&nbsp; There are people who are pretty much exactly like you.&nbsp; You can easily understand and communicate with them.&nbsp; There are people who are unlike you, but who you can figure out if you put your mind to it (these are &quot;ramen&quot;).&nbsp; Then there are people wo are so alien that you cannot figure them out, no matter how hard you try.&nbsp; These are called &quot;varelse&quot;.&nbsp; They might as well be forces of nature rather than sentient beings.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 1937633, member: 177"] Yes. One of the tricks to working with "hard" sci-fi si to pick where you get technological advancement. These "scanners" make a good example. Really, for gethering information over distance, we have very few available options. Unless we are going to open ourselves up to Star Trek exotics, we are pretty much left with teh electromagnetic spectrum. We can only "scan" by shining a light on the thing and catching what bounces back. We have to place a reciever on the far side if we want to catch what passes through. That is a horribly stringent limitation. Basically, if you don't have line of sight, you cannot "scan". And there goes many of your problems right there. Limit the ability to gather information at a distance by not allowing much in the way of exotic information gathering, and you have to get people on the ground to learn much. Now, now. Anyone with proper understanding of evolution, ecology, and physiology should know not to speak in abosolutes. Biology doesn't work that way. As the old saying goes - despite carefully controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, light, and medium, the organism will do whatever id damn well pleases. It is very possible that a critter will have totally alien thought processes. It is possible that those processes will be very much like our own. The biology will do what it darned well wants, completely ignoring all our theorizing about what it absolutely will or will not do. And, our ability to work out how other critters think may currently be limited, but that doesn't mean it will stay that way forever, or that the aliens won't have superior abilities in that regard, enabling them to initiate the communication. Orson Scott Card, in his books about Ender Wiggin, put it very well - there are grades of alienness. There are people who are pretty much exactly like you. You can easily understand and communicate with them. There are people who are unlike you, but who you can figure out if you put your mind to it (these are "ramen"). Then there are people wo are so alien that you cannot figure them out, no matter how hard you try. These are called "varelse". They might as well be forces of nature rather than sentient beings. [/QUOTE]

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