What are the implications? (1 Viewer)

[NCCommish]

We assume there is other life in the universe. Other intelligent life. But the question we get is so where are they? Why haven't we seen evidence of their existence?

Well some new studies have an interesting response. We are the elder race. One study says the Earth was among the very first planets created. Among the first ten percent. What if the reason we don't see them is they aren't there yet? What if we are the aliens we are looking for? The most advanced race in the universe by being amongst the very first if not the first. Another study says there are still over a trillion planets to finish forming into a habitable environment over the next several billion years.

We have knowledge those people won't be capable of getting about the formation of the universe. They won't even know about the Big Bang. The evidence will be past them finding. They'll need that knowledge to advance and understand the universe they live in.

So what are the implications, what are our responsibilities in that scenario? Are we destined to rule our Galaxy? How do we handle that? How do we handle finding less advanced cultures? Do we share our knowledge or hoard it? Do we subjugate or lift them up?

We don't have a great track record on these things locally.

 

[rockaction]

If that is your magnum Opus, I support you. 

No, really. That's a great question. I say we leave it be.  

 

[Angry Beavers]

Interesting that we are the elder race. I always figured we as a species were way behind the curve.

 

[NCCommish]

Interesting that we are the elder race. I always figured we as a species were way behind the curve.

We still don't know for sure but evidence is piling up that it may be the case.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Under our current understanding of physics (a big assumption), the distances are so vast, whomever is going to visit other solar systems/galaxies need to be able to travel at almost the speed of light or have a way to reproduce along the trip or be put in some type of coma for the trip.  The nearest star is 4 light years away.  Maybe they are only discovering areas in their celestial neighborhood. Even the ability to "beam me up" was somewhat limited by distance.

 

[KCitons]

If we are the elders, we've set a poor example.

Might be best for us to go out for smokes and not come back.

 

[El Floppo]

We still don't know for sure but evidence is piling up that it may be the case.

umm...

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

I can't get to sleep. I think about the implications.

 

[GregR]

We assume there is other life in the universe. Other intelligent life. But the question we get is so where are they? Why haven't we seen evidence of their existence?

Psst. We are already here. But you didn't hear it from me.

 

[NCCommish]

I can't get to sleep. I think about the implications.

Of diving in too deep?

 

[Nathan R. Jessep]

I, for one, welcome....ummm, us? 

 

[IvanKaramazov]

We assume there is other life in the universe. Other intelligent life. But the question we get is so where are they? Why haven't we seen evidence of their existence?

Well some new studies have an interesting response. We are the elder race. One study says the Earth was among the very first planets created. Among the first ten percent. What if the reason we don't see them is they aren't there yet? What if we are the aliens we are looking for? The most advanced race in the universe by being amongst the very first if not the first. Another study says there are still over a trillion planets to finish forming into a habitable environment over the next several billion years.

We have knowledge those people won't be capable of getting about the formation of the universe. They won't even know about the Big Bang. The evidence will be past them finding. They'll need that knowledge to advance and understand the universe they live in.

So what are the implications, what are our responsibilities in that scenario? Are we destined to rule our Galaxy? How do we handle that? How do we handle finding less advanced cultures? Do we share our knowledge or hoard it? Do we subjugate or lift them up?

We don't have a great track record on these things locally.

When I visited Texas A&M, I just made a special point to speak more slowly than usual.  Seemed to work.

 

[NCCommish]

umm...

This has gone from just talk to findings that support the talk.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

What if we're not just first but the only one that is or ever will be?

What if we're the remainder of an unbalanced universal equation - a completely unique anomaly?

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

Of diving in too deep?

wat

 

[El Floppo]

This has gone from just talk to findings that support the talk.

the evidence is piling up? 

ok... I guess I thought it was still a pretty big, unexplored and undiscovered universe. I stand corrected.

 

[IC FBGCav]

We can't even handle peace in the US.   This doesn't matter and we have no control.

 

[Hov34]

I can't get to sleep. I think about the implications.

First thing I thought of when I saw the title.  Figured Tanner would beat me here with it since he doesn't have a real job.

 

[IC FBGCav]

To add if we rule the galaxy the flag will be a billion dollar note.

 

[OrtonToOlsen]

First thing I thought of when I saw the title.  Figured Tanner would beat me here with it since he doesn't have a real job.

wat

 

[NCCommish]

What if we're not just first but the only one that is or ever will be?

What if we're the remainder of an unbalanced universal equation - a completely unique anomaly?

I think that's unlikely given what we know about the planets we are finding.

 

[Doug B]

I don't buy it, though, because:

Sure, we could be among the first planets. But, there should still be plenty of other planets that have been around about as long as we have. Our planet developed life pretty quickly, within the first billion years or so, it's likely similar conditions existed elsewhere. Life may have sprouted at about the same time, existed just as long, and... possibly... not nearly all been wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago. 

Any other planet on the same track as us could be millions, possibly tens of millions, of years ahead of us without that evolutionary setback. 

Unless we want to argue that such a setback was necessary for the development of intelligence. If that's the case, we're quite the goldilocks planet.

We can envision alternate scenarios in other ways, as well.

What if Earth still received an asteroid strike, but it was 85 million years ago, potentially putting mammal-like animals on an earlier evolutionary trajectory? 20 million more years of technological advancement would be a pretty big deal for a human-like intelligence.

 

[Parrothead]

what if we are the aliens man?  or is it just just overkill..

 

[NCCommish]

the evidence is piling up? 

ok... I guess I thought it was still a pretty big, unexplored and undiscovered universe. I stand corrected.

Of course we can't know anything until we see a lot more but that doesn't mean that there isn't evidence that we are amongsr the earliest planets. We don't have to see every planet in the Universe to make that observation.

 

[Henry Ford]

The implication

 

[lakerstan]

There are at least 8.7 million species of life on Earth and we haven't been able to communicate much more than "sit", "stay" and "rollover".

 

[Kal El]

I think that's unlikely given what we know about the planets we are finding.

Agreed, so far, all of them are uninhabitable at best, and murderous(at least as much as a celestial body can be) at worst.

 

[NCCommish]

I don't buy it, though, because:

Sure, we could be among the first planets. But, there should still be plenty of other planets that have been around about as long as we have. Our planet developed life pretty quickly, within the first billion years or so, it's likely similar conditions existed elsewhere. Life may have sprouted at about the same time, existed just as long, and... possibly... not nearly all been wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago. 

Any other planet on the same track as us could be millions, possibly tens of millions, of years ahead of us without that evolutionary setback. 

Unless we want to argue that such a setback was necessary for the development of intelligence. If that's the case, we're quite the goldilocks planet. If so, it's unlikely that any other planet has ever, or will ever develop life: the need for an oxygen atmosphere, a lot of water, an early collision with a massive metallic object that gives us the active core we need for magnetic shielding from solar radiation, a second collision with a massive object that created our moon which stabilizes our environment and atmosphere, then the development of giant life forms, then another collision with a goldilocks-sized asteroid which wipes all of the big creatures out but not so big it wipes the small ones out too, and then those survivors develop intelligence... if only our planet's history leads to intelligence, we should give up thinking such an unlikely series would perfectly be re-created elsewhere to have it happen again.

And if that's the case, screw it. We owe nothing to no one and if we mess it up, it won't matter. We could go ahead and mine the galaxy for resources, trash whatever we want, and have no reason to care. 

We'll see those other planets may not have what we did. A planet very close by that was habitable by life up until about 800 million years ago. And it isn't Mars. Venus may well be the panspermia source for advanced life on Earth. It had the right atmosphere, it had oceans and it is close enough that organism catching a ride wouldn't be exposed for all that long.

 

[EYLive]

You keep saying there are findings...

 

[Andy Dufresne]

I think that's unlikely given what we know about the planets we are finding.

It's a gigantic leap from having a planet capable of life and life actually forming there.

 

[NCCommish]

It's a gigantic leap from having a planet capable of life and life actually forming there.

It's an even bigger leap to assume we are the special ones.

 

[GregR]

I don't buy it, though, because:

Sure, we could be among the first planets. But, there should still be plenty of other planets that have been around about as long as we have. Our planet developed life pretty quickly, within the first billion years or so, it's likely similar conditions existed elsewhere. Life may have sprouted at about the same time, existed just as long, and... possibly... not nearly all been wiped out by an asteroid 65 million years ago. 

Any other planet on the same track as us could be millions, possibly tens of millions, of years ahead of us without that evolutionary setback. 

Unless we want to argue that such a setback was necessary for the development of intelligence. If that's the case, we're quite the goldilocks planet. If so, it's unlikely that any other planet has ever, or will ever develop life: the need for an oxygen atmosphere, a lot of water, an early collision with a massive metallic object that gives us the active core we need for magnetic shielding from solar radiation, a second collision with a massive object that created our moon which stabilizes our environment and atmosphere, then the development of giant life forms, then another collision with a goldilocks-sized asteroid which wipes all of the big creatures out but not so big it wipes the small ones out too, and then those survivors develop intelligence... if only our planet's history leads to intelligence, we should give up thinking such an unlikely series would perfectly be re-created elsewhere to have it happen again.

And if that's the case, screw it. We owe nothing to no one and if we mess it up, it won't matter. We could go ahead and mine the galaxy for resources, trash whatever we want, and have no reason to care. 

I'm staying put on Earth until the Asari show up. Or maybe the Quarians. Because ...Tali. 

 

[Andy Dufresne]

It's an even bigger leap to assume we are the special ones.

Think of it more as unique than special.

There's a universe full of uniqueness.

 

[Godsbrother]

We still don't know for sure but evidence is piling up that it may be the case.

We assume there is other life in the universe. Other intelligent life. But the question we get is so where are they? Why haven't we seen evidence of their existence?

Well some new studies have an interesting response. We are the elder race. One study says the Earth was among the very first planets created. Among the first ten percent. What if the reason we don't see them is they aren't there yet? What if we are the aliens we are looking for? The most advanced race in the universe by being amongst the very first if not the first. Another study says there are still over a trillion planets to finish forming into a habitable environment over the next several billion years.

We have knowledge those people won't be capable of getting about the formation of the universe. They won't even know about the Big Bang. The evidence will be past them finding. They'll need that knowledge to advance and understand the universe they live in.

So what are the implications, what are our responsibilities in that scenario? Are we destined to rule our Galaxy? How do we handle that? How do we handle finding less advanced cultures? Do we share our knowledge or hoard it? Do we subjugate or lift them up?

We don't have a great track record on these things locally.

Really?   The Milky Way is over 13 billion years old and the Earth is less than half that.  I would think that would leave a lot of planets older than the Earth.

There could be a lot of reasons why we aren't aware of intelligent beings in the universe:

1.  Perhaps when a civilization advances so much they lose interest space travel

2.  Maybe they are here but are able to disguise or conceal themselves completely

3.  Maybe they have monitored our communications and don't want to bother with us

4.  They could have already visited in ancient times and have moved on

5.  Maybe all civilizations destroy themselves at some point as they advance

6.  Perhaps they are more advanced but not to the point where they solved the problems of interstellar travel

7.  Maybe we are the most advanced...

 

[Phil Elliott]

Depending on what/who "they" come into contact with when they visit us, could result in very different opinions of us.

 

[Scoresman]

We are a species that shoots guns into hurricanes.  We're not leading anything on the galactic level anytime soon.  

 

[mr. furley]

We are a species that shoots guns into hurricanes.  We're not leading anything on the galactic level anytime soon.  

#floridaman

 

[EYLive]

It's an even bigger leap to assume we are the special ones.

Why? Of all the tiny percentages of probability of a zillion things that needed to happen in order for life to occur on our puny planet... and THEY ALL HAPPEN. You still deny that we could be special?

Again... Why?

 

[Brony]

There are at least 8.7 million species of life on Earth and we haven't been able to communicate much more than "sit", "stay" and "rollover".

Siriusly, why do humans have to do all of the work on this front?  Look at those animals just sitting around all day with nary a care for other planets that may have potential for life. 

 

[SFBayDuck]

We are a species that shoots guns into hurricanes.  We're not leading anything on the galactic level anytime soon.  

#floridaman

Exactly.  To be fair, Floridius sapien is a species that branched off from modern man awhile ago, and is now only a distant, primitive cousin at best.  

 

[CletiusMaximus]

Really?   The Milky Way is over 13 billion years old and the Earth is less than half that.  I would think that would leave a lot of planets older than the Earth.

There could be a lot of reasons why we aren't aware of intelligent beings in the universe:

1.  Perhaps when a civilization advances so much they lose interest space travel

2.  Maybe they are here but are able to disguise or conceal themselves completely

3.  Maybe they have monitored our communications and don't want to bother with us

4.  They could have already visited in ancient times and have moved on

5.  Maybe all civilizations destroy themselves at some point as they advance

6.  Perhaps they are more advanced but not to the point where they solved the problems of interstellar travel

7.  Maybe we are the most advanced...

8. They are out there, but are strict adherents to the Prime Directive.

 

[NCCommish]

Think of it more as unique than special.

There's a universe full of uniqueness.

Either way it doesn't make sense statistically. 

 

[NCCommish]

Liking some of the conversation going on. Some interesting points and arguments. I will be off for a bit, it's D&D day, but will check back later and Hipple this mother up.

 

[Henry Ford]

Why? Of all the tiny percentages of probability of a zillion things that needed to happen in order for life to occur on our puny planet... and THEY ALL HAPPEN. You still deny that we could be special?

Again... Why?

Watch this video and try to believe human beings are special in a good way.

 

[Scoresman]

Why? Of all the tiny percentages of probability of a zillion things that needed to happen in order for life to occur on our puny planet... and THEY ALL HAPPEN. You still deny that we could be special?

Again... Why?

Because of the size of the universe.

 

[Henry Ford]

There are at least 8.7 million species of life on Earth and we haven't been able to communicate much more than "sit", "stay" and "rollover".

I know this is shtick just like my answers have been, but this isn't, strictly speaking, true.  We have gorillas who understand thousands of words and engage in complex communication with us.  We're just learning the complex processes dogs actually go through to try to understand everything we say, not just rote command responses.  And species like octopi, dolphins, some parrots, etc. have pretty amazing cognitive skills we haven't touched the surface of, but we're starting to.

Plus, this dog knows spells.

 

[Juxtatarot]

Well some new studies have an interesting response. We are the elder race. One study says the Earth was among the very first planets created. Among the first ten percent.

Considering the sheer magnitude of other planets, I don't think being in the top ten percent makes much practical difference to the "where are they?" question.

 

[Phil Elliott]

It's an even bigger leap to assume we are the special ones.

"Every snowflake is unique...Just like every other snowflake" (not meant to refer to the current political reference to snowflake)

 

[SkyRattlers]

I tend to believe the theory that says that their is a filter in the evolutionary cycle. ie. all/most intelligent species go extinct at a certain point of technological advancement. Whether than moment is history is particle accelerators like the Hadron Collider, Artificial Intelligence, artificial climate change, etc when it is finally reached it comes with a species/planet ending result.

So we're "alone" simply because any species more advanced than us have been removed from existence already.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Because of the size of the universe.

It's possibly not big enough.