legsdiamond Member since May 05th 2011 79622 posts
Wed Aug-24-16 03:18 PM
4. "oh, it's on like donkey kong" In response to Reply # 1
**************** TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*
8. "Nobody has a remotely educated guess. " In response to Reply # 1
99.9% of all conclusions regarding aliens and/or our potential interaction with them is 100% rooted in our understanding of the human race and science fiction fantasies.
This includes the scientists who based their search for “planets that can sustain life” because that search, at least based on most reports I’ve read on the subject, tends to presuppose life as *we* know it.
Even if we look at the way humans interact with each other on micro and macro scales, there’s no telling how we will interact 100, 200, 300, 1,000 or more years from now.
So how we’ll interact with another species from another world depends on too many factors to count and at least half that equation (the aliens) is a complete unknown that relies on too much conjecture to take seriously.
14. "it's interesting to me how pessimistic current science fiction is on thi..." In response to Reply # 8
kim stanley robinson's aurora from last year is a good example. though i guess we're only talking about "hard" science fiction.
you're right....we really have no idea what to expect.
it's hard for us to even wrap our heads around the distances and the possibilities. but it's exciting though. i was talking about this with my class today, and it's pretty fucking amazing (even though i think it was suspected) that there's a planet this close, that's almost Earth size, and that it's getting similar amounts of energy from promixa as we do from the sun.
at this point, it seems like the technology and will *might* be out there to find evidence of extrasolar life and maybe even send probes within our lifetimes, which i wouldn't have believed possible a decade ago.
humans with different beliefs are presently co-existing better than any other time in human history.
But I was more talking about non-intelligent life. I don't think anything that there is any chance we encounter intelligent, social beings in my lifetime.
17. "we'd probably go there and fuck it up" In response to Reply # 0
say its just a planet full of animals....we go there and start slaughtering everything because we want to terraform and develop.
say its a planet with intelligent life? too many scenarios on how that might play out, but I don't have any faith in the human race to be diplomatic.
thought i had the other day on this topic. Earth is 4 or 5 billion years old. Say this new planet is 6 or 7 billion years old. that's almost 2 billion year evolutionary head start. look at how far humans have come from 10,000 BC to 2016. still so much we can't do as a species like faster than light travel. but in a billion years time we might have mastered teleportation.
we run up on a species that already has a billion years on us in existence, all of a sudden we are the ants on an ant hill about to get squashed.
20. "agreed, which begs the question" In response to Reply # 18
why haven't they yet?? maybe the have??
start going down the rabbit hole at that point.
but personally, i'm on the "universe is way too big for it to be just us" train.
intelligent life out there may have taken a different path towards intelligence. maybe humans are the only ones warring with each other. another species might have the key to existence that doesn't include conquering and colonization. that's life as we know it, but what about unknown life?
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