I really hope we make this discovery sometime soon and i hope it is intelligent life too. This will hopfully force our government to make extreme advances in space technology. We really should be colonizing the moon in 50 years or so. We could probally have a fleet of space destroyers before the next century. But we currently have to reason to.

Only finding INTELLIGENT and ADVANCED extraterrestrial life would be a motivation to feel threatened and rush into the development of an aggressive space programme.

We ought to be colonising the moon within the next half century even if we are alone in the Universe. As for "space destroyers," what do you want to destroy?

i see no need for space cruiser destroyer things, by the time we get the technology america will be gone and we will need no military to protect ourselves

What sort of example do we set for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence anyway ?

If you look at our lifestyle and way of thinking, human beings we just the lucky rodents that made it in life.
For as long as we treat this earth like its some sort of toy, there will never be any contact made by ET's, unless, they come here to pull our shit together for us.

We're just fucking kids of the universe, fucking it up for fututre generations of all species on Earth.

Only finding INTELLIGENT and ADVANCED extraterrestrial life would be a motivation to feel threatened and rush into the development of an aggressive space programme.

I would add 'and HOSTILE'.

We're just fucking kids of the universe, fucking it up for fututre generations of all species on Earth.
The more frightening possibility is that we are one of the very few intelligent species in the Universe and represent the peak of what life can achieve.

What makes you think we'll ever find life? If the current theory evolution and solar system formation is true, the chances of finding intelligent life close enough to contact and still around at this same instant in time are pretty slim.

why do you say the chances of finding E.T. are slim. There are a billions of stars in our galaxy and their are billions of galaxies in our universe. I think the chances are pretty high that life exists out there. I suggest reading the book probability its a good read.

The assumption seem's to have been made that we can't make space-weapons. That would make us hostile. Not really; we just need defenses in case ETI IS hostile. I'm sure the aliens have their weapons - and laugh at our rather cute, yet insecure "no weapons" mindset. What if the other life-forms decide they want our beatifull planet? We would be stuck - unable to do anything by our impotent no weapons policy. See, I've watched the "Disclosure projects" video and they harp on the problems of weapons in space but never the benefits of. There's just more to it. They don't see UFOS as hostile. Even when they believe they have rendered some of our nukes useless.. They think that's "peacefull" I guess? I'm just too republican I guess.. lol

At this point I feel ETI is "top secret" because of their motives or weapons are so damn scary compared to ours.

There's no reason to assume we are the dumbest outpost in space, and unable to operate peacefully - WITH WEAPONS.

when we first encounter ET it will probally be like when the eurpeans encountered the native americans for the first time. One of us will be extremely behind in technology.

Proof of E.T life!!!! Click here (http://www.sciforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3779&stc=1)

I put this picture in a different thread, although i find it so crazy e.t life is here

What are you going to eat on the moon? Humans aren't meant for space. Our bodies are part of the Earth. We can send our senses out into space with robots.

What makes you think we'll ever find life? If the current theory evolution and solar system formation is true, the chances of finding intelligent life close enough to contact and still around at this same instant in time are pretty slim.That logic works both ways. Whatever conditions created life here are probably duplicated on many of the 10<Sup>22</Sup> other solar systems in the universe. We should have intelligent life jumping out at us from behind every trash can.

What are you going to eat on the moon? Humans aren't meant for space. Our bodies are part of the Earth. We can send our senses out into space with robots.
That's what the fish said when it was left behind by its amphibian cousin, or the ape that said 'it's comfortable in the forest, why should I walk upright on the savanna?'

i see no need for space cruiser destroyer things, by the time we get the technology america will be gone and we will need no military to protect ourselves

If self-protection in the wider galactic environment is necessary at all, what does it matter if the requisite hardware is American-manufactured; or Chinese, or Congolese, or New Zealandish, or indeed built by as-yet unborn human nations which will arise from deep ocean colonies?

I don't know your gender, Vsalyer, but you certainly have Issues (http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/issues.htm) :rolleyes:

If one considered Gaia theory, one might say that humans were the seed of nature. A vine will stretch out to clutch a tree branch or garden fence to expand it's territory. A pack of animals will procreate and occupy large portions of land, continually trying to expand territory. Humans spread and claim most of the surface of the world. We've run out of room. The next logical step for nature would be to shoot off to other celestial bodies. That's where we come in. Ambitious, chaotic, yet resultingly highly creative and constructive creatures that do much more than just eat, sleep, shit, mate, repeat. We wonder.

As for not having space weapons, and not a bad idea if any near-earth objects endanger us, i think we could easily build a defensive network around our planet. Utilizing nukes, or possibly high-power capacitor-operated lasers. I always thought particle accelerators or mass-launchers would be nice. I mean, a 1g chunk of shrapnel doing 10 km/s would blow apart a tank with ridicuous ease. Space vacuum would be a nice place to do this, letting an accelerator thousands of kms away to pulvurize the bejesus out of an incomming rock.

A new zealand space navy would be something worth seeing... lol

Such defences would protect against attacking spacecraft, missiles and even small asteroids; but if a very determined enemy were to accelerate a small asteroid up to relativistic speeds they would be useless.

Eventually there could be an interplanetary arms race; if relativistic weapons come into use, they can only be stopped with very large lasers using a substantial proportion of the sun's energy; to collect this you need a power collection swarm covering the sun;
the solar system would need incredibly sensitive defence radar as well.

Interstellar attack craft would use vast amounts of energy just to get to the destination- and still have much less offensive energy to deploy on arrival than the defenders (who have a sun to draw energy from, after all).

If advanced civilisations are going to have wars, they will use vast amounts of energy and effort on both sides- this is a terrible waste of time and effort to acheive an eventual stalemate, and hopefuly the idea of interstellar war will have been abandoned long ago.

If advanced civilisations are going to have wars, they will use vast amounts of energy and effort on both sides- this is a terrible waste of time and effort to acheive an eventual stalemate, and hopefuly the idea of interstellar war will have been abandoned long ago.

Then again, the very concept of energy budgeting may become completely redundant for a civilization sufficiently advanced. Not only may they have 100% efficient matter-energy conversion techniques, but there might be ways to turn quantum vaccum energy itself into power. That would be truly inexhaustible, and available anywhere.

A defending civilization's own sun could be turned against it by such technology: unleashing collossal amounts of quantum-derived energy within the star could cause it to explode...

The history of the Earth strongly indicates that life is very likely to occur where ever conditions are suitable for it. Life elsewhere in the universe seems very likely.

Our history strongly suggests that intelligent life is a lucky fluke. Intelligent life is probably very rare. We might be the only intelligent life in the universe and are likely to one of very few examples.

Read "The Forge of God" by Greg Bear, then tell me you're eager to meet ET...

I really hope we make this discovery sometime soon and i hope it is intelligent life too.
I hope not.
http://www.grudge-match.com/Images/aliens.jpg

ok, I would just like to make 4 points.

1. if life exists near in our galaxy we could communicate. life outside our galaxy would not be able to communicate very well because a phone call would take millions of years.

2. if there were a hostile group able to come from a whole other solar system they would have way better weapons then we could hope to have. therefore, the only reason to have anything other than an anti-asteroid weapons would be for offense.

3. vslayer... what is your problem with America? it can't be any different than the problem Americans have with America e.g. corrupt government, but destroying America will not solve the problem. the only way to fix governments is with knowledge, and making blanket statements about all of America being bad just fuels the fire of stupidity.

4. Let me correct your statement: when militant competition for resources is stopped, through population control of the entire world, we will have no need to protect our selves from anything other than Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs)

p.s. don't forget that if America didn't get nukes first the whole world would probably be speaking German or Russian. sometimes I think it would have been better if America had taken over the world when we had the chance, then there would have been no cold war(which is why the world is so fucked up right now).

It would be nearly impossible that the ET's would have constructed their minds like human beings (unless we were the apes abducted in the ET's science experiments)

There would be no reason to think that they would look like us at all, considering the reason we are the way we are is due to the size of our sun and the earths rotation.

I believe the ET's have already made to their super intelligent stage and have figured out a less physical realisation of their surroundings and have become one with the universe (like a massive spiritual force). That can almost make it across a galaxy by "thinking" about it.

If they were to make contact it would be through a form of electricity, something we are near to and use in large amounts everyday.
It would be done through thoughts, dreams, messaging through TV's, computers, radiowaves and other emmisions.

The everday things that the mass conciousness of human beings is linked to.

yeah, that could explain some UFOs, I mean how else could they move so fast? if you are pure energy you could go the speed of light.

Our history strongly suggests that intelligent life is a lucky fluke. Intelligent life is probably very rare. We might be the only intelligent life in the universe and are likely to one of very few examples.

Definitely - I bet that many planetary biospheres, though rich in multicellular plants and animals, never produce intelligence (as we call it). A species only evolves with an advanced brain capable of original thought if the circumstances call for it, and virtually all species in Earth's history have managed perfectly well without.

Earth is so minute on a universal scale...

what reason would E.T. have to be hostile. They probally have had wars on thier planet and relize the uselessness of it. I doubt they would destory us just for our diminishing natural resources. Althought they might think that were somekind of evil and want to kill us. But i really think that they would just want to study us and learn of our history.

LOL
Look at us!!
We have wars since the dawn of our civilization and we have not become smarter a bit! The war has never changed!
So why would the aliens be any smarter?
I hear sci/fi romanticism in your voice! laughs!

Some civilizations might seek to destroy any newly-emerged technological species upon discovery, simply because they qualify as potential future enemies. Sounds monstrous, of course, but our sense of morality and the concept of intrinsic rights as applied to lower organisms are an artefact of human psychology, not necessarily universal for intelligent life.

Even if aliens didn't automatically approach first contacts with preventative violence, mutual hostility might be the most likely outcome of social interchange between mutually incompatible social and mental structures. Hating what we don't understand, or anything different from our cultural norm, is another artefact of human psychology; let's hope that isn't universal, either.

I pray TheHeretic is right. Of course, if there is endless variety of intelligences out there, we may all be right.

It would be interesting to see how humanity would have evolved different if we had regular day to day contact with one or several alien species from the early days of civilization. With an 'us and them' mindset ingrained into our psyche there would probably be a lot greater unification among humans, less religion and less war because we could focus our hate elsewhere :D

I think any alien species that has mastered space travel would have mastered big enough guns to wipe itself out unless they had an ultruistic approach to existance... Therefore I wouldn't think they would be much of a threat to us.

Is hate a prerequisite for intelligence?

Im sure we (America) would be the first to accuse them of harboring dangerous weapons therefore we are forced into a war with them. Its inevitable.

It would be interesting to see how humanity would have evolved different if we had regular day to day contact with one or several alien species from the early days of civilization. With an 'us and them' mindset ingrained into our psyche there would probably be a lot greater unification among humans, less religion and less war because we could focus our hate elsewhere :D

The same might apply if there was more than one intelligent, technological species native to Earth - tool-wielding dinosauroids evolving on one continent and humans on another, perhaps with sentient octopi on the continental shelves too...

Aliens arriving early in our history would clearly have been so far in advance of us that we would have taken them for gods, and if they wished to dominate us permanently they'd have their way. More interesting would be if the aliens had made contact in the last century or so, with human technology advanced enough to offer at least some resistance. This is the scenario in Harry Turtledove's WorldWar & Colonisation books.

The same might apply if there was more than one intelligent, technological species native to Earth - tool-wielding dinosauroids evolving on one continent and humans on another, perhaps with sentient octopi on the continental shelves too...
There is a fantastic sci-fi series about this theme. The dinosaurs never really died out 65m years ago and by the time humans appeared the dinosours had a highly advanced civilization who's technology was based on genetic engeneering.
The books are by Harry Harrison, the series start with -> "West of Eden"
Really fantastic read, highly adviced!!

A species only evolves with an advanced brain capable of original thought if the circumstances call for it, and virtually all species in Earth's history have managed perfectly well without.
As have most humans. :)

A great truth in your words, Ophiolite

perhaps with sentient octopi on the continental shelves too...

Give em 8 machine guns each and you've got a pretty decent ally!

More interesting would be if the aliens had made contact in the last century or so, with human technology advanced enough to offer at least some resistance.

I would rather they had contacted us then than now, at least back then the worst we could've done is crash a bi-plane into em. But nowadays, lookout, it doesn't matter what planet you're from, a nuke is still a nuke...

There is a fantastic sci-fi series about this theme. The dinosaurs never really died out 65m years ago and by the time humans appeared the dinosours had a highly advanced civilization who's technology was based on genetic engeneering.

he he *pictures dinosaurs wearing lab coats and playing with test tubes with them iddy biddy little hands and huge heads*

If dinosaurs were still around and intelligent, what would they look like now? birds? lizard men?

The civilized dinosaurs in the series where somehow human height developed from some kind of carnivores, raptors.
It is a really good read.
The Earth gets colder and the civilized dinos go from south to North and mee mammals. At their homeland the biggest mammal was a mouse, but here it was a mamooth. They shrugged at the uncontrolled evolution of mammals and then they faced man. I won't reveal more, but it's a fantastic story.
Also showing how an entirelly "alien" society might work. Alien in every aspect. Technological, thought process, etc.
For example the dinos didn't make rifles, they breeded them. :)

For example the dinos didn't make rifles, they breeded them.

Sounds kinda bizarre, but I'll give it a read if I find it.

I can e-mail you .txt's of the books if you have nothing against reading of your computer screen.

Thanks dude, I'll have a look.

I think my email is visible in my profile now, if not, pm me...cheers!

The books are by Harry Harrison, the series start with -> "West of Eden"
Really fantastic read, highly adviced!!

Read them, I agree about how good they are.

The civilized dinosaurs in the series where somehow human height developed from some kind of carnivores, raptors.

Actually, the author traced their evolution: from aquatic mososaurs, which returned to land to breed just as seals do. His creatures - the Yilane as they called themselves - had thus gone from fish to amphibian to land reptile to sea reptile and back to the land again!

Also showing how an entirelly "alien" society might work. Alien in every aspect. Technological, thought process, etc.
For example the dinos didn't make rifles, they breeded them.

A similar concept is applied to the extragalactic invaders in some recent Star Wars novels, a race called the Yuuzhan Vong. Like the Yilane they have entirely biological technology, with living weapons known as amphistaffs and starships grown out of strong coral! Even their armour is a kind of symbiotic crustacean. Ironically, being from a different galaxy, these Yuuzhan Vong are divorced from the Force and immune to Jedi powers, making them more than a match for the New Republic. They consider purely mechanical technology, espeically droids, to be blasphemous. :mad:

It's a current trend in sci-fi to suppose that organic technology is inherently superior. I don't see why, except for its ability to self-repair - flesh is generally a lot more fragile than metal.

Well, in Eden books you could clearly see the disadvantages of the biology based technology. ;)

Cheers Avatar, read a little bit of it, even though I changed the font to 18 my eyes started wigging out after about 20 min! I reckon I'll buy the book though, seems like a pretty good read. :)

Here's a major start: NASA Researcher Says Evidence Exists For Current Life On Mars (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_life_050216.html)

:D