58 replies to this topic

[Temperateants]

I know the media likes to sensationalize things, what are you guys' thought?

[TheMicroPlanet]

Just to clarify, are you asking if the government's (presumably, US government) actions suggest contact with aliens?

[SleepyAsianAnter]

No, something about the Pentagon officially releasing UFO videos

[ANTdrew]

Fake news? I hope this thread doesn’t devolve...

[Temperateants]

Pretty much what Asain Anter says. I found multiple articles on the matter.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Something that bothers me is that people always think of aliens, if they exist at all, as more advanced or more intelligent than us. What if that's not the case? What if we're those aliens? What if we invade someone else's planet with scary technology? I mean, we've done it before; the Spanish Empire, Scramble for Africa, and East India Company are perfect examples such things.

[Antennal_Scrobe]

No, a UFO simply refers to an unidentified object, which is most likely a weather balloon, aircraft, or optical phenomenon. The concept of aliens with faster than light spacecraft flying around Earth without us even knowing is so scientifically implausible that it would need much much more than a grainy video to be even remotely "confirmed".

[TheMicroPlanet]

No, a UFO simply refers to an unidentified object, which is most likely a weather balloon, aircraft, or optical phenomenon. The concept of aliens with faster than light spacecraft flying around Earth without us even knowing is so scientifically implausible that it would need much much more than a grainy video to be even remotely "confirmed".

Thank you for clarifying both of those points. People tend to gloss over these in exchange for thrill.

[RushmoreAnts]

My direct answer to the main question:

 

No.

[NickAnter]

Yeah, everyone thinks of aliens as more advanced. How do we know they aren't less advanced?

[FeedTheAnts]

If they had then we wouldn't know...

[TheMicroPlanet]

That'd make for an interesting sci-fi story though; us earthlings taking advantage of a less advanced planet East India Company-style.

[RushmoreAnts]

We really can't be sure until something like this happens:

 

 

[Serafine]

To quote Carl Sagan:

 

"Our planet is a lonely spec in the great enveloping cosmic dark

in our obscurity, in all this vastness

there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere

to save us from ourselves."

 

 

Do I believe there is intelligent alien life in the universe?

Yes, definitely. The Universe is an incomprehensible large place, to a point where the evolution of intelligent life becomes unavoidable. If anything, we are proof.

 

Do I think there is intelligent alien life that could visit us anytime soon?

No. The Universe is an incomprehensibly large place and most people have no idea of how ridiculously far away even the closest potentially inhabitable worlds are.

Also our Galaxy has - until fairly recently - been so active that it likely prohibited the existence of complex life. We are a rather early occurrence in the era that actually allows for complex life, in fact we might even be the first.

 

 

 

Yeah, everyone thinks of aliens as more advanced. How do we know they aren't less advanced?

If they were any less advanced (or even just equally advanced) they would be incapable of traveling to us. Simple as that.

Edited by Serafine, May 12 2020 - 10:27 AM.

[Barristan]

Some aliens even admit openly that they are aliens...:

https://youtu.be/d27gTrPPAyk?t=55

Edited by Barristan, May 12 2020 - 10:33 AM.

[Thunder_Birds]

Lol

[Temperateants]

Good point about aliens not having to be more advanced. It would be cool for humans to seed life on other planets. 

[Temperateants]

I don't think we could exploit planets east India company style, since if we want something that they have, we can obliterate the local life and insert familiar Earth flora and fauna and terraform the atmosphere for human settlement.

[Temperateants]

Or if a planet has different conditions, such as climate and gravity (within habitability) we can genetically engineer humans to be able to live and breed on those planets.

[TheMicroPlanet]

Or if a planet has different conditions, such as climate and gravity (within habitability) we can genetically engineer humans to be able to live and breed on those planets.

Well, that'd raise the same ethics questions that come with designer babies. Is it wrong to break away from our natural genetics, or is it natural and even beneficial for us to do so?