What Would Be Your Reaction If Extraterestial Life Was Discovered?

[edporch]

I have no doubt there's other life in this galaxy, as well as the universe.
As far as intelligent life coming here, I would probably be very afraid.
IF they're ANYTHING like humans, and are greatly technologically advanced from us, they'd no doubt try to dominate us, JUST BECAUSE they could.

 

[Tombs]

Well if they managed to get here and made themselves know, they'd be peaceful.

Any species that has superluminal travel could obliterate a planet by capturing and accelerating an asteroid at relativistic speeds towards us. So if they haven't done that, they must not be a threat.

Wouldn't be much else worthwhile for them to do if they were hostile.

So worst case otherwise, they examine us from afar and we never make contact.
Best case, they accelerate our technological growth by a few orders of magnitude.

 

[Ingomike]

Well if they managed to get here and made themselves know, they'd be peaceful.

Any species that has superluminal travel could obliterate a planet by capturing and accelerating an asteroid at relativistic speeds towards us. So if they haven't done that, they must not be a threat.

Wouldn't be much else worthwhile for them to do if they were hostile.

So worst case otherwise, they examine us from afar and we never make contact.
Best case, they accelerate our technological growth by a few orders of magnitude.

Too many assumptions in that post. LOO

 

[KLB]

Well if they managed to get here and made themselves know, they'd be peaceful.

Any species that has superluminal travel could obliterate a planet by capturing and accelerating an asteroid at relativistic speeds towards us. So if they haven't done that, they must not be a threat.

Wouldn't be much else worthwhile for them to do if they were hostile.

So worst case otherwise, they examine us from afar and we never make contact.
Best case, they accelerate our technological growth by a few orders of magnitude.

Unless of course they came from a world with similar characteristics and wanted more elbow room.

 

[eldirector]

IMHO: If "intelligent" life ever came here, they would simply say "Oh, look. Resources." and that would be the end of us.

 

[femurphy77]

Oh but it does because it PROVES life can evolve on a planet other than earth. Believing a thing, no matter how strongly and knowing it for a fact are two wildly different places in ones mind.
Once life on Mars is confirmed the chances those really nifty UFO's the USN has been chasing around on almost a daily basis for years actually could be extraterrestrial increase by a lot. Such a finding would be 1 part awesome and 3 parts scary as hell.
Never forget, we know a lot but we are farrrrrrr from knowing everything there is know about physics.
A hundred years ago we literally had no idea we lived in a vast and expanding universe. There is a reason mankind's greatest telescope to date is named after Edwin Hubble. We are one stroke of inspired genius away from the next revolution in physics that could lead us to the stars.

The "Churchmouse-Unicorn" Telemetric Transporter?

 

[DadSmith]

If there is aliens and they are more advanced than us. It will be for them to conquer us if they come. It won't be peaceful as everyone or some think. This planet is full of something the majority of planets do not have. Water.
Water is the key to life it seems.

 

[KLB]

Water is not uncommon in the Universe

 

[jamil]

Well if they managed to get here and made themselves know, they'd be peaceful.

Any species that has superluminal travel could obliterate a planet by capturing and accelerating an asteroid at relativistic speeds towards us. So if they haven't done that, they must not be a threat.

Wouldn't be much else worthwhile for them to do if they were hostile.

So worst case otherwise, they examine us from afar and we never make contact.
Best case, they accelerate our technological growth by a few orders of magnitude.

I kinda think that if we can be peaceful, there's no reason to believe that they cannot. It's equally inaccurate to assume that because they could destroy us that they would, as it would be that because they could be peaceful, that they would be. Social evolution takes groups through different modes of survival. If the key to their species reproductive propagation was advantaged by them being peaceful, then that's what would drive their behavior. If aggressive then that.

But, if they were hostile, I think they would want to exploit the planet, not destroy it. I think it's a coin toss whether peaceful or aggressive. Kinda like scaled tribes. Some were peaceful some were aggressive. But I think sometimes we like to think that we're above all that like Star Trek and the Prime Objective ********.

 

[jamil]

The "Churchmouse-Unicorn" Telemetric Transporter?

I've long thought that pixie dust could be manipulated for space travel.

 

[jamil]

If there is aliens and they are more advanced than us. It will be for them to conquer us if they come. It won't be peaceful as everyone or some think. This planet is full of something the majority of planets do not have. Water.
Water is the key to life it seems.

Could it be that life could evolve where the necessary resource is something else?

 

[Ingomike]

It is interesting the varied thinking on what will happen when ET lands...

 

[jamil]

I think we have no idea about what ET even looks like, let alone what their demeanor is like. Hell, there's such a diversity in human demeanor, how could we possibly assume what ET's is?

Maybe to exist as a species long enough to have developed technology capable of fast journeys through such vast space, they have learned to override the hostile behaviors that helped them evolve to sentience.

For example, though there is still war, humans are more peaceful overall than even 500 years ago.

 

[DadSmith]

Could it be that life could evolve where the necessary resource is something else?

I highly doubt it. I imagine the very thing we have in this solar system represents the majority of the universe. I'm not saying we haven't discovered other things because we really haven't taken samples of the rest of the planets in our system. I would assume everything is pretty much the same throughout the universe.

 

[DadSmith]

Water is not uncommon in the Universe

Really how many planets do we know of that have water out of the thousands of planets they think might have water?

 

[DadSmith]

I think we have no idea about what ET even looks like, let alone what their demeanor is like. Hell, there's such a diversity in human demeanor, how could we possibly assume what ET's is?

Maybe to exist as a species long enough to have developed technology capable of fast journeys through such vast space, they have learned to override the hostile behaviors that helped them evolve to sentience.

For example, though there is still war, humans are more peaceful overall than even 500 years ago.

According to scientists intelligent life will most likely be humanoid in form.

 

[jamil]

According to scientists intelligent life will most likely be humanoid in form.

Hell. They don't know.

 

[DadSmith]

Hell. They don't know.

2005A&G....46d..24M Page D24

adsabs.harvard.edu

Educated guess like anything along evolution lines.

 

[nonobaddog]

Why would they destroy us when they could just land here like any other illegal alien and get lots of free ****?

 

[KLB]

Really how many planets do we know of that have water out of the thousands of planets they think might have water?

It isn't like water was created here.

They found water in asteroids, on the moon, in comets, and out in the Kuiper belt. There is no reason to think it wouldn't be the same in other parts of the Universe.