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There can be forms of life in universe which we may not even understand. For example - Think of yourself an ant living next to a river. The ant would have no p

There can be forms of life in universe which we may not even understand. For example - Think of yourself an ant living next to a river. The ant would have no prospective or understand of what is going on in the river and all the fish inside it.

toasterlovin 8y ago
The difference between ants and humans being that humans can invent ways to understand what is going on in the river. If there's something out there and it is discoverable in principle, there's a good chance we'll discover it someday.
- vokep 8y ago
  This. We think we can see clearly with our senses and command the world at will, and we can, compared to ants. But what would an ant thinking about a river it's observing be like? Ok tbh idk if an ant is best expample, lets just assume its able to think to the level I'm describing. So the ant is looking at the river, what does it see? Most likely just a bunch of shimmering stuff, just randomness. Maybe it notices there are patterns but, it likely has a hard time even determining that what is in front of it has the same stuff that it finds on grass in the mornings. The thing is, the ant can't really see anything clearly. What it does know, and can see clearly is navigation of its tunnels and working with the other ants. Unlike ants, we can use our rationality to go beyond our senses. Instead of looking at rivers we look at space, planets around stars light years away.
  - toasterlovin 8y ago
    And that's all true before you even get to the fact that it looks like we are on the cusp of some really breathtaking ways of augmenting our intelligence.
borhtyr 8y ago
> There can be forms of life in universe which we may not even understand. If you're looking for X and have no idea what this X is, then you won't be able to find. Thus, they probably only look for what's familiar or defined as "life form".

toasterlovin 8y ago

The difference between ants and humans being that humans can invent ways to understand what is going on in the river. If there's something out there and it is discoverable in principle, there's a good chance we'll discover it someday.

vokep 8y ago
This. We think we can see clearly with our senses and command the world at will, and we can, compared to ants. But what would an ant thinking about a river it's observing be like? Ok tbh idk if an ant is best expample, lets just assume its able to think to the level I'm describing. So the ant is looking at the river, what does it see? Most likely just a bunch of shimmering stuff, just randomness. Maybe it notices there are patterns but, it likely has a hard time even determining that what is in front of it has the same stuff that it finds on grass in the mornings. The thing is, the ant can't really see anything clearly. What it does know, and can see clearly is navigation of its tunnels and working with the other ants. Unlike ants, we can use our rationality to go beyond our senses. Instead of looking at rivers we look at space, planets around stars light years away.
- toasterlovin 8y ago
  And that's all true before you even get to the fact that it looks like we are on the cusp of some really breathtaking ways of augmenting our intelligence.

borhtyr 8y ago

> There can be forms of life in universe which we may not even understand. If you're looking for X and have no idea what this X is, then you won't be able to find. Thus, they probably only look for what's familiar or defined as "life form".