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Ants aren’t capable of meta cognition though. While I agree the analogy is useful it sort of falls down when you apply it to something else. Like birds or dogs.
by slickrick216 6y ago
Ants aren’t capable of meta cognition though. While I agree the analogy is useful it sort of falls down when you apply it to something else. Like birds or dogs. They clearly know humans exist and how they can be manipulated or contacted. The species difference argument at that level then results in a different conclusion, that yes we can communicate but we are probably not all that interesting. Expanding on this birds and dogs don’t know human motivations. We probably don’t understand how alien aliens are. We can barely understand the motivations of others in our immediate social circle. The question we should ask ourselves then is what motivates aliens and how do we trigger that motivation to initiate contact (carefully).
- soulofmischief 6y agoI think OP chose ants because of the scale involved. Ants form full-fledged civilizations which occupy relatively small volumes of space compared to human civilizations (population size non-withstanding) and even when building around man-made structures, they might not be able to recognize these structures as non-natural.
- slickrick216 6y agoYeah it could be a one and/or combination of things. We can’t really know. It’s hard to think of aliens that are so advanced that couldn’t conceptualise us, do they not have fiction? If a species were born post physical or with capabilities that seemed advanced though then I think the ants analogy does apply. Something like space whales in Star Trek to us it’s intergalactic travel to them it’s swimming.
- soulofmischief 6y agoHot take: Dark matter is space whales.