4 ms·

> Realistically, though, it's too much of a coincidence that such a probe would first arrive so soon after we gained the ability to conceive of it. It is based

> Realistically, though, it's too much of a coincidence that such a probe would first arrive so soon after we gained the ability to conceive of it. It is based on TIME but our conception of it would be independent. I think a lot of what's part of the drake equation is merited on overlap. It's entirely possible that other civilizations have been created and died out LONG before mammals even evolved. IF you factor in just the last 200 years of human technological advancement it's plausible in another 200 we will have either destroyed ourselves or evolved into gods. Either way we're not going to be talking to anyone in the universe. I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. I don't really have a conversation with the bacteria infecting a wound. I just take antibiotics.

nvrspyx 6y ago
> I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. That may be because we can't even perceive bacteria, but if we go a little bit bigger and you could have a conversation with a dog, cat, deer, or any other animal, I bet you would. I know I personally would just to understand how those animals think and the differences between them and us. With that said, I do agree with you, but I don't think this is really a comparable analogy though because I'm sure a god wouldn't want to converse with us due to boredom of interacting with plenty of other intelligent life and pretty much everything else before reaching us.
- postalrat 6y ago
  It's hard to conceive of an intelligence as much above ours as we are above bacteria cell. But if such a thing did exist why would it want to communicate with us?
  - neatze 6y ago
    If I could talk to cell(s), morphogenesis would be my topic of discussion.
licebmi__at__ 6y ago
I don't really understand what this "evolving into godhood" means, but I would really like to talk with the bacteria if I could, even if I might still take antibiotics after talking to it.
- sumedh 6y ago
  > I don't really understand what this "evolving into godhood" means Not dying of old age or saving your memories/consciousness into a computer and transferring into another body.
kbenson 6y ago
> I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. At that level of abstraction it might make more sense to think of humanity itself as an organism, and to their point of view an infant one. At the point we either either birth an AI or elevate people to digital organisms with vastly greater intelligence, then we've "matured". There's still reasons for adults to talk to or help adolescents, mainly to help them mature well, so there might be reasons for "gods" to talk to us. It might also be that we're only at the stage of speaking gibberish, so there's still a bit to wait.
- anoniuyiu33412 6y ago
  maybe we are just "ants" for them. That would be the current intelligence level of humanity for aliens. Doesn't the cities, human civilization on Earth feel like a big messy anthill? All our society could feel for them just like what we see when we look to what ants have built. "Nice engineering down there, they communicate using sounds and directed energy, nice they've discovered electricity, they solve their conflict using mostly primitive kinetic weapons. Hey they have developed shows to fill the free time they've got now after having setup some automatization. And now they have a planet reaching data network, how nice. They're quite aggressive tough, I wouldn't put my finger in there, they bite, hard enough"
  - kbenson 6y ago
    I don't expect ants, either as an individual ant or as a colony, to necessarily be able to hold a conversation given enough time, but an alien species more advanced than us, or a godlike AI, may expect at some point in the future we might be able to, or might birth something that is able to (if not, where did they come from?), which is why I think they would be more likely to view us as infants currently incapable of conversing with them usefully rather than bugs with no hope of doing so.
bserge 6y ago
> I don't really have a conversation with the bacteria infecting a wound Could it be because you know they won't reply? That's the case with most animals. Talking to a random dog or cat (relatively intelligent creatures) and knowing they don't understand a thing you say just kind of makes it pointless. Of course they'll understand simple universal body actions and react, but nothing more. If there was a bacteria or a cat who would reply back, or at the very least clearly understand what I'm saying, I'd be happy and amazed, and definitely would want to continue talking to them.
- elboru 6y ago
  What if an AGI’s intelligence has exploded to a point where human intelligence is insignificant?
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    it's based on what we understand as being intelligence so what would that even mean?

nvrspyx 6y ago

> I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. That may be because we can't even perceive bacteria, but if we go a little bit bigger and you could have a conversation with a dog, cat, deer, or any other animal, I bet you would. I know I personally would just to understand how those animals think and the differences between them and us. With that said, I do agree with you, but I don't think this is really a comparable analogy though because I'm sure a god wouldn't want to converse with us due to boredom of interacting with plenty of other intelligent life and pretty much everything else before reaching us.

postalrat 6y ago
It's hard to conceive of an intelligence as much above ours as we are above bacteria cell. But if such a thing did exist why would it want to communicate with us?
- neatze 6y ago
  If I could talk to cell(s), morphogenesis would be my topic of discussion.

licebmi__at__ 6y ago

I don't really understand what this "evolving into godhood" means, but I would really like to talk with the bacteria if I could, even if I might still take antibiotics after talking to it.

sumedh 6y ago
> I don't really understand what this "evolving into godhood" means Not dying of old age or saving your memories/consciousness into a computer and transferring into another body.

kbenson 6y ago

> I think it's plausible that a god would not want to talk to another intelligent civilization. Why would we? We would be to a god what bacteria is to us. At that level of abstraction it might make more sense to think of humanity itself as an organism, and to their point of view an infant one. At the point we either either birth an AI or elevate people to digital organisms with vastly greater intelligence, then we've "matured". There's still reasons for adults to talk to or help adolescents, mainly to help them mature well, so there might be reasons for "gods" to talk to us. It might also be that we're only at the stage of speaking gibberish, so there's still a bit to wait.

anoniuyiu33412 6y ago
maybe we are just "ants" for them. That would be the current intelligence level of humanity for aliens. Doesn't the cities, human civilization on Earth feel like a big messy anthill? All our society could feel for them just like what we see when we look to what ants have built. "Nice engineering down there, they communicate using sounds and directed energy, nice they've discovered electricity, they solve their conflict using mostly primitive kinetic weapons. Hey they have developed shows to fill the free time they've got now after having setup some automatization. And now they have a planet reaching data network, how nice. They're quite aggressive tough, I wouldn't put my finger in there, they bite, hard enough"
- kbenson 6y ago
  I don't expect ants, either as an individual ant or as a colony, to necessarily be able to hold a conversation given enough time, but an alien species more advanced than us, or a godlike AI, may expect at some point in the future we might be able to, or might birth something that is able to (if not, where did they come from?), which is why I think they would be more likely to view us as infants currently incapable of conversing with them usefully rather than bugs with no hope of doing so.

bserge 6y ago

> I don't really have a conversation with the bacteria infecting a wound Could it be because you know they won't reply? That's the case with most animals. Talking to a random dog or cat (relatively intelligent creatures) and knowing they don't understand a thing you say just kind of makes it pointless. Of course they'll understand simple universal body actions and react, but nothing more. If there was a bacteria or a cat who would reply back, or at the very least clearly understand what I'm saying, I'd be happy and amazed, and definitely would want to continue talking to them.

elboru 6y ago
What if an AGI’s intelligence has exploded to a point where human intelligence is insignificant?
- ekianjo 6y ago
  it's based on what we understand as being intelligence so what would that even mean?