5 ms·

I always wondered if they could see us, would they recognize us as something to care about? I see ants on my porch, but they don't really matter much to me.

Madmallard 6y ago
If you didn't know what ants were already they probably would be interesting
- koheripbal 6y ago
  Sure, but if you were a billion years old and had seen ants before, it's unlikely that you'd take interest in any specific ant hill you walk by.
  - marcosdumay 6y ago
    Unless you are one of those people with the habit of studying ants, and cataloging the multiple ways that they can be different. Or if you are one of those people that want to grow a crop on that plot of land, so the ants are a problem.
  - godelski 6y ago
    Idk, there are still people that study ants. Both professionally and as a hobby. Just because you don't care doesn't mean someone doesn't. I don't know why the same wouldn't be true for aliens. Unless those aliens are ant like (hive mind...ish)
    - purplecats 6y ago
      and those ants don't know they are being studied/farmed
      - godelski 6y ago
        I'm not sure I like this line of reasoning because it implies that the ants aren't aware of us. Certainly they are in some cases. Ants are able to physically perceive us. So if aliens aren't using some means of passive remote sensing to study us then I don't see why we wouldn't also notice them (though they may have good reason to not use active means). Sure, the ants aren't aware of what why we're hanging out around them, but they are aware of us.
        sliken 6y ago
        https://xkcd.com/638/ https://xkcd.com/638/
        purplecats 6y ago
        i think you may be confusing the ideas "aware of" and "being studied".
        godelski 6y ago
        The topic was really about how we may not know we're being studied by unknown aliens, just like ants. My response was about the ants not knowing the why but still aware of existence. So far we don't know about the existence of aliens, hence the part about how they'd have to be doing passive and remote studying.
    - baja_blast 6y ago
      Not to mention there are endless number of nature documentaries on Ants. If ants were not interesting then the National Geographic channel wouldn't have ant documentaries as often as they do.
    - adjkant 6y ago
      What percentage of ants that exist are studied? They absolutely study some, but the vast majority of ants won't ever be acknowledged by a human. That seems like a relevant factor here if the assumption is that humans are like ants in both interest level and commonality in the universe.
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    When you live to be a billion, you probably study ants just to have something better to do than bitch about joint pain. And having seen many, many, many ant hills, specific ones with slight odd variations unnoticed by people who are merely a million years old would stand out like a flashing neon sign and you would be all "Hello! What, pray tell, is this?!" while everyone looked at you funny because they lack context. Just sayin'...
asdff 6y ago
People spend lifetimes studying ant behavior
- tikwidd 6y ago
  Maybe we are not even a very interesting kind of ant from their perspective, and they are off studying something else.
elihu 6y ago
Most ants are benign. Some ants will eat your house. We have the technological capacity to make our own planet uninhabitable to humans and perhaps to any kind of life if we tried hard enough. We could probably do pretty nasty things to planets in other star systems if we were sufficiently motivated to do so and weren't in any great hurry. An advanced alien civilization might see us not as threatening per se but rather as a potential problem they have to manage somehow and not just ignore.

Madmallard 6y ago

If you didn't know what ants were already they probably would be interesting

koheripbal 6y ago
Sure, but if you were a billion years old and had seen ants before, it's unlikely that you'd take interest in any specific ant hill you walk by.
- marcosdumay 6y ago
  Unless you are one of those people with the habit of studying ants, and cataloging the multiple ways that they can be different. Or if you are one of those people that want to grow a crop on that plot of land, so the ants are a problem.
- godelski 6y ago
  Idk, there are still people that study ants. Both professionally and as a hobby. Just because you don't care doesn't mean someone doesn't. I don't know why the same wouldn't be true for aliens. Unless those aliens are ant like (hive mind...ish)
  - purplecats 6y ago
    and those ants don't know they are being studied/farmed
    - godelski 6y ago
      I'm not sure I like this line of reasoning because it implies that the ants aren't aware of us. Certainly they are in some cases. Ants are able to physically perceive us. So if aliens aren't using some means of passive remote sensing to study us then I don't see why we wouldn't also notice them (though they may have good reason to not use active means). Sure, the ants aren't aware of what why we're hanging out around them, but they are aware of us.
      - sliken 6y ago
        https://xkcd.com/638/ https://xkcd.com/638/
      - purplecats 6y ago
        i think you may be confusing the ideas "aware of" and "being studied".
        godelski 6y ago
        The topic was really about how we may not know we're being studied by unknown aliens, just like ants. My response was about the ants not knowing the why but still aware of existence. So far we don't know about the existence of aliens, hence the part about how they'd have to be doing passive and remote studying.
  - baja_blast 6y ago
    Not to mention there are endless number of nature documentaries on Ants. If ants were not interesting then the National Geographic channel wouldn't have ant documentaries as often as they do.
  - adjkant 6y ago
    What percentage of ants that exist are studied? They absolutely study some, but the vast majority of ants won't ever be acknowledged by a human. That seems like a relevant factor here if the assumption is that humans are like ants in both interest level and commonality in the universe.
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  When you live to be a billion, you probably study ants just to have something better to do than bitch about joint pain. And having seen many, many, many ant hills, specific ones with slight odd variations unnoticed by people who are merely a million years old would stand out like a flashing neon sign and you would be all "Hello! What, pray tell, is this?!" while everyone looked at you funny because they lack context. Just sayin'...

asdff 6y ago

People spend lifetimes studying ant behavior

tikwidd 6y ago
Maybe we are not even a very interesting kind of ant from their perspective, and they are off studying something else.

elihu 6y ago

Most ants are benign. Some ants will eat your house. We have the technological capacity to make our own planet uninhabitable to humans and perhaps to any kind of life if we tried hard enough. We could probably do pretty nasty things to planets in other star systems if we were sufficiently motivated to do so and weren't in any great hurry. An advanced alien civilization might see us not as threatening per se but rather as a potential problem they have to manage somehow and not just ignore.