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Aliens? Why look? There's two options really. Either they are there, or they aren't. If they're there, either they're dumber than us, in which case I don't w

by sjaak 6y ago

Aliens? Why look? There's two options really. Either they are there, or they aren't. If they're there, either they're dumber than us, in which case I don't want to meet them, and otherwise--if they're smarter--they'll find us before we find them.

HenryKissinger 6y ago
According to your logic, wouldn't an alien species smarter than us have the same reflexive attitude toward us: "In which case I don't want to meet them (humans)"?
- offtop5 6y ago
  To be fair when Columbus made contact with the original residents of the Americas, it didn't turn out so great for them.
ceejayoz 6y ago
It's not necessarily so binary. I read a fun novel where the rest of the universe had discovered antigrav before internal combustion - that humans basically missed a typically easy, early discovery in physics - and the implications of that for technology transfer in both directions due to wildly different technology trees. There's also the possibility that "they'll find us before we find them" means "they're reaching out and we have to listen if want the download for the ansible and FTL schematics".
- roberthahn 6y ago
  Hey now you can’t tease a premise for a novel like that without telling us the title and author :)
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    Holy shit, I managed to find it (I read it many years ago). Having good Google fu feels like magic at times; "sci fi novel humans missed technology breakthrough". Harry Turtledove; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_stor...
  - TeMPOraL 6y ago
    "The Road Not Taken", a short story by Harry Turtledove. https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf
kuu 6y ago
> Why look? Because it will answer if we're alone or not in the Universe, and maybe explain a bit more of how we reached this place, how life evolves in other places than Earth and who knows what other questions can open the fact of answering that question... At the end, this is just the search of more knowledge
- sjaak 6y ago
  I understand and agree. I was merely making a silly joke :) I failed to humor my audience it seems judging by the responses. The internet needs a sarcasm smiley badly.
  - kuu 6y ago
    Yeah, I did not get it as a joke :) For sarcasm, you probably know, but people put a /s indicating it's sarcasm ;)
ben_w 6y ago
Intelligence isn’t so simple. Imagine this hypothetical example, an alien copy of us identical in every way save two: (1) the average IQ is 115 on our scale*, and (2) every biological process from metabolism to synaptic speed is 95% of ours. As a species Homo sapiens been around for 0.3 Megayears. This other species would be 15,000 years behind us in subjective years, which may or may not be something a one standard deviation IQ boost could overcome. * IQ adjusted only for the subjective speed difference caused by (2)

by sjaak 6y ago

HenryKissinger 6y ago

According to your logic, wouldn't an alien species smarter than us have the same reflexive attitude toward us: "In which case I don't want to meet them (humans)"?

offtop5 6y ago
To be fair when Columbus made contact with the original residents of the Americas, it didn't turn out so great for them.

ceejayoz 6y ago

It's not necessarily so binary. I read a fun novel where the rest of the universe had discovered antigrav before internal combustion - that humans basically missed a typically easy, early discovery in physics - and the implications of that for technology transfer in both directions due to wildly different technology trees. There's also the possibility that "they'll find us before we find them" means "they're reaching out and we have to listen if want the download for the ansible and FTL schematics".

roberthahn 6y ago
Hey now you can’t tease a premise for a novel like that without telling us the title and author :)
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  Holy shit, I managed to find it (I read it many years ago). Having good Google fu feels like magic at times; "sci fi novel humans missed technology breakthrough". Harry Turtledove; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(short_stor...
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  "The Road Not Taken", a short story by Harry Turtledove. https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf https://eyeofmidas.com/scifi/Turtledove_RoadNotTaken.pdf

kuu 6y ago

> Why look? Because it will answer if we're alone or not in the Universe, and maybe explain a bit more of how we reached this place, how life evolves in other places than Earth and who knows what other questions can open the fact of answering that question... At the end, this is just the search of more knowledge

sjaak 6y ago
I understand and agree. I was merely making a silly joke :) I failed to humor my audience it seems judging by the responses. The internet needs a sarcasm smiley badly.
- kuu 6y ago
  Yeah, I did not get it as a joke :) For sarcasm, you probably know, but people put a /s indicating it's sarcasm ;)

ben_w 6y ago

Intelligence isn’t so simple. Imagine this hypothetical example, an alien copy of us identical in every way save two: (1) the average IQ is 115 on our scale*, and (2) every biological process from metabolism to synaptic speed is 95% of ours. As a species Homo sapiens been around for 0.3 Megayears. This other species would be 15,000 years behind us in subjective years, which may or may not be something a one standard deviation IQ boost could overcome. * IQ adjusted only for the subjective speed difference caused by (2)