5 ms·
There is a real problem where as humans we are really only looking for 'alien intelligence' that we can interact with. We would have a hard time identifying a
by Sevii 4y ago
There is a real problem where as humans we are really only looking for 'alien intelligence' that we can interact with.
We would have a hard time identifying a solar plasma based entity that had reaction times in years.
But redefining 'intelligence' to include all complex processes is not useful. I don't care if a storm in a gas giant is just as complex as a chimpanzee's thought processes.
A rabbit is intelligent compared to an ant, but we wouldn't consider discovering aliens at that level of intelligence relevant to us.
What we are looking for is near-peer intelligent life. Meaning about as intelligent as humans at timescales competitive to human cognition.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- gaganyaan 4y agoNot sure what you mean. Discovering an alien rabbit race, even verifiable alien bacteria, would be a huge news event.
- GWBullshit 4y agoIt's sort of been done already; the reason it's NOT a huge news event is there are ... how to put it ... "Anti-X-Files" types who historically have held the view that this knowledge would dissolve human concepts of "reality" and possibly lead to the downfall of modern human society as we know it.
- seniortaco 4y ago"There is a real problem where as humans we are really only looking for 'alien intelligence' that we can interact with." I don't think so. There could be some intelligent race of fruit loops that communicate with each other by creating waves through the milk in a giant cereal bowl, but eventually if they are really intelligent they will discover radio, and we would detect the signal. But we haven't.