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> Thanks to technology we can perceive many things that we have no evolutionary reason to be able to perceive. We might be able to perceive, but that doesn't m

> Thanks to technology we can perceive many things that we have no evolutionary reason to be able to perceive. We might be able to perceive, but that doesn't mean we understand what we see. Every time I engage with medicine, I learn how little humanity actually knows, despite all the technology. We still don't understand what causes many diseases, or how to heal many wounds. How would we find completely alien life when we can't even find the cause of a disease that plagues 23% of the adult population?

adrianN 4y ago
The same way we find the disease: by the effects the aliens have on their surroundings.
- indymike 4y ago
  You are missing the point, in our arrogance to believe we understand things, we do not really understand them. The drive to understand more is powerful, and has lead to huge advances, but we still have a long way to go.
  - adrianN 4y ago
    I agree that we still have a very long way to go. I disagree that the areas of the universe that are still mysterious to us are likely to be hiding places for aliens.
ceejayoz 4y ago
> We still don't understand what causes many diseases, or how to heal many wounds. Right, but we still know the diseases and wounds exist.
- Supermancho 4y ago
  Sometimes, you have to wait until you're dead or dying to know they exist. I'm not convinced that humans have mastered perception after mastering writing 5 thousand years ago.
ben_w 4y ago
You're partially right, but missing something important. Where you're correct: Aliens that are only found on planets would be almost impossible to spot, and even if we look at them and see the consequences of their existence on their atmosphere we may interpret that as non biological in origin. What you're missing: However, if they are expansionist and can build space habitats and automation of the sort we have reason to believe is possible, the question is "why are there visible stars? Why are they not all already surrounded in Dyson swarms?" which is hard to miss regardless of underlying chemistry or biology.
- somenameforme 4y ago
  So far as we can currently understand, it seems that about 96% of the matter-energy of the universe is stuff that we cannot see, detect, or explain. Dark matter/energy. There's more than enough room for fanciful explanations.
  - db48x 4y ago
    Except that dark matter doesn't even interact with itself. Particles of dark matter just pass right through each other rather than clumping together to form complex molecules, rocks, planets, etc.
  - ben_w 4y ago
    A Dyson swarm emits approximately same energy as its host star, just in infrared. Dark Matter could, I guess, be Matryoshka brains organised carefully to not hit each other by their keepers, so long as they are also actively "gardening" what we can see so they never ever get Dyson-d.

adrianN 4y ago

The same way we find the disease: by the effects the aliens have on their surroundings.

indymike 4y ago
You are missing the point, in our arrogance to believe we understand things, we do not really understand them. The drive to understand more is powerful, and has lead to huge advances, but we still have a long way to go.
- adrianN 4y ago
  I agree that we still have a very long way to go. I disagree that the areas of the universe that are still mysterious to us are likely to be hiding places for aliens.

ceejayoz 4y ago

> We still don't understand what causes many diseases, or how to heal many wounds. Right, but we still know the diseases and wounds exist.

Supermancho 4y ago
Sometimes, you have to wait until you're dead or dying to know they exist. I'm not convinced that humans have mastered perception after mastering writing 5 thousand years ago.

ben_w 4y ago

You're partially right, but missing something important. Where you're correct: Aliens that are only found on planets would be almost impossible to spot, and even if we look at them and see the consequences of their existence on their atmosphere we may interpret that as non biological in origin. What you're missing: However, if they are expansionist and can build space habitats and automation of the sort we have reason to believe is possible, the question is "why are there visible stars? Why are they not all already surrounded in Dyson swarms?" which is hard to miss regardless of underlying chemistry or biology.

somenameforme 4y ago
So far as we can currently understand, it seems that about 96% of the matter-energy of the universe is stuff that we cannot see, detect, or explain. Dark matter/energy. There's more than enough room for fanciful explanations.
- db48x 4y ago
  Except that dark matter doesn't even interact with itself. Particles of dark matter just pass right through each other rather than clumping together to form complex molecules, rocks, planets, etc.
- ben_w 4y ago
  A Dyson swarm emits approximately same energy as its host star, just in infrared. Dark Matter could, I guess, be Matryoshka brains organised carefully to not hit each other by their keepers, so long as they are also actively "gardening" what we can see so they never ever get Dyson-d.