Post
by Elrond » Sat Feb 26, 2005 11:30 pm
If they are more advanced than us, my thought is that they would not see us as a threat but instead would want to study us just as we study lesser lifeforms on Earth (tigers, sharks, lions, bears, bugs, bacteria, etc). I think that way because if I was a commander of a space vessel and saw a planet with life on it, I would be so thrilled - just encountering new life would make my day. I'd be talking to the aliens on the planet and I'd be like - "hey, lucky you guys were here - until I found you dudes, there was nothin' out there!" And they'd say, "k?" They would look at each other like, "what the hell's he talkin' about!" And then I would introduce some of the customs of Earth to them - like beer and whiskey, football and nachos - and Star Trek! LOL! I would like to think that by the end of the day, all of us aliens and humans would be sitting around, learning each others' languages and watching Star Trek while having a coo' beer and eating some nachos! LOL!
At least, that's how I'd like to think. It would be terrible to think that most life out there more advanced than us would advance to the point that they don't have any emotions or have value for life.
I don't think extraterrestrial life has visited this planet before either - it could have, but the odds are against it, given the pure distances involved in space travel. Take this for instance: you start a quest with the goal to find new life and new civilizations. You start from a spacedock orbitting Earth. Your maximum speed is Warp 9 (what, about 1200 times the speed of light). Now, you set your ship on a course in a straight line, pointed at a random spot of light in the sky. You go and go and go and go and go - at 1200 times the speed of light. You travel 1200 light years in one year - there, you've gotten out to near the Orion Nebula's distance (I think). That's not too far - seeing as this galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter - and this is after a year - assuming your engines can sustain Warp 9 for a year without crystalline regeneration and a spacedock visit.
Have you found any life? Better question: how many systems have you passed by that had planets around them? Perhaps 5, maybe 10. How many of these planets had life - impossible to say, but probably none of them - most likely, they are J-Class planets that are perhaps 8 times the diameter and mass of Jupiter, either that or small tiny rocky worlds with little atmospheres because their star's luminal intensity is too high. An even better question - how many G2-type stars like the Sun have you seen in this 1200 light year journey? Probably 1 or 2. How many of those have planets? Perhaps 1 or none. You see, most stars are higher intensity than our sun - anything like that would have stellar debris filling the system - either that or the solar radiation would be tremendous. Keep this in mind: if our sun decreased or increased its intensity by just 0.25 percent, most life on Earth would be destroyed - if it did so by a factor of 1 percent, all life would be destroyed - from land to the abyss of the sea. And that factors out any other possible life.
Now, it could be possible to have a planet surrounding a bright luminous star that may have life on it - but the distance must be right - and the planet's place in the system must give the planet stable environmental conditions and just the right conditions for there to be a climate and weather patterns. The size of the planet must be just right as well, and a satellite such as our moon is would not hurt either - it would keep the planet's orbit stable. Also, a life-supporting planet in the wrong part of the galaxy would mean that it would not support life to begin with. Nearer the center of the galaxy, radiation is intense - gamma ray bursts (GRB's) are very likely to occur before any life has the chance to advance. So this leaves only 1/3 of the way from the center of the galaxy and beyond. But that still leaves 150 billion stars!!!
Now, I am not saying there isn't life out there - there must be. But to find it, we can't just send one ship to find it - even if we had ships that could go warp 9, we would only be able to scan a certain distance while we are at warp and would only cover an infinitesimal portion of the galaxy within a year or even a thousand years. We would need to have maybe, I'd say, a hundred ships that are sent out in multiple directions. Then our hopes of finding life within a 20 to 50 year mission is very likely. But space is vast - and it seems like we could just step out onto the galactic plane and find it at any point of life, but then you have to scan that entire area - and doing so takes a very long time. This is what having three physical dimensions causes us - a big headache in finding life. We move to one star, then we have to search everywhere within that volume of space.
We will find life one day if humanity survives the next thousand years or so. Either they will find us or we will find it - but they will likely find us first, since 99% of all intelligent life out there (assuming it exists) is most likely more advanced than us since they had more time to advance.
However, just recently, an orbiting satellite detected a gamma ray burst that probably took out any life on any planet within the angle of its burst. That is quite disturbing - of course, there may have been no planets, at least with life on them, within that burst range - but there could have been - that may have subtracted one or two races from this galaxy. At this time somewhere in the universe (which has 100's of billions of galaxies), I'm sure there's an interstellar or intergalactic war occuring somewhere or a first contact mission going forward. It's amazing how much there is out there - I'd say humanity has such a long way to go that we are not meant to remain here on this world. Mankind was meant to explore - and space is exploration at its greatest! It is a journey without end and I think I speak for all of us when I say, hopefully I will get a chance to see space someday for myself!
) on humans? Do they have moral boundaries?
,I like to have a serious and open minded debate and discussion on this subject and perhaps contrast that with how ST interperts and precieves Alien life, culture and technology.
) WHEN - not if - the time of first contact comes. That is the last thing we would want to show. In any conflict with a alien intelligence with technologies (100s , 1000s, perhaps millions of years ahead of us) that can allow them to travel through such vast distances, time and even dimensions... we WILL lose. 
) , big eyes , skinny willowy bodies, short in stature, telepathic in some cases and sheath the need for any uniform or clothing. Perhaps they may have look alot like us millions of years ago. Human looking beings that has evolved over hundreds perhaps thousands of years. Who knows? This could outrage creationists , but...modern man has evolved and may still continue to evolved to point where we might end up looking alot like these greys. One can never know about what mother nature may have in store on the evolutionary destiny of every living species.