Billions of habital planets in Milky Way

[jmorgan]

Derek Smith said:

S
Is there intelligent life on this planet?

Yes, but I am only visiting.....




Sorry, the old ones are the worst.

This is a tad scary, does not sound like much to many but there is trouble at mill over this.

[ali4390]

Question: Why when ever the idea of us meeting life from elsewhere, are we the weak ones who would be at the mercy of others?

I am assuming it is because if we ever come into contact with 'aliens' it would be because they have found us and this would suggest they are far superior in terms of technological advancement??

[Eric Mc]

ali4390 said:

Question: Why when ever the idea of us meeting life from elsewhere, are we the weak ones who would be at the mercy of others?

I am assuming it is because if we ever come into contact with 'aliens' it would be because they have found us and this would suggest they are far superior in terms of technological advancement??

Not sure if what you are saying is true - unless you are talking about Hollywood.

[MartG]

ali4390 said:

Question: Why when ever the idea of us meeting life from elsewhere, are we the weak ones who would be at the mercy of others?

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

[ali4390]

Eric Mc said:

Not sure if what you are saying is true - unless you are talking about Hollywood.

I know they say it in Hollywood but I've read similar things on several forums, this one included.

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

So kind of what I said in the rest of my post?

[Eric Mc]

ali4390 said:

Eric Mc said:

Not sure if what you are saying is true - unless you are talking about Hollywood.

I know they say it in Hollywood but I've read similar things on several forums, this one included.

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

So kind of what I said in the rest of my post?

Well, if you read any serious literature about looking for life on other worlds the common assumption is that it WON'T be as developed as here and that intelligence (as we judge it) is relatively rare.

[spats]

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

I have a thought on this. You dont need to have a gun to travel in space do you? So just because they arrive in a interstella space craft one day, doesnt mean they will have the means to start war with us.

They may also be physically weaker than us, or be of a substance that wouldnt stand up to a one on one fight with a human. Finally, I doubt an aggressive race would find time to get into deep space, as they would be too busy fighting each other to get more than 200km from their home planet. (Sound familiar? )

I hope one day we get a chance to discover we arent alone in the universe, but I doubt that will be in my lifetime.

[SystemParanoia]

spats said:

So just because they arrive in a interstella space craft one day, doesnt mean they will have the means to start war with us.

yes they do.. they just bring a fking asteroid with them, travelling at a % of C all they have to do is aim correctly and were all dead.. no need for any war at all

spats said:

They may also be physically weaker than us, or be of a substance that wouldnt stand up to a one on one fight with a human. Finally, I doubt an aggressive race would find time to get into deep space, as they would be too busy fighting each other to get more than 200km from their home planet. (Sound familiar? )

as above it wouldent matter... and maybe they've wiped out many sentient races by now, why trust an alien that may or may not want to kill you when you can just kill them with a first srike and not have to worry any more... i know what i would do.

besides any advanced race that finds us has the option to either wipe us out/be our new gods/or accidentally wipe us out like we were merely an ant trying to cross a busy motorway. ... do you feel sorry for every bug you've killed driving down the motorway ?

Edited by SystemParanoia on Wednesday 18th April 16:36

[BarnatosGhost]

spats said:

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

I have a thought on this. You dont need to have a gun to travel in space do you? So just because they arrive in a interstella space craft one day, doesnt mean they will have the means to start war with us.

That is pretty wonky logic if you ask me.

It's like the Scots laughing at our shiny nancy-boy tunics and waving their big sticks at us. Before we shot them with our muskets.

You don't get to travel interstella (sic) space without first understanding and harnessing everything we currently do, and then understanding and harnessing an awful lot more.

Brandishing a hellfire missile at an arriving alien force will not be very effective.

[ali4390]

Eric Mc said:

Well, if you read any serious literature about looking for life on other worlds the common assumption is that it WON'T be as developed as here and that intelligence (as we judge it) is relatively rare.

Have you got any examples of this serious literature? I would be quite interested in reading around the subject.

[spats]

BarnatosGhost said:

That is pretty wonky logic if you ask me.

It's like the Scots laughing at our shiny nancy-boy tunics and waving their big sticks at us. Before we shot them with our muskets.

You don't get to travel interstella (sic) space without first understanding and harnessing everything we currently do, and then understanding and harnessing an awful lot more.

Brandishing a hellfire missile at an arriving alien force will not be very effective.

Its only wonky to us becuase as a race we've spent all our existance fighting each other.

If we didnt waste our time building bigger better weapons and had never thought about them in the first place, would we have looked to the stars earlier?

To be fair it is about as far fetched thinking as us still being here when they do actually arrive. We would have more then likely wiped ourselves out before they even get close!

[jmorgan]

The only thing you can say for certain is you don't know what they will do when they get here. If they can and if they exist. Too many people applying our experiences to the subject, they (if made it to thinking things) grew up differently or the sam or in some wild way we have not thought about. One of things I find funny about the aliens and gubbmints in cahoots in certain places on the web. If I was to follow that thinking then it would not be a puny human gubbmint keeping it under wraps, it would be me, Lord Zog, on the throne of the World and woe betide anyone who tries to steal all my KFC.

[MartG]

spats said:

I have a thought on this. You dont need to have a gun to travel in space do you? So just because they arrive in a interstella space craft one day, doesnt mean they will have the means to start war with us.

Would you be willing to bet the survival of the entire human species on this ? When it comes to taking a risk with the whole Earth being destroyed, I'm for paranoia every time

[Eric Mc]

ali4390 said:

Eric Mc said:

Well, if you read any serious literature about looking for life on other worlds the common assumption is that it WON'T be as developed as here and that intelligence (as we judge it) is relatively rare.

Have you got any examples of this serious literature? I would be quite interested in reading around the subject.

I have a couple of books in my personal library that cover such issues but they are all a bit out of date now (30 plus years old). Nowadays, I tend to keep up to date through reading astronomy magazines such as "The Sky at Night" or "Astronomy Now" which often covers SETI and searchs for "non-intelligent" life. Indeed, it tends to be covered every month these days as the discoveries of more earth-like planets orbiting other stars come in fairly frequently.

[SystemParanoia]

MartG said:

spats said:

I have a thought on this. You dont need to have a gun to travel in space do you? So just because they arrive in a interstella space craft one day, doesnt mean they will have the means to start war with us.

Would you be willing to bet the survival of the entire human species on this ? When it comes to taking a risk with the whole Earth being destroyed, I'm for paranoia every time

my thoughts exactly.. the galaxy may very well be a very dangerous place.. but we dont know that yet! and anyone within 50 or so lightyears of us already knows exactly where we are and thanks to the sci-fi genre of way back when, may presume how we will treat aliens..

hell, they may have already mobilised a sterilisation force to remove the infection of humanity from the galaxy

[Derek Smith]

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

So you are suggesting that we have the technology to fake the Moon landings? That would have been much more difficult than actualy landing there. If we're that clever then we've got nothing to fear from aliens.

[SystemParanoia]

Derek Smith said:

If we're that clever then we've got nothing to fear from aliens.

nope... just their billion tonne Asteroid/s traveling at x% c.

[MartG]

Derek Smith said:

MartG said:

Maybe because they are the ones who have developed the technology to travel across interstellar distances, whereas we currently can't get more than 200Km from Earth ?

So you are suggesting that we have the technology to fake the Moon landings? That would have been much more difficult than actualy landing there. If we're that clever then we've got nothing to fear from aliens.

Highighted a particular word which may help you

[Justin Cyder]

Can we get over the 200km typo & move on?

[SystemParanoia]

isnt geo-sync orbit 26,000km ... not 200km