PLEASE forgive the useless post, but...
ROFL, OMFG, HAS ANYONE EVEN PLAYED SPORE
i have the game, and this is starting to sound too much like the cheezy gameplay of spore, please pardon this useless post but i feel that it is very relevant to scrutinize the rationality of the standard of a life form.
ROFL, OMFG, HAS ANYONE EVEN PLAYED SPORE
i have the game, and this is starting to sound too much like the cheezy gameplay of spore, please pardon this useless post but i feel that it is very relevant to scrutinize the rationality of the standard of a life form.
SuicideDo, the Brewtal Drunken Immortal.
Originally Posted by Elkrazar
To be fair, this connotes that the necessary technology to translate from 'Earthling' to 'Quixoan' (I dunno, random keystrokes, we'll pretend that's how we'd pronounce their name) is a prerequisite for intergalactic travel. It doesn't take into account that their scientists might not have considered, "Hey, we might not be completely alone out here, or at least so far removed that it's gonna be a long time before we meet other species out there. How about we work on this pressing problem before we take care of universal translations."
Of course, an advanced culture's scientists might not be so generalized, and there might be a specialist somewhere who went, "I have done it! I can translate any language into our own and vice-versa...all we need is to probe the backside of the species in question!"
Okay, that's facetious, but still...the entire thing is hard to wrap my head around.
Also, who is Stephen Hawking to say that aliens who find us will have the same colonial mindset that the Portuguese, French, Spanish, British, and Germans had? Perhaps they've already wrapped their mind around the idea of the culture shock of meeting another intelligent SPECIES, though less advanced, and have some sort of protocol to deal with it?
I actually disagree with him on that point as well.
I think it's reasonable to assume that any aliens that could visit us will be not only technologically advanced, but advanced socially. Moreover, I think it's improbable that a species which can traverse such great distances would be very hard-pressed for resources, especially ones which Earth just happens to have in a large vicinity (read: i don't think they would have any reason to be hostile).
The worst i expect from such species is abducting some humans and human artifacts for data collection.
Originally Posted by Odlov
I actually disagree with him on that point as well.
I think it's reasonable to assume that any aliens that could visit us will be not only technologically advanced, but advanced socially. Moreover, I think it's improbable that a species which can traverse such great distances would be hard-pressed for resources, especially ones which Earth just happens to have in a large vicinity (read: i don't think they would have any reason to be hostile).
The worst i expect from such species is abducting some humans and human artifacts for data collection.
Uh-oh! But isn't space a resource? We're falling into the trap of assuming that the precedent Dyson set was correct, and that by the time a species would have enough energy to be able to transport its explorers over vast amounts of space in acceptable time, that they would have enough space to hold all of its population. We're also assuming that socially advanced is in our terms: that they wouldn't take our resources because they have enough and it should be good enough for them, that they wouldn't destroy us for being in the way, or just simply like a kid with a magnifying glass does ants.
With all this speculation, we have no way of safely assuming anything: we can only make guesses based on our own precedents, which may or may not be correct.
"Well, I don't want to leave you alone. I want you to get mad!"
