Extraterrestrial Technology, could we ever understand it?

a reply to: andy06shake

As to us receiving "some direct help down here". If you were an alien intelligence, with the capability to cross the vast distances between the stars, or broach the dimensional barriers between the planes of existence would you really do anything other than study our civilization in its current state? Personally i imagine it would be like trying to communicate with ants.

Your bordering on "and that's all I can say about that"

I have a self imposed boarder when it comes to the true nature of "Aliens". It has less to do with talking with ants, and more to do with talking to ourselves.

The tech you speak of, yes, is not for our form, our station in life. No use arguing the point. I suspect that "Singularity", a AI, has already been achieved, in a human form. I fear the "AI" will be heartless (Soulless) Correct me if I'm wrong...

a reply to: All Seeing Eye

Lets just say any AI we do manage to create of a benevolent nature probably wont be to impressed with what its creators have done thus far, especially so regarding our treatment of not only one another but the very environment that sustains us.

As to it being heartless? Any emotions we manage to bestow on the thing will be alien to us in the extreme but at the end of the day if it only has our best interests at heart then it will be immensely more beneficial to humanity than our present form of self serving shortsighted governments.

Once we bring about an artificial intelligence that's superior to us mere Humans we have pretty much served our evolutionary purpose.

a reply to: uloveme

Depends on the level of advancement of the alien race. Maybe yes.

We are now in the Biotech phase of our humanity.
There is no reason an advanced civilization would
not head down the Bio ship route.

We can now store data in bacterial DNA with replicating
redundancy. We have organic computing.
We have organic lighting. We have organic
polymers that come from bacteria.

Why put your waste products in a metal space
capsule and drop it in the atmosphere to burn up.

Why send materials into space when you could
grow a ship.

A truly advanced race of intelligent beings would
be buzzing around the Galaxy in a Bio ship. Self
healing, self sustainable. No more throwing
your poop out the window to burn up.

We could reverse engineer that tech.

Peace

originally posted by: TucsonOne
a reply to: uloveme

Depends on the level of advancement of the alien race. Maybe yes.

We are now in the Biotech phase of our humanity.
There is no reason an advanced civilization would
not head down the Bio ship route.

We can now store data in bacterial DNA with replicating
redundancy. We have organic computing.
We have organic lighting. We have organic
polymers that come from bacteria.

Why put your waste products in a metal space
capsule and drop it in the atmosphere to burn up.

Why send materials into space when you could
grow a ship.

A truly advanced race of intelligent beings would
be buzzing around the Galaxy in a Bio ship. Self
healing, self sustainable. No more throwing
your poop out the window to burn up.

We could reverse engineer that tech.

Peace

Welcome, to Spaceship, Earth.........

a reply to: uloveme

I dunno....If they're super intelligent Extraterrestrials or Multidimensional who have been checking us out for a while, they probably have a pretty good grasp of how those of us who use tech operate and how to make their technology accessible to our little Human Planet.

I mean, folks picked up on those Smartphones and Tablets pretty fast, didn't they? I mean, yeah most of it is just point touch, kinda elementary, but it's accessible to the majority. I suppose the mare "advanced" tools are in the hands of Scientists and Mathematicians and Computer Gurus.

There are so many wonderful examples of technologies over the course of humanity, from primitive simple tools like chipping stone and tying spearheads, to pulleys, levers and so forth...and chronologically, we hit some pretty nice strides during several key points of Early Civilizations all over the Globe.

Some archaeologists are still mystified over the skill and craftsmanship of certain stone temples.

I mean, Human Beings are pretty smart....visually oriented primarily....show them the basic idea and provide a tool they can implement with a five finger thumb dominant appendage and TADA....we're in business!

I think we'll all be ok.
I mean, we've made it this far.

Also, Hyper-Intelligent ET's/Ed's?MD's aren't gonna let us get anywhere near some of their tools for darn good reason. Mainly because we're still cosmologically immature and while there may be SOME individuals on the Planet capable of using said Technologies wisely and for higher benefits, there is no way in the Great Infinite these Higher Beings would give a proverbial firecracker to a Cosmic Two Year Old Homosapien Species.

Sorry for the ramble.
Thinking out loud again.

Thanks for reading all that.
I'll shut up now.

a reply to: All Seeing Eye

Not my point "We" the human race, have finally started to look
towards nature for answers. Not exotic metals and alloys, nature
will provide the technology. We are at its infancy, we don't
need batteries in a cell phone anymore (think PEM and distilled water).

Now think about a electric eel, where do they put the batteries.

Bombardier Beetle , chemical propulsion.
news.mit.edu...

Mollusk shells - Optically clear and tough as nails.
news.mit.edu...

There are a few TED talks about the shift to looking at nature for answers.

The only reason the human race makes metals and alloys and plastics
is that we as a Race like to Destroy things and throw them away.

That's not feasible on a spacecraft , not when ever trip is a long haul.

Peace

a reply to: glend

Thanks for the reply, sorry this is a bit late, but I liked what you had to say, and I agree 100%, the capability to travel beyond the stars and the speed of light is (at the moment) impossible. And that ins't just because I'm not optimistic or something, and I'm certainly no astrophysicist but something happens when you attempt to go past, the speed of light, or when you get close to the speed that increases your weight exponentially. That is a horrible attempt at explaining it, but basically I think you or anyone would understand if they knew what I was talking about, but it was made by Albert Einstein and several other things he worked out also makes me think its impossible to ever achieve the speed of light, or past it. You are right about the energy that would be required, but what a lot of people don't talk about is the science that says if you are going the speed of light that means you have to be light itself. That's kind of a cool idea to 'transform' into light or somehow understand it, in order to go the speed of light. But Those all are huge hurdles and there isn't any BS about how difficult or impossible to even imagine how we would get past a single one of those obstacles, nonetheless all of them.

I totally agree about the Radio waves as well, I just hate that they are out there to even begin with because I like listening instead of making noise, I'm always a tactician so maybe that's just how I feel. I think Star Trek even made an episode based on something that could be related, where you only have two choices to make, either yes or no, or in this case either send out signals or listening for signals that might've been sent and able to be picked up. I choose to play it safe because we have no clue what could be out there. Perhaps an intergalactic war and we stumble upon it, wouldn't THAT be bad? I'm probably just paranoid, I really am afraid of stuff in space that can obliterate the entire solar system in a millisecond.

a reply to: uloveme

Nearly all FTL travel solutions seem to require and infinite amount of energy to function never mind the material and construction problems associated with producing a vehicle that could sustains such velocity. We simply do not posses the technologies and construction processes to build such a craft.

The Alcubierre drive option seems to offer a measure of hope regarding FTL travel but again may require some form of meta-material and exotic matter to function effectively.

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: uloveme

Nearly all FTL travel solutions seem to require and infinite amount of energy to function never mind the material and construction problems associated with producing a vehicle that could sustains such velocity. We simply do not posses the technologies and construction processes to build such a craft.

The Alcubierre drive option seems to offer a measure of hope regarding FTL travel but again may require some form of meta-material and exotic matter to function effectively.

en.wikipedia.org...

A magnetic shield --- surrounding a starship --- should protect the interstellar craft from Einstein's proposed effects of the speed of light barrier and meteors from up to a certain diameter or size.

a reply to: Erno86

So what if the incoming meteor is not magnetic by nature or above the certain diameter that the magnetic shield can deflect? Considering your traveling above or at least at a significant percentage of the speed of light its not like there would be much time to maneuver out the way, or if you could i don't imagine it would bode very well for any crew or cargo that may be along for the ride. And its not only incoming asteroids you have to deal with, to be honest we have no idea as to the problems we would have to overcome with regards to the dangers we would face while traveling at such velocity and at such great distances between the stars.

So unless we somehow manage build the thing out of a substance resembling Adamantium, and that can repair itself at will. Then somehow invent a form of inertial dampening field so any occupants and/or cargo can survive the acceleration effects and maneuvers associated with such a journey, i don't really hold out much hope any time this century.

We just don't have the materials available to us yet to build these things never mind a working understanding of the dangers associated with such a journey. Or, and this being the key factor, even a viable propulsion method.