posted on Mar, 16 2005 @ 04:24 AM
We can't make too many hard claims, except that there are infinite possibilities of life forms (structure and function) in this universe. Taking
into account one of our greatest scientific theories, evolution, species from other planets will have adapted to their local environment via natural
selection and pressure from their habitats. The diversity is great. Look at life on Earth - their are literally millions of forms. In this way, we
could encounter some very scary looking creatures, like giant preying mantuses, or a huge ball of skin with eyes the size of the World Trade Center.
The imagination can only touch upon what "actually" exists out there. Earth alone has produced some amazing life forms, namely, dinosaurs.
One constant here on Earth, shared by all life forms, is that they are all made of organic matter. Some are vertebrates others invertebrates. But we
can't say for sure that all other life forms out there fit in the organic matter category - that is what we are limited to: our meager understanding
of the universe. Perhaps some highly evolved organisms exist in completely different forms, and even in other dimensions and thus space-time
continuims. In that way, we don't have a chance of detecting them. The Aliens that resemble us in some ways, like the Greys coming to Earth are
perhaps not that evolved when compared to other life forms, like those not made of traditional organic tissue with a verterbrae.
I did a thesis on theories of reality and, although there are problems with saying that there are things out there we don't know about and can't, it
still holds some weight. Specifically, to illustrate the point, a spider and a human are sitting in a room. The spider says that he likes girls that
have x, y, and z. The human doesn't understand what x, y, and z are and tells the spider he likes a, b, and c. The spider responds in like fashion.
What is clear is that each lacks the perceptual tools to interpret the world as one another does. The point is that, not only do we need to learn
much more about the universe (science), we are limited by the perceptual tools that we have been afforded by nature. Perhaps that per sey is what
really makes us primitive at this point in time - that, with our best efforts, we can't get there until our bodies evolve more. Accepting this, it
is easy to accept that we may not be able to percieve highly evolved intelligent life forms existing in forms totally unknown to us.
At least we have the capacity to aknowledge our limitations and we have the imaginative power to analyse such things in depth.