This is a subject that has always fascinated me since being a kid, because it's a whole area of research into exta-terrestrial beings that cannot be begun.

It's my personal belief that not only is life out there, but there's very likely to be a ridiculous amount of planets with alien life on. When you look at how many galaxies, stars and planets are potentially out there, the number is staggering. Add to that the fact we're starting to see "Earth-like" planets pretty much at our back door, and the reality that there is some sort of extra-terrestrial life is more than plausible.

There is a commonality, however, to associate aliens with the future. Aliens are nearly always talked about in the context of being 'further down the line' than us. We talk about futuristic probe vehicles, flying saucers, lithe and graceful beings with large eyes and large heads. Many of us can't help but think of aliens as being curious visitors - scientists intent on analysing our race and our kind.

The likely reality is, however, that even if such beings with such technology exist, they would be in a minority. I would find it hard to believe that every alien race was above or beyond us somehow. It stands to reason that if there are aliens, many of them will be technologically inferior to us. In their own 'stone-ages', so to speak.

I have always found this concept amazing. That there is a good chance one day we will be the visitors - the lights in the sky and the eyes in the stars. And that somewhere in this universe there may be other forms of life using simplistic tools, forming their own languages, or beginning their own search for truth and explanation.

Something else I find interesting is the concept of alien ecosystems. I think we quite often brush over the concept of aliens as being one race on another planet. This would almost indefinitely be untrue. Planets that supported life would likely support thousands or millions of different species, ranging from things like the ameoba to creatures the equivalent of the Blue Whale.

I guess I'm trying to make this dicussion manifold, but I'm boiling it down to this. Forget pictures of UFO's, supposed encounters with aliens or any shreds of facts and evidence we have. What are the other aliens in our universe going to be like? Do you have any thoughts on what we might find, or how we might find it? Furthermore, how would we, as a species, go about making contact and forging relations with other lifeforms? Would be probe and abduct and watch silently, as many people believe aliens do to us? Or would we be peaceful, open and communicative, trying our best to develop relationships with these new people?

In other words, lets put the shoe on the other foot. We're now the aliens - what do we do? How do we react? And what do we hope to achieve?

We limit ourselves to our way of thinking, so it is hard to imagine something that doesn't exist.

For instance, we have our senses, and expect alien beings to have eyes for vision, mouth for aural communication etc.

That may not be the case.

They may have entirely foreign 'senses', emotions, physical attributes. Heck, then could be on an entirely different plain of existance to ourselves.

We have to try to think outside the box if we are ever to comprehend what possibly exists in the universe. Then again, the universe could simply be a flea on the back of a dog. We could all be ultra-microscopic, the universe could be part of a bigger entity all together.

There are countless possibilities, and it hurts my brain trying to think of them so i'll leave it there.

Originally posted by corda
In other words, lets put the shoe on the other foot. We're now the aliens - what do we do? How do we react? And what do we hope to achieve?

The best way to answer our questions about our ancestors, would be to study aliens at that point of development.

Good post

I think that we would do something similar to our visitors.

Once we made contact with a less technologically advanced culture we could potentially destroy hundreds of years of future development for them.

I think that they and we need to find their/our place in the Universe by their/ourselves. Once contact is made you eliminate the question 'are we alone' and have a devastating effect on any religions that any culture may practice. Some religions would have to be abandoned or re-written and some may flourish such as alien focused cults, which could result in a huge power shift and if they are anything like us, this shift would not go smoothly.

I think that our culture is in a sink or swim situation, we are on the verge of interplanetary expansion, but also much closer to an environmental catastrophe. I think that the visitors here to see which way we go and maybe they are applying pressure on us to steer away from climate change and toward expansion.

Kinda puts all the abductee's environmental messages into perspective.

Maybe the question should be; what moral right do we have to interfere/interact with an alien culture if they were less advanced than us?
And if we did, why would we?
The implications for that scenario are truly staggering.

If contact was made, either by accident or design, and resulted in the said culture realising all it had learned and developed paled in comparison to the visitors and their wonderous technology, what effect would that have? And if the choice had been made to contact them on a small scale, would we be selective and simply choose a group or nation and single them out as our ambassadors? And if the news broke on this other world, how in God's name could we prepare for the reaction of an entire planet's population?
Would some factions rebel and rise up against the invader whilst others shunned all they knew in favour of our far superior technology?
Surely, either way, we would be taking on a responsibility of the most incredible, far-reaching proportions.

I'm sorry if this reply is full of questions as opposed to reaction and discussion, but it's one heck of a question you've posted corda!

Perhaps, in some way, this thread could help to answer our own concerns as to why "they" haven't simply flown down and parked on the Whitehouse lawn.
If, and I stress if, aliens think the same way we do, maybe these replies are mirroring their own concerns and go some way to explaining why they haven't publicly landed.
How do you choose a representative, from among countless millions, to ready the world for your arrival, one that you can rely on not to use the opportunity to exploit the situation for their own benefit? Can that representative be trusted to do it subtly and slowly, or will they simply beat the rest of the population into acceptance? Because surely such responsibilty, for those elected few, would be a rare and dizzying power handed to them on a plate. And we all know what power does...

Here's another question, this time speculative, to end with: We find a small world teeming with cultures reflecting our own bygone ages. We watch, learn and acrue as much knowledge as possible, hopefully to find some answers to our own past in the process.
The socialogical and anthropological recordings are filling our airwaves on specially commisiond TV stations back home, a home that is starved of something, anything that can alleiviate the grinding reality of our own growing problems. We have pollution; they don't. We have overcrowding; they don't. We have starvation, warfare on a global scale, religeous divides and massive imbalances of power. They don't.
Millions watch as we take the occasional animal for examination, uproot trees and plants to deliver back to an eager, excited scientific community, acquire artifacts from unguarded homes and buildings, replicas of which sell for thousands on eBay. Vicariously, we are living an idealised life through these "aliens".
And then, on a rare live broadcast, the cameras catch sight of...something, something so magical, so alien, that it simply blows our collective minds. And once we've seen it we want it. We want it so badly because this thing will solve a vast proportion of our problems. It is demanded time and again by mobs across our planet. How long could our governments refuse?
And how long would it take before our benevolent attitude becomes something far more sinister?