Odds are Aliens are not here, page 2

reply to post by majestictwo

Post have suggested that they evolve differently than us – very true. In which case they may evolved to be more susceptible to destroying themselves than we are.

You're hitting upon a point here, but there's not enough follow-through. People often think that Alien life would be so completely different than life on Earth that we can't really make speculations on their nature, behavior, or even physical shape. To a degree, this is true. Alien life could very well quite different than life on Earth. However... it'll also probably be far more like Earth based life than many people would suspect. For instance...

We're finding out that out of all the basic elements capable of creating life, carbon poses the least amount of problems or hurdles to the process of abiogenesis. The primordial components needed for the formation of carbon based life are some of the most common in the universe. We're even finding rich reserves of organic compounds in comets way out in the Oort Cloud at the fringes of our solar system. The universe is literally saturated with them. So the chances of us finding life in the universe that is carbon based is already extraordinarily high.

Now, let's assume the pessimistic view that life can only form on Earth-Like planets. Ignore moons and planets such as Europa which are thought to be able to form and cultivate life, but do not have similar environments. Evolution is NOT a random process. It is deterministic. If we have a planet that supports the formation of life that's highly similar to Earth, that means that (even with random mutation) the environmental selectors are essentially the same. Random mutation on an alien world would face the same selection process as random mutation did on Earth. What was an evolutionary success here, would likely be an evolutionary success there. So we would expect to see such traits emerge as jaws, bi-lateral symmetry, photo/chemosynthesis, spinal columns, etc. If this is the case, then you will see a natural ecology emerging which resembles Earth's rather closely.

DNA/RNA configurations cannot be completely random. They are simply chemistry following some very basic rules resulting in self-assembly into a folding molecule chain. Further, evolution doesn't so much create completely new adaptations - but changes structures of existing adaptations. Hair follicles and feathers are examples of this as both are an adaptation of scales from a primeval reptilian ancestor. So these chemical arrangements of DNA/RNA, following the same rules in a similar environment, may well produce very similar creatures. We may find on alien worlds kingdoms, orders, and phyla of animals and plants which very similar to what we see on Earth. Mammal like creatures, Avian like creatures, Sauropod like creatures. Perhaps not very imaginative, but in my opinion very likely.

Also take this into consideration, that as you look all throughout the the animal kingdom that multiple animals - even with widely divergent ancestry, have evolved similar traits - not due to common ancestory, but due to a common environment. Insects, Birds, and Mammals have all developed adaptations for flight. This doesn't mean that Bees, Sparrows, and Bats all share a recent common ancestor that developed flight - but that each of their separate common ancestors shared a similar environment to which flight was advantageous, a substantial atmosphere

Now, with all of the above in mind, consider an alien species which is evolving on a similar planet, in a similar ecosystem, under similar circumstances. It's not much of a stretch of logic to conclude that similar behavior patters and social interactions we see in animals here on Earth would also develop there. If an intelligent species were to arise in such an environment, it would be likely that it's social behaviors would be at least rooted in the basic behaviors of it's ancestors - much like humans and apes often share similar behavior patterns and social structures.

The point of all this is... that intelligent life in the universe may well be a lot more similar to us that we would often like to fantasize. Aliens who evolved from a territorial species would likely harbor territorial tendencies, just like us, which could be a point of conflict and a potential pitfall for their species.