Off world intelligence.. the spark that ignites?

One thing that i thought might worth chewing the cud over is the following...

How much does the eclipse of Sun by our Moon have, in the rise of knowledge on Earth? By that i mean we have this incredible cosmic coincidence where, our moon happens to be 400 times smaller than the sun and in exactly the right position, in relation to Earth to provide perfect Eclipses. Not only that, but we have managed to learn so much about our own star because of it's exact "fit". Solar prominences etc. I wonder how much of a catalyst for mathematics and later optics, this coincidence has been? Given it has been visible to every civilisation since the dawn of man it has provided an external focus for knowledge that is, in human terms, infinite in its' longevity.

Not only that, it as a celestial phenomenon, provides a focus for human endeavour that looks towards the skies and outer space itself. . It has been a stimulus that has prodded us along a path that has led, indirectly to our modern technological world.

Given that it makes an interesting thought as to, how other intelligences might respond to their natural environmental conditions. Imagine, if you will, another world where intelligent life has developed. This world however, is a world of mostly mountainous areas and oceans. There is very little usable flat land and the most fertile areas are all in those areas that are mountainous. .Because of this, the wheel as a technology has very little scope for development, in purely practical terms. In actual fact this intelligence developed balloons for transport at the same time they invented the water wheel. In fact, by a time say comparable to our medieval period socially, magnetic levitation had been discovered and developed as a practical technology along with the commensurate understanding and use of electricity. Now, the adoption and understanding of electricity/magnetism has been the true difference between us as modern humans, and our ancestors?

It could be wholly possible for a society, socially whose development is in the same stage of as the Romans were 2000 years ago. to have flying machines and that, they could well be traversing space before say, slavery, has been outlawed. In other words, we tend to imbue any possible star travelers with a highly developed and cohesive social structure., many years in advance of ours. Maybe the truth is that, local conditions dictate the rise of technology even more than social cohesion and planning?

Just as our moon, eclipsing the Sun, has pushed us, maybe far quicker than we might have moved otherwise, local conditions elsewhere may make other modes of transport an imperative rather than a pipe dream. When all said and done, the wheel is actually a technological cul-de-sac that has a finite performance envelop that we have spent countless money and effort on. Effort and money that, in the end, will one day, most likely viewed as a quaint anachronism of our age. It wouldn't surprise me to find that, future generations refer to the history up till now and for the foreseeable future, as the "Wheel-Age" as we refer to the Stone -Age and Bronze-Age etc. I can just imagine some future school kids laughing at the idea and equally horrified by it that, we almost denuded this world of resources in the, almost pathological pursuance, of the wheel. "You mean they really use to drag resources from out of the ground and from all over the world to make these totally inefficient machines they called cars? "


It is a rather sobering thought that we might bump into a society that is 300 years ahead of us in terms of technology, yet maybe a millennium behind us in terms of social awareness?

That said, on a world where their equivalent of Vercingetrix beat Julius Caesar and their Celts overtook their Romans as the dominant force for modelling social structures, they could be, 100s of years ahead of us socially, but behind us technologically.

Intelligence/Technology/Social Awareness, is probably a whole lot more complex an equation than we tend to assume it might be?

reply to post by FireMoon


I tend to agree that social development of intelligent lifeforms elsewhere does not necessarily have to coincide with their technological development, the possibilities and combinations are endless, really! Good idea for a thread.

There is a scientific term to describe the impact of nature and the environment shaping culutres. Nature vs Nurture. So with your thoughts on Moons, Eclipses, Suns, and other cellestial phenomenon, it could be very true. Maybe there is a term to describe the impact of celestial bodies on a civilization.

But also a planet could just have an abundant source of elements far more powerful, exotic, and unknown to ours, so instead of creating the wheel or fire, they create a space ship or star gate, hypothetically speaking of course. Also a race might have a moon that is very close to the planet, and they want to get to it.

The species could have a different train of thought than humans, and traveling through space could be their "love" for example. And our "love" here on Earth could be alien to them.

Therefore things that puzzle us greatly, we either think Gods or beigns from the Stars.

What I'm saying and I think what you're saying an Alien race could be more interested to get off the planet than like ours to stay on the planet and praise it.

Because Ancient Civilizations all praised things on Earth. Some praised celestial bodies. Would they not want to create some way to transport them to their Gods?

So an Alien Race wanting to get off their planet earlier than ours, is definitely a high possibility. We didn't leave the Planet til when, the 60's? The 70's?

Were we preoccupied with life on Earth?

I fully agree that an Alien Race might find leaving their planet more important than establishing society and religion for example, due to the fact that their Alien environment would shape them to do so.

Very possible.

This thread is very thought provoking. Thank you for the good read.

very interesting, and i bet they had the brains not to wreck their planet like we are and its only realy taken 100 years of industreal pollution to wreck ours we might be more inteligent but i think were prity dumb to,

Just wanted to mention that the moon is moving away from us,so in some distant time there won't be a perfect eclipse anymore.

I would like to think that the perfection and beauty of an Earth solar eclipse is renowned in galactic quarters as one of the gems of the universe.

reply to post by game over man


Im glad i read your post first because i was going to say something similar but you've pretty much covered it.

Thought that was worth a star.

Great thread by the way. Well thought out. I likes it.

reply to post by KrypticCriminal


Thank you! The OP made a great topic! Skeptics and dis-info agents, or maybe not disinfo agents but those quick to jump to conclusions to about 95% of youtube videos, ahem, when it should be about 5% of sightings, are avoiding the heck out of this thread, because they cannot think like we do.

Originally posted by silversurfer6161
Just wanted to mention that the moon is moving away from us,so in some distant time there won't be a perfect eclipse anymore.

That IS true but consider this -

What are the chances it is the correct distance NOW when we are at the "height" (relative term here ) of our knowledge and intelligence??

Fire Moon~

What a great thread!
and very well done!

Very thought provoking for sure!

Honestly,
i found it to be one of the best short reads Ive seen on the internet in a good while!

While reading it,
I felt like i could very well be reading it from a scientific magazine article or something.

In fact, I think many scientific journals/magazines could really benefit from articles such as this.

Great job! Thank you!