Zillions of stars exist, ET's could care less about Earth

reply to post by SaturnFX

Fine. I agree that if the Earth was one of only a small handful of civilizations, then we may be worth studying.

However, if the Earth is just one of thousands, then perhaps those alien anthropologists/archaeologists haven't had the time to study us yet, and haven't found us to be "unique" enough to put us near the top of the "which civilizations to study" list.

Originally posted by Beamish
reply to post by Better Mouse Trap

 

Creativity is all we have here

Really? That’s all we’re good at. So, what about (in no particular order)…

Religion
Philosophy
Mythology
Violence
Art
Medicine
Architecture
Agriculture
Exploration
Psychology
Politics
Metallurgy
Geology
Engineering
Invention
Literature
Communication
Sports
Etc…

Now, that may not be an exhaustive list of all our achievements, but taking into consideration that each individual example above can itself be broken down into component parts that will make another list, there’s plenty going on in our world for any curious extraterrestrial to examine and study.

I imagine we’re an extremely interesting race.

I'm a connoisseur of the paranormal and believe in the afterlife, your list becomes infantile if you have my mindset.

Many items on your list ares fanciful exploits of us humans.

I, a human, do not find these exploits exciting... they will not find these things worthy too

reply to post by Beamish


You know
that list you posted is top heavy with creative persuits and some basic science

As far as the science angle...well, I don't know offhand, but am thinking a civilization able to create the structure needed to travel vast distances in a relatively short time (I hate using "FTL" as that implies propulsion) may see our current level of science as quite primitive and our medical procedures to be more akin to torture and poke it with a stick to see if that helps.

I mean, consider our medical ability...we still cut people open and drill holes in their heads...feed people plants, hell, we still saw limbs off of people.

For us, such is the norm and we even entertain our medicines and sciences are advanced...yet for someone a few years down the technological path, such things are barely above stick banging, cave dwelling, and the like.

So ya, all we really will have to share is creativity...our stories, our architectural styles, our philosophies, our entertainment...

Because any race of advanced beings that is interested in how we got the printing press working is probably just some pirates that came across a space ship anyhow and monkey punched the control panels into it working to begin with...in which case, hide the good stuff

Originally posted by Better Mouse Trap
I'm a connoisseur of the paranormal....I, a human, do not find these exploits exciting... they will not find these things worthy too

Who the hell are you? Let me be brutally honest here....no matter how important you think you are...nobody else cares.

Originally posted by Better Mouse Trap
they will not find these things worthy too

And you say this based on what exactly?
Did you become the galactic spokesperson on what is cool and what is made of suck?

Originally posted by Better Mouse Trap
I'm a connoisseur of the paranormal and believe in the afterlife, your list becomes infantile if you have my mindset.

Many items on your list ares fanciful exploits of us humans.

I, a human, do not find these exploits exciting... they will not find these things worthy too

Wait,. So you're a connoisseur of the paranormal and believe in the afterlife, but you don't find philosophy and religion to be interesting?

I think aliens would have some interest in our art, religion, literature, and philosophy, just because it can tell them something about the way we think -- although our art, religion, philosophy, and literature may not be of any additional interest beyond helping to define us.

What I mean is that these things may be helpful if they were studying us anyway, but I don't necessarily think these would be a reason to study us in the first place.

...Then again, perhaps the way we humans view those things is very unique and makes us stand out in a crowd -- or not. Who knows?

Originally posted by Better Mouse Trap
I'm a connoisseur of the paranormal

One more thing....

Does that mean your an expert on unproven things?

Isn't everyone in that case? I am a connoisseur on imaginary creatures and things.
Ask me anything about something unproven and I will give you my expert analysis...I mean, after all, I simply cannot be wrong when discussing something unproven.

Originally posted by WillNiendick
reply to post by Better Mouse Trap

 

But I see what your saying, but there is too much evidence for SOMETHING to be happening. Crops circles with bianary code in them, lights making people vanish in their beds.. implants being inside people..

Way too many things, they are here. As for why they are here, I don't know. Hopefully they help us out of this rut.

Well, I'm sorry that just completely invalidated your opinions in my mind, no offense of course...

But when you cite crop circles as evidence of other worldly beings, that's a problem. Crop circles are man made.
We need to face that reality if we're ver going to get to the truth we all want. You do want the truth right? Then it would help if we didn't focus on things that are meant to deceive.

And the OP actually makes a good point. The earth is really really really small. And we're completely engulfed by dust and gas and god knows what else... no to mention we live on the very outskirts of our galaxy... call it the galactic boonies. Almost impossible to locate I would imagine...

It'd be like trying to find a sand particle in a hurricane. ( you get the picture )

reply to post by Better Mouse Trap

I'm a connoisseur of the paranormal and believe in the afterlife, your list becomes infantile if you have my mindset.

What has that to do with the question at hand? Your interest in the paranormal has no relevance to whether aliens would find us a suitable case for study.

By the way; those “infantile” achievements interact with your life every single day.

If you were implying that they would only be interested in studying species that have managed to include all the phenomenon that we presently class as “paranormal” into scientific canon and have found solid evidence and created repeatable experiments that can verify their existence, then yes, we are not as yet that interesting.

However, as that prerequisite is purely based on speculation and has no grounds in checkable reality, why do you think aliens would not want to study “baser” species?

Are they, in your opinion, elitist or so dutiful to the importance of their own discoveries that all other achievements pale into comparison?

Originally posted by Soylent Green Is People
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Fine. I agree that if the Earth was one of only a small handful of civilizations, then we may be worth studying.

However, if the Earth is just one of thousands, then perhaps those alien anthropologists/archaeologists haven't had the time to study us yet, and haven't found us to be "unique" enough to put us near the top of the "which civilizations to study" list.

edit on 4/20/2011 by Soylent Green Is People because: (no reason given)

thats like saying zoo's are only interesting if there are only like a few zoo's on earth

nope, zoos are plentiful...you can't walk through even a small town without bumping into one..and thats contained...
if you have a neat nest of (put cute animal here) in your backyard, you will probably watch it over time...check it out from a distance day after day, watch little baby whatnots growing up and becoming big whatnots, then having their own little baby whatnots, etc.

life tends to be curious about other life...sentient life especially.

I would expect for us to at the very least be mapped by any species that has achieved interstellar travel, and at the very least, probes and monitors on us...maybe not tons of spaceships filled with aliens observing us like some sort of movie, but even in the most remote areas of our earth where not alot of interesting events are going on, we have monitors.

incidently, an advanced race wouldn't need giant probes...probably something the size of a common housefly spread out all around the world, sending out information to databanks for any interesting change...

-reconsiders swatting the housefly-

I wonder if we take for granted some species of insect that is not what it seems and we are simply too primitive to notice the network...interesting speculation nonetheless.

Originally posted by PhotonEffect
The earth is really really really small. And we're completely engulfed by dust and gas and god knows what else... no to mention we live on the very outskirts of our galaxy... call it the galactic boonies. Almost impossible to locate I would imagine...

Why do I get the impression some of you think of a interstellar civilization = 1 guy with 1 spaceship randomly flying from star to star

in that senario, sure...highly unlikely we will be noticed..

however, consider the probable facts...thousands of unique civilizations in our own galaxy
one single civilization may have millions of crafts over time shooting off in every direction in their sphere of influence

Now, alien race A meets alien race B, and exchange maps, then exchanges with the next race
Suddenly you have billions upon billions of ships flying around checking out planets, throwing down monitors on developing worlds, mining resources and starting new colonys, etc...

That seems far more probable than the one race, one guy, one craft senario many point out.

Lets be honest
Aliens would find us fascinating because we have started making taco's with dorito's shells.

That in itself is a epic achievement of all life throughout the universe.

reply to post by SaturnFX

You know
that list you posted is top heavy with creative persuits and some basic science

Yes that it may be, but I did say it wasn’t exhaustive…

The answers to the OP’s premise are, by nature, purely speculative because we cannot assume that “aliens” will have evolved physically or culturally the same way we have. If “they” are, say highly evolved arachnids, they may well consider us to be well advanced meatsacks. Their culture could be based on the worship of defecating. They may still eat their young – or have their young eat their mothers – and cannot understand why parent and child live together on this planet.

They may find that anathema and it could seriously offend their morals.

They might wish to invade us because of it to “correct” our mistakes and “liberate” us from our overbearing, dictatorial culture…

It’s all speculation.

However, if “they” are the tall, human-looking type we hear about so often, they seem to be able to interact with us easily and willingly, and we are of interest to them.

We could be, if those stories are to be believed, like children to them; our beliefs and practices would be reflective of their early past, and what altruistic, inquisitive race wouldn’t want to see the past living and breathing right in front of them?

We do, after all.