How far behind are we to ET?

In whatever field — power production, space travel, communications, politics, weapons, spirituality, social-political order, etc…

What's your estimate of time or effort it takes to reach par with these EBEs (extraterrestrial biological entities)?

For example, in interstellar space travel, I think humans are so tremendously limited that it may take some EVOLUTIONARY CHANGES in the human species just to tap into the new science. I think there are energies, dimensions and "physics" that our current mind cannot even start to comprehend. Science today can only go so far. We end up in a political rut, arguing theory over theory. It simply takes a much bigger and smarter brain.

There are complexities in "wormholes and star gates" that we simply cannot grasp right now. Future scientists may regard Newton and Einstein as just curious simpletons.

What do you think?

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


I think we're right at the brink, tops 2025 but by then I expect self aware artificial intelligence too.

I agree, I think the human mind has a physical limitation just like propeller driven planes are physically limited in their top speeds.our brains need to physically change if we hope to break the sound barrier because we can`t do it with these old prop driven brains.

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


Which kind of ET's? I'm sure there are just as many different type of civilizations and species as there are stars in the Universe(s).

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


umm okay FormerSkeptic I'll bite. A hundred years ago very few people could have grasped where we are today and so very few can grasp where we will be in the future. The ones who do are the ones who are the pacemakers, who break new ground, who take that next step, they are not like you or me but they are definitely human and not ETs, they just seem to be to us because their IQs are off the map. I would go back to being a skeptic if I were you.

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


There is the possibillity that an ET civilization is a million years older than ours...

Take in consideration what we have acomplished in .. lets say a thousend years... no, just take a hundred years.

We do not know anything about anything... most stuff we know is all theory. So, we are still guessing about what we would like to know. With other words... complicated stuff works but we are not really sure why it works.

If we leave the conspiracy angle of this topic to the side, and take everything at face value...

We will be lucky if we leave the solar system in the next 100 or more years. The economic, political, and social structure and mindset of our world is so seriously screwed up, that to even think we could be a type 1 civilization is a joke. But the problem isn't a limitation of the human mind, it's our shortsightedness, and dysfunctional thinking.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein

Hi Skept, an excellent question and one I have pondered for a long time. I use the following as a baseline and have used this analogy many times.... our universe is a small box, in a huge warehouse, in a massive complex, in a big city, in a Texas size state, in a large country, on a big planet, in a huge solar system, in a big universe, in a small box, in a huge warehouse......And as far as the begining of time, as a determining factor, we estimate in billions of years, but who knows where we are on this scale, who's to say we are not at 8975578quintillion years, give a million or two? When was early time? Remember "long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away? this is just the simple fact that ultimately answers your question....they are eons ahead, and there are others eons ahead of them. They had to really work at it just to understand how our thought process, or lack thereof, works, we are the ants.S&F

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


I totally agree with your assessments. I also see in our not too distant future, nanotechnology playing a major role in our advancement into space and possibly other realms. In my opinion, it's human nature, as it stands today, that is our biggest roadblock.

Des

Depends on which ET civilization your want to compare. Some are fighters and are held back like us and some are more peaceful letting them build faster. But it doesn't really matter at some point there is nothing more to improve on and by then you are either peaceful or have killed yourself off. We will never bridge the gaps between systems by building bombs. The ET I had contact with could communicate telepathically and could read your mind if the thought was a verbal one ie if you type to someone else on a phone it is like speaking to them as if you are talking.

Not sure how far advanced they are never cared to
Ask but telepathy and "brain syncing" seems to be the norm for most and we are getting close to that ourselves.

So some could be a hundred or so years more advanced (stuck on a single planet like us still) and some could be millions (star bridging and solar energy absorption) I don't think time really matter once you advance that far. The ET said it was on earth to die because it was its "home" weather it was a physical home or a spiritual one who knows. I personally think we are on the lower end of advancement since they seem to find earth an easy target to get to and from as in our defenses can't detect them yet on large scales or at all and when we can their visits might slow. We are a vicious race that shoots firsts and hides the body later and they know this. They don't need any more of their crafts shot at or downed.

Originally posted by Klassified
...
We will be lucky if we leave the solar system in the next 100 or more years. The economic, political, and social structure and mindset of our world is so seriously screwed up...

This is why I think a larger, smarter, better brain would be needed. There has to be something extra beyond what we have now.

For example, maybe the greater mental capacity comes with rudimentary telepathy. And so communications are naturally improved across vast distances. Hatred and fear of the unknown becomes trivial. We just bypass all the quagmire that have plagued civilizations of Homo Sapiens.

Then maybe scientific advances and morality gets the free avenues to grow unencumbered. And so on and so forth.

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


Our brains are not holding us back. We can hold as much information as we need and what we can't remember we can store on computers and bring it up on a screen in an instant. Now just put a computer screen on your retna and hook the computer to thought process and bam we could have a smaller brain and be just as smart. I think what holds us back is what we are learning now. For instance in schools we learn some stupid stuff that could be replaced with more meaningful information and not clog our thought process with crap. You don't need to make the computer faster just make the programs use less resources.

Heed the words of the philosopher Lennon, who wrote, "Nothin' you can do that can't be done." Any intellectual achievement of other societies can eventually be matched by human society if we last tong enough.

reply to post by xpoq47


Agreed, our limits are all in our minds, and as Des said, throttled by human nature. We have evolved to use a very small ammount of our brain mass, and Skept has the size arguement, but, not long ago, a thumb drive had small capacties, will not be long before a 1TB thumb drive will be available, same with our minds, same size, more capacity, this phase of evolution and enlightenment is the main focus of contact and the directive of "ET". Like a high rate sine wave, the curve will be the beginning of an evolution some will not take well.

I think in terms of space travel we're pretty far behind, either that or they're holding back on technology. (They as in the government) They can probably travel through space without losing much time (if any at all) or else it wouldn't even be worth it to be buzzing over our planet. Their crafts probably counter acceleration instantly from the way they maneuver in some sightings. Hopefully within 500-700 years we can learn something from them.

reply to post by teslahowitzer


I agree we have no where else to evolve except for our thinking but with today's media and education I feel our species AS A WHOLE is getting dumber. People can't do basic math any more or even spell words properly and they are college educated. In the past we had to really think about things to get through school and to get an education. Now all you have to do is google answers and copy stuff out of books. We are not moving forward with the evolution of our brain and for the most part we are devolving. As technology advances our minds must go with it but you walk a fine line between using a computer and the computer using you.

Originally posted by marbles87
Depends on which ET civilization your want to compare. Some are fighters and are held back like us and some are more peaceful letting them build faster. But it doesn't really matter at some point there is nothing more to improve on and by then you are either peaceful or have killed yourself off. We will never bridge the gaps between systems by building bombs. The ET I had contact with could communicate telepathically and could read your mind if the thought was a verbal one ie if you type to someone else on a phone it is like speaking to them as if you are talking.

Not sure how far advanced they are never cared to
Ask but telepathy and "brain syncing" seems to be the norm for most and we are getting close to that ourselves.

So some could be a hundred or so years more advanced (stuck on a single planet like us still) and some could be millions (star bridging and solar energy absorption) I don't think time really matter once you advance that far. The ET said it was on earth to die because it was its "home" weather it was a physical home or a spiritual one who knows. I personally think we are on the lower end of advancement since they seem to find earth an easy target to get to and from as in our defenses can't detect them yet on large scales or at all and when we can their visits might slow. We are a vicious race that shoots firsts and hides the body later and they know this. They don't need any more of their crafts shot at or downed.

I'm thinking a few hundred years is not enough.

Granted, our recent history is an unprecedented curve in advancement for a hundred years. So the next hundred seems completely wild and chock full of possible impossibilities. But just like the stock market, the past is not a reliable indicator of the future. Maybe we're in a "human bubble" of sorts like many socio-political theorists are saying.

As for fighter or peaceful type ETs and how advanced ahead to compare, it may have everything to do with built-in environmental factors. I think there's a threshold to at least communicate with them. So it's first a conciliation of social and political problems for us at home, coupled with a higher morality for coexistence, then implementing the science as if our survival depends on it. Do we need competition? Or can we just have broadly accepted aspirations? Even the very next advanced ET may be tens of thousands of human years ahead in evolution, as it may take that many iterations to get it right.

I can't help but think physiological change is a basic requirement — sort of like a stock market correction. Maybe we just bio-engineer ourselves. Maybe the secret society is already doing it.

Originally posted by marbles87
reply to post by FormerSkeptic

 

Our brains are not holding us back. We can hold as much information as we need and what we can't remember we can store on computers and bring it up on a screen in an instant. Now just put a computer screen on your retna and hook the computer to thought process and bam we could have a smaller brain and be just as smart. I think what holds us back is what we are learning now. For instance in schools we learn some stupid stuff that could be replaced with more meaningful information and not clog our thought process with crap. You don't need to make the computer faster just make the programs use less resources.

If I may reiterate -
It is not that we don not posses the knowledge, resources or the capability to star venture.
The fundamentals were excercised long ago by a fellow of the name of Nikola Tesla
(someone you should read up on FormerSkeptic) and others after him have carried on his legacy.

The problem lies upon the greed of Nations to willfully rape the lands and each other instead of
being one with all mankind for the betterment of humanity and mother Earth.

It will happen, we WILL get there - in the distant future, but it won't be by the help of Governments.
It will be by a privitized source such as the likes of Burt Rutan and Richard Branson.

Tesla's technology will be coupled with nano research and interfaced with computer technology,
advanced fibre optics and universal constilational GPS.

I will be a privitized effort within the next 30 years.
I just pray it is for the good of mankind!!!

As far as "How far are we behind the ET's" ?
Read up on the Sumerians and you will get a better understanding.

reply to post by impaired


I'm with you on the ETs, I just couldn't take that analogy seriously...

I'm sure there are just as many different type of civilizations and species as there are stars in the Universe(s).

That is most probably a mathematically mathematical improbability, especially if you are talking about civilizations. To disprove it we just need to reach the next star system but it is a very improbable thing. There are even types of stars that may not even be viable to any life to evolve or colonize or have any habitable planets (even extending the concept of habitable to extreme diverse life forms).

reply to post by FormerSkeptic


All of our problems that are solved with wars are of our own doing. There isn't an intellegent being that would be on a planet and look up at the stars and not think "where did I come from and am I alone?" even thousands of years ago we had dreams of space travel. Peaceful or vicious space travel is a common goal. Now If we really thought about it we would know that the only way we as humans could ever get to another solar system or even another planet is to work as a planet and unless the planet works as a whole it is impossible. How could we ever get to mars if the moment we land a shuttle on it and then start building defenses so other countries don't shoot missiles at the base on mars? We are defeating ourselves. I honestly think its a perfect fail safe for
Space . If you can't work as a planet you don't deserve to inhabit another. now even if we inhabit mars as an aggressive species then what would it take to leave the solar system? Most likely the destruction of the habitable planets in our own? We need to start building things so that we can run TO things like other planets and not FROM things like ourselves. Look at what we waste in defense and this is protection against our own species. Could the Earth even provide us the resources we need to get man out of the solar system? Who knows. ET is watching so that when TsHF with our species they can take the humans they know have the best shot of not making the same mistakes. As I like to say ETs are looking for MODERN HUMANS and not MANKIND. those of us who can see beyond ourselves will be the saving grace for our species.