Extra terrestrials: hostile, or friendly? What do YOU think?

[JackWisps]

Golden Dysprosium

The problem comes down to basic word association: when you think of aliens, you automatically think of some fantastic creature, advanced far beyond us that you saw in some movie or t.v show.

well they would have to be advanced far beyond (or at least a few good steps (fuel, food, etc for extended travel)) us in order to survive the travel between solar systems. That or floating around in a large space station like thing with fuel tanks strapped to them (solar power wouldn't work well too far from a star). Their brains/personalities/bodies may not be any more advanced than ours, but their technology almost certainly would be.

Golden Dysprosium

The thing is, every planet had roughly the same starting point in time, so it's unlikely they're any further ahead than us. Hell, look at how many screw ups we've made just with orbiting spacestations, let alone intergalactic travel.

sort of, but not really. saying the universe started 14B years ago (not exact but work with it), there was a 300k year time before stars/galaxies and all could form (or was that just matter... I forget my astonomy course lol), and the stars that did would be pure H/He (maybe some Li). Those stars would likely be large and have quick lives because of it, but they would produce the required elements for life (carbon, iron, calcium, etc). Seeing that a star would need many million years to run its life, in any case, let's give a full billion to the first generation of stars (and whatever I may have forgotten). That is well more than a very large star would need to run its life, but a few cycles may be required for enough higher elements (iron, carbon, etc)

So now it is 13B years ago. Following what we can gather that happened here (on Earth), it would take about 5B years from the solar accretion disk beginning to collapse to sentient life. While it is possible for it to emerge sooner, or later, we know it can be done in that amount of time so it is a good starting point. However, if you look at how far we are into the age of the universe, we are only at 6B years! That is 8B years ago that a species could have potentially reached our stage of technology (give or take a million or even billion years it makes no difference to my point)!

Even if you assume that a civilization were to start at the exact time as ours, it is completely possible they skipped things like the dark ages, or that they worked together better, so less/no wars, which would speed them along even faster. Combine that with the rate of technological change has been growing since we to this stage, then you should realize that is is completely possible for an alien group to be far, far ahead of us technologically, and as much as we screw up we did manage to go from thinking flying was impossible to the moon in under 100 years(~66 actually). It is quite believable that a civilization that focused on it more (we don't any more), and with one of the many potential head starts they could grab on us, finds space travel no real problem any more.

[StandingOnTheMoon]

That Foxy Martin

There is absolutely no evidence for any of the three...which can only mean this is a thread full of worthless speculation.

Oh, I wouldn't go THAT far!!! It's somewhat entertaining.

The obvious and simple (though hardly simplistic) answer is: aliens run the entire gamut of development and hostility/friendliness, given the astronomical numbers involved with the universe. And they do exist (once again, those astronomical numbers).

[oS Y L P Ho]

I think the planet makes such a big s**t about it that any aliens that may be out there are probably turned off to making contact with us out of fear of being attacked with hair dryers and X-Files fanatics before being shoved into test tubes by the governments of the world.

The universe is ******** ENDLESS as far as we know, so it's PLAUSIBLE that, seeing as we have yet to figure out how to explore our entire galaxy, there is other entities out there.

[DarkFairyPrincess200]

its more than just this universe, we are in contact with "aliens" already ^^ many are. there are hostile and their are friendly, the hostile ones are kinda like "pirates" they want only resources n' stuff. why do i know all this? CUZ I DONT WATCH OR LISTEN TO TV! its media and can be controled and blocked
PM me people razz

[The Zodikosis]

Golden Dysprosium

I like this one:

The Zodikosis

This is all, of course, assuming that the life out there is smarter than us. I don't know why everyone assumes that intelligent life in the universe MUST be more advanced than humans. It is very well likely that there is a race of aliens out there that is like us but not as advanced, just as it is likely that there is a race of aliens out there that is more advanced than us but not so much that they can travel faster than light or communicate across such vast distances. This would very well explain why no contact has been made.

The closest planet (that we've found so far) capable of sustaining life is Gliese 581, about 20.5 light-years away in the constellation Libra (one light-year is about 5.9 trillion miles). The diameter of the earth at the equator is 7,926.41 miles

This is the Zodiac speaking...

Yeah, I know about Gliese 581d. I'm rather excited about it, but I hate how we're going to have to drag our feet because we can't get enough funding to even send a probe. It's a very promising planet-- within its star's habitable zone, temperature range is almost identical to Earth's, evaporating hydrogen atmosphere, evidence of oceans. Hell, apparently the only visible difference between Gliese 581d and Earth is that the gravity is multiplied by a factor of 5. Which, don't get me wrong, is a pretty significant difference and will be an obstacle if humans have any plans to ever inhabit the planet, but for life evolving on that planet, the high gravity could produce some interesting evolutionary results.

...that is all.

[Golden Dysprosium]

oS Y L P Ho

I think the planet makes such a big s**t about it that any aliens that may be out there are probably turned off to making contact with us out of fear of being attacked with hair dryers and X-Files fanatics before being shoved into test tubes by the governments of the world.
The universe is ******** ENDLESS as far as we know, so it's PLAUSIBLE that, seeing as we have yet to figure out how to explore our entire galaxy, there is other entities out there.

Given the vastness of the universe, there's certainly something alive out there, but I highly doubt it's what we imagine it to be. The amusing part is that we probably won't be able to communicate with them.

DarkFairyPrincess200

its more than just this universe, we are in contact with "aliens" already ^^ many are. there are hostile and their are friendly, the hostile ones are kinda like "pirates" they want only resources n' stuff. why do i know all this? CUZ I DONT WATCH OR LISTEN TO TV! its media and can be controled and blocked
PM me people razz

That's quite the claim. neutral

[Comrade Texada Wolf]

DarkFairyPrincess200

its more than just this universe, we are in contact with "aliens" already ^^ many are. there are hostile and their are friendly, the hostile ones are kinda like "pirates" they want only resources n' stuff. why do i know all this? CUZ I DONT WATCH OR LISTEN TO TV! its media and can be controled and blocked
PM me people razz

Then why don't the hostile ones come and get the resources

We can't stop them.

[Inferno-bones]

if they come here then obviously they are more advanced than we are. If they are anything lke us whenever we find a people less advanced than us we enslave and/or kill them

[Rex Coelestis]

It depends on the alien.
Just like it probably depends on the human.

I don't know. But I really want to meet an alien.
They must exist. The universe is so vast; We couldn't possibly have it all to ourselves, could we?

[Raa Raa Rasputin]

Golden Dysprosium

oS Y L P Ho

I think the planet makes such a big s**t about it that any aliens that may be out there are probably turned off to making contact with us out of fear of being attacked with hair dryers and X-Files fanatics before being shoved into test tubes by the governments of the world.
The universe is ******** ENDLESS as far as we know, so it's PLAUSIBLE that, seeing as we have yet to figure out how to explore our entire galaxy, there is other entities out there.

Given the vastness of the universe, there's certainly something alive out there, but I highly doubt it's what we imagine it to be. The amusing part is that we probably won't be able to communicate with them.

We probably wouldn't even be able to recognise that they're sentient life forms. They could be anything.

[Duke Hellionsworth]

Considering that there are theoretically no planets in our Galaxy that are capable of sustaining life on their own besides Earth, and the fact that the nearest planet outside our solar system requires light to be "bent" around a massive object because it's such a ridiculous distance away, I doubt it's something we'd have to worry about for quite some time.
Since the idea of faster-than-light travel (excluding tachyons) is physically and logically impossible, there would be no way for an alien race to reach our planet, even if they wanted to. Considering the fact that one would need an infinite energy source to reach such a speed, even if they could get past the mortal physical effects such an act would cause, it would still take them an astronomical amount of time to get here. The task would be such a drain on resources for the traveling party that there would be nothing left of them by the time they entered the Milky Way Galaxy.
Nor could they reach us to communicate through such a vast distance as FTL communication is equivalent to time-travel.
If they did by some miracle or ridiculous feat of hyper-evolved engineering manage to make it here, I'm sure they would be just like us: A race bent on survival. They would need more territory, resources, food sources and a stable environment. Were they technologically advanced enough to get here, I'm sure they would have no trouble wiping us out easily.
I'll offer what may or may not be a troubling thought: What if WE are the most advanced species in the universe??

[Catharia]

Chances are if they were advanced enough to get here from wherever they live, they wouldn't see us as equals. Probably more of a pest species on an otherwise nice planet, they may even eradicate us as a favour to our fellow Terans.

Who knows, we may not be the most intelligent species on this planet.

[Golden Dysprosium]

Duke Hellionsworth

I'll offer what may or may not be a troubling thought: What if WE are the most advanced species in the universe??

*shrug* then good for us. Eventually, we'll find "them" or "they" will find us (I use the " " because there might just be plants or bacteria out there). Then we can worry about it. I suppose it's a better question to ask is how we'd react to them. We've got a lot of high-strung idiots here, clinging to ridiculous ideals and beliefs (racism, religious fundamentalism,supremacy, etc); if they can kill their own kind, imagine how they'll react to an alien.

[Reclusiarch Grimaldus]

In response to OP (so that no one gets confused.)

Inherent alien hostility might be a possibility, but I think the only thing that would come of that would be a refusal to trade, to share information, or even an entire lack of communication (and, you know, maybe the death of a few ambassadors. ninja ) I think that space wars would be horribly inefficient and costly; I don't see it happening.

[superdebz]

The way i see it is. That if they were hostile. Then they coulda blow the s**t outta us years ago. Were pretty much defencless other then like HARRP and starwars