Aliens may exist

[Trip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking

LONDON (AFP) – Aliens may exist but mankind should avoid contact with them as the consequences could be devastating, British scientist Stephen Hawking warned Sunday.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist in a new television series, according to British media reports.

The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in the series "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking" on the Discovery Channel, which began airing in the United States on Sunday.

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational.

"The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like."

Glowing squid-like creatures, herds of herbivores that can hang onto a cliff face and bright yellow predators that kill their prey with stinging tails are among the creatures that stalk the scientist's fantastical cosmos.

Mankind has already made a number of attempts to contact extraterrestrial civilisations.

In 2008, American space agency NASA beamed the Beatles song "Across the Universe" into deep space to send a message of peace to any alien that happens to be in the region of Polaris -- also known as the North Star -- in 2439.

But the history of humanity's efforts to contact aliens stretches back some years.

The US probes Pioneer 10 and 11 were launched in 1972 and 1973 bearing plaques of a naked man and woman and symbols seeking to convey the positions of the Earth and the Sun.

Voyager 1 and 2, launched in 1977, each carry a gold-plated copper phonogram disk with recordings of sounds and images on Earth.

I love all the hippy comments assured that if Aliens could travel this far, they would be peaceful because they are so smart. :lol:

[Particle Man]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking



I love all the hippy comments assured that if Aliens could travel this far, they would be peaceful because they are so smart. :lol:

Srsly :lol:

Hell, if we could travel that far, we'd probably try to rock the shit out of anyone we found.

[Dave]

looks like someone finally saw independance day and wants to stay relevant.

[Homeslice]

This just gives more support to the idiots in government who believe that if contact does occur it should be kept secret.

[Particle Man]

This just gives more support to the idiots in government who believe that if contact does occur it should be kept secret.

..

[defector]

The programmes depict an imagined universe featuring alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," warned Hawking.


Sounds like humans to me.

[KSGregman]

Sounds like humans to me.


Very much so.... :/

[Adeptus_Minor]

Sounds like humans to me.

Expanding to fill all available space and consuming all resources in the process?
Yeah, pretty much.
:wink:

[Homeslice]

Not to mention justifying the killing & eating of "lesser" species because they do not possess all our capabilities.

[Dave]

Not to mention justifying the killing & eating of "lesser" species because they do not possess all our capabilities.

waaaaah

[goof2]

Not to mention justifying the killing & eating of "lesser" species because they do not possess all our capabilities.

Not true, I do it because they are delicious.

[Trip]

Not true, I do it because they are delicious.

so true

[Homeslice]

I eat them too, just saying how it's funny how we think we're so superior and that it would be so wrong for us to be killed by a more advanced race. Like as if just because we have thoughts and emotions, it would be unethical for aliens to kill us.

What if they possess something beyond thoughts and emotions that we lack, and therefore they see nothing wrong with killing us, just like we see nothing wrong with killing animals?

[Adeptus_Minor]

What if they possess something beyond thoughts and emotions that we lack, and therefore they see nothing wrong with killing us, just like we see nothing wrong with killing animals?

All that really matters is how well they can argue their case on the internet.
If they can make it sound logical enough and cite sufficient references, we'll probably just let them eat us.

[Trip]

I eat them too, just saying how it's funny how we think we're so superior and that it would be so wrong for us to be killed by a more advanced race. Like as if just because we have thoughts and emotions, it would be unethical for aliens to kill us.

What if they possess something beyond thoughts and emotions that we lack, and therefore they see nothing wrong with killing us, just like we see nothing wrong with killing animals?

I think you are right and that's what Hawking was getting after, but the stupid hippies think they would be evolved enough to not want to take our shit. I am sure there are cultures that might not destroy us, but I am also sure that there are some that wouldn't think twice about eradicating us to take our planet.

[Dave]

I eat them too, just saying how it's funny how we think we're so superior and that it would be so wrong for us to be killed by a more advanced race. Like as if just because we have thoughts and emotions, it would be unethical for aliens to kill us.

What if they possess something beyond thoughts and emotions that we lack, and therefore they see nothing wrong with killing us, just like we see nothing wrong with killing animals?

i have no issues with their hypothetical harvesting of humans as foodstuffs just like have no issues with hypothetically giving them nuclear suntans in response.

[Papa_Complex]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100425/sc_afp/scienceastronomyextraterrestrialhawking

I love all the hippy comments assured that if Aliens could travel this far, they would be peaceful because they are so smart. :lol:

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

[Trip]

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

Food? Shear boredom? Slave labor?

[Papa_Complex]

Food? Shear boredom? Slave labor?

Unnecessary. Possibly. Unnecessary.

[Trip]

Unnecessary. Possibly. Unnecessary.

Come to hunt us to see if we are most dangerous game?

[Homeslice]

Experimentation, just like we use mice and chimps.

[Papa_Complex]

Come to hunt us to see if we are most dangerous game?

You've seen Predator too many times.

[Trip]

You've seen Predator too many times.

They really like reese's pieces

[azoomm]

Food? Shear boredom? Slave labor?

Kind of why kids play with a magnifying lens and ant hill.... I think that is the most likely answer.

[Papa_Complex]

I remember reading a short story, perhaps 30 years ago, regarding the idea of alien invasion. It seems that we humans somehow missed the elementary technology for interstellar flight along the way.

The aliens, bent on universal domination, landed their wooden spaceships on Earth, dropped the gang planks, and stormed out to open fire with their cannons and matchlocks against humans with recoilless rifles, M-16s. , and tanks.

[Trip]

I remember reading a short story, perhaps 30 years ago, regarding the idea of alien invasion. It seems that we humans somehow missed the elementary technology for interstellar flight along the way.

The aliens, bent on universal domination, landed their wooden spaceships on Earth, dropped the gang planks, and stormed out to open fire with their cannons and matchlocks against humans with recoilless rifles, M-16s. , and tanks.

Pirate Aliens, YARRRRR!!!

[Papa_Complex]

Pirate Aliens, YARRRRR!!!

Lizard and feline pirate aliens, IIRC. I'll have to dig up the book.

[Captain Morgan]

Hawking just described every alien sci-fi movie ever made. What's his fucking point?

[Papa_Complex]

Fear mongering?

[Dave]

Hawking just described every alien sci-fi movie ever made. What's his fucking point?

i think it was that we should give his grant money to john ringo

[defector]

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

The same reason humans climb Everest?

[Papa_Complex]

The same reason humans climb Everest?

Jupiter is Everest. Earth is the local kiddie ski hill.

[defector]

Jupiter is Everest. Earth is the local kiddie ski hill.Start small - this is a motorcycle forum dammit!

[Homeslice]

I don't think many gas giants contain water, nor do they have any metals until you go thousands of miles down into them.

[Papa_Complex]

I don't think many gas giants contain water, nor do they have any metals until you go thousands of miles down into them.

Asteroids for metals. Gas giants for methane, which is CH4, or mine the Ooort Cloud for methane ice/carbon dioxide. Solar, fission, and fusion for power. You never really need to make planet-fall.

[Trip]

Asteroids for metals. Gas giants for methane, which is CH4, or mine the Ooort Cloud for methane ice. Solar, fission, and fusion for power. You never really need to make planet-fall.

Food and water?

[Papa_Complex]

Food and water?

Synthesized. Hell, we can do it now with our current technology.

[Trip]

Synthesized. Hell, we can do it now with our current technology.

You know it's not as good as wild food. I don't fish small wild trout vs large stock trout for no reason at all.

[Papa_Complex]

You know it's not as good as wild food. I don't fish small wild trout vs large stock trout for no reason at all.

What are kids eating today and what sort of relation does it have to real food? That happened over a couple of generations. What would people be able to stomach after 10 generations in space?

[Trip]

What are kids eating today and what sort of relation does it have to real food? That happened over a couple of generations. What would people be able to stomach after 10 generations in space?

That doesn't mean they don't want to indulge every now and then. A little wild human might be tasty.

[Papa_Complex]

That doesn't mean they don't want to indulge every now and then. A little wild human might be tasty.

... or might be poison.

[Smittie61984]

Pirate Aliens, YARRRRR!!!

Better make some friends with Ninja Aliens.

Or we could just sick our illegal aliens on them. They'll wake up to have their jobs taken and ray guns jacked.

[goof2]

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

I am transferring current human tendencies on to an alien species but humans do dangerous and stupid stuff all the time for no practical reason. We don't "need" to do quite a lot of the things that NASA does. The countries that are talking about going back to the moon certainly don't "need" to do what NASA already did 40 years ago. The assumption that aliens would solely base their actions on "need", especially when humans do not posses the same inclination, is at least a little presumptuous.

[udman]

Any alien ship that gets close enough to Earth to start a Twitter account will move on and leave us alone in short order...

[Amorok]

Any alien race that came to Earth would likely observe us first before attempting contact, and the first thing that would strike them would be man's inhumanity to man. Leaving bleeding people on the street, the overwhelming violence in our media, and the history of war that goes back farther than the history of writing information down. Literally, killing each other was important to us before any method of transferring knowledge that didn't involve talking was.

This will result in one of two outcomes. Either said hypothetical extraterrestrial race will steer clear of us, probably slapping an intergalactic biohazard label on our solar system (could this be why we haven't met any aliens yet?) or the other alternative, they preemptively wipe us out utterly to protect themselves. While I think either is likely, unless you use a method of killing us that affects us and only us biologically, it would be hard to beat humanity in a conflict. The one thing we do better than anything else is kill things. The fastest developmental curve for any technology in any human culture is that of weaponry, and almost every scientific advance we've ever made has been turned into some method of killing. I don't have an opinion about it either way, but in any kind of conflict other than a brutal, effective and overwhelming surprise decimation I think humanity will eventually have an edge.

[Trip]

Any alien race that came to Earth would likely observe us first before attempting contact, and the first thing that would strike them would be man's inhumanity to man. Leaving bleeding people on the street, the overwhelming violence in our media, and the history of war that goes back farther than the history of writing information down. Literally, killing each other was important to us before any method of transferring knowledge that didn't involve talking was.

This will result in one of two outcomes. Either said hypothetical extraterrestrial race will steer clear of us, probably slapping an intergalactic biohazard label on our solar system (could this be why we haven't met any aliens yet?) or the other alternative, they preemptively wipe us out utterly to protect themselves. While I think either is likely, unless you use a method of killing us that affects us and only us biologically, it would be hard to beat humanity in a conflict. The one thing we do better than anything else is kill things. The fastest developmental curve for any technology in any human culture is that of weaponry, and almost every scientific advance we've ever made has been turned into some method of killing. I don't have an opinion about it either way, but in any kind of conflict other than a brutal, effective and overwhelming surprise decimation I think humanity will eventually have an edge.

What if they are more sadistic than us? Hey, look a new breed of alien pets. I want one daddy!

[Papa_Complex]

I am transferring current human tendencies on to an alien species but humans do dangerous and stupid stuff all the time for no practical reason. We don't "need" to do quite a lot of the things that NASA does. The countries that are talking about going back to the moon certainly don't "need" to do what NASA already did 40 years ago. The assumption that aliens would solely base their actions on "need", especially when humans do not posses the same inclination, is at least a little presumptuous.

I don't think that they would necessarily do EVERYTHING based on need, but life in space would tend to create a certain desire to be economical in action. You wouldn't waste resources, nor would you take actions that wouldn't yield SOME concrete benefit. And if the concrete benefit of hunting humans with a napalm projector is better morale, then maybe they'd do it. I tend to think not though.

[Papa_Complex]

Any alien race that came to Earth would likely observe us first before attempting contact, and the first thing that would strike them would be man's inhumanity to man. Leaving bleeding people on the street, the overwhelming violence in our media, and the history of war that goes back farther than the history of writing information down. Literally, killing each other was important to us before any method of transferring knowledge that didn't involve talking was.

This will result in one of two outcomes. Either said hypothetical extraterrestrial race will steer clear of us, probably slapping an intergalactic biohazard label on our solar system (could this be why we haven't met any aliens yet?) or the other alternative, they preemptively wipe us out utterly to protect themselves. While I think either is likely, unless you use a method of killing us that affects us and only us biologically, it would be hard to beat humanity in a conflict. The one thing we do better than anything else is kill things. The fastest developmental curve for any technology in any human culture is that of weaponry, and almost every scientific advance we've ever made has been turned into some method of killing. I don't have an opinion about it either way, but in any kind of conflict other than a brutal, effective and overwhelming surprise decimation I think humanity will eventually have an edge.

Gort. Klaatu barada nikto.

[Trip]

What if we are unable to help save someone else's home world in the future and they can back to our past and destroy us?

[Papa_Complex]

Then they're vindictive little bitches, because at least we tried.

[Homeslice]

I don't think that they would necessarily do EVERYTHING based on need, but life in space would tend to create a certain desire to be economical in action. You wouldn't waste resources, nor would you take actions that wouldn't yield SOME concrete benefit. And if the concrete benefit of hunting humans with a napalm projector is better morale, then maybe they'd do it. I tend to think not though.

This assumes they are forced to spend a lot of time in space. If on the other hand they are capable of "folding" space to get wherever they want to go, then they'd have the luxury of going places just for fun.

[Particle Man]

Gort. Klaatu barada nikto.

CLASSIC movie. (the first one, not the dumb remake).

[askmrjesus]

What would people be able to stomach after 10 generations in space?

Brussell Sprouts.

JC

[Papa_Complex]

This assumes they are forced to spend a lot of time in space. If on the other hand they are capable of "folding" space to get wherever they want to go, then they'd have the luxury of going places just for fun.

If folding space was an option we'd likely have tourists from Polaris hunting wolves in Alaska, with Palin, on gravity skiffs.

CLASSIC movie. (the first one, not the dumb remake).

I've got the DVD. One of my favourite movies and probably the first anti-nuke movie ever made.

Brussell Sprouts.

JC

Nothing could make Brussell Sprouts palatable.

.... except cheese. A LOT of cheese.

[Trip]

If folding space was an option we'd likely have tourists from Polaris hunting wolves in Alaska, with Palin, on gravity skiffs

I just want a fucking speeder bike!

http://www.starwarsmodels.com/images/boxes/speederbike.jpg

[Papa_Complex]

I just want a fucking speeder bike!

"They promised us jet packs." - Red Foreman

[Dave]

What if they are more sadistic than us? Hey, look a new breed of alien pets. I want one daddy!

Eldar...hell yeah

[shmike]

All that really matters is how well they can argue their case on the internet.
If they can make it sound logical enough and cite sufficient references, we'll probably just let them eat us.

REAL references though.

No Wikipedia or ET-biased bullshit.

You better believe I'll be checking Snopes too.