Aliens

[its-exit]

Call me crazy...

But i really believe that there are more advanced aliens out there.... and they probably look at us and other species of the universe and categorise us the same way we categorise animals on our planet....

Humans love the egotistical notion that we are the most advanced creature. Probably because it's true of earth.... by I highly doubt we are in the known universe.

I'm willing to bet we are acctually very primitive and even more so in the eyes of aliens.

They probably laugh in pity at our species for being so destructive and reckless.

Think about it.

[Thirst]

Originally Posted by its-exit

Humans love the egotistical notion that we are the most advanced creature.

Yeah. Its ironic though, becuase "advancement" is the offspring of time itself that holds us as a species prisoner to a linear route of discovery. Its fascinating the way technology and understanding advances over time, instead of it being a constant, or something unrelated to time entirely.

Originally Posted by its-exit

They (ed:aliens) probably laugh in pity at our species for being so destructive and reckless.

But wouldnt that be saying they're akin to humans themselves, bucause humor, empathy and recklessness are human characteristics?
Destruction also is a concept we exclusively view as negative, because it hinders our survival. Construction by contrast leads to insulation from destruction, and a more firm stronghold on existance. Maybe the atomic behavior of these aliens doesnt bind them to destruction/destruction, life/death, advancement/simplification. In which case, their existance would hold no parallels with ours at all, and could not be plotted on the same line as the one we sit on, apparently so far ahead of the other lifeforms we share this planet with.

[its-exit]

Originally Posted by Thirst

Yeah. Its ironic though, becuase "advancement" is the offspring of time itself that holds us as a species prisoner to a linear route of discovery. Its fascinating the way technology and understanding advances over time, instead of it being a constant, or something unrelated to time entirely.



But wouldnt that be saying they're akin to humans themselves, bucause humor, empathy and recklessness are human characteristics?
Destruction also is a concept we exclusively view as negative, because it hinders our survival. Construction by contrast leads to insulation from destruction, and a more firm stronghold on existance. Maybe the atomic behavior of these aliens doesnt bind them to destruction/destruction, life/death, advancement/simplification. In which case, their existance would hold no parallels with ours at all, and could not be plotted on the same line as the one we sit on, apparently so far ahead of the other lifeforms we share this planet with.

Yea, and it occured to me as I was writing it that an alien species might not even really have those characteristics.

However, when I look around at animals on this planet, you can see that the more intelligent an animal is... the more wide range of emotions they usually have. Dolphins for example display jelousy (a rather irrational emotion). I believe it's more likely that Aliens are probably very similar to us as far as emotions go.

After all...more complex organisms (animals) run on emotions (fear) to survive... so why wouldn't aliens?

Don't get me wrong though. Aliens could be completely alien to us. lol


What if we as human beings could read each others minds? That would change our society and the world would be completely differnt. So yes aliens could be completely differnt.... or very much like us.

Eigther way.... I'd be willing to bet we are observed in a judgemental way.

[Thirst]

Originally Posted by its-exit

However, when I look around at animals on this planet, you can see that the more intelligent an animal is... the more wide range of emotions they usually have. Dolphins for example display jelousy (a rather irrational emotion). I believe it's more likely that Aliens are probably very similar to us as far as emotions go.

I didnt know Dolphins were capable of jelousy

Originally Posted by its-exit

After all...more complex organisms (animals) run on emotions (fear) to survive

Ishkur explains fear nicely in this post (#7):
http://forums.di.fm/the-chill-room/musics-true-purpose-72418/

I'd say fear is more instinct than emotion in any animal, but I don't know where the line is drawn between the two.

[PhineasFreak]

Originally Posted by Thirst

I'd say fear is more instinct than emotion in any animal, but I don't know where the line is drawn between the two.

that same chain fo thoughts went through my head reading this earlier - fear definitely seems to be of an evolved instinct for self preservation, but then surely love is an emotion to help procreation or jealousy to help ensure it's your genes get passed on - survival of the fittest etc...

there seems to be no line between instinct and emotion, just a hyooooge grey area - but there is definitely more to being sentient than just a bunch of chemicals flowing round our bodies - somehow the way in which our brains interpret the signals triggered by these chemicals released by instinct results in a more advanced response.

at least, it seems that way...

[Thirst]

Originally Posted by PhineasFreak

there seems to be no line between instinct and emotion, just a hyooooge grey area - but there is definitely more to being sentient than just a bunch of chemicals flowing round our bodies - somehow the way in which our brains interpret the signals triggered by these chemicals released by instinct results in a more advanced response.

Its all about interpretation. Perhaps animals feel the same spectrum of "emotions" as us, and its only our nature of catagorising and quantifying everything that has lead to the illusion of these chemical reactions being something higher.
its a case of the old frustrating irony:

"If the brain was simple enough for us to understand, we would be too simple to understand it." - Oscar Wilde

Originally Posted by PhineasFreak

at least, it seems that way...

Isnt that just the snag with everything...No backbone of knowledge to root our discoveries and beliefs in. Everything "seems" a certain way, nothing is fact in the true sense of the term. If only we had something, no matter how small a fragment of information, which we knew for certain was "set in stone"...

[PhineasFreak]

oooh - i like that Oscar Wilde quote - very apt indeed!

i suspect that we do feel some degree of complexity more than some other animals do - our brains seem to take the basic chemical stimuli and run them through a neural network more complex then anything else known - surely it's not unlikely that we feel something deeper and more special than just base instincts.

part of the reason i say this is because when i have fooled with my neurotransmitters too much in the past - drug induced over production or re-uptake inhibition for example, there have been many times when i have experienced whole new levels of emotion it makes you wonder if the way we feel when under the influence might be the equivalent of what a less advanced animal would find our day-to-day experience like.

no wonder some people think they are communicating with aliens when they take shrooms, dmt, acid or other similar drugs...

[robejaegs]

Just in the vastness of our own galaxy to think that we're the only intelligent life seems to be rather selfish.

If we are the only ones,the human race better get its act together cause there is know way we'll even come close to lasting a fraction the time some species(currently among us) have already been here and will more than likely out live us.

[its-exit]

Originally Posted by Thirst

I didnt know Dolphins were capable of jelousy

I'd say fear is more instinct than emotion in any animal, but I don't know where the line is drawn between the two.

Dolphin's have been known to get jelous when watching 2 humans having sex.

I can also tell you I've had dogs who get jelous of each other. I think animals are looked at as stupid when they are more aware and smarter than we think.

They might not have written language and words but they do have body language. There are also trees in africa who release a chemical into the air to warn other nearby trees that there are Giraffes grazing so that they release a toxin so not to be eaten.

So if TREES can communicate why the hell can't animals?

We underestimate all other lifeforms on this planet.

[skippyluvs]

Thanks for tackling this early gh0zt! I was about to tear his sources up pretty bad. Lol, a geocities website, tell me that's a joke...

SK

Originally Posted by gh0zt

Um well none of that information has anything to do with the Drake's equation which at the most conservative numbers still say N (number of civilizations we could have contact with) was 10,000 in just our own galaxy. Drake himself thinks the number is much greater now.

That website offers no sources for any of the information it talks about. Internet doesn't always equal truth you know.

[skippyluvs]

I personally feel that even the most conservative results via the Drake equation show that the possibility of sentient life being extremely extremely high.

But honestly folks, if you really don't think there is life outside (sentient or non) our planet I'd like to challenge you amidst your own personal time.

Here is the challenge:
Go to a place or plan a trip far far away from city lights (desert, forest, sea, etc) and look at our lovely galaxy in its entirety. And after you've done that come back to this board and tell me/many of us that you don't think that life has got to be out there. Oh and do it with some of that fundamentalist vigor please!

With that said, yes I believe aliens exist out there, somewhere.
I believe the odds far outweigh the uncertainties so much, such to make my conclusion concrete and without a scope of doubt.

SK

[wanderer]

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[Thirst]

Yeah, totally.