Yesterday night there was the premiere of the new TV series of Stephen Hawking called "Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking". I must say it was probably the best series Stephen Hawking has done so far. But this post is not about the documentaries he does, is about discussing a little bit about aliens and Phil Plait's recently posted "In which I disagree with Stephen Hawking". In his post he discusses Stephen Hawking's opinions with more opinions.
I have to say that even thou Stephen Hawking might be the smartest cookie in the globe today, it seems Phil Plait is very skeptic about his opinions and stood up to be the first contender against hawking's point of view of aliens. After I read his post I was kind of skeptical myself as well, I must say, and therefore I had to post my opinion in his blog posting this.
"To Bad Astronomer, I think that we cannot know how the aliens will look like, or what are their intentions. Just imagine ourselves as the aliens traveling through other galaxies to explore new worlds. What would our intentions be? I mean really, we haven't have the time to really think it through, we haven't been in outer the milkyway so we can't really tell what the aliens might do because we think like humans who just been to the "moon" and we just think what the aliens can possibly do, but not what humans possibly might do if we are able some day to do interstellar travel. In a logical point of view, the human rationale is only queerer than we can predict so just imagine how queerer an alien species might think logically.
We can assume that aliens might send robots to take our resources or just simply think that they were so intelligent that destroyed themselves and that's why we don't see any E.Ts visiting earth.
I think that whatever race who develops interstellar flight it doesn't mean is most likely to be doomed. It can mean progress if we take a look int he optimistic way. There can be many possible reasons for an alien to take our resources the same way there can be many possible reasons the aliens didn't make it to earth. There can't be a single reason of why we cannot think in some possible reasons to be doomed or at least some possible reason to be unique.
"To Bad Astronomer, I think that we cannot know how the aliens will look like, or what are their intentions. Just imagine ourselves as the aliens traveling through other galaxies to explore new worlds. What would our intentions be? I mean really, we haven't have the time to really think it through, we haven't been in outer the milkyway so we can't really tell what the aliens might do because we think like humans who just been to the "moon" and we just think what the aliens can possibly do, but not what humans possibly might do if we are able some day to do interstellar travel. In a logical point of view, the human rationale is only queerer than we can predict so just imagine how queerer an alien species might think logically.
We can assume that aliens might send robots to take our resources or just simply think that they were so intelligent that destroyed themselves and that's why we don't see any E.Ts visiting earth.
I think that whatever race who develops interstellar flight it doesn't mean is most likely to be doomed. It can mean progress if we take a look int he optimistic way. There can be many possible reasons for an alien to take our resources the same way there can be many possible reasons the aliens didn't make it to earth. There can't be a single reason of why we cannot think in some possible reasons to be doomed or at least some possible reason to be unique.
At the end of the day it makes no difference, everything continues forward. Life is just life where you put it and questions are just questions seeking for a logical answer. In my opinion I think is better to be prepare for any possible threat and at the same time workout a way to be prepare for a peaceful alien visitation. There are plans for everything the same way there are ideas for the unknown but we need to realize that not all that we know about logical way of thinking is completely accurate when it comes to E.T visiting earth."
I was very skeptical after what the Bad Astronomer posted and per say, these little battles between Stephen Hawking and Phil Plait are kind of cool. I really hope Dr. Phil Plait seeks for more battles, he certainly looks like a very nice contender.
Well, I said that my scenario was "more likely" than Hawking's, and even point out that doesn't mean it's actually likely. Almost any scenario involving a practical application of Drake's Equation to Fermi's Paradox involves assuming motives, which is not a great game to play.
ReplyDeleteIn that case I should assume that we should be prepared for not only a peaceful visit, but for a hostile visit as well. Aether way it makes sense, i mean what you said and hawking said, the same way as any other practical application of Drake's Equation to Fermi's paradox. And yes Dr. Plait I find it your view very rational and most likely, but because Drake and Fermi are very good players.... assuming endless ways of possible contacts and find which one is most likely is really hard to figure out.
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