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Old 01-21-2012, 11:51 PM
 
Location: Back and Forth FRANCE
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If we found Signals in space, (If SETI found something) or maybe if one of our Rovers, or Satellites, came across Intelligent Alien Life on another Planet, Moon, or whatever else. This Proof was undeniable, it wasn't a false alarm,

Would you care?
Would you want the government to spend more money spent to investigate?
Would you want to try to communicate?
Would it somehow change the way you lived?
Would it somehow change the way you look at the world or universe?

Just wondering.
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Old 01-22-2012, 12:15 AM
 
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Answers provided in-line.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jermaine88 View Post
If we found Signals in space, (If SETI found something) or maybe if one of our Rovers, or Satellites, came across Intelligent Alien Life on another Planet, Moon, or whatever else. This Proof was undeniable, it wasn't a false alarm,

Would you care? Absolutely. It'd be the single greatest discovery of mankind to date.
Would you want the government to spend more money spent to investigate? Absolutely. We spend less than a single percent of our money on NASA, which is a truly god-damn shame, because space is one of the last frontiers of modern and post-modern time. That, and physics must necessarily expand into space in order to better understand our very existence. We keep cutting NASA, and it's definitely going in the wrong direction. We could say, not build a new Aircraft carrier and dramatically increase the spending for NASA.
Would you want to try to communicate? Undecided. Western Society doesn't have a great track-record for communication with other cultures. Can you imagine an extraterrestrial society akin to human society? We'd have to respond with words not bombs. Obvious problems arise though if our new "friends" are just as ****ty as we are. Or, of course, if they aren't on the same intellectual frequency as we are. There is a lot of discussion about Humanity's first words to an alien species.
Would it somehow change the way you lived? Naturally. How could it not?
Would it somehow change the way you look at the world or universe? Undoubtedly. Even if all we find is starfish on Europa, that's a tremendous leap in our understand of astrobiology.

Just wondering.
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Old 01-22-2012, 12:57 AM
 
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I would be concerned. Values could be entirely different, level of scientific knowledge much more advanced, and we might be viewed as so many cokroaches.

The chances of communication with intelligent life elsewhere is almost infinitesimal unless there are properties to uncommon dimensions that would allow faster communication that light speed.

The situations that earth experienced are INCREDIBLY rare, and it took some mass extinctions/ genetic changes to get humans that were able to go beyond basic stone age tools.
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Old 01-22-2012, 03:02 AM
 
Location: Bike to Surf!
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Would you care?
Yes, as stated, it would be the single most important discovery of the modern age, perhaps of all recorded history.

Would you want the government to spend more money spent to investigate? Of course. The potential knowledge to be gained would be well worth the cost, especially if communication was possible. Even if it took fifty years for lightspeed messages to make the back-and-forth, it would result in incredible gains in our understanding of the physical world to.


Would you want to try to communicate? If possible, of course. If it is possible, it would be inevitable that someone would, eventually.

Would it somehow change the way you lived? You mean, like tomorrow? No. Unless we suddenly had alien technology that cured cancer or let us build flying cars, probably not. Then again, not much (rapidly) changes the way people live day-to-day. Yet the inventions and new ways of thinking stemming from the sudden increase in knowledge would certainly drastically change the world over the course of a few decades.

Would it somehow change the way you look at the world or universe? Probably not. I don't think that we are alone, but the silence is awfully strange. Most likely other civilizations have figured out how to communicate at faster-than-lightspeed and we just don't even know how to listen in on their conversations. Think "lost" tribal Amazonians wondering why nobody sends them smoke-signals, when the radio signals from modern society are all around them without them even knowing.
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Old 01-22-2012, 04:41 AM
 
Location: Wasilla Alaska
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I firmly believe that one day we will communicate with an alien civilization. Because of the time delay in radio transmission they'll be getting our old re-runs for quite a while to come. I figure their first message to us will be "Dear people of planet Earth, stop sending us your spam mail. Thanks, the Zarblaxians"
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Old 01-22-2012, 05:26 AM
 
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[quote=Jermaine88;22652499Would you care?[/quote]

I firmly believe that other civilizations are out there, so not really.
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Old 01-22-2012, 09:25 AM
 
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Of course, it would be one of the most significant findings in all of history, right behind the rather startling finding of intelligent life right here on Earth!
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Old 01-22-2012, 09:56 AM
 
Location: Victoria TX
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The aspect of greatest interest would be to watch Earthlings running around trying to figure out how to deal with this.

I would predict that, no matter how "intelligent" the ETs would appear to be, we would still consider ourselves morally superior to them. And immediately start planning the most unimaginably immoral defenses against any potential or supposed effect they could have on our superstitions.
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Old 01-22-2012, 10:02 AM
 
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All one need do to demonstrate that thesis is to look at the human history of the discoveries of other peoples and lands see what our more likely responses would be.
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Old 01-22-2012, 10:20 AM
 
Location: Westwood, MA
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I think it would be noteworthy cultural but probably not that meaningful scientifically. It would certainly change how some people think about our place in the universe.

I think space is too big for us to have any meaningful physical contact with alien civilizations and it might take decades or even centuries for either one of us to correctly decipher their messages. Almost every language we can understand we can do so because we had a key of some sort. Perhaps in a century we can start a meaningful dialogue with another civilization, but they're likely to be so far away that we couldn't expect an answer for a few generations.

Of course, all of the science we currently know could be wrong and they could just magically travel here at much more quickly than light.
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