will we meet aliens from outer space within 20 years?

Banjo said:
Finally! :)
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Would love it if there were actually Vulcans out there. :D I'll love to pick their brains and play with their "feelings" ;) :P

Jiro pointed out about Prime Directive....it may be true in our case...no species will come in contact with us until we achieve warp drive or some form of interstellar travel. So...someone get on that! :)
 
netrox said:
wow sorry i didnt read this sooner. Metacognitive intelligence is definitely human and I doubt other planets will be able to produce life of metacognitive intelligence. Evolution does NOT guide organisms to have that kind of intelligence. In fact, there's no purpose to have metacognitive intelligence but we just happen to have it as a species. No other species ever reached that level so far and the conditions don't seem to be favorable for metacognitive intelligence. We were NEARLY wiped out according to evolutionists around 40,000 years ago - there was a huge bottleneck and that the genetic shift is the likely the reason we gained intelligence. Apes, our closest relatives, show intelligence but evidence is lacking for metacognition. And you know, we have about 100,000 apes left - in theory, they may evolve to have metacognitive intelligence but conditions simply do not favor that course of evolution for them.

The odds of other animals having metacognitive intelligence is pretty slim.

It's like saying that a housefly saying, "There must be other species with the same number of eyes that I have!"

Or a dog saying, "There must be other species who can smell as well as I do!"

Or a cat saying, "There must be other species that purr like I do!"

Or elephants saying, "There must be other species with a trunk!"

It's all about natural selection and keep in mind that natural selection doesn't give a hoot about intelligence, trunks, purrs, barks, eyes, etc.
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It's certainly true that natural selection isn't directive towards any particular feature, though obviously with some features (like sight) we can see convergent evolution because it appeared to be useful to many different animals.

However, while it's obviously not guaranteed to evolve, the fact that it did once means that it theoretically can evolve again. And as convergent evolution has shown, it's possible for the same feature to evolve through multiple pathways.
 
Liza said:
I imagine we will have a transition like Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End with the aliens' involvement, but I'll believe it when I see it. :D
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I remember reading that story in high school. Weird.
 
Remember in other galaxies where some planets have faster days or slower days and weird weathers, etc...so life always start somewhere differently in other galaxies than ours... evolution is part of life and survival so don't be surprised if we aren't the only intelligence beings so far. We just never know 'til we actually meet one. It would be years when we start our space colonies as well. Stephen Hawking once mentioned that we are indeed a very dangerous species, and whatever happens, something obviously bad will happen in the future and we may have to spread out in space to other colonies...but that'd be hundreds or thousands of years from now. Human life only originated about 200 million years ago. Obviously life started way before we existed...and so has other galaxies. (relating to the big bang theory)
 
id' just tell them to piss off, no enough room for aliens here...we're over populated and under resourced, unless they got a way or a galactic map/loophole(portal) to the nearest food-plently planet...other than that got no time for aliens..
 
Grummer said:
id' just tell them to piss off, no enough room for aliens here...we're over populated and under resourced, unless they got a way or a galactic map/loophole(portal) to the nearest food-plently planet...other than that got no time for aliens..
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Remember this old saying...The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth.
 
Steel X said:
Remember this old saying...The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth.
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try telling magnate, politicians, capitalists that

so what, are you practically saying, give it over to aliens? no way
 
Grummer said:
try telling magnate, politicians, capitalists that

so what, are you practically saying, give it over to aliens? no way
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Yeah, I'm sure intelligent life with the ability to travel interstellar distances will totally be able to be even remotely resisted, lol.
 
I think I'm more likely to see someone from the future than I am an alien. Considering all that has been noted about evolution + our knowledge of space + the 10,000 other things that would have to fall into place, eh, no. Bending spacetime sounds more plausible.
 
Grummer is more likely correct if the aliens are 'advanced' -- they may think *gasp* like the humans do, regarding survival of the fittest and just take whatever resources we have on earth. It was done to the Native Americans :) And manifest destiny justified it. Why shouldn't some extraterrestial species do the same if they are strong enough and have the weapons for that? Let's face it, we aren't that technologically advanced and we haven't achieved or fostered unity with our planet's communities yet to be a strong, united unit and focus on bettering our technology and way of life.
 
TheOracle said:
I think I'm more likely to see someone from the future than I am an alien. Considering all that has been noted about evolution + our knowledge of space + the 10,000 other things that would have to fall into place, eh, no. Bending spacetime sounds more plausible.
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I'm sure you will.

Wait five minutes. Go say hi to someone. Congrats! You've met someone from the future, from your current self's perspective.

:lol:
 
StSapphire said:
It's certainly true that natural selection isn't directive towards any particular feature, though obviously with some features (like sight) we can see convergent evolution because it appeared to be useful to many different animals.

However, while it's obviously not guaranteed to evolve, the fact that it did once means that it theoretically can evolve again. And as convergent evolution has shown, it's possible for the same feature to evolve through multiple pathways.
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What about bacteria? Plants? Fungi? They're living but have no intelligence or eyes. It's still life.

Sponge is considered an animal. Jellyfish as well. None of them have eyes.
 
netrox said:
What about bacteria? Plants? Fungi? They're living but have no intelligence or eyes. It's still life.

Sponge is considered an animal. Jellyfish as well. None of them have eyes.
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either do xenomorphs and they have the intelligence of an ape lol we shouldn't be surprised to see some that are actually smarter than we thought.
 
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