The reason intelligent life has not contacted us

[Cat King Cole]

Is because intelligence would only benefit a eusocial species. As it stands, complex and unified society on the scale required for achieving the feats of engineering, both in efficiently harnessing resources, and in developing the knowledge to achieve these feats, is impossible. Genetics has wired us as a species to compete and favour the individual over civilisation. Mathematically the optimum strategy for any group is Always Cooperate. Nature shows evidence for this: eusocial insects are the most populous and successful form of life on the planet.

By the time any species learns the benefits of cooperation, they may well have managed to deplete their natural resources beyond the point they might be put toward interstellar travel and communication. The other possibility is that no intelligent species has yet developed to the point of being able to achieve these things, or if they have, they're too far away and haven't reached us yet.

[Absurd]

The reason intelligent life has not contacted us

They don't have our phone number.

[Skeptic]

Do you 'contact' ants in your backyard?

[Absurd]

Do you 'contact' ants in your backyard?

Fungus Cat Cole

[rat1]

Because it would be unintelligent to get involved with the human race and all its problems.

[Lobo]

Hawkin's says that if we make contact with aliens, they would likely want to erradicate us.

[Absurd]

Hawkin's says that if we make contact with aliens, they would likely want to erradicate us.

Colonise. That's what missionaries did when they first encountered "aliens".

[Raver]

In my opinion the reason intelligent life has not contacted us because the only intelligent life that is capable of contacting us is at a extremely higher level than us intellectually and technology wise. Intelligent life that is at our level is unlikely to be able to contact us due to limitations in technology.

Basically it will be like us trying to contact an ant-like species in another planet. It makes little to no sense to do so because they're significantly inferior to us and we can learn a lot more simply by observing them. This is why I think higher intelligent life than us most likely observes us from a distance and has no interest in communication.

[krieger]

lol @ sheeple thinking they haven't contacted "us".

[Raver]

lol @ sheeple thinking they haven't contacted "us".

The ironic thing is aliens probably look at us in the same way we look at sheep, inferior and stupid. Would you be interested in contacting aliens that were sheep-like? Use your imagination!

[ClownsandEntropy]

Would you be interested in contacting aliens that were sheep-like? Use your imagination!

They'd probably want to contact us aliens to experiment on our anatomy and development and how it differs from there's.

[Raver]

Would you be interested in contacting aliens that were sheep-like? Use your imagination!

They'd probably want to contact us aliens to experiment on our anatomy and development and how it differs from there's.

Haha! True!

[krieger]

speak for yourselves. not all humans are sheep-like.

[Raver]

speak for yourselves. not all humans are sheep-like.

You continue to miss the point!

All humans look stupid and inferior to an alien species that is far superior to us in intelligence and technology. Most likely the only kind of alien species that has the ability to contact us.

Imagine going on a mission to look for the most deep and unique donkey to have an insightful conversation with, good luck! Except you labcoat, you are a special and unique snowflake, I'm sure they'll want to talk to you, while ignoring the rest of us sheep!

[krieger]

All humans look stupid and inferior to an alien species that is far superior to us in intelligence and technology.

uhm, no. like i said, speak for yourself.

[Raver]

All humans look stupid and inferior to an alien species that is far superior to us in intelligence and technology.

uhm, no. like i said, speak for yourself.

[Begoner]

uhm, no. like i said, speak for yourself.

I'm pretty sure that an alien civilization, which has developed technologically to the extent that it is capable of manned interstellar travel, would like nothing better than to travel to Earth to have a chat with me about the weather.


---

The fact that no alien civilization has intentionally contacted us provides us with no information whatsoever. We can reason a priori that if an alien civilization existed that was capable of contacting us, it would be so far ahead of us technologically and in terms of intelligence that it would have nothing to gain by contacting us. A more interesting question might be why we have not been inadvertently contacted by an alien civilization -- for example, why haven't we picked up a radio signal coming from an alien soap opera broadcast?

[Lobo]

Colonise. That's what missionaries did when they first encountered "aliens".

Yes, they will tell us more about the being we should worship.

[ClownsandEntropy]

All humans look stupid and inferior to an alien species that is far superior to us in intelligence and technology.

uhm, no. like i said, speak for yourself.

I think it's just that they could be completely different from us. Rather than contacting each other using words, they some how have some telepathic connection. Rather than needing to run experiments to see how the world is, they have the mental capacity to work things out (House M.D. style, but severely extended).

I mean, ultimately, imagine this species to be capable of things that are not just amazingly smart, but actually beyond what we have developed as a species.

[JWC3]

Actually, assuming you are correct about everything you stated, with regards to advancing to the point of interstellar travel, it doesn't effect humans. Or rather it might but is unimportant because we've reached a point were robots do our science for us. No pesky us to stand in our own way because we're not really paving the way anymore.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19273...ing-human.html

I love they way this site both cites it's sources and is humorous.

[Creepy-EddieMorra]

It's obvious intelligent life would only want to communicate with me as I'm the only person alive that has the intellectual capacity and telepathic ability to communicate with them.

[Cat King Cole]

That giant-ass mound is built by this tiny little creature:



Leafcutter ants are eusocial insects. All the workers are sterile and work solely toward one goal: expansion. The queen is protected at all costs.

Much like how all the organelles in our body work together to produce cells, and all our cells work together to form tissues and organs inside our body, imagine what we could achieve if we worked together as a single species. We could have cities in the sky by now, yet instead we have only our history books stained in blood, and colossal monuments to greed and hatred in the form of self-servicing big business like Telstra, Exxon, the war in Iraq, and genocide upon genocide.

This is sad, because rationally there is no reason to compete or service yourself. In a game of the prisoner's dilemma, while defecting while the other player cooperates gives the defector the greatest gain, the system of both players experiences a diminished net yield. If people engaged their neocortex and reasoned and contributed to society through self-servicing altruism, we would not be in our present sorry state of global affairs. As it stands, as a species, we seem to be enslaved by our limbic system.

[munenori2]

We are a speck of dust in the cosmos.

[The Ineffable]

Hawkin's says that if we make contact with aliens, they would likely want to erradicate us.

Don't worry, he may change his mind after a while. And he didn't say that, he said that they would likely want to invade us in order to exploit our resources. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7107207.ece
---

Anyway, what Hawking doesn't count is the point in our evolution where we refer everything to - namely current times. We are just some worms in a glass that eat a small piece of organic matter and because of our blindness we just steal the closest/easiest slice from the others. We need air, we need water, we need oil, all provided by the nature, but slowly we'll advance towards not having anything given by the nature, we will have to provide it ourselves. Some indicatives: alternative energies instead of merely sinking the bucket in oil, recycling, genetic engineering for food, etc. It may be the case that as such advanced level they can provide themselves everything they need, materially, or take all the resources they need (energy, minerals, etc) out of everything. We are really still mokeys in a forest that need the fruits the trees grow, if and when we will pass this stage, things may become totally different, IMO.

Our morals/manners change too, we're still only few steps above primitivism, this "default" nature of invading and exploiting the easiest prey might not be the case in the future. Our primitive surviving instinct appears to fade away, civilization created people who kill themselves for different rational reasons, people who rather die than steal to survive, and so on. The more advanced we become, the more important the meaning becomes to us, rather than than satisfying the bare necessities, let alone reproducing. That would be one thing, the other thing would be how different another civilization could be - it is not necessary to evolve like us. We expanded our interests into all areas, but are they actually "all areas", isn't this rather a very limited selection which includes the common denominator of stealing what others have instead of handling it ourselves? There were a lot of cultures on Earth that were neither warrior or invasive, that could live in a certain place indefinitely, even after they discovered weapons and tools, what if the invasive cultures had not existed, does that necessarily mean that the others would have become such? I think there are a lot of questions...

Also, related to that - since humanity expanded their interests in a lot of directions, we falsely (IMO) assume that any intelligent civilization will do that. Business and exploitation are basically cultural trends, business for the business sake is a habit, having more and more and more is a psychological issue, rather than an inherent biological one. Exploiting everything and everyone we can reach. A deviance, I'd add as a personal opinion. Humans - at least the current selection with the current nurtured habits - have this irrational crave for "more", does anything guarantees that the individuals of an alien civilization would feel these emotions? Nothing even guarantees that they will try to exploit everything, including what they don't need, like we got used to do.

Regarding habits that we take for granted - and often delude ourselves considering them "natural" -, if we were living in a world of corruption, like people in a lot of countries actually are, we would assume that it is impossible to have a civilization almost free of corruption, wouldn't we? Or rape. With that mentality one thinks "Come one, how could you refuse someone who offers you a bribe, don't you need money?". This is not necessarily a matter of human nature and evolution, as maybe one of accident. Perhaps the aliens that will contact us won't possess this pathological need to always have "more" and "different", like if no new Hollywood movie appeared at least once a week you feel that the world is fucked up.

If that was human or animal nature, why do not all animals adapt so, and why not all trives adapted so? The Publo indians told Carl Jung:

"See how cruel the whites look. Their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by folds. Their eyes have a staring expression; they are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something; they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want. We do not understand them. We think they are mad."

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there is actually a principle that makes any possible civilization necessarily invasive, but at this point I fail to see it. My 2 cents.



Oh, one more thing: any planet can normally support its entire civilization, just it can support only a limited number of individuals.

[NewBorn STAR]

Because it would be unintelligent to get involved with the human race and all its problems.

Have to replay the truth.

[Bluenoir]

If they have intelligence so far beyond us, we would be like chimps trying to predict what the humans are going to do.

Also, why does what Hawkins thinks carry any weight? He may be genius physicist, but how would he know anything about how alien intelligences think?

[Wynch]

We are a speck of dust in the cosmos.

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

[munenori2]

http://primaxstudio.com/stuff/scale_of_universe/

[Jarno]

Intelligent life ahead of us will find a way to get to a more stable parallel universe, and leave this one.

That's why we don't see them here.

Yet when we will be intelligent enough, we will leave too, and meet them. Tadaa.

[The Ineffable]

Intelligent life ahead of us will find a way to get to a more stable parallel universe, and leave this one.

Or maybe they found a way to discard the many-worlds interpretation and they don't believe in parallel universes anymore, the same manner we found a way to discard the necessity of a creator.

[Creepy-Snaps]

Intelligent life has contacted us already, but our governments 'protect' us and don't share anything. CONSPIRACY!

[ashlesha]

they might be watching us right now from inside the "moon"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Moon_Theory

at least according to a russian pseudoscientific theory.

[Creepy-Snaps]

Intelligent life has contacted us already, but our governments 'protect' us and don't share anything. CONSPIRACY!

Labcoat's dual after all.

Non-duals can agree on things too. Jus' sayin'.

P.S. I'M LIKE TOTAAAALLY ESI ASHTON, OMG WE'RE DUALZZZZZ.

[Creepy-Snaps]

they might be watching us right now from inside the "moon"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/spaceship_moon_theory

at least according to a russian pseudoscientific theory.

"Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name." I was ready for an interesting read!

[ashlesha]

i fixed the link.

edit: god damnit does it need to have proper capitalization? you can wait while i figure it out or just google it

[Absurd]

they might be watching us right now from inside the "moon"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Moon_Theory

at least according to a russian pseudoscientific theory.

Click

My duals would never screech like that.

That's what I call Fe orgasm.

[Nowisthetime]

I heard this from an ILE:

The only way to do interstellar travel would be to somehow figure out how to copy the mind to a hard disk (or some other media) and then send the hard disk out in space. The person himself would stay on earth. When it reaches the reciever after millions of years they would have to figure out how to transfer the content of the hard disk back to a living organism.

[strrrng]

By the time any species learns the benefits of cooperation, they may well have managed to deplete their natural resources beyond the point they might be put toward interstellar travel and communication. The other possibility is that no intelligent species has yet developed to the point of being able to achieve these things, or if they have, they're too far away and haven't reached us yet.

yeah, an intelligent species with the capacity for dimensional time-travel and telepathic communication wouldn't have been able to reach us "by now."

higher intelligences don't exist, and therefore we will be incessantly chasing vague clues as to our origin, living under a secretive government and technologically sawing the umbilical cord until we perish.

higher intelligences do exist, and have been around much longer than us, hence the nature of Atlantean, Egyptian etc. civilizations, the -incessant tracing of vague clues to our origins- and the convenient technological growth that always seems a step behind itself, with the govt being the main sponsors. these beings thus are observing, because this cycle of cosmic evolution must be completed.

Hawkin's says that if we make contact with aliens, they would likely want to erradicate us.

silly. if they existed, our making contact would be at their discretion, which would point away from destructive desires. all present signs point to a distant neutrality. like if you were watching a bunch of ants build and destroy hills etc., would you bother interfering, or just let them carry it out until "they learned better"?

Intelligent life ahead of us will find a way to get to a more stable parallel universe, and leave this one.

That's why we don't see them here.

Yet when we will be intelligent enough, we will leave too, and meet them. Tadaa.

agreed. omnia est unum.

[FDG]

I love (euphemism) when americans cheesily utilize latin locutions. Per Aspera ad astra.

[strrrng]

lol... english just gets boring