Hey... come on.... perhaps I have been pitching my thoughts on this all wrong. That is the only conclusion I can come to if you think its appropriate to mention violence to astronomers as part of this discussion. Please don't mention it again... and yes I realise that I left the door open to that type of thinking by mentioning earlier after-bad-first-contact consequences... I was imagining universal condemnation from others and remorse on the naive astronomers part.... not violence. I really regret opening that door now.
I must admit I am faintly disturbed that the discussion could drift to the point that you would think violence needs mentioning. Perhaps anyone that doesn't think like you is dangerous and therefore potentially violent... makes you wonder what you would think of aliens....
Ok... now that we know that this is a discussion about changing peoples minds... not about destroying them...
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Sure we can. We have to if we are to speak on the subject intelligently.
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Rubbish. (I am slightly peeved that you spoke the way you did... it is currently showing in my abrupt rebuttal.... I will try and assume good intentions on everyone's part from now on.... and be more like my normal polite self...)
You have never rebutted or spoke to my single point... that caution is the correct posture to adopt in an alien landscape. No amount of 'intelligent' discussion about how their world ships are more likely to be spherical and at .75c rather than cubic and at .86c, or whether they have silicon based chemistry with DNA analogues etc, is going to alter the basic fact...
in an alien environment the correct posture is caution. The rest of the uninformed guessing is just that. (Uninformed?!?! I hear you say... Yes.... unless you have had some contact that the rest of us haven't.)
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Nope. Anthropes are not the only known animals to have factional activity.
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My point is that they might NOT be like us, in that we are not normally cohesive. You point doesn't alter (or even speak to) that.
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There are more than one species of life on earth; species that have evolved to live in variations of our atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere.
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Are you trying to be obtuse here? It still is a sample size of one.... our biosphere.
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Chemistry is as chemistry does.
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Again... limited sample size seems to be limiting your thinking.... the range of possible chemistries and life cycle solutions are likely way beyond anything than we can imagine. DNA... just one possible way of transferring genes. Other molecules with similar characteristics available... no doubt... none of us can think of it yet... but perhaps we will. Does it even need an internal complex molecule to code for life? Perhaps not... other ideas have been mooted.
Regarding me betting you are subconsciously assuming symmetry in aliens...
I often am. Glad to hear that you are open to non earth type solutions to life's little problems.
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Maybe you are like that. So far as I can tell, the discussions are about alien civilizations, not alien uncivilizations.
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Now this was the type of thing that peeved me a tad. A personal slur. So I have responded in a similar way.... now I have it off my chest and we are "one slip up all" lets not descend down here again.
As it happens, I think its possible they may not be civilisations at all... maybe they are pod, or school, or families or single individuals... who knows? They may be space based... who says you need to be built in a gravity well? They may be nothing like what they were when they first started out into space a billion years ago....
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Then go talk to the movers and shakers. Most of the people here are hobbyists. If you're really that worried then go talk to people who can make a difference.
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Ok... that's good advice.... but in a way I was thinking that this is a first step along in that direction... _some_ of the people here are active astronomers... perhaps I am planting a little seed of doubt in some of their minds... I sure hope so.
As for a more active program of talking to astronomers directly... at the moment I wouldn't even know how to go about it... I will keep it in mind.
Lets face it... only a few comments here show support for my view in this thread... so if I cant convince you guys, I need to hone my arguments a bit before taking it any further.