View Single Post
  #75 (permalink)  
Old 01-May-2008, 09:39 AM
Kullat Nunu's Avatar
Kullat Nunu Kullat Nunu is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Earth
Posts: 2,716
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by m1omg View Post
And about ants and humans argument, it's fallacious because it is assuming that aliens would be as agressive and not caring as us, ...
I wasn't saying they're necessarily aggressive. Indeed, as you said aggressiveness is probably a bottleneck for civilizations. Too aggressive, and you self-destruct.

My point was that the aliens don't necessary even realize we're here or don't see us important enough. We think we know what intelligent life or life is and take it granted others think in the same way. A truly alien alien species don't even have to be aggressive, they would simply not notice us. We think a human being is immensely more important than an ant, they may not. That's the ant analogy.

Imagine some sort of silicon-based rock-eaters on Mars that are driven to extinction when earthlings terraform the planet before we even notice they're there, if you will. Another example is Arkady and Boris Strugasky's Roadside Picnic.

Quote:
Originally Posted by m1omg View Post
I think objectively humans are still very primitive and full of animal instinct and the lowest stage of sentience, we have existed just for around 100000 years so we haven't got the time to evolve more.If not for conscience we would be killing each other routinely every day, but whenh I think about developed civilisation, I think of one that is not only developed technically but also morally and intelligently, just imagine that just before 500 years we killed each other just because of religion, imagine how pure being can be if it evolves for billions of years....
We can modify our instincts only by changing ourselves. But first, the most rational way to proceed is to modify our societies. Despite all our technological advances, our culture is not much different from bronze age one despite what we may think.

Quote:
Originally Posted by m1omg View Post
And killing us off as a threat? What can endanger a civilization that can travel all over the galaxy?
The greatest threat to our survival is ourselves... A starfaring civilization would be practically immortal. Which leads to the Fermi paradox, and that worries me.
__________________
Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
-- Richard Feynman
Reply With Quote