Posted on 04/14/2011 11:28:49 PM PDT by Ethan Clive Osgoode
Has ET evolved to be discreet? An evolutionary tendency for inconspicuous aliens would solve a nagging paradox – and also suggest that we Earthlings should think twice before advertising our own existence.
He argues that it's plausible that there is a competition for resources on a cosmic scale, driving an evolutionary process between alien species on different planets.
If so, the universe would be a violent place, and evolutionary selection may favour the inconspicuous – those who lie low on purpose...
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
It’s a weak theory. The distances between stars are so vast that you spend too much to try and fight over it.
It’s more likely that the conditions for intelligent life are so rare and the time they broadcast so short we will be lucky indeed to find one.
This has been postulated in science fiction a number of times. There were even talked about in the form of “laws”.
Here’s the way I remember them. Someone else might correct me if they are familiar with what I am talking about.
1. Nice guys do not make top dog. Any species that manages to fight it’s way to the top of a planetary food chain is going to be tough, aggressive and resourceful. If they manage to develop technology sufficient to leave their planet and travel interstellar, they will have defense capabilities that match.
2. Their survival will always be more important than our survival and if there is any question at all as to whether we may be a threat, they can be expected to act as if we ARE a threat.
There was a third one, but I don’t remember it.
Based on that, it’s probable, in my view, that an emerging intelligent race would be well advised to keep its collective head down until it had a better handle on the people in the neighborhood.
Our broadcast signals are much easier to find. By the time any Aliens do find a space probe Moslems or Socialists will probably have ended civilization anyways.
It also assumes (implicitly) that all alien species evolved from a common ancestor.
Odd that you can give the same advice in a few minutes which took the aliens billions of years to discover by random mutation and natural selection.
How does that work again ?
Well, if one says that X’s “evolve”, one means of course by natural selection and so on. So the X’s must all be related by heredity, since it makes no sense to speak of evolution or natural selection of traits which are not hereditary. Different species of aliens must have arose from common ancestors. Some had the “proclaim our existance loudly” gene and others had the “lay low” gene. Presumably the former got wiped out and the latter reproduced to fill the galaxy with more such introverted species. This is all idiotic of course.
Any technology that’s likely to be able to get a faraway creature here that would be interested in Earth, is probably first likely to allow that creature’s population to exploit closer and harsher planets than Earth. It would be the same with mankind, it would be easier to colonize the moon and Mars on a large scale than to go looking for possible additional Earth-like sites to move into several dozen or more light years away, and then at such a remove to mow down that site’s inhabitants. And even then what do you do about the extraterrestrial microbes, meaning that the science of medicine has to be embrace a whole new, unknown area? No it is not a practical worry.
If you can travel anywhere near lightspeed, all you have to do is let go of a hundred pound piece of junk at that speed, maybe an old refrigerator or something, and watch your country-sized target get vaporized.
Then you don’t have to hide from anyone.
I wonder - did they “evolve” the lay-low traits before moving out into the universe? If so, why would they bother?
At that speed, wouldn't the refrigerator burn up on entry into earth's atmosphere?
I think Arthur C. Clarke came closest to the truth in “2001 - A Space Oddessy”. Once races achieve a certain level of technical sophistication, it may be a short time before they no longer require their physical bodies and self-evolve to a new plane of existence. I have a feeling this metamorphosis may occur in anywhere from 1000-5000 years. Once a race reaches that “G-d Plane”, the lust for wealth and conquest might fade and give way to other things. The kickoff for this period might be an invention that causes a great technological leap forward (e.g., printing press, steam engine, integrated circuit, etc). Given the age of the universe, this is a very short window for other races to discover each other.
Ridiculous. There are so many resources in the Oort Clouds around solar systems that it is unlikely for any solar-originating civilization to ever use them up.
The same can be said for any general-circulation publication with “Science” in the title. They’ve all been taken over by leftist loons. I pretty much no longer get printed magazines because of that. The SOLE exception is “Backwoods Home” magazine, which is VERY conservative, though from a libertarian perspective.
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