Hawking Says Aliens May Pose Risks

[mpok1519]

I tend to agree with Hawkings to a certain degree; there just has to be some kind of life out there. The degree of life and degree of intellegence is debateable. I for one believe in alien life that has visited earth and people. The entire idea of gods and angels may have stemmed from ancient encounters with UFOs, and perhaps personal contact. There are amounting evidences leading to this idea people's very cultures may have been influences by extra terrestrial; the nazca lines, how the pyramids' tops were zinc coated, the crystal skulls, ancient grape juice powered batteries, ancient religious lore describing spece crafts fom the sky(ezekiel's wheel, Hindu legend describes similiar space craft), skull reformation to buldge the skull into a conehead hypothesized to have derived from imitating ETs, the countless reports and eyewitness accounts, Roswell, etc.

The fact that there are billions of galaxies, hundreds of trillions of solar systems, probably more. Intellegent life seems to be not only a possibility, but an innevitability. How people would react tommorow if suddenly everyone KNEW ETs existed, the threat would probably come from our own hysteria. The amount of religious inspired violence that would occur within hours of the event would provoke unrelenting chaos from the masses. Social services would shut down overnight, and we would create our own apocalypse from simple panic fueled fear.

"dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!"

 

[JamesAH]

Just as long as we have Arnold as governor we be safe

 

[Autumnleaf]

Just as long as we have Arnold as governor we be safe

Maybe he could team up with Danny Glover.

 

[Blackguard_]

In other news, astronomers have adjusted their charts of extrasolar planets
to reflect Prof. Hawking's theory on extraterrestrial life...

Seriously, since we know nothing of aliens, our idea of what they might be like is the product of speculation and primeval imagination. Humans have always feared the unknown and postulated monsters therein. Even someone as smart as Stephen Hawking isn't immune to that.

 

[Tenka]

Seriously, since we know nothing of aliens, our idea of what they might be like is the product of speculation and primeval imagination.

Nobody has been to any spiritual planes of existence either but it doesn't stop every single religious person from speculating or even claiming certain knowledge what it could be like.

Besides, If intelligent alien life exists, there are many things about them which we can safely assume or reasonably expect.

Humans have always feared the unknown and postulated monsters therein. Even someone as smart as Stephen Hawking isn't immune to that.

 

[Billnew]

I for one welcome our new insect overlords.

Oh, and your going to be their little houseboy, dangling little mice over their open mouth while fanning them with a palm leaf, while the rest of the Earth is plundered!

I don't think an alien lifeform would progress far if it was innately hostile. I think it takes a different mindset to progress in the sciences. Although, warfare tends to advance science at a rapid clip. Maybe you're right.

Inteligence and aggression have no correlation. Yes, if there is unending war, research is limited by the carnage. But if one power evolves from the rubble, and unifys the direction of the aliens, they will be just as likely to become advanced in tech. We also do not know if they are centuries ahead of us or centuries behind. We have wasted alot of time trying to conquer each other. The aliens might be loving aliens or they might be horrible destructive monsters. Intelegence is not limited by aggression.

They better not go to Arizona.

They have strict new alien laws...and the citizens have guns.

 

[Saving Hawaii]

Just hope they don't touch down in Johannesburg. Then we'd be in for a real mess.

 

[Billnew]

I tend to agree with Hawkings to a certain degree; there just has to be some kind of life out there. The degree of life and degree of intellegence is debateable. I for one believe in alien life that has visited earth and people. The entire idea of gods and angels may have stemmed from ancient encounters with UFOs, and perhaps personal contact. There are amounting evidences leading to this idea people's very cultures may have been influences by extra terrestrial; the nazca lines, how the pyramids' tops were zinc coated, the crystal skulls, ancient grape juice powered batteries, ancient religious lore describing spece crafts fom the sky(ezekiel's wheel, Hindu legend describes similiar space craft), skull reformation to buldge the skull into a conehead hypothesized to have derived from imitating ETs, the countless reports and eyewitness accounts, Roswell, etc.

"dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!"

If we have been visited, then I must assume they died off, or somehow forgot our existence. centuries without contact or influencing our world?
I don't think many societies would have Rodenberry's federation rule(No interference)Prime directive?

Just as long as we have Arnold as governor we be safe

Hey, Where's Chuck?
To bad they don't have that wrestlin guy as governor anymore.

Could find Shatner, maybe he's woo'd females on their planet before?(Alias JT kirk.)

 

[Rochir]

True, they could be a new form of life. Looking for gas atmospheres to suck. Although I'd think they'd have more fun with gas giant planets like Jupiter.

All that gas produced by Washington politicians should be more than enough for them!

 

[Blackguard_]

Besides, If intelligent alien life exists, there are many things about them which we can safely assume or reasonably expect.

Well yes, we can speculate based on what we find on Earth what they might be like, such as biology to speculate at what forms they may or may not take or our history to see what they might act like, "we only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet" as Hawking said, but I don't think our history entirely supports Hawking's hypothesis about contacting aliens being too risky.

Yes, historically contact between people with a huge tech imbalance often ends badly for the low tech people.

That's not always the case though, as the contact might be with peaceful traders, missionaries, or anthropologists and such and not men with itchy trigger fingers/sword arms looking for slaves and to steal the native's gold.

Sure, the most advanced societies on Earth even 100 years ago largely thought little of conquering primitive natives they encoutered and taking their resources but how about the most advanced societies of today? How many of the colonial powers of the last few centuries are still like that? Our most advanced societies are the ones least likely to do what Hawking is talking about.

Why should we think then advanced aliens are probably going to be Space Mongols? They might be, and they might not.

And you know what a big part of why big tech imbalances exist in the first place is? Isolation, like how Eurasia left the Americas and Australia in the dust while civilization and tech advanced and spread around there.

In the long run, isolation can set up even bigger tech gaps between cultures. Ever read guns, germ, and steal? Things might have been quite different had some Eurasian traders showed up in the Americas with horses a lot earlier than they did, right? Horses were basically an energy technology upgrade over human power, and God knows what sort of exotic power source an isolationist space policy may delay our access to.

It's possible such a policy could be what sets us up for a Europe/New World scenario. The Europe/ New World scenario also shows you probably can't hide forever.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not suddenly turning into some hyper-rationalist who thinks emotion and intuition are the opposite of thinking and any notion without direct scientific evidence is a silly foolish one and speculation is useless.

We should of course be cautious of what we might encounter in space. There might be monsters lurking out there.
Personally, I'd love it if astronomers put out star charts like the one in my other post.

I just object to is thinking our ideas of what intelligent aliens might be like is cold objective analysis of the evidence or somesuch and isn't influenced a great deal by imagination. And there's nothing wrong with that, we wouldn't get far without such speculation, I wasn't making an ad hominem against Hawking. You don't see me here saying I have or there is scientific proof of God or spiritual planes of existence do you?

People can posit monsters in the deep all they want, heck I might even join them, I just hope they don't think they're only seeing them in the cold harsh light of Reason.

What can safely be assumed about alien(or even human) societies beyond that they'll have general anthrop/sociological concepts that won't tell us about an individual society without meeting/hearing about/observing them?

For example it's a safe bet an intelligent society will use symbols to communicate. It's not such a safe bet whether the symbol an individual society uses to communnnicate with outsiders at their border will say "welcome honored guest" or "trespassers will be shot" though.

 

[JamesAH]

Hey, Where's Chuck?
To bad they don't have that wrestlin guy as governor anymore.

Could find Shatner, maybe he's woo'd females on their planet before?(Alias JT kirk.)

Hey Chuck Norris,Arnold and Fedor Emelianenko who needs a stinkin army

 

[mpok1519]

If we have been visited, then I must assume they died off, or somehow forgot our existence. centuries without contact or influencing our world?

What if an alien's lifespan is much longer than we expected? What if one earth year is more equivilent to one alien hour or minute? Also would it be illogical to assume that perhaps their technology allows for longer lifespan? Would it also be illogical to assume they have ceased personal contact because we have evolved and we could represent a possible threat if they suddenly showed up again?

There really are too many questions to effectively draw any logical conclusion. Which is why I share a healthy but liberal skepticism regarding the idea.