Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to We have met the alien and he is us.

As Polish SF author Stanislaw Lem once said...
Socrates II — (archived)

"We don't want other worlds - we want mirrors." - Solaris

While it is wonderful and noble that humans have even been able to
realize that the stars are others suns, that there are other planets
circling them, and that there may be all kinds of other life out there,
I have the feeling that if we do come across any alien intelligences, it
will most likely be by accident. Whether it will be a fortune or unlucky
one for us is another matter.

We may need such an event to grow up, but since the chances are
good that the aliens will be really alien and not the standard Star Trek
variety, it may do little more than give us the proof we have been
searching for. Of course this event might also inspire and drive us to
make a serious effort to get out there to find the first ETI or others
like them.

I also think that we may not find any aliens until we are either more
advanced or the next level of intelligence comes along to do a much
better and more thorough job than we have so far. Most of our efforts
have been sporadic and limited in scope and nearly all of them have
been without leaving the doorway - so it is rather difficult to expect
to have found anything other than really nearby and really obvious
beings.

You then have to ask yourself what incentive would an ETI need to
come to our Sol system? Unless then are wonderfully altruistic and
want to help us evolve for the sake of ourselves, I think we need to
keep searching for them.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (71 posts)