It is a certainty that interstellar travel is possible. The only real question is in what sense. If light speed is really the speed limit, it would have to be a sort of mobile society or group of explorers that spend generations between solar systems. Whether we ever see aliens is a question of odds that we can't currently calculate. We can be nearly certain intelligent aliens are out there more sophisticated than us. But as to whether they are interested in meeting us, interested in the kind of space travel I described, or happen to head our way, are all factors that add up to an unknown probability in whatever time humans have left. The probability is definitely not zero, though. I have seen footage of instances that make me wonder if they haven't already studied us, but nothing convincing enough for me to claim they have.
Thank you. We are primates but we're so much smarter. Most apes are no more intelligent now than they were a million years ago, because they didn't get the 'intelligence gene'. It makes no difference to whether aliens would study us or not. Of course they would. Any intelligent being would study any and all forms of life.
We are RNA molecules... - - - Updated - - - The point is you and others not paying attention to the CONTEXT of the statement to which I originally replied...
If an alien civilization knows of Earth's existence they have studied us within the limitations of their technology and equipment. There is no doubt in my mind that since life evolved on Earth everything from single-cells to animals to intelligent life exists or existed around the Universe. Perhaps all of them share our same frustrations of limited technology and lack of interstellar travel but can still from time to time detect faint signals of assumptive ET's. IMO the trick or luck is to detect an intelligent civilization which is still in existence which is relatively close by and shares similar technology to us. And even this will just be a marker since we can't communicate with them or travel to see them...especially since humans are just primates or RNA molecules...
They all know of our existence. And they'll study it all, primate and non-primate. And like us, they'll study it over and over again. Then again, planet Earth could be popular because of it's location. It may float at the intersection of several dimensions or just be a watering hole.
There is nothing Earth can offer to an advanced civilization visiting us...our technology would be antiquated to them, we have exhausted most of our natural resources, we have polluted the atmosphere, and surely they would be greeted by our entire military capability. Like us, if an ET detects an intelligent signal from Earth, assuming we might be the first ET detection, it would simply answer lots of questions and create more questions. I'm thinking ET's share the same problem we have which is SOL travel and money to fund space exploration...
I don't know, somehow I don't believe you're qualified to choose what may amuse an alien enough to study our planet or disregard us. Why do we study the animals on Galapagos? They have nothing to offer us. They have no technology and are so weird they have nothing of value, food wise. So why do we study them? To gain knowledge.
If any alien civilization decided to visit Earth, we humans would never even know. Likely they would be bright enough to build miniaturized probes to minimize cost of transport and likelihood of discovery.
I don't need to be qualified and there are no qualifications for making assumptions about ET's. No one knows anything about ET's! If an ET comes across another ho-hum planet, just like a researcher comes across another turtle, there is less and less interest. Any civilization that can travel to Earth will not learn much from humans...especially during election time...
I'm going to disagree because I'm thinking a civilization smart enough to build an interstellar spacecraft...that the spacecraft would need to be enormous in size...basically a gigantic biosphere with thousands of occupants, that are permanent space explorers. If so, unless they have stealth technology, something this large would be detectable anywhere close to Earth. Of course we don't know yet about SOL travel, multiverse travel, etc. so I suppose anything remains possible from ET's...
Why are you avoiding the question? Why do we study the animals on Galapagos? Because you can't back up your assertion that we aren't worthy of study, when you know yourself that every microbe we find is worthy of study.
I did but I'll clarify...IMO a monstrous ET mother-ship will be detectable and therefore cannot come and go without notice...
We don't research animals on Galapagos! Maybe we did in the past but not today...now you answer why don't we have 24/7 research of animals on Galapagos? College students and others who cycle through the Galapagos every year for education are not making discoveries...they are studying what is already known...
There are science camps there year round. But you're claiming that ET wouldn't study us even once while admitting that we do study whatever we find.
I think E.T. has already studied us humans long ago, but they may check back from time to time to see if anything has changed.
Had everything to do with your question. It was in he very first sentence of my post. That is why an advanced species would cross space. And perhaps life is common, but it is much rarer for life to evolve to a heightened cognitive ability, that then seeks to understand its reality. But to your other point, no humanity is not sane, but perhaps if we do not destroy ourselves, we might evolve psychologically, as perhaps the higher intelligent ETs did. For we are basically the same psychologically as we have always been. Subject to the whims of egos seeking gratification above rationality, logic, reason. But I am forced into taking a different stance than you, for after living a long life, never seeing anything in the sky that wasn't explainable, I saw a craft the size of an aircraft carrier a couple years ago, a couple thousand feet high, no sound, which moved away slowly to the south, over a forest. Once you have a direct experience of something that should not be in our skies, it tends to change the way one thinks about something not made by man. Until I saw something myself UFO guys were just nutters. Vivid imaginations. I do not have a vivid imagination. I will not say it was an ET ship, but I know what it WAS NOT. Unless we have craft this huge, with no visible means of propulsion, completely silent. That can hover. And I think such an experience would change anyone's mind about the possibility of being visited by something not of this earth, or dimension. It opens the mind up, as it should. Your mind is closed tighter than Hillary's mouth when it comes to telling the truth, about anything.
I wonder if it is even possible to evolve out of what we have always been, psychologically. I think some religions have dreamed of it, prophesied about it happening, although they did not use the term evolution. But if we do not evolve out of it, we will eventually destroy ourselves, whether its by weapons or making the earth uninhabitable for our own species. For technologically, and scientifically we are approaching a point where there could literally be a golden age for humanity, with no lack of resources, no starvation, etc. But that golden age cannot happen as long as we are psychologically what we are, and what we have always been.
According to the latest info on planets and stars there are at least a billion with life in this galaxy alone. Even 1% of that having intelligent life is still 10,000,000 and since we have a range of 13 billion years to have evolved over it seems over whelmingly likely that at least a few thousand (probably many more) are much older than us, but lets set a minimum quantity of a million years, that is there might be younger ones but we can pretty much rely upon a forward variation of a million years for most of the ones that are older than us, (there will no doubt be younger ones too, but not many since the range is not that great and they won't be FTL spacefaring anyway ) That means that there should be at least several thousands of intelligent species that are a million years more advanced than we are. This is about 10x longer than humanity (like us) has been in existence and it seems clear to me that beings that advanced would be able to do just about anything that we can conceive of that is possible at all So it is clear that we almost must share our galaxy with at least a thousand spacefaring races, if FTL travel is possible, and I believe it is for what I think are fairly good reasons. (We have several indications it might be, and have only begun to study the problem seriously in the last 120 years) Which brings us to Fermi's paradox, "Where ARE they?" And I think the answer there is clear also; they're here, they've always been here and they simply aren't letting us know, at least not all of us. Just why that is I don't know but godlike beings do have their reasons and it is futile for us tp speculate as to what they might be. Maybe they mean to let us become mature before we join the Interstellar utopia, or maybe they're just waiting for us to become tender enough, we will find out when they let us
Your speculation contains a clear error. Carbon based life cannot arise until there are sufficient proper atomic elements to populate the required organic chemistry. Most of those atoms (e.g., carbon, phosphorous, oxygen, nitrogen, etc.) were not formed with the big bang, but only formed within stars. Only stars which explode can move those elements away from that star so that the can travel to gas clouds and accrete into second and third generation solar system. That takes time. Much time. Carbon based life could not arise in the early universe. Thus, your "13 billion years" figure is incorrect.
Gee we sure were lucky that super big stars explode in a supernova instead of just shrinking into a black hole.
True, but there are still billions of years of lab time that have been available. Plus, there are a billion trillion stars in the universe (as known to date, as we can't see it all). The fraction of stars that have bodies which have conditions where life might exist isn't large, but when that fraction is multiplied by a billion trillion and then multiplied by billions of years ... ... that is a lot of lab time.
