Would finding life on another planet change life on earth?

[editor]

not necessarily

Oh right. So the fact that the All Knowing One forget to mention aliens is a mere trifle in your mind?

Hopefully the arrival of an advanced civilisation will show up just how fucking ridiculous religion is.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I do have some sympathy for Liu Cixin's 'Dark Forest' theory, which holds that any sensible civilisation should hide from all the others as best they can.

Look at the history of Earth and what do you see. Whenever societies are 'discovered' by bigger, more powerful societies there are range of ways it can go. From complete destruction to enslavement to assimilation. Some, not many but a few, held their own and remained independent. But to do that they still had to change who they were. Remaining yourself, remaining unchanged, is not an option. And most of the other options are bad.

Maybe the same logic doesn't hold for galactic anthropology though. The galaxy is very big. There are a lot of resources. It's likely that a relatively trivial number of star systems actually have intelligent life, and exterminating one little species stuck on one little rock for the sake of some aluminium and salt water is probably more trouble than its worth. It's also likely that lightspeed holds as an absolute limit for everyone, in which case the time and resource cost of an invasion fleet would massively outweigh the benefits. Could be that watery planets with nitrogen-oxygen atmospheres are rare enough to be worth the trouble, but I still think terraforming is less hassle, and probably pretty easy for anyone who can build interstellar ships on a large scale.

The main risk is the fact that, if there are a million civilisations in the galaxy, one of them is likely to be a bunch of evil cunts who enjoy killing everyone else just for the sake of it. Although you could also argue that an inherently vicious and destructive species would destroy itself before it got anywhere near building rockets.

 

[bcuster]

Oh right. So the fact that the All Knowing One forget to mention aliens is a mere trifle in your mind?

Hopefully the arrival of an advanced civilisation will show up just how fucking ridiculous religion is.

A lot of things aren't mentioned in the Bible. Is the existence of aliens important to the Salvation story? That's the question

 

[kabbes]

I mean the threat of climate change was also meant to unify earth but I don't think it's done that tbh

You can’t kill climate change. What’s the fun in that?

 

[editor]

A lot of things aren't mentioned in the Bible. Is the existence of aliens important to the Salvation story? That's the question

Fuck me, you're right down the God Squad rabbit hole. For a God to forget to mention the existence of other races on other planets would be a colossal, unforgivable, non-sensical oversight.

But I suppose you think that when the aliens arrive they'll be coming in a Galactic Popemobile.

 

[Spymaster]

I sometimes listen to a lot of space related podcasts and have read several books on the subject as well as being a fan of sci fi. Most of the time it is claimed that finding aliens would be the biggest discovery ever and would entail a change to life on earth that was completely fundamental. For example, SETI say that the decision to contact aliens or not should be a planet wide decision involving every single country. Some people have predicted it would lead to an end to wars etc as the whole of earth would have to cooperate.

But I'm not sure it would change anything tbh. Unless the aliens actually planned to interfere with our lives in any way why would it? If they found a civilisation on a distant planet and that species never contacted us at all or just sent a generic message saying 'I hope you are well' or something like that, then I think some people would be ecstatic but I can't picture world peace or even say an end to arguments on urban75 etc as a result or anything like that.

What do you all think?

It'll be an amoeba on Mars.

Everyone will get excited for half an hour, then go back to watching the football.

 

[frogwoman]

Yeah, I'm not sure why religious texts would have to be rewritten. There are ways of explaining stuff away. If someone can claim the beast of revelations is referring to Mahmoud Abbas ffs

 

[Spymaster]

Which religious texts would have to be rewritten?

 

[frogwoman]

A lot of things aren't mentioned in the Bible. Is the existence of aliens important to the Salvation story? That's the question

Why would it be relevant though? I imagine the church would say that salvation did or didn't apply to aliens and that would be that

 

[frogwoman]

Oh right. So the fact that the All Knowing One forget to mention aliens is a mere trifle in your mind?

Hopefully the arrival of an advanced civilisation will show up just how fucking ridiculous religion is.

people would just retroactively look at the bible and see what verses could apply to aliens and then just state that they did.

 

[bcuster]

Why would it be relevant though? I imagine the church would say that salvation did or didn't apply to aliens and that would be that

I'm not sure that it is relevant, But the existence of aliens doesn't have anything to do with theology, imo...

 

[Orang Utan]

Religions would suddenly have to start rewriting their texts.

They are already due extensive rewrites and repositionings

 

[PTK]

I think there would be questions regarding their technological capabilities and religious views

Some Christians say it is heretical to claim that there are intelligent beings on other planets.

 

[PTK]

Yeah, just knowledge of intelligent aliens wouldn't change anything fundamental, I don't think. And relativity is a bitch.

Relativity is the friend on the interstellar voyager.

 

[bcuster]

Some Christians say it is heretical to claim that there are intelligent beings on other planets.

None I know of; Catholic don't believe this.
Maybe some fundamentalist Protestants; Cromwellians and such...

 

[Silas Loom]

If a credible extraterrestrial threat to human life was guaranteed to bring about cooperation and peace amongst earthlings then it would be worth faking one. I suppose you’d start with plausible footage of moon landings and then work up very gradually to pretend Mars missions.

 

[PTK]

Would hopefully lead to a huge world wide surge of support for the Posadists

If the USSR had taken the advice of Juan Posadas in the 1962 Missile Crisis, we may not be here to discover ETIs.

 

[Spymaster]

Some Christians say it is heretical to claim that there are intelligent beings on other planets.

Which ones?

 

[PTK]

None I know of; Catholic don't believe this.
Maybe some fundamentalist Protestants; Cromwellians and such...

The theory is that the beings would also be Fallen, and the Son of God would therefore have to die to save them, and it would be monstrous to think that Jeusus could be put to death more than once.

 

[frogwoman]

The theory is that the beings would also be Fallen, and the Son of God would therefore have to die to save them, and it would be monstrous to think that Jeusus could be put to death more than once.

Tbh I think that they'd view the aliens in the same way that they viewed indigenous peoples in the past - that Jesus had already died for their sins and they just were waiting to be saved.

 

[Yossarian]

Although you could also argue that an inherently vicious and destructive species would destroy itself before it got anywhere near building rockets.

Not necessarily, humans first invented rockets for the purpose of killing other humans

 

[PTK]

If any alien race had the advanced technology to rock up to our planet and introduce themselves, they'd have the ability to pummel us weaklings into dust.

It’s a useful command to stop robots obliterating Earth for being full of murderous quarrelsome arseholes.

On a more serious note, I do think the probability is that there is life out there. Including intelligent life.

I also think it’s unlikely to be able to travel the distances to meet us. As Douglas Adams put it: “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space”.

However, if we do manage to make contact, I think it’d be a moment of huge interest to the whole planet. We’d certainly turn the news channel on. And probably have a good think about a lot of stuff.

It could be like this:

 

[danny la rouge]

It could be like this:

I’m a big fan of Yard Act.

 

[PTK]

I’m a big fan of Yard Act.

Well, I like that video, which I discovered last year or the year before, but I am not that keen on other stuff of theirs that I have seen.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Not necessarily, humans first invented rockets for the purpose of killing other humans

And we'll be long dead before we even make it to mars.

 

[danny la rouge]

Well, I like that video, which I discovered last year or the year before, but I am not that keen on other stuff of theirs that I have seen.

Try Trench-coat Museum.

 

[PTK]

I think I am getting that French sensation in relation to the topic of this thread. I am sure I participated in a debate like this in the past. I may even have started it. I am not sure that detecting intelligent signals would make much difference in the end.
I read a science fiction story long ago, the title of which escapes me, in which a god appears and gives a message to all humans, and then people fall into factions, arguing about the correct interpretation of the message.

 

[PTK]

Fuck me, you're right down the God Squad rabbit hole. For a God to forget to mention the existence of other races on other planets would be a colossal, unforgivable, non-sensical oversight.

But I suppose you think that when the aliens arrive they'll be coming in a Galactic Popemobile.

I don't think that a god forgetting to mention the ETIs would necessarily be an oversight. The god may think it better for humanity if they do not know.

 

[newme]

And we'll be long dead before we even make it to mars.

What? We have video from there.

 

[newme]

I think I am getting that French sensation in relation to the topic of this thread. I am sure I participated in a debate like this in the past. I may even have started it. I am not sure that detecting intelligent signals would make much difference in the end.
I read a science fiction story long ago, the title of which escapes me, in which a god appears and gives a message to all humans, and then people fall into factions, arguing about the correct interpretation of the message.

Was an interstellar bypass involved?