If they have the technology to reach us, they probably solved their resource problem already. Or close to it.
I think that we should keep a positive outlook on this. We may come across both good and bad beings, but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth the journey. On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Martin Baxter <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Time to get into a Quisling frame of mind... [?] > > Seriously, that is something to think about. With all of this lovely H2O > we've got lying about, it makes us a tempting target for colonization. > > > On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 2:14 PM, brent wodehouse < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece >> >> From The Sunday Times >> >> April 25, 2010 >> >> Don’t talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking >> >> Jonathan Leake >> >> THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least >> according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are >> almost certain to exist - but that instead of seeking them out, humanity >> should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact. >> >> The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of >> the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some >> of the universe’s greatest mysteries. >> >> Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other >> parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of >> stars or even floating in interplanetary space. >> >> Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he >> points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions >> of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet >> where life has evolved. >> >> “To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens >> perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what >> aliens might actually be like.” >> >> The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of >> microbes or simple animals - the sort of life that has dominated Earth >> for most of its history. >> >> One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of >> two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are >> picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing >> fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to >> underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter. >> >> Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious >> point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. >> Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for >> humanity. >> >> He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then >> move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life >> might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they >> might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their >> home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to >> conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.” >> >> He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too >> risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be >> much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t >> turn out very well for the Native Americans.” >> >> The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who >> is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of >> communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during >> which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the >> filming. >> >> John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: “He wanted to make >> a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well as >> scientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideas >> involved.” >> >> Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views >> have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the >> discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, >> showing that planets are a common phenomenon. >> >> So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but >> only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough >> to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances. >> >> Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able >> to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve >> there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds. >> >> Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his >> recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed >> the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as >> likely places to look. >> >> Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier >> this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding. >> >> “I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we >> can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum >> theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the >> capacity of our brains.” >> >> Stephen Hawking's Universe begins on the Discovery Channel on Sunday May 9 >> at 9pm >> >> > > > -- > "If all the world's a stage and we are merely players, who the bloody hell > wrote the script?" -- Charles E Grant > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik > > > -- Celebrating 10 years of bringing diversity to perversity! Mahogany at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mahogany_pleasures_of_darkness/
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