If there were aliens visiting us, why would it be so top secret?
For starters, if they are advanced enough technologically to get here in the first place, then chances are pretty good they have the tech to conquer us with ease, as well, just as long as Jeff Goldblum doesn't defeat their mothership with a laptop.
If they're scientifically curious, all they'd have to do would be to introduce themselves and they would certainly be given all sorts of access to our technology, biological data, whatever, in return the same.
If they're as varied as we are in terms of interests and personalities, even if they thought us primitive, you'd certainly have some of them wanting to come meet us and introduce themselves in the way Western anthropologists will go live with undeveloped Amazonian tribe.
If they consider us SO beneath them that they look at us the same way we look at zoo animals, again--why the secrecy? I certainly don't go to the zoo and try to make sure the tigers don't see me.
If there were aliens visiting us, why would it be so top secret?
For starters, if they are advanced enough technologically to get here in the first place, then chances are pretty good they have the tech to conquer us with ease, as well, just as long as Jeff Goldblum doesn't defeat their mothership with a laptop.
If they're scientifically curious, all they'd have to do would be to introduce themselves and they would certainly be given all sorts of access to our technology, biological data, whatever, in return the same.
If they're as varied as we are in terms of interests and personalities, even if they thought us primitive, you'd certainly have some of them wanting to come meet us and introduce themselves in the way Western anthropologists will go live with undeveloped Amazonian tribe.
If they consider us SO beneath them that they look at us the same way we look at zoo animals, again--why the secrecy? I certainly don't go to the zoo and try to make sure the tigers don't see me.
Prison inmates don't count as aliens, for the last time.
The observation effect. A creature under observation behaves differently than it would in the unadulterated wild.
Meh, I for one believe there is atleast SOME life, it can't just be this one small planet out of millions of galaxies that we're the only life source....
If we ever WERE visited by intelligent life from other planets, I hope they'd have the common decency to be super-careful about ensuring they don't spread foreign diseases (or catch anything from us). Even if aliens were friendly rather than malicious, they could easily carry microbes and diseases to which we have absolutely no immunity.
It would be like how many native Australian Aborigines died from diseases that were introduced by European settlers - some of them fairly innocuous ailments (like the common cold) that were so foreign to their immune systems that they simply didn't have the ability to fight them off. The effects were devastating to entire populations. A visit from non-Earth lifeforms could be a disaster on both sides.
The observation effect. A creature under observation behaves differently than it would in the unadulterated wild.
What is so interesting about us that anyone would want to watch us in total secrecy for years and years and years?
I have a hard time wrapping my head around an intelligent species that discovers another intelligent species and just wants to check 'em out for sixty or seventy years instead of making contact. You can say they might think of us as being akin to animals, sure, but unless the animals on their homeworld are building everything from pyramids to nuclear weapons to Sam and Max games, I really don't see that being the case.
The observation effect. A creature under observation behaves differently than it would in the unadulterated wild.
The Observer Effect refers to how, in physics, the act of observing a behavior inherently alters the behavior itself, no matter how minor (such as how you can't check your tire pressure without lessening it.)
When applied to nature, this means that the act of observing us will, by the act itself, change our behavior in response to said observation. It doesn't require us to be put in a laboratory or a zoo. Watching animals in the wild will change the behavior of said wild animals.
Also, watching us from some distant location in space such that neither we nor our instruments could locate them would hardly give comprehensive enough data; to suggest that every government on the planet is hiding the activity of alien visitors from the public is far from believable; and crop circles have also been debunked... the list goes on.
I know I already mentioned my personal realization that the B-2 Bomber has once been identified by people as an alien craft, but recently I also was talking to my wife's brother about the prospect of alien visitors, and he said that he remembered watching some thing about a home video of a pattern of lights in the sky that made no sound which people claimed to be aliens which had been debunked as people hang-gliding at night with lights on so they can be seen and don't crash.
1.) How do we know governments have any hard evidence of aliens? The argument doesn't have to be that they're covering anything up, so much as that they have no real evidence of contact.
2.) I would never use crop circles as an argument for alien visitation.
Human beings try their best to disguise their presence in the wild to minimize impact but still have to get close. I'd imagine if visitations were occurring that aliens would attempt to do so, but of course there are the inherent risks involved there.
I just feel that the idea that aliens could be SO curious about us that they visit us all the time, abduct us, probe us, whatever, but after so many years of doing so haven't decided to see what interacting with us on a normal face-to-face basis is something they're interested in, is pretty unbelievable.
I just feel that the idea that aliens could be SO curious about us that they visit us all the time, abduct us, probe us, whatever, but after so many years of doing so haven't decided to see what interacting with us on a normal face-to-face basis is something they're interested in, is pretty unbelievable.
I have no opinion on the actual existence of aliens one way or the other... seeing as we still have no idea just how likely/unlikely life forming in the first place is... that makes it difficult to make any kind of qualified guess, in my opinion.
One thing I will guess though is that if there are aliens, they will probably be just as big assholes as we humans turned out to be... seeing as they would have had to go through a process of evolution, just like we did - and I have a difficult time seeing how that could end up any other way.
If we ever WERE visited by intelligent life from other planets, I hope they'd have the common decency to be super-careful about ensuring they don't spread foreign diseases (or catch anything from us). Even if aliens were friendly rather than malicious, they could easily carry microbes and diseases to which we have absolutely no immunity.
Can you infect a plant with a cold or can you get a plant disease?If not,why should diseases be more compatible with a even more foreign biology?
Can you infect a plant with a cold or can you get a plant disease?If not,why should diseases be more compatible with a even more foreign biology?
There are certainly plenty of diseases that pass from animals to humans (zoonoses) - avian influenza (bird flu), swine-origin H1N1 (swine flu), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and bubonic plague to name a few.
Sure, plant biology is fundamentally different at the cellular level to human biology, and so diseases can't (as far as we know) be transmitted between plants and humans. But how can you know whether aliens would be similar or dissimilar to humans in their biology? Given a total lack of information I'd rather err on the side of caution.
This is all hypothetical anyway, since I don't believe we ever have been or likely ever will be visited by intelligent life from outer space.
Theres some really intelligent peeps on here, I'm having fun reading all the posts.
I too have a problem with aliens just studying us for so many years without making blatant contact. And why do aliens/UFO's always land in Chainsaw Massacre type places...you know, middle of nowhere. Do they suffer from shyness? Or maybe they smell so bad they don't want to give themselves away too much. Or their bodies are radioactive.
Aliens visited me last night. They told me that we are all one with each other. They we're small and grey and had acid for blood. It's true I swear! They told me that they had visited Earth in the Eighties when they invaded an Antarctic out-post but apparently a bearded fellow fended them off.
To all you doubters; I speak the truth and need no proof.
Is that for real?! I guess if MGS4 says it's true then it must be! Yet more proof that we're about to come under attack from our intergalactically foreign friends. They said there would be "solid" proof. Aaarrrhhhhhh, the prophecy is true, prepare to bow down to our slimy overlords; for they are our future and our death.
Praise be to the Drippy Kings, we salute you and your squelchy brethren.
Comments
For starters, if they are advanced enough technologically to get here in the first place, then chances are pretty good they have the tech to conquer us with ease, as well, just as long as Jeff Goldblum doesn't defeat their mothership with a laptop.
If they're scientifically curious, all they'd have to do would be to introduce themselves and they would certainly be given all sorts of access to our technology, biological data, whatever, in return the same.
If they're as varied as we are in terms of interests and personalities, even if they thought us primitive, you'd certainly have some of them wanting to come meet us and introduce themselves in the way Western anthropologists will go live with undeveloped Amazonian tribe.
If they consider us SO beneath them that they look at us the same way we look at zoo animals, again--why the secrecy? I certainly don't go to the zoo and try to make sure the tigers don't see me.
Prison inmates don't count as aliens, for the last time.
The observation effect. A creature under observation behaves differently than it would in the unadulterated wild.
It would be like how many native Australian Aborigines died from diseases that were introduced by European settlers - some of them fairly innocuous ailments (like the common cold) that were so foreign to their immune systems that they simply didn't have the ability to fight them off. The effects were devastating to entire populations. A visit from non-Earth lifeforms could be a disaster on both sides.
Or War of the Worlds, for that matter.
What is so interesting about us that anyone would want to watch us in total secrecy for years and years and years?
I have a hard time wrapping my head around an intelligent species that discovers another intelligent species and just wants to check 'em out for sixty or seventy years instead of making contact. You can say they might think of us as being akin to animals, sure, but unless the animals on their homeworld are building everything from pyramids to nuclear weapons to Sam and Max games, I really don't see that being the case.
The Observer Effect refers to how, in physics, the act of observing a behavior inherently alters the behavior itself, no matter how minor (such as how you can't check your tire pressure without lessening it.)
When applied to nature, this means that the act of observing us will, by the act itself, change our behavior in response to said observation. It doesn't require us to be put in a laboratory or a zoo. Watching animals in the wild will change the behavior of said wild animals.
Also, watching us from some distant location in space such that neither we nor our instruments could locate them would hardly give comprehensive enough data; to suggest that every government on the planet is hiding the activity of alien visitors from the public is far from believable; and crop circles have also been debunked... the list goes on.
I know I already mentioned my personal realization that the B-2 Bomber has once been identified by people as an alien craft, but recently I also was talking to my wife's brother about the prospect of alien visitors, and he said that he remembered watching some thing about a home video of a pattern of lights in the sky that made no sound which people claimed to be aliens which had been debunked as people hang-gliding at night with lights on so they can be seen and don't crash.
2.) I would never use crop circles as an argument for alien visitation.
Human beings try their best to disguise their presence in the wild to minimize impact but still have to get close. I'd imagine if visitations were occurring that aliens would attempt to do so, but of course there are the inherent risks involved there.
Were just a one night stand to them.
One thing I will guess though is that if there are aliens, they will probably be just as big assholes as we humans turned out to be... seeing as they would have had to go through a process of evolution, just like we did - and I have a difficult time seeing how that could end up any other way.
There are certainly plenty of diseases that pass from animals to humans (zoonoses) - avian influenza (bird flu), swine-origin H1N1 (swine flu), bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease), and bubonic plague to name a few.
Sure, plant biology is fundamentally different at the cellular level to human biology, and so diseases can't (as far as we know) be transmitted between plants and humans. But how can you know whether aliens would be similar or dissimilar to humans in their biology? Given a total lack of information I'd rather err on the side of caution.
This is all hypothetical anyway, since I don't believe we ever have been or likely ever will be visited by intelligent life from outer space.
It's a good movie.
Don't crap on my dream of having a Wookiee sidekick!
I too have a problem with aliens just studying us for so many years without making blatant contact. And why do aliens/UFO's always land in Chainsaw Massacre type places...you know, middle of nowhere. Do they suffer from shyness? Or maybe they smell so bad they don't want to give themselves away too much. Or their bodies are radioactive.
To all you doubters; I speak the truth and need no proof.
Is that for real?! I guess if MGS4 says it's true then it must be! Yet more proof that we're about to come under attack from our intergalactically foreign friends. They said there would be "solid" proof. Aaarrrhhhhhh, the prophecy is true, prepare to bow down to our slimy overlords; for they are our future and our death.
Praise be to the Drippy Kings, we salute you and your squelchy brethren.