Stephen Hawking aliens theory doesn't scare planet hunters.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

Among many astronomers and scientists, however, Hawking's conclusion seems sensational and counter-productive. Hollywood and science fiction novelists have been wrestling with this "friend or foe" question for decades. But the technology used to detect new planets – and thus our ability to find alien life – has increased in recent years and will likely continue to make drastic improvements in the next five to ten years.

As the possibility of discovering extraterrestrial life catches up with fiction, the question may become more pertinent.
But most scientists argue that humans should be prepared for and welcome any potential encounters.

“Ignoring the possibility and hiding your head in the sand, waiting for them to find us is certainly isn’t a scientifically intelligent way to proceed or a good cultural way to anticipate something like that either,” says Mary Voytek, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA. “Our approach to it has been to be prepared. We’re not going to get caught, say like the Native Americans when Columbus came to their shores. We’ve been actively listening and hopefully we get some information before any eventual encounter ever happens.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2010/0426/Stephen-Hawking-aliens-theory-doesn-t-scare-planet-hunters

Well there you have it folks, keeping our heads down is not an option. Onward and upward as they say.

[saltpoint]

1. That's right. Plus, if the aliens give us any trouble, we'll get Chuck Norris

to kick their butts.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

3. Not Will Smith?

;)

[saltpoint]

4. I hope they both suit up for the starting line-up. We may need 'em.

[IDemo]

37. If they're especially vile aliens, he'll probably just want to have a beer with them

or get them elected as republicans.

[saltpoint]

39. Probably right. We need to be careful here. It could be a recruiting

bonanza for the Pukes.

[Warpy]

2. The aliens we're most likely to find are bacterial

and it would be just our rotten luck to discover ravenous pathogens that have no treatment.

Manned exploration is fraught with unintended consequences. This is one of the main ones.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

6. Birth leads to death.

And everything in between has unintended consequences.

Robots, which is what I'm assuming you'd prefer, could carry pathogens out there - and back.

[Warpy]

17. They'd carry them back only if they made them come back

and any earth pathogens would likely not survive the trip, not exposed to vacuum.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

20. We don't know what earth pathogens could survive.

And I really don't think anyone is going to go for expensive robots gathering samples you can't bring back. Trashing up other planets isn't a good idea either. We already have enough junk in space.

[Dogmudgeon]

23. Many spore- and cyst- forming organisms could survive

A search on "panspermia" will turn up a number of well-written, fully peer-vetted papers on the possibility that monocells can travel in space as dessicated spores.

The late Sir Fred Hoyle and his protege Chandra Wickramasinghe had/have been particularly active in this field. Panspermia.org is Dr. W's website. Note, Wickramasinghe is trying to promote a "third way" between Evolution and Creationism that he calls "Cosmic Ancestry". It's basically Panspermian Evolution pitched to anti-Evolutionists ("life comes from space because life comes from life"). It does not detract from the scientific work, but it gave me the impression of a nun getting dressed up as a hooker in order to evangelize a pimps' convention.

--d!

[ZeitgeistObserver]

24. Hey, whatever works.

:)

[Warpy]

26. We do, actually, we've got a great idea of what can be killed and how

and few could survive many months in a vacuum, not even the well protected spores like anthrax or the mycobacteria.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

28. Well we just found shrimp in Antarctica

and we haven't yet gotten over what exists in deep sea heat vents, so I'd say we only think we have a handle on what could and couldn't survive.

[Warpy]

29. Vacuum is different

and even steel boils away over enough time.

Don't get me started on the enormous radiation, either.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

30. We already know vacuum is survivable.

So is radiation.

[Warpy]

31. Inside rock, yes

or as the case with the bacteria NASA retrieved, inside foam inside a camera. It has to be well protected from vacuum.

It won't survive on surfaces. Most won't survive, period.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

32. We don't know anything of the sort.

[nuxvomica]

13. Why would alien microbes have evolved to attack human hosts?

I would think they'd have a tough enough time even surviving in our environment.

[itsrobert]

5. I hope they bring their Birth Certificates

Arizona might mistake them for 'illegal' Mexicans.

[saltpoint]

7. ...and some poultry, in case they have to barter for health care in

Nevada.

[Denninmi]

9. And if they do bring birth certificates with them ....

Won't the right wing just spend the next 2 plus years claiming that those are not the REAL birth certificates issued by Zebulon Prime or whatever planet they came from?

[MadHound]

8. The thing with Hawking's warning is that it is already ridiculously easy for aliens to find us

All they have to do is follow all the TV, radio and other signals we're been spewing out into space for the past eighty years. If these aliens were looking for new planets to plunder, well, it's not like we have been inconspicuous now.

[Oregone]

10. This dude just doesn't think much, does he?

[ZeitgeistObserver]

11. They degrade, and we're in the boonies after all. n/t

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. True, and redundant in any case.

If we, with our primitive tech, can determine that planets we have discovered around nearby stars are NOT oxygen/nitrogen water planets like our own, then certainly more advanced civilizations which have the capacity to travel the stars know that HERE there is an oxygen/nitrogen water planet.

If they have interstellar travel they know about us already, radio signals or no.

[pokerfan]

19. Wiki has a good entry on the Fermi paradox

The Fermi paradox is the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

[ZeitgeistObserver]

22. I've never seen a contradiction.

It's only our own ego that assumes they'd rush here to visit. We're not that impressive actually.

[pokerfan]

25. Not ego

If such civilizations exist, it would take a brief amount of time to populate an entire galaxy, perhaps only 10 million years, i.e. about 1/20 of the time it takes for the Milky Way to complete just one rotation and less than 1/1000 of the age of the universe. Life tends to expand to fill all niches, like a bacterial growth in a petri dish even if the petri dish is expanded to three dimensions:
e^x>>x³ for large x.
Such a galaxy would soon be teeming with life. Even if a given species had no interest in expansion, all it takes is one. It's fun to speculate about.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

27. Our earth-centric view then.

I've mentioned several times that we are still pre-Copernicus and Galileo mentally.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

21. If they're even looking, or care.

Again I refer you to an ant colony in Borneo.

[RaleighNCDUer]

41. You are presupposing it is US they would be interested in,

not the world that we live in.

We may not care about an ant colony in Borneo, but be very interested in their timber, palm oil, and bauxite mines.

[Oregone]

18. Even country music sounds good that far away

[pokerfan]

12. this made me laugh

[ZeitgeistObserver]

14. Good one!

I'll pass that on. :rofl:

[Cali_Democrat]

16. HAHAHA

:rofl:

[Meldread]

33. People may laugh or mock at him for saying it, but...

...he's right, really. It's to our advantage to limit any contact with any potential intelligent extraterrestrial life until we've properly prepared to make contact. It's just flat out common sense.

That being said, we obviously don't have a way (yet) to do such a thing. If intelligent extraterrestrials possess the technology to actually TRAVEL to Earth and cause us harm, they could also - theoretically at least - find a way to locate us against our best wishes.

Once again, that being said, we shouldn't go out of our way to make things even easier on them.

If or when first contact is made with other intelligent life, it is best that such contact is on our terms.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

34. No one agrees he's right. Not even NASA.

And when are we GOING to be prepared to make contact? What if they're 5000 years ahead of us in tech?

[Strelnikov_]

35. No one?

The person you responded to thinks so. I think so.

And does NASA have a robust dataset with which to model relative safety of First Contact? No.

Therefore, all we have is opinion. And in my opinion, logic dictates caution.

[ZeitgeistObserver]

36. No one.

I don't think a chat site counts. :)

[Meldread]

40. I'm glad I don't count!

Obviously, I agree with your statement -AND- the (generalized) statements of Hawking. The two aren't contradictory. The reality is if we make contact with another intelligent civilization that is - as you said - 5,000 years ahead of us technologically, we're screwed. We better hope they're the friendly type, because if they aren't, there isn't a whole hellva lot we can do to stop them.

I don't think either Stephen or I are saying we should live in fear of aliens coming to dominate planet Earth, but rather as a philosophical question, as we move toward the discovery of other Earth-like planets this is something we should keep in the forefront of our mind... that we could someday come into contact with extraterrestrials who are, to be frank, more like us than we'd like to admit.

My concern is that people will simply distort the message Stephen Hawking is making, and attempt to paint him as some crazy woo-woo. Especially when the only example we have to go by when it comes to intelligent life - humanity - proves his point. Until we have more examples to work with, we can only use the information we have - ourselves.

On the other hand, all intelligent life we encounter may be super non-violent species who embrace some type of radical hippie philosophy. Either is equally possible, because we simply don't know, and because we don't know, there is a reason to be cautious about how we proceed in the coming years and decades. That is all Hawking is saying.

[deaniac21]

38. Cause they are smarter.