This past summer, scientists discovered an Earth-like planet orbiting a star situated just 20 light years from our Sun. The planet, known as Gliese 581g has a mass roughly 3 times that of Earth, but more importantly, it lies within the goldilocks region. This means that Gliese 581g orbits its star at a distance that is conducive fostering life. Had the planet been too far from its star, it would be too cold and any water on the planet would be frozen. Had it been too close, the planet would be too hot and therefore water could only exist as vapour. Even without any confirmation that water actually exists on the planet, many scientists are confident that the planet harbours life, or at the very least, will develop the presence of life at some point in the future.
The discovery immediately reinvigorated the discussion about whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe. Because scientists were able to find a goldilocks planet so easily and in such close proximity to Earth, many speculate that there may be billions of similar planets in the Milky Way galaxy alone. This makes it highly probable that life exists in many places outside our solar system and that some of that life is what we would deem to be “intelligent”.
So does this mean we can expect to be visited by alien life forms in the near future? Also, does this lend credence to those who claim that aliens have already been here? The answer is likely “no”. Even despite the promising numbers, there remains another camp of experts who subscribe to the Rare Earth Hypothesis. The theory was originally posited by geologist Peter Ward, and it holds that the emergence of multicellular life requires a confluence of astrophysical and geological circumstances that is so rare that it is not likely to have occurred anywhere else in the universe.
Furthermore, one must consider the enormity of the task of trying to reach planets as far away as the ones we’re talking about. To find a single goldilocks planet we had to extend our search 20 light years away. And by galactic standards, this is nothing (the diameter of the galaxy is 5000 times that distance). If we restrict the discussion to only those planets that, not only could potentially house life, but have actually supported life long enough that it evolved into intelligent beings like us, then we can expect that our visitors would have had to travel much further than 20 light years to meet their interstellar counterparts in the flesh.
On the other hand, what if humans wished to take the initiative and travel to Gliese 581g, just as a starting point? Well, with current space shuttle technology (the shuttles max out at approximately 2800 km/h) it would take almost 800 000 years to get there - three times longer than our species has existed. And this doesn’t even address the unimaginable fuel requirements.
An optimist might suggest that perhaps the aliens are much more intelligent than us and have already harnessed the power of things like wormholes, or have developed their own apparatuses that allow them to bend to fabric of space-time in order to travel at speeds we can’t even imagine. This is also a possibility. However, if this is case, then there is another obstacle with which these ultra-intelligent beings would likely have to contend. Civilizations that become extremely technologically advanced are much more likely to destroy themselves. Humans have already shown glimpses of this tendency. As we’ve become more technologically advanced, the rate at which we exhaust the planets finite resources (both food and energy) has steadily increased. While this alone probably won’t result in our extinction, it may well set us back drastically if we ever reach the apocalyptic level of resource depletion that many are predicting will happen.
Secondly, with the advent of nuclear weapons and our insatiable penchant for genocidal conflict, several times within the past century humans have marched to the precipice of self extermination. Today we possess the scientific knowledge to create weapons systems potent enough to render our species extinct several times over. Therefore, given the inevitably ephemeral nature of civilizations like our own, any contact between two disparate civilizations, whether in person or via radio signals, would require, not only that two such civilizations evolved independently, but also that they existed at the right time relative to one another. The combination of all these negative factors makes me skeptical that we ever have, and pessimistic that we ever will play host to intelligent beings from other planets.
However there is another possibility that is rarely addressed in the discussion surrounding extraterrestrial intelligence. Perhaps our view of life and how it can evolve is too narrow. The concept of the goldilocks region assumes that all life requires liquid water. But is it not possible that the universe, in its vastness, could have found a way to circumvent this requirement? Could there be other substances that we haven’t discovered yet, that are even better suited to sustaining life, and are much less fickle in their temperature requirements than our beloved liquid-H20?
It’s my hypothesis that if an alien civilization did exist with the curiosity and the technological wherewithal to travel to Earth, they would likely send some form of drone or avatar, rather than to come in person. It’s also possible that they might make these drones or avatars as stealth as possible in order to avoid detection. Under these assumptions, it could be the case, that we have already been visited (or are being visited) and we simply didn’t have the technology to realize it.
Oh, there are ageless species on earth. The hydra is ageless, but they do it by not having a nervous system.
Just coming up with ideas.
I'm starting to think it's a bad idea to travel interstellar distances as physical beings. Limitations of physical beings:
a) more restrictions on how fast and how far we can travel
b) not evolved to live in a vacuum
We should consider reproducing our brain's electrical signals into a type of EM signal that operates in a medium less susceptible to destructive universal forces. Then we can travel at the speed of light and use black holes in creative ways to speed up or slow down time. For locations too far to travel to, we can use non-locally correlated phenomenon like quantum entanglement to scan and learn about the environment. Actually, it would be even better if our neural signals existed as non-locally correlated signals, then spatial limitations are no longer an issue.
So maybe aliens also realized the limitation of physical existence, and decided if they want to travel through space, or save themselves from a super nova, they'd have to exist as something else.
Quantum entanglement is definitely the way to go for faster than light communication and thought processes. Though the first step is to download our consciousness onto more robust systems (like that of a computer or a "Borg-like" body...who knows if this will happen soon after the singularity event or whether it'll take hundreds of years to refine the process. You could then possibly use quantum computing and entanglement to extend your reach without having to actually physically travel long distances. In essence, you first awaken the planet, then your star system, galaxy, local cluster, and finally awaken the entire universe.
I find it fascinating that entropy is always increasing yet we (and evolution itself) strive for continuously higher ordered systems...there has to be a connection there.
Regarding entropy at odds with human desire for ordered systems....I was reading a short story about Multivacs. What a coincidence.
Also, I was talking with a friend the other day about how because of science and technology, human society's "rate of change" (as opposed to just change) is unprecedented. In the past, several generations living in the same community sing the same songs and share the same stories. Today, each generation finds it difficult to identify with each other, eg. last generation people had a passive relationship with media (they consumed media), this generation people have an interactive relationship with media (they make youtube videos, play video games, write blogs etc...). I'm already having trouble understanding the culture of kids 10 years junior to me.
According to Malcolm Gladwell, it takes 10000 hours to become an expert/professional at something. But these days, by the time you practice your 10000 hours, your skills are already out of date. "YES, I'm an expert level COBOL programmer! Now what legacy/soon to be obsolete system can I work on?"
So I started wondering, is there a point when change is too fast? If such a point exists, what is humanity's negative feedback system for regulating change, or even rate of change?
My friend suggested that religion can act as negative feedback.
He also suggested that there are people who propose that we not fight change, but expedite it. Let's proceed as quickly as possible to maximize the efficiency of the human condition, even if it's radical changes like turning into cybernetic beings, or existing as radiation (one step closer to omnipresent, like God), or whatever it is.
I personally like the latter approach because the human state is too limiting. If we can exist in a "better" state, we'll be much closer to mastering the universe. Being corporeal sucks.
Yup...the onset of the information revolution means that we have entered exponential times where the old socioeconomic constructs of the industrial revolution no longer apply (one of the reasons the economy is having a major spasm right now). Some may say that it's only happening in the western world and that countries like China and India are only entering their industrial boom stage now. That argument is irrelevant because information is moving so quickly that their industrial stage will be much shorter than the West, and they will catch up very quickly. Anyway...in order to keep up with the flow of information alone, because that is what we are simply doing from one generation to another, passing along the information (DNA, past experiences, culture, etc...), we'll have to meld with some type of cybernetic system.
I'm not sure we should extrapolate trends and behaviour of human civilizations to those of extra-terrestrial civilizations (if they exist). So I think it's unwarranted to say most advanced extraterrestrial civilizations tend to genocidal conflicts that will cause their own extinction.
Aubrey de Grey, a researcher in aging, argues that aging is a curable disease. He says,
"I can answer [why nature has not produced ageless species] with an uncontroversial answer. It's also a mainstream answer that I happen to agree with. Aging is not a product of natural selection. Aging is a product of evolutionary neglect. In other words, we have aging because it's hard work not to have aging. You need more genetic pathways and more sophistication in your genes to age slowly. Evolution doesn't care if genes are passed down by individuals living a long time or by procreation."
So if the above were true, it's reasonable to expect a technologically advanced species to be genetically ageless. Or perhaps they achieved immortality through radical means, like becoming a computer? which is just digital activity? Or take it further, they exist as radio signals or cosmic radiation? By being ageless/immortal, and with the power to harness wormholes, it drastically increases their opportunities to communicate with humans of the 21st century.
Given how advanced aliens can be, why would they even talk to us? To them, we're just a colony of ants. I can't remember the last time I tried to communicate with ants...and even when I did, they didn't understand what I was saying.