Why would aliens even bother to visit earth?

[Sredni]

What if the actually visit Earth with a tight schedule of, say, ten million years?

Sol-III log
=======
voyage #     Status
1                  lots of lava
---
24                lots of vapour
----

45                lots of plants

----


346             woah! Big, big lizards!
347             lizards!
348             still lizards.
349             booooring lizards
350             WTF! Where did all those lizards go?
351              small rats
352             slightly bigger rats
...
next trip scheduled in 6 million 675 thousand 563 revolutions.

[RoGeorge]

Aliens?  No, thank you.

Why everybody is so thrilled with the idea of meeting extraterrestrial life?  What could be good in that?  Not much.  Let's list what people would want/expect from aliens?
1.  To gain ultra advanced knowledge/technology? (power)
2.  To find an "equal" to chat with? (ego)
3.  To make commerce? (greed)
4.  To solve all our problems? (protection/gods/religion)

The list could continue, but most wishes seem to be guided by very primitive human treats.  One can have (and always had) enough "fun" with human basic instincts, even without aliens.

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?  Even if aliens will just be neutral, that will still be a lot of trouble for humanity.

Even imaginary gods can, and did, bring huge troubles for humans, does anybody think that a real alien won't?

[apis]

To learn from those older/wiser than ourselves.

There is a problem with that idea though: if faster than light travel turns out to be sufficiently "easy" so that any lifeform that develop advanced technology eventually discover how to do it, then the alien civilisations that comes by to visit us would be very old but not necessarily wise. A few thousand years ago it would have seemed impossible to go to the moon, or fly through the skies, yet that is something we do today. But people haven't changed during that time, it is only the level of technology and knowledge that have. We are still the same species that used to live in caves, the cavemen were just as smart and creative as we are today, they just didn't know as much physics as we do.

[mrpackethead]

why exactly would aliens even bother to come to Earth?

To suck your brains out using a plant based plastic straw

[Psi]

Aliens?  No, thank you.

Why everybody is so thrilled with the idea of meeting extraterrestrial life?  What could be good in that?  Not much.  Let's list what people would want/expect from aliens?
1.  To gain ultra advanced knowledge/technology? (power)
2.  To find an "equal" to chat with? (ego)
3.  To make commerce? (greed)
4.  To solve all our problems? (protection/gods/religion)

The list could continue, but most wishes seem to be guided by very primitive human treats.  One can have (and always had) enough "fun" with human basic instincts, even without aliens.

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?  Even if aliens will just be neutral, that will still be a lot of trouble for humanity.

Even imaginary gods can, and did, bring huge troubles for humans, does anybody think that a real alien won't?

Agreed.

One argument for why we don't see any intelligent alien life is because alien life is all smart enough to stay well away from us.
Maybe even smart enough to actively keep us from picking up any alien signals.
For all we know there could be a huge invisible energy bubble put in place over the entire solar system that filters out any alien signals.
They could all be looking at us and shaking their head, saying "When you all learn to live in peace we will let you into the group".

[Electro Detective]

Aliens?  No, thank you.

Why everybody is so thrilled with the idea of meeting extraterrestrial life?  What could be good in that?  Not much.  Let's list what people would want/expect from aliens?
1.  To gain ultra advanced knowledge/technology? (power)
2.  To find an "equal" to chat with? (ego)
3.  To make commerce? (greed)
4.  To solve all our problems? (protection/gods/religion)

The list could continue, but most wishes seem to be guided by very primitive human treats.  One can have (and always had) enough "fun" with human basic instincts, even without aliens.

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?  Even if aliens will just be neutral, that will still be a lot of trouble for humanity.

Even imaginary gods can, and did, bring huge troubles for humans, does anybody think that a real alien won't?

Too right mate     There's enough hassle to deal with from the current group of aliens causing drama the last few hundred years,

we need another holidaying alien mob coming in for an extended  'tour of Earth'  like we need chronic constipation   

Old school PRAYER may yet be of value, hoping the overdue galactic Alien Police rock up, to round up and poff these criminal aliens,

and set up a force field dome around Earth, so no more alientards can sneak in to break balls again,   

or chat up and bonk the unaware local woman, turning them and the offspring into... well, whatever it is many have become 
 
and highly probable they've been doing a lot of easy going blokes too 

 

[TerraHertz]

Can any of you who insist on thinking only in terms of alien _civilizations_ explain _why_ you do this? (ie all of you.)

Do you really think future developments in AI (science of mind and consciousness in general) and genetic engineering (both specific to humans, and in general as a branch of computing science and bio-machines) are not going to have any significant effects?

What do you think such effects might be, on the human species and our cultural structures?

Have you considered that such effects will be a universal constant, for all species that develop technology, no matter what kind of bodily form and cultural/economic structure they evolved. Fundamentally they have to have minds of some kind, and some kind of chemical genetic coding. The details don't matter. Once they become able to manipulate and extend both, the same technological singularity occurs for them. When sentient individuals of any kind attain the ability to self-bootstrap to something greater, at least some of them will attempt it, and some will succeed. Regardless of any social restrictions or opposition. Sometimes peacefully and openly, sometimes in secret to avoid conflict, sometimes in outright conflict with the rest of the culture.

Knowledge cannot be effectively repressed, while society retains any technological continuity. So the scenario repeats over and over, until one of the conflict instances results in termination of the potential for further instances of individual self-boostrapping.

Falling back to pre-industrial state doesn't count as 'termination of potential', since it won't take long to regain the technologies. Termination of potential means destruction of the species, maybe even the world environment. Given that one or both sides of such conflicts have bio-engineering, AI and nuclear tech, that's a certain outcome for some such conflict as they repeat over and over.

And there's the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Do you _really_ think the Star Trek like scenarios are anywhere near feasible? So they have just a few kinds of tech advanced over ours (warp speed, photon torpedoes, teleporting, etc) but nothing which makes a 'society of plain old humans' untenable?

Even the Borg are an infantile concept, totally failing to integrate absolutely predictable technological developments.


Btw, speaking of inscrutable aliens, I recommend the short SF story Roadside Picnic, by the Strugatsky brothers.
  http://soviethistory.msu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/picnic.pdf
The 1979 Tarkovsky movie Stalker  was based on this story, and is very very good. Also, making it killed most of the film crew including Tarkovsky. Some of the scenes were filmed in the area of an old abandoned power station. PCBs and other contaminants were in the water, and most of those who stayed there died of cancer over the next few years. So it was Tarkovsky's last masterpiece. A tragedy.

[MT]

Aliens have been with us for a long time. 9 brains one for each arm and one central, changes collour and very clever can learn new things and and learns from the environment. Most likely any alien form that can travel through a galaxy would regard homo sapiens as we watch a colony of ants for 5 sec and walk further on the forest trail. most likely we are watched every day and we newer know it so Im not particularly worried.

[sleemanj]

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?

Knowledge. 

[Alex Eisenhut]

[Electro Detective]

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?

Knowledge.

We don't need their 'Knowledge', one can safely suspect/assume what the price tag will be

There's never a free lunch from any visitor, ask a Trojan descendant how that shyte works


Safer and cheaper to be a backwards world for now   

 @ ALIENS:
Wrong Way, TURN BACK!
Your GPS is rooted and or outdated maps,
Nothing to see here...   



 

[apis]

[Red Squirrel]

What if the actually visit Earth with a tight schedule of, say, ten million years?

Sol-III log
=======
voyage #     Status
1                  lots of lava
---
24                lots of vapour
----

45                lots of plants

----


346             woah! Big, big lizards!
347             lizards!
348             still lizards.
349             booooring lizards
350             WTF! Where did all those lizards go?
351              small rats
352             slightly bigger rats
...
next trip scheduled in 6 million 675 thousand 563 revolutions.

There's still lot of lizards but they are in human form sitting in ivory towers on Bay street. 

[coppercone2]

this needs to be reposted

[RoGeorge]

Highly recommended:



 


Later edit:
The full playlist https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL32F8B5F41870D160

[rt]

So, why everybody is so eager to meet aliens?  What do you wish, or expect for, from aliens?

Knowledge.

I doubt we'd acquire much knowledge from the encounter ....

"As you will no doubt be aware, the plans for development of the outlying regions of the Galaxy require the building of a hyperspatial express route through your star system, and regrettably, your planet is one of those scheduled for demolition. The process will take slightly less than two of your Earth minutes. Thank you…

"There's no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for fifty of your Earth years, so you've had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it's far too late to start making a fuss about it now…

"What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams.

[Rerouter]

I couldn't see visit unless FTL was a lot easier / cheaper than we think (exotic matter and negative mass fun)

However a probe, more likely, Think trappist1 you have a solar system with something weird going on, so you point telescopes and similar at it

lets say them looking at us, Earth has tonnes of weird Electromagnetic activity, depending on when they where looking multiple weak gamma and X-ray bursts (space based nuke detonation), a rapidly changing atmosphere composition and the appearance of what looks like a dust cloud or rings that should decay, but seem to be growing, and even more confusing it seems like there is a weak light pattern radiating from the back of the planet.

If they are far enough away that they cannot see any more detail, this would be a very weird planet. weird enough to try and build something small and unmanned that could do a flyby and get some info on the thing, If we found a planet with so many possible markers for intelligent life, there reaches a point where its cheaper to build a probe to last a 100 year voyage travelling at a very high speed, than a orbiting telescope big enough to capture it in detail

[sleemanj]

I doubt we'd acquire much knowledge from the encounter ....

Apart from, you know, answering perhaps the most fundamental question of our existence (aside from "what's the point") - are we alone.

[sainbablo]

Aliens are already here, who else would be poisoning, corrupting and dumbing down humans at such an amazing rate? 

Let's not forget all the instigated wars, financial thievery and wealth hoarding. 

Perhaps these alien criminals got the ass from their habitat at one time, and their ousters never bothered to keep a tab on them in case they stuffed up someone else,

so here they are, HERE on Earth, cloaked in secrecy and unopposed...Enjoy!   


I reckon their rides are hidden in remote deserts (not desserts), inaccessible icey areas or deep undersea somewhere,

serviced and fueled up

in case SHTF one day and the sleeping    awaken,


or BIGGER bully aliens rock up to take over the easy turf   

Aliens  in  miniaturized  submarines  are circulating in our  blood  streams arterial aw well as venous enjoying the  voyage peeping at  various 
human  structures free  of  cost counting their blessings.

[StillTrying]

I think this 'visit' from Chile in November 2010 is a good one.
www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-kean/the-extraordinary-ufo-sig_b_1342585.html


So what was it, 3000+mph and captured on 7 or 8 cameras.

[W2NAP]

To me the Fermi paradox is a hugely interesting question.
I was really sure several decades back that all we had to do was listen on a large enough scale and you'd find at least one advanced civilisation transmitting something, but we haven't heard squat. Intelligent life might be a lot rarer (and perhaps more fleeting) than we think.

or, a civilization only uses the types of rf communication that we currently use for only a short short time and then you advance out of it. so in theory we could only pick up something close by using the types of rf communication we use or know of, thus means we could be missing a huge communication network of far more advanced peoples we just don't know it is there cause to us it appears as just noise.

[shteii01]

The military has an interesting saying.  Something like this:  "Amateurs argue about tactics.  Professionals argue about logistics."

What it translates to in this case is that Earth is much closer to the periphery of our galaxy and to travel between stars just takes too long.  Meaning, the logistics are just not there to travel to Earth from the core of the galaxy.  And even traveling from half way from the core is logistically not worth it.

And that brings up what Hawking said.  Who would expand the logistical resources to travel away from the much easier and much more populated routes/locations?  Criminals looking for safe places to hide.  People trying to escape something (not necessarily criminal).  "Crazy" adventurers with more money/resources than brains, maybe someone who wants to claim a "first" even though it is something very unimportant.

Basically we are looking for relatively very few who would travel to here.  We are basically living in equivalent of Alaskan wilderness or middle of nowhere Nebraska.  Nobody comes here, nobody even knows that there is here to come to.  Why?  The logistics.

[David Hess]

The military has an interesting saying.  Something like this:  "Amateurs argue about tactics.  Professionals argue about logistics."

I agree, nobody is going to cross between the stars to bring something back.  But this also has a much more sinister implication:

1. They did not come from that far away.
2. They are not planning on returning; they are coming to stay

This was brought up twice explicitly in Footfall:

The important point is that they dropped something massive, something they may need if they contemplate leaving our solar system.

Which means they intend to stay.

Rather presumes on our hospitality.  Almost as if they didn't intend us any free choice.



The point is that they threw it away when they got here.  It was used to cross interstellar space, and they dropped it.  They let it fall back toward the stars.  They're serious.  They've got no plans to go home.

So. They dropped it to save weight, of course, but. . . well.  As if your ancestors had burned the Mayflower.  Yes, they came to stay.

[BrianHG]

Here a good 5 minute laugh:

[RoGeorge]