Comments on: Hawking: Beware the Alien Menace!

By: Our Radio and TV shows have already sold us to Aliens | Unruled Notebook

Our Radio and TV shows have already sold us to Aliens | Unruled Notebook — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:24:10 +0000

[...] or how much of it is right. Many around the web and in the blogosphere have done it. Read here, here, here, here and here for a start. But read Brin if you need to pick [...]

By: RogerPenna

RogerPenna — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:36:45 +0000

AndrewS, your example is very naive and again, assumes that aliens are like humans. Aliens may have entirely different society structures. Between their own species, they may be completely bound by honor or family ties… and may have organized war like the greeks had “champions fighting each other to decide the fate of the war”. But when against other species they may be xenophones. Its just ONE example. They could be like ants. They may have eliminated all opposition in their planet, even if that cost them a nuclear winter. And the suriving gene line survived and expanded to cover the entire planet again and then to space. And they eliminate all other intelligent life forms.

People, stop assuming you know anything about how aliens may think. In the end, all your lines of thought are based on flawed logic that projects humanity into the aliens!

I STRONGLY suggest you all read David Brin´s article about the subject.
http://open.salon.com/blog/david_brin/2010/05/04/perspectives_on_seti_and_aliens

By: RogerPenna

RogerPenna — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:30:53 +0000

the entire problem in the field, and I see it here too, is that people are projecting HUMANITY in the aliens… both for the bad and for the good!!!

the simple fact is: WE DONT KNOW aliens biology, evolutionary path, technology, logic, etc!!

thus, its PURE BULLSHIT to assume aliens wont harm us on purpose. Its also pure bullshit to assume aliens WILL harm us on purpose.

we simply DO NOT KNOW. Thus, we need to be careful.

“oh, but if aliens wanted, they have already catched our I Love Lucy or the Berlin Olympics”

Nonsense. David Brin gives a good argument against such simple minded assumption. Imagine throwing a rock in a lake, causing ripples. Now you get a laser pointer and flash it across the lake. WHICH ONE will probably be noticed? Thats tv signals against the METI program! METI flashed a laser pointer across the lake!

“Oh, but if aliens are advanced, they would have caught even the ripples”. Maybe, maybe not. Its illogical to assume aliens will SURELY see the ripples across the lake. So illogical that METI exists! If aliens will surely see the lakes across the lake, then why flash the laser pointer???????

Some of the people assuming aliens will necessarily be do-gooders and have already surpassed all their evolutionary needs are as naive as the xenophiles on the top of the Empire States Building in Independence Day… “oh, look at the bright light”…

Assuming otherwise is silly too. Although I think the scenario of aliens destroying us because of the resources ON EARTH is very implausible, the fact is that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE.

By: The Sound and the Fury about Stephen Hawking’s Alien Warning

The Sound and the Fury about Stephen Hawking’s Alien Warning — Wed, 12 May 2010 01:16:06 +0000

[...] Sean Carroll mostly agrees. [...]

By: Andrew S

Andrew S — Mon, 03 May 2010 07:25:53 +0000

A species that has the capability of interstellar travel has technology far greater than ours. Part of technology is destructive capability. As technology improves, the destructive capability of a single person increases and the cost decreases.

On our planet, a small handful of people have the destructive capability to destroy earth’s civilization. On a planet far more advanced w/ interstellar travel, it is likely that far more people have such power. A species which has survived development of technology where any member of the society can destroy their planet is one that has developed some sort of peace such that they have survived.

Any intelligent species that visits us will be far more peaceful than we are.

By: Hawking: ‘Kijk uit voor aliens!’

Hawking: ‘Kijk uit voor aliens!’ — Sun, 02 May 2010 11:01:45 +0000

[...] Sean Carroll, tot slot, is het min of meer met Hawking eens. “Als aliens uitermate vredelievend en gul zouden zijn, dan zou het geweldig zijn om contact met [...]

By: Sean Peters

Sean Peters — Sat, 01 May 2010 14:23:22 +0000

Bob @ 31 – here’s the deal though… we’ve pretty much already figured it out. It’s impossible. Not impossible in the sense that there are engineering problems that we haven’t figured out how to solve, but impossible in the breaks-the-laws-of-physics sense. Accelerating something to c would require infinite energy, period. And there’s not even a hint of a way around this. Say it with me, people – FTL travel is not possible. And given that slower than FTL travel is unbelievably impractical for interstellar distances, I think we can pretty much rule out alien invasions.

By: vince from chicago

vince from chicago — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:53:34 +0000

It’s too late. I’ve already contacted an alien and we’re going bowling this weekend. I’ll tell you how it went Monday… if I make it back.

By: Jennifer West

Jennifer West — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 08:16:54 +0000

Sean, I liked this little article in the Onion, sums up all 3 of my opinions on Hawking’s opinion:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/stephen-hawking-warns-of-aliens,17343/

Abbracci,
JRW

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:52:24 +0000

17. Dr. Goulu,

What piffle! Aliens don’t “have to” be aggressive, or indeed anything else. Humans “have to” reproduce exponentially, except, what’s that? Oh, intelligence. We control our reproduction (at least once educated and your standard of living rises).

Behaviour modification. It’s one of the hallmarks of intelligence.