How far are 'aliens' ahead of us? Perhaps not much!

Well I agree with the idea.

Aliens might not be millions of years ahead of us. They may only be 100 years ahead.

We have some very clever people on this planet and we could wake up tomorrow to fine someones very clever idea of a fusion generator hitting the healdines, or someone like Stephen Hawkins having a revelation that explains how to warp time/space.

And then we'd be out there as soon as we could. Imagine someone like Burt Rutan working with those kind of ideas - not some kind of over politicised organisation like NASA.

The closer we get to their level, the more of a liability we can become, IMO...
I would like to think we are merely hundreds of years behind at this point instead of millions.
That doesn't mean we cannot pose a threat to whatever agenda (good or bad) that our strange and smart friends have going on..

Let us hope that our advancements do not provoke a decision to revert us to the stone age. Time seems to be much more crucial to us at this point, than to them.

Good topic, good post..
Cheers!

schuler, very good post. Well thought out. I read each word, and it was no longer than needed to express your idea.

You are correct, I think. Where aliens might be on the scale of species maturity is just a toss of the dice. But I think there is one thing that might influence the dice in how they land. Now what I give here has no more proof than your own idea, but is purely the result of logic and possibility.

There seems to me to be a greater chance of meeting a inferior race, at least morally speaking. It is often bandied about that ET would be so advanced, blah, blah, blah. But any race could have a genius who 'fathered' star travel. But for a race to seek out other worlds requires motive. And the two that seem most likely are curiosity and greed.

Now pure curiosity, the gathering of knowledge for it's own sake, would reasonably be a slow advance through the galaxy. This would therefore mean that the chance of meeting these explorers would be smaller than those who sallied forth to gain from their travels.

Aliens of at least some predatory inclination could be very much like us on many levels, with only some slight technological advantage. And in my estimation, there is a greater likely hood that these type would come calling than an altruistic ET of the 'benevolent big brother' type.

And perhaps this post is also too long to read.

Hmm yeah i think the question of their morality is equally as interesting isn't it?

In fact, if we are to use earth as a guideline we should be abit worried!
It does seem the more powerful and wealthy in this world are more inclined to dominate the poor for their own gain etc

To the Aliens we would most likely be the 'poor and uneducated third world country' type. Would they treat us, the same as we have treated them?

Or is our behaviour limited to our earth?

If nature is anything to go by, you can see killing and survival of the fittest all around you in animals not just humans. So is this a natural universal constant?

Some species of animals attack each other, some don't.

I would say it depends more upon the species of the aliens than anything else, and if they are inclined to be warlike. You can progress in war, in fact theres the saying that we have progressed more technologically in wartime than in any other times of human history. I think that's pretty interesting to think about.

I'd say that's proof that technology doesn't = morals. In fact..it sounds pretty silly to think so now that i've thought about it more

[edit on 16-5-2007 by T0by]