Will Humanity Recognize Alien Life When See It?

a reply to: burgerbuddy

Or, say, Childhood's End by Clarke, where the main protagonist is a sort of barely perceptible aggregate of pure mentality.

Also by Clarke, The City and the Stars, where two of the main characters are pure mentalities sort of embossed on standing waves of space-time.

Spock was awesome. He also "melded" with a machine. Its name was NOMAD.

There was also a Star Trek episode where intelligent life moved so quickly that they couldn't be seen. Captain Kirk drank some high-octane Expresso laced with Speed, and he was accelerated to their realm.

Or, let's say you were stuck on the most boring planet EVAR as a TDY.

Everyone sees Star Trek and thinks every new world is like the back lot at Paramount. What if you had FTL, and a comparatively close world was habitable, except what you got instead of Kafferian apples or singing kudzu was lichens? And you only had a handful of choices there?

But, is this a biosphere winding down, or one getting going (whoops, now it's full of human carried bacteria and protists), or maybe it hit a local minima and evolution got "stuck"?

However, you have what looks for all the world like cliff dwellings like you see near the Anasazi. It could be weathering, could be extinct megabees, could be an organism more than a lichen, but no artifacts, no burial sites, no pottery, no beads. But maybe they didn't have skeletons, and who knows if pottery is a common thing outside the Earth?

How would you know? Aliens are by definition not what you expect. You can't use ST as an example. It won't be humanoids with head appliances. That makes for cheaper makeup effects but that's all it is.

I think the question should be "Would we recognize alien consciousness or intelligence?". Their shape and form would be irrelevant...unless they were marauding all over our planet.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

Well, things like this make it even more interesting -

NASA announcement: Arsenic-based life form discovered on Earth

a reply to: knowledgehunter0986

An inch is like a mile or what is above is also below or As Within so Without?

originally posted by: LadyGreenEyes
a reply to: burdman30ott6

Well, things like this make it even more interesting -

NASA announcement: Arsenic-based life form discovered on Earth

This has been shown to be incorrect.
www.nature.com...

Life will find a way..

Just because a science fiction writer can come up with some strange idea doesn't mean it isn't silly. Some science fiction writers have good sense about science and others do not. This is one post on the topic:
stanericksonsblog.blogspot.com...

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
Peeple explained an aspect of "how do you look for the phenomena if you don't look outside the filters of our perception".

I suggest that if we can't perceive it in our limited way, and make sense of it, does it really exist?

Many people have no trouble recognizing Greys when they are in their bedroom. But in the forest many years ago they called the little green men fairies and leprechauns.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: TheConstruKctionofLight
Peeple explained an aspect of "how do you look for the phenomena if you don't look outside the filters of our perception".

I suggest that if we can't perceive it in our limited way, and make sense of it, does it really exist?

Of course it exist. Your giant human EGO is not the center of the universe. Just because you do not know it is there does not mean it is not there.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
Of course it exist. Your giant human EGO is not the center of the universe. Just because you do not know it is there does not mean it is not there.

Really? I may or may not be holding something in my hand. Does it exist?

a reply to: Blue ShiftIf you are holding something in your hand it exist.

If a tree falls in a forest and no human is there to hear it, it still makes a noise.

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
If a tree falls in a forest and no human is there to hear it, it still makes a noise.

Hypothetical trees don't make a noise when they fall.

a reply to: Blue ShiftBut real trees do. And if you can perceive Hypothetical trees you can perceive the noise they make when falling.

a reply to: spiritualarchitect

sound waves still propagate if there is no one around


Hypothetical trees do make a noise when they fall
sort of..
engineering.mit.edu...

originally posted by: kibric
a reply to: spiritualarchitect

sound waves still propagate if there is no one around

Exactly. Sound does not need humans to survive.

a reply to: spiritualarchitect

the metaphysical lesson is
if you fart in an empty forest then leave
no one can smell it...

originally posted by: spiritualarchitect
But real trees do. And if you can perceive Hypothetical trees you can perceive the noise they make when falling.

Nope.