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originally posted by: Xtrozero
originally posted by: sapien82
however contrary the whole carnivore alien theory , maybe they too also through industrialisation damaged their home world and had also to switch to a plant based diet in order stop from wiping themselves out before they reached the technological age of galactic space flight.
Do you think eating plants after an evolution of being an carnivore will also change how their brain thinks?
Also many of the other forms of life on earth that are intelligent have a plant based diet
and two of the largest and most intelligent mammals the gorilla and the elephant are primarily plant eaters
How do you want to measure intelligence? Both gorillas and elephants have undersize brains for their bodies because they eat plants, so I could suggest they are not as smart they could have been if they were meat eaters.
also what sounds easier and more intelligent , having to spend all of your energy chasing food all day , or just walking up to it and eating it ?
How much intelligence does a cow need to eat grass?
anyway space travel and meat eating dont really go well together, where would you keep all the meat ?
its too bulky and heavy for space travel
Its not so much the meat as it is the energy the meat provides. The physical aspects of a brain falls into 4 areas: the number of neurons, brain density, cortex size and the amount of energy the body pumps into the brain. Though some whales can have more neurons and other mammals may have close to ours the human brain pretty much blows everyone out of the water in density, cortex size and energy devoted to the brain.
any civilisation advanced enough would genetically alter their species in order to survive space if they planned to send their species outwards, but why send a living being when you could just send probes which do all the work for you!
I agree, I think life travel in the universe is limited where machine travel is unlimited.
originally posted by: eManym
What if interstellar travel is much simpler to accomplish than it is conceived to be. Scientist frequently over think concepts. Many make it so convoluted it appears near impossible.
originally posted by: Gothmog
What if alien life does not exist ?
What if even Drake's equation (which really was not an equation) was factored down now to the point no matter how many planets we think we see in the Goldilock's zone , there was an astounding amount of factors that say no.
What if travel at even near light speed was impossible due to the amount of energy required to move mass at that speed ? And that does not take into effect the actual results of mass at those speeds (would be messy at least)
originally posted by: rickymouse
Well, we might have smaller things than them, but how about reliability. I would bet a smart race of beings that could travel light years from their home world would not have technology that goes poof in five years or so. Technology that static electricity will short out is not good for a spaceship traveling at super fast speeds.
originally posted by: proteus33
a reply to: bloodymarvelous
Who is to say visitors. From other worlds are literate in their technology? How many of us can drive a car ,pilot a plane , sail a boat now how many of those same people can build a car from scratch or a plane or boat? Why everyone thinks the visitors to our world will be like star trek where nearly everyone has advanced knowledge of one sort or another why not like star wars where visitors may just be tramp freighter captains who got lost and ended up here by accident?
originally posted by: one4all
The fat we intake from animals maybe allows our brain to over-grow .
originally posted by: halfoldman
Imagine aliens arrived and they kept slaves.
A bit like the house-elf in Harry Potter.
The slaves must roll out the arrival carpet, and if one corner looks wrong they must be whipped to within an inch of their lives.
And there's the entire planet watching this arrival, and wondering, should we interfere, or is it their culture?
originally posted by: halfoldman
a reply to: Xtrozero
OK, so the UFO crashes, and the alien gets out and starts kicking it.
And the UFO just goes "sorry master" - ouch, flip that hurts.
At what point do we as planet Earth intervene?
Listen man, we don't like the way you treat your sentient robots.
Oh really?
Yeah, really!
originally posted by: eManym
What if interstellar travel is much simpler to accomplish than it is conceived to be.
originally posted by: sapien82
a reply to: Nothin
we arent self replicating , we would be if we were able to produce offspring from parthenogenesis
that is a kind of self replication!
Anyway Von neumann probes are indeed self replicating probes which would be sent out by another species to perform a series of tasks! von neumann probes
The forgotten languages group have covered this subject extensively in their posts , however they recently changed their site so you can no longer look at blog posts (edit , this has since been updated and public can view old posts again)
Forgotten Languages - Von Neumann , DNA computers
check this paragraph , curiously enough , the paragraphs in English always have juicy details
"Curiously enough, any postbiological civilization will need DNA to build its DNA-based computers. This simply means they will need to find a cheap source of DNA, and maybe this is the reason why a future of AI superintelligences farming on carbon-based life forms is not so unlikely"
originally posted by: Xtrozero
originally posted by: Nothin
Self-replicating machines, you say?
That is a compelling thought direction. Thanks!
The reason I suggest machines is because that is one thing that presents the possibility to not be affected by time and also not be affected as life can be by speed, distance, possible interstellar travel etc too. Life will happen, very hard to stop it, but species come and go with most surviving in a very fragile state for rather short periods of time. Humans were much different even 300k years ago at the start of H. sapiens and travel in the universe looks to be extremely time intensive unless there is other types of travel outside of space/time and even that looks to be something that life in general could find as a huge barrier to still stay alive or even stay within some time range as space/time plays with life not in a good way.
Machines can self replicate the same pattern over and over for billions of years with the ability to evolve at their own will with time not being a factor. So we could have machines traveling the universe for billions of years on exploratory missions for a race that has been long.
originally posted by: Xtrozero
originally posted by: Nothin
Imaging a beautiful, sensitive, and gentle alien species: and their only contact with us, is our arsehole schlitzhead politicians: sad...
I have big concerns on whether aliens are here at all when we go down the whole Government cover up path...Outside of a singularity event of a crash I don't see aliens working with some human construct like Government, if they were here we would all know it in a District 9 kind of way.
Hawlking has suggested we might not want to meet an advance alien race since intelligence tends to run as a carnivore trait more than a plant eater. Not only do plant eaters not need to chase down their food, but planets in general do not give the energy needed for the evolution of intelligence.
originally posted by: halfoldman
Imagine aliens arrived and they kept slaves.
A bit like the house-elf in Harry Potter.
The slaves must roll out the arrival carpet, and if one corner looks wrong they must be whipped to within an inch of their lives.
And there's the entire planet watching this arrival, and wondering, should we interfere, or is it their culture?
originally posted by: halfoldman
a reply to: Xtrozero
OK, so the UFO crashes, and the alien gets out and starts kicking it.
And the UFO just goes "sorry master" - ouch, flip that hurts.
At what point do we as planet Earth intervene?
Listen man, we don't like the way you treat your sentient robots.
Oh really?
Yeah, really!
originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: bloodymarvelous
We aren't even close to the technology needed to travel to alien planets. So this seems to suggest it's all made up, as any race able to get here would be far more advanced than us.
originally posted by: Nothin
Just imaging the idea of self-replicating probes, like you and Sapien82 mentioned, wandering the universe on a fool's errand, because the civ that sent them has long been extinct. Kinda sad in a way.
There is also possibilities of vastly more advanced civs than us, exploring in ways that we can't even contemplate, anymore than a cow is able to contemplate how it's hide might end-up as a Clayton Kershaw four-seamer fastball, and all of the implications of the pitch, and the game-situation, player histories, etc...