Are we the most technologically advanced race

Originally posted by Quest
I like how people assume that lots of space means there is other life.

Going on nothing but logic.... we know that on earth, life is every where. You can see vast tracks of green life. It is in the air, water, on land, and in the soil. Life can adapt past major events that cause mass extinctions, yet rebound and refill the gaps.

Yet, looking at our own solar system we see lifeless orbs.

Planets baked to a crisp, devoid of water, frozen beyond chemistry... and unshielded from radiation.

So despite the concepts, the dreams, and the wishes... the FACTS are there are no signals from space, no proof of aliens, no lush planets. We keep expanding our view, and the more nothing we find, the more we have to consider WE are the exception to the rule.

Logic sugest we are alone, and until there is evidence otherwise, there is no reason to think that more space means more life.

After all, live can live at the bottom of the ocean, in 300 degree mud pits, and in the freezing upper atmosphere....but after 4 BILLION years...hasn't spread across a single neigboring planet. Even more of a bummer is if we find that life was on Mars or else where and was snuffed out. Because they earth is just a lucky rock... and we are it.

We've barely studied our own solar system.
We've only gained the ability to detect the largest planets in the last 10 years at short distances.
This galaxy alone contains 100 billion stars. There are at least 100s of billions of galaxies. I think logically we are not the ONLY life in the universe.
Your argument fails because we have explored so little of space.
We've cataloged less than 100 hundred planets.
As far as I know we can't detect anything near an Earth sized planet.
It is staggering to think Earth is the only planet with life.
There might not be any ET life for hundreds or thousands of light years away, but that's still just a fraction of the Milky Way. I would bet my life there is life somewhere outside the Earth.
Is there really any doubt there are other intelligent beings somewhere in the universe. Whether aliens are visiting is the question. I believe they are.

[edit on 25-5-2006 by Schaden]

[edit on 25-5-2006 by Schaden]

my reptilian friend and I are able to telepathically communicate with each other, whales also use this type communication, when you saw those orbs in space they were whales, projecting in astral form, swimming through space, and the darts of light were iguanas who have transformed into a different energetic state
humans are primitive in comparison to these technologies, you should all learn from the 'creatures' on earth before you declare yourselves 'the most technologically advanced'

Originally posted by laiguana
my reptilian friend and I are able to telepathically communicate with each other, whales also use this type communication, when you saw those orbs in space they were whales, projecting in astral form, swimming through space, and the darts of light were iguanas who have transformed into a different energetic state
humans are primitive in comparison to these technologies, you should all learn from the 'creatures' on earth before you declare yourselves 'the most technologically advanced'

rrriiiiggghhhttt.....not wanting to sound dumb or even patronising but the day you offer objective' evidence of those claims, i'll don my fig leaf and head for the nearest jungle.....but for now i'm thinking i'm good sitting at home....

anyway, the fact that there are more stars than there are GRAINS of sand on the whole of this planet tends to suggest that there is quite logically other life forms out there. I said life forms because what we are actually looking for is extra-solar EXTELLIGENCE. Have a bop on wikipedia:

definition of extelligence

so almost all animals on earth possess intelligence of some sort but through extelligence comes the ability to use that intelligence and pass it on to others through culture, verbal expression adding to the pool of knowledge.

Now to the point, if there is an extra-solar extelligence, there are too many variables to take into account to even hazard a guess. If we take our planet for example, what is the dominant form of life (not including bacteria)....insects. There are far more different species of insect than there are mammals, birds and (sorry laiguana) reptiles. I remember hearing an estimate that there are 50 billion planets in our galaxy alone, so it would be a safe bet to assume that there is a planet similar enough to our own out there.

As the saying goes "never ASSUME because you make an ASS out of both U & ME" but that is all we can do.

So ass-u-m-ing that a form of extra solar extelligence does exist i highly doubt that they would have taken the same path that we have. I have always wondered why we assume that other advanced civs would use radio waves as a form of communication? I don't think i actually possess let alone listen to cassettes anymore and they were only made obselete, what 10 years ago....

so in answer to the title of this thread.....probably not. there are logically more primitive life forms and more advanced life forms. Even a few that are on a similar level to what we are. And it depends how long 'we' as a civilisation last. Look at all of the past civilisations on this planet alone. how long did they last????

Originally posted by Schaden
We've barely studied our own solar system.
We've only gained the ability to detect the largest planets in the last 10 years at short distances.
This galaxy alone contains 100 billion stars. There are at least 100s of billions of galaxies. I think logically we are not the ONLY life in the universe.
Your argument fails because we have explored so little of space.
We've cataloged less than 100 hundred planets.
As far as I know we can't detect anything near an Earth sized planet.
It is staggering to think Earth is the only planet with life.
There might not be any ET life for hundreds or thousands of light years away, but that's still just a fraction of the Milky Way. I would bet my life there is life somewhere outside the Earth.
Is there really any doubt there are other intelligent beings somewhere in the universe. Whether aliens are visiting is the question. I believe they are.

Clearly you missed the fact that I was being logical. There is no Logical reason to think beings from other planets are visiting earth. If you do, then you don't get logic or the concept of evidence and proof. You don't have to agree with me...

Personal experience and faith often overide logic.

More working room does not *logically* mean repeated outcomes (ie life). This is expecially true when you are talking about things as large as planets and comlpex as life.

Instead of speculating how much space is around in the universe, and how old it is to figure out if aliens or life exists outiside of earth, you could just look to the occasional occurences where they do come here.

Should someone ask, when and if they will come if they are allready here?

Well, It really is all about variables, right?

To support life, a planet needs to be the right size, the right distance from a similar star, and contain the right ingredients (i.e. an atmosphere, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, etc.)

with SO MANY other stars, and planets being discovered all the time (BTW, I thought I read that the count was around 148?) the chances of there NOT being life somewhere else is worse than winning the lottery 6 times in a row.

Thanks all for posting as this is my first post on abovetopsecret, when me and my m8 got to chatting about ufo's my first thought was are these ufo people see actually piloted by other intelligent life and if so are they extraterrestrials there is no actual proof to say yes they are or no there not, which lead to there must be other life out there in our universe, it would be stupid to say no there isn't as the universe is so large and there's so many galaxies and planets out there.
which then lead to who's to say that all the other life out there began before us(humans) which would give us a head start on advancing technologically, but also who's to say they advance technologically, they could have advanced in other directions i.e spiritually etc.
which lead us on to, when the big bang happened obviously at its centre the galaxy's and planets with in these galaxy's would mature and life would start before the other planets working out from the centre of the universe would be mature enough to support life, so if our own galaxy was 1 of these galaxy's at the centre of the universe, we would be 1 of the first civilizations in the universe, I'm not saying we are the most advanced but what or who's to say were not.

Then i read that the universe doesn't have a centre which really does boggle the mind :S

i didn't start the thread so i could say that we are the most advanced race in the universe that would be pretty stupid, but to actually say hey every 1 out there who think were being visited by aliens because there more advanced than us have u ever stopped to think that maybe were not as dumb as we might think we are and were not to far behind other life out there or even are we on par or in front of them technologically wise and maybe other life decided to take another route and evolve spiritual

Sometimes I wonder if we aren't the most technologically advanced potentially intelligent lifeform.

Here is why I believe this:

Technology is largely machine-oriented. That is, we tend to focus on that which can do work on our behalf, and the information we can store. A computer is a device that stores massive amounts of information and does work upon it, etc.

Perhaps there are other ways to get things done of which we cannot think. We get stuck by the question of "how does one reach a goal without directing a machine to do work?" We get stuymped.

But maybe other intelligences have other ways of working that are highly effective to achieve goals but aren't classically 'technological.' We might have a very hard time recognizing any such activity. It might make little sense to us at all.

Anyways, maybe technology is a human quality. Maybe alien goal achievement is very very alien.

Originally posted by Quest

Clearly you missed the fact that I was being logical. There is no Logical reason to think beings from other planets are visiting earth. If you do, then you don't get logic or the concept of evidence and proof. You don't have to agree with me...

Personal experience and faith often overide logic.

More working room does not *logically* mean repeated outcomes (ie life). This is expecially true when you are talking about things as large as planets and comlpex as life.

Sorry but you made the fallacious argument. (We haven't detected aliens, therefore they don't exist)
Don't believe aliens are visiting ? Fine by be. It's controversial.
I don't know why you even brought it up. That isn't the point.

Reasoning there is no life anywhere in the universe because there doesn't appear to be any in the solar system, one of countless trillions, is pitiful. It's incongruent. How can you possibly make a logical determination there are no aliens when we've explored less than .0000000000000000000001% of the Universe ?
Absurd.


Unless you believe in a fundamental biblical description of creation, it is logical to believe we are NOT the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe.

I said it's very doubtful humans have the highest technology. The universe is near infinite. By your "logical" reasoning we can rule out ET life and should accept the idea we are alone because we haven't detected ET life in the solar system or within a 50 ly proximity ? And this is only a cursory exploration of a 50 ly radius due to our limited technology. Anything outside the solar system has been examined only by EM radiation.

We've physically examined just one planet that could conceivably have or had life. (Mars) You're throwing in the towel much too soon.

"Are we the most technologically advanced race?"

No. We have stupid people, stupid people who join the military, corrupt people, corrupt people who pollute the planet and make war, delusional religious institutions who worship 2000 year old lore. Our DNA is close to the Chimp. There's always the ridicule factor and denial when it comes to new shocking revelations in science. I can see other advanced civilizations getting past oil, The Da Vinci Code, and The Book of Revelations, not mistreating the planet with wasteful consumption economy. It's vast Universe that does revolve around the primate Homo sapien animal species.

Meet your ancestor.

I think it would be useful to first find out if there is any other life out there!

In my opinion if there was other races, humans may indeed be the most technological, but socially and ethically humans are still very primative.

What puzzles me is that if people believe that we are indeed being visited how are these ET's able to travel the ABSOLUTLEY IMMENSE UNCOMPREHENSIBLE DISTANCES??

if we have been visited i don't think that we would be able to take photgraphs or videos, if they have managed to come all of the way here (and can go all the way back home....) i highly doubt that they would let themselves be seen.

i personally believe that our whole grasp of physics needs to be reviewed and a new law put forward to enable us to see space as a completly different environment as the earth and come up with new technologies. At the moment we are using really quite primitive technology as a form of propulsion in space.

I mean the 'stick a big ass rocket on the back' method is too Warner brothers for my liking!

Originally posted by moog synthesizer
"Are we the most technologically advanced race?"

No. We have stupid people, stupid people who join the military...

now, now, no need for name calling. the majority of soldiers deserve more respect than many of us ever will.

kolo_heights
but socially and ethically humans are still very primitive

yes we are but who's to say all those other races out there in the universe are as well, for all we know maybe we are more mature than any other race out there, this is my point because we've found no 1 out there yet and they haven't found us and come to say "hi" we have no idea if we are more advanced in all aspects, at the end of the day look at mathematics for instance whose to say our mathematics is right the only thing to know is the creator of the universe if there is a creator that is, we have no idea how the universe started or if its always been.

i remember watching men in black and at the end there's an alien playing marbles and in the centre of this marble is our galaxy.

maybe we will never get to the bottom of it all.

as i mentioned in a earlier post i read that the universe as no centre maybe it doesn't but from our understanding of what we know there must be a centre but then on the flip side maybe there isn't, some 1 or a group of people did calculations and come up with this, but like i said maybe were following the wrong path regarding mathematics, we can just surmise from what we do know.

Truly its just mind boggling :S

okay, first off, the universe is NOT infinite, it has an end. Although it is expanding. Secondly, it is equally as ignorant to assume that we are not the most technologically advanced species in the universe as well as to assume we are the most techonogically advanced. From all the empirical evidence we have now, which is none, we can't say for certain that we aren't. Now, it is also ignorant to assume that there is other life out there, and it is also ignorant again to say that there isn't. Ultimately we don't know. So in the end it is all what you believe, at least for right now. So it is possible for us to be the most technological, or even the only species. At the same time it's hard to picture us being the most technological or only species. Finally, what if that other race that was brought into existance at the same time as us went through 1000 years of dark ages? Or what if they didn't have enough resources to go through scientific advancements on as fast as a scale as we have? Perhaps their governments restricted them. Who knows!?