Are we Alien Computers?

Recently, as I was thinking about Artificial Intelligence and how we might perfect it, I concluded that the only way was to create a bio chip. Indeed a decent AI needs to remember, learn, adapt and correlate like a human brain does.
Such biotechnology isn't far fetched and it wont be long before we see living cells attached to computers, then we will get rid of the electric cables and let it run on food, air, water. Then we may place cameras, audio and various sensors for a better learning until we manage to get rid of all the electronic and make a perfect living machine...an engineered human body.

It is then easy to believe that we are indeed machines ourselves with all the mysteries surrounding our birth, existence, God, Aliens and the never ending possibilities technology offers.

Specific Biogenetically engineered costumes fit for 'exotic energy' that runs the machinery inside.

A device we created to experience a highly condensed three dimensional atmosphere inside out of linear time.

reply to post by TheOracle


I have contemplated this myself, and it does seem to make almost too much sense. The only thing I can't figure out is what our designated task is. If we were created by another race of beings, there must have been a clear purpose for them to go to all the trouble of making the fascinating human machine. Something beyond drinking our DNA.

First off, I moved this to Skunkworks from Aliens and UFOs.

I personally think this is a pretty neat theory. I do not think I have heard this before.

Now if you could find some sort of link between abduction experiences etc and this theory, it could go in Aliens and UFOs.


Neat theory.

Originally posted by Dulcimer
First off, I moved this to Skunkworks from Aliens and UFOs.

I personally think this is a pretty neat theory. I do not think I have heard this before.

Now if you could find some sort of link between abduction experiences etc and this theory, it could go in Aliens and UFOs.


Neat theory.

Well a link isn't hard to find.
Many alien abductees and contactees talk about how important we are to them. They seem to study us very closely, watching how we evolve, taking samples and observing how we react to other alien beings and cross race hybrids. They also mentioned that they needed us , to help save their race from extinction, maybe engineering life is the only way their species can reproduce? These are some clues that we may well be "farmed" or guinea pigs.
And also they never made some "official visit" to the white house as would a space explorer do when discovering intelligent life. Since they know EVERYTHING about us, why would they bother introducing themselves and sharing knowledge? Moreover The human reaction (meeting the creator) could be catastrophic on many levels. We already have our ideas of who God is and it doesn't always fit an alien face.

reply to post by TheOracle

The human body is weak, prone to damage, slow, fat, without any weapons, disease ridden and goes against any kind of natural evolution where the best (and thus most "perfect") survive. Even an improved human body would still suffer the flaws.

At least the aliens could have given us that cool Klingon head plate so we could bump heads when fighting.

[edit on 27-1-2008 by merka]

For creatures that can travel tons of light years away, they made pretty lousy design for a PC. I meen the market is low (very few get
abducted) , calculating power is rather bad, demands tons of calories,
whines too much.
I'll bet we are gallactical Apple III.
And hey, the answer anyway is 42.

The answer was 42, but the question was what do you get when you multiply 6 x 9.

"Six by nine. Forty two."
"That's it. That's all there is."
"I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe"[


My point? Humans are bad computers.

However that is not unuseful. Human error has, in several historic instances, shown people how to find a correct answer that had previously eluded them for years.

If the brains of living creatures were somehow being used as a computer network, their strength would be that unlike most computers, they are capable of accidents.

That makes us ideal for exploring unknown possibilities.


Now, there are other considerations. Obviously aliens are not collecting our brains and downloading them when we die.

Therefore if we are computers, we must be on a network. That would explain ESP, the "akashic record", etc.


Still, there's a problem. The brain still runs on electrical impulses and chemical cues. Theoretically, if you came up with the right algorithms, you could make a computer do everything that the human brain does, and do it in a much more efficient manner.

So why use a brain? Because you don't know the algorithms and you need to tap the power of what nature does.

Well that's where you get into some trouble. You still need SUBSTANTIAL understanding of how the brain works to use it in that way, and if you knew that much about the brain, what would be stopping you from creating a computer that was a lot like it?

Now this means that the "designers" of this computer would basically be running with a relatively natural brain- they couldn't engineer a 'network' in all likelihood. So if you don't believe in natural ESP you can't believe in the model put forward so far.

That means that the only way to use brains is to actually plant a civilization and control its development, let them grow for however long you think it will take, then come down and talk to them.

So now we're talking alien sociology experiment or reality TV show more than alien computers.

And what would be be calculating? You couldn't direct us in any one way, and your species would be more advanced than ours. So what could you learn from us?

History perhaps.

So let me throw a crazy theory out there that I never would have thought up if not for this thread.

Suppose that humans originated elsewhere in the Universe, and are, if I may just pick a random number, a million years older than humanity on Earth. And they've evolved so far, that they have very little idea what their early civilization was like.

How do you research that? Well you collect some DNA samples and you plop them down somewhere to do it all over again. That would probably work.

But then again, there's still a problem. The record is pretty clear that we did in fact evolve on Earth. We can trace our genome WAY back on this planet. Some genes are basically universal, not only among mammals, but even between the plant and animal kingdoms.

Now we're getting into another aspect of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: custom built planets. A hard sell to say the least.

Fascinating thought experiment, but ultimately unlikely I'm afraid.

Keep in mind that our "computing" power may not be the overall goal. Inherent human flaws may make us more manageable, while still able to carry out our assigned task(s) independently.

While the theory of evolution does seem to hold a lot of water, I still leave open the possibility that there has been interference. Perhaps an indigenous ancestor was "tweaked" by some advanced race. Self-awareness seems to be the fundamental shift here.

As far as life on other planets goes, the universe is probably teeming with life. This then opens up the possibility that we may not be very special at all in the overall scheme of things. Isn't it possible that human life may have evolved elsewhere as well, independently? In other words, maybe we have never found "alien" DNA because it is almost the same as what we find here on Earth. At least in many cases. I think about some of those weird skulls that they have found in archaeological digs, that they say are human because of the DNA. Well, maybe humans are not exclusive to Earth.

Love the theory.

One of the fundamentals about life is the definition of conciousness, and sentience.

And whilst self reproducing proteins and DNA provide the physical side of our build and have been researched and highlighted, the subject of what makes us self aware is something else altogether.

We are in essence all biological machines, so maybe self awareness comes from our programming, in which case we may never find the answer because the person who did the coding is likely to be a damn site smarter than we are.

Wouldn't it be weird if God turned out to be some interstellar net-geek playing the SIM's?

Okay, either this is weird or someone is biting off someone else.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by jackinthebox


Maybe... or, perhaps ... we were originally programmed to consider this very possibility?

Nick Bostrom argues that if we accept some plausible assumptions about how the future will unfold, we should believe we are probably not humans. The argument appeals crucially to an indifference principle whose precise content is a little unclear. I set out four possible interpretations of the principle, none of which can be used to support Bostrom’s argument. On the first two interpretations the principle is false, on the third it does not entail the conclusion, and on the fourth it only entails the conclusion given an auxiliary hypothesis that we have no reason to believe.

Are You a Sim

Perhaps I am God and you are all just my imagination.