What if.....

What if there are no UFO's? What if there are no ALIENS? What if humans don't know everything there is to know about science and physics? What if we've only scratched the surface?

Of course faster than light travel is impossible, based on what we know (or think we know) now. Is there nothing more to learn? Are we just ever so brilliant? I don't think we've hardly even begun to learn what is possible yet.

The universe has had plenty of time to produce other life forms. Look at the progress humans have made in the last hundred and fifty years. We've gone from horseback to spacecraft. Go back just a little bit farther and we could say hi to Columbus! Where will/could we be just a thousand years from now?

What if there are no UFO's because there are actually folks that know exactly what they are?

What if there are no aliens---because they were here first?

Lets have a little twilight zone music right here.

Imagine a race that forgot more about physics than we will ever know. Imagine that thier evolutionary progress had nothing to do with survival of the fittest but instead developed along the lines of all life is precious.

In the entire universe, heck, I'd say in this galaxy alone anything is possible.

Now lets imagine that this other race travels and comes upon planets that contain life. Maybe only microbial life, maybe only plant life, maybe dinosaurs.

What if they have discovered that there is an ultimate method to this madness and chaos in the universe and it can be tampered with but not radically changed? "Hey, the rules say we can't stop the asteroid but life IS worth saving. Grab the smartest ones, the ones that have the most potential and lets move them too here".

One of or several of these species evolve, aided or unaided. Lets say they also come to realize that all life is precious and are thousands or hundreds of thousands of years in advance of us. Lets just say that they decide to go back to thier home planet, just to see what ever happened to it.

"Hey, we got some bipeds down here, lets help em out a little."
"They're doing better but man (pun intended) they do fight a lot."
" How bout we stop by and tell em that they're not the only ones, that things aren't quite the way they think, that things go better if they work together? Hey guys, try living like this! Things will get better for you!"

"They're doing better but they still fight a lot."
"Okay people, these are the rules, follow them. If you do you can learn how to build things like pyramids and stuff and some day you can fly through the sky like we do! Heck, you'll even be able to talk to people on the other side of the world! It is round you know. No, we're not gods. We're just a little bit ahead of you that's all. There IS an Ultimate Creative Force though. IT thinks life is pretty important. Follow the rules will ya?"

"They're doing better but they still fight a lot. What is it something in thier genes?"

"What do you mean they've split the atom!!? And they're going to do what?!!! Okay, go down to thier so called base and see what up."

"They used radar on US sir."

"Ok, talk to the leader, have him talk to the people and let them know what's up. Oh, and get that ship back, they're not ready for that stuff yet."

"We told em but they say thier people can't handle the truth."

''So you're telling me that we fly right over the Capitol of the most powerful place on the planet and even though they see it with thier own eyes the leader says they did'nt?"

"Grab a few of em and lets see if we can figure out what the problem is."

"They have everything they need to take care of each other. They could take the next step and enter the wonder and glory of the entire universe and a relative few of them won't let it happen."

"Maybe we should let everybody else know we're here. Do it slowly so they can get used to us. I know, I know, they don't have much time before....

[edit on 23-3-2009 by miketwosix]

[edit on 23-3-2009 by miketwosix]

Well, even if some people new what the things flying around were.
If others didn't, they would still be considered UFO's to them.
And if the Aliens were here first, they would still be considered Alien to us because we don't know what they are.
I think this draws alot on perception really.

There's always gonna be UFO's.
As unidentified flying objects.
As in a flying saucer then i don't know. There has to be.
If there isn't i'll eat more hats than you can see.
Jacob

Originally posted by miketwosix
What if there are no UFO's? ...

What if there are no UFO's because there are actually folks that know exactly what they are?

I think we have a semantics problem here.

If by UFOs you mean unidentified flying objects then there will always be UFOs, in that some people will just not be able to identify something, even if its origin is terrestrial or explainable.

What if humans don't know everything there is to know about science and physics? What if we've only scratched the surface?

You can be sure about this one.

What if there are no aliens---because they were here first?

Again I think this is a matter of semantics. Usually when people refer to aliens they mean creatures or entities (for lack of better words) that originate from some other place than planet Earth.

In your scenario they originate from planet Earth but leave and go somewhere else (did I get that right?). I don't really think your scenario proposes anything that would dramatically change the way we'd go about researching it.

For all purposes and effect even if some civilization would have been here on planet Earth first long time ago but would have left and now is coming back, they're still not us - at least in the civilizational sense.

In all probability they'd have a different appearance, language, technology, and so on - basically the same aspects that we expect from creatures that evolved in other planets somewhere else in the Universe.

Why does.... short title always led to long texts.

There's great line from Richard Feynman, talking about physics, where he says something like physics is like observing a game of chess without knowing the rules. Every now and then there's a breakthrough when they discover a new rule, or revisions to existing rules, like if they observed a pawn being promoted. (IIRC what I'm paraphrasing is in this excellent documentary about Feynman).

I think predicting scientific breakthroughs is very difficult. For every correct prediction, in literature or otherwise, there have been many others that have turned out to be nonsense. I think ruling out faster than light travel for large complex objects like craft is wrong, but I don't think it is likely based on current knowledge. It's not something that can currently be tested.

The same goes for the time travel hypothesis and life before us. It's not something I'd say bah-humbug to but it's not something I think is likely based on current knowledge. I don't think the geological record points to any intelligent life on earth prior to us, although it is an ongoing thing, things are being revised and updated as research progresses.

I could be wrong. People often are. I don't think there's anything wrong in discussing it.

[edit on 23-3-2009 by jackphotohobby]

Relax. Just tried to be a little light hearted.
Sorry for the short title.
No semantics problem. By UFO I meant flying saucer. Change UFO to IFO if there are folks in the military that know that they exist. It would offer the military deniability when they were asked about UFO's.
Remember this is just a what if.
When I hear about reptilian aliens or even the greys it makes far more sense to me that they would have evolved from similar creatures that already exist/existed on Earth than to think that they would evolve along the same lines given a totally different start on another planet.
As for physics, yes there are absolutes, but I've been around long enough to see things that were taught as absolutley true become adjusted or modified or proven to be absolutely false.
Maybe Einstein is right, we can't go faster than the speed of light.
Maybe some other being has discovered we don't have to.