• Question: Do you think aliens would be more or less advanced then us

    Asked by bantaclaus to Barbara, Matt, Ravinder, Sophie, Tristan on 13 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Sophie Robinson

      Sophie Robinson answered on 13 Mar 2015:

      The Drake equation shows us that there is an overwhelming statistical likelihood that life exists in the universe somewhere. Basic life may even exist in our own solar system, with Europa and Titan both thought to have liquid water, complex molecules and enough heat to sustain life. It is highly unlikely though that there is intelligent life in our solar system other than on Earth.

      Again, intelligence beyond that of human beings is highly unlikely to exist in the universe. The difficulty is that we may never contact them. The universe is extremely, vastly huge. The universe is thought to be about 13.1 billion years old, and objects have been seen up to 27 billion light years away. That means it would take a radio wave 27 billion years to travel the distance (and that’s at the speed of light)! Even if a vastly intelligent life form did exist, by the time we send them a message and they send one back the human race will likely be extinct!

    • Photo: Barbara Shih

      Barbara Shih answered on 14 Mar 2015:

      Considering the number of stars and planets that can potentially be like Earth, it is likely there is other lifeforms. Since Earth is a fairly young planet and human civilisation advanced drastically in the last few hundred years, surely some alien out there should be way more advanced than us?

      But why haven’t we been contacted by any alien race, or seen any evidance of colonisation of planets by intellagent life? (assuming interstellar travel is possible + governments aren’t hiding information on alien contact + aliens aren’t doing the whole “we must not show our presence” thing). There is also the question that if we encounter a piece of alien technology that’s far more advanced than we can comprehend, would we even know that it is?

      This article has a nice summary on the Fermi paradox, with some illustrations on possibilities of where we are technogically compared to other alien races (at the end of the article). http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/fermi-paradox.html

      I personally think there might be alien race that’s more advance than us, but interstellar travel and colonisation is difficult/costly so most don’t move much further than their starting planet.

    • Photo: Matthew Moore

      Matthew Moore answered on 15 Mar 2015:

      Great question! As Sophie and Barabara have mentioned, the Fermi paradox deals with this and the Drake equation can be used for a bit of fun in guessing how likely intelligent alien life is. It seems quite likely, provided the number of ‘earth like’ or otherwise habitable planets that have now been found that there would be other living organisms out there, but the problem is we only have our planet and what we know to base this on!

      Intelligece isn’t an imperative of evolution, it seems that the more complex an organism, the more evolved it is. However, this applies to other traits too, some animals are very good at living in the cold, but they would be in trouble if it got really hot! We have used our intelligence throughout human history to survive, but it isn’t neccessarily the best state of evolution to be in. Bacteria have already survived 3.5Bn years on this planet and are able to adapt much quicker than we could to drastic climate change for example; we would also be in particular trouble if all our technologies failed.

      Evolution favours those which can adapt and that’s us when the resources and time are at hand to produce the right technologies (we might one day even leave this planet!). However, in slightly different circumstances perhaps intelligence would never have evolved on this planet?

      So you first must ask how likely is it that organisms on another planet evolve intelligence and develop technologies also and then what is the statistical likelihood of them being further behind or further ahead than we are. Perhaps they develop faster? Perhaps they’ve had longer? We humans have only been on the planet for 200,000 years after all. Imagine a species only as intelligent as ours but that has been around for 2 million years, it would be incredibly technologically advanced.

      Who knows? What do you reckon?

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