Would our "lives" change if alien contact or intelligent life was confirmed?

[PortlandDangler]

Would mass panic breakout all over the world? I have my doubts, maybe if we were getting the independence day movie treatment. Besides that..I think most likely some form of life was fossilized and will be found by the new mars mission/lander. My life would not be effected if microbial life was discovered.

20 years ago scientist could not agree if planets existed outside of our own solar system. 700 plus possible planets(500 or so confirmed) have been located and are being studied further. I'm not a betting man but...I would have to believe the odds favor e.t. life. No idea if intelligent life has formed but I would take those odds. Personally I would be disappointed if we as a species were and will be the only intelligent beings that have ever existed.

So I think most core fears (religious) are that if life is discovered humanity is no longer "special". This doesn't make sense to me because god created the heavens and earth i.e. that means everything else in the universe correct? Remember the earth was flat a couple hundred years ago and the sun rotated around the earth. Our planet was also the center of the galaxy. I'd rather know we aren't alone and all that space isn't being wasted.

I downloaded SETI@home.com it's kinda cool. It helps seti with computer hard drive space so the radio telescope info can be analyzed faster by using your computer space when it goes into screen saver mode. Check it out.

I look forward to YOUR thoughts!

[Eddie Coyle]

 
          I like the thought of having a new race of beings I can dislike,distrust and be annoyed by.

[PortlandDangler]

          I like the thought of having a new race of beings I can dislike,distrust and be annoyed by.

  People(humans) are assholes enough already. Listen to George Noory for example.

[heater]

  People(humans) are assholes enough already. Listen to George Noory for example.

George Noory is not classified as human.

[PortlandDangler]

George Noory is not classified as human.

George FUCKING noory is a CRAB PERSON!...with crabs!

[heater]

with CRABS!!

[b_dubb]

Do the aliens agree to pay our mortgages? If not then no

[Frys Girl]

On The X-Files, the aliens had the cure for crabs.

[Harmness]

Well, that would certainly change my life.

[b_dubb]

What does "contact" mean? Acknowledgement from
the government? A mothership parked over NY City? Invasion? I think a continual alien presence would scare the fuck out of everyone and we'd probably do something stupid like start a war

[BobGrau]

these days, no one would believe it anyway.

[Eddie Coyle]

What does "contact" mean? Acknowledgement from
the government? A mothership parked over NY City? Invasion? I think a continual alien presence would scare the fuck out of everyone and we'd probably do something stupid like start a war

         If our new race of beings are in possession of precious resources we could use....then they are fucked. But if they have something resembling nukes they're safe. Nobody starts wars with those who have that going for them(see North Korea)

[PortlandDangler]

What does "contact" mean?

Us getting lucky and picking up a signal. That would be my guess.

[Camazotz Automat]

Let's confirm there's intelligent life on this dirt ball first.

Baby steps.

[aldousburbank]

Do the aliens agree to pay our mortgages? If not then no

Do the aliens have something better than what I'm smoking? If not then no

[fysisist]

          I like the thought of having a new race of beings I can dislike,distrust and be annoyed by.

Jumpin' Jesus! maybe there is an alien Noory analogue out there, irritating and boring the hell out of some other poor alien sumbitches...

[Eddie Coyle]

Jumpin' Jesus! maybe there is an alien Noory analogue out there, irritating and boring the hell out of some other poor alien sumbitches...

You've convinced me. We must give up all space exploration in the event we encounter ET Noory. It's too much of a risk. And that ET Dames, ET Hoaxland could exist...yikes.

[fysisist]

         You've convinced me. We must give up all space exploration in the event we encounter ET Noory. It's too much of a risk. And that ET Dames, ET Hoaxland could exist...yikes.

Maybe SETI has already accidentally tuned in to ET C2C with all those fancy-shmancy antennas out there in NoCal.  That could explain why Seth Shostak hasn't been on the show for awhile... Or more likely, ET has picked up Earth C2C with their own fancy-shmancy antennas and that's why the only alien visitations we are getting around here are from ass-probing sperm collectors with no genitalia.  That's Noory's intergalactic audience.

[Digitech]

I've thought about this and the different ways it might play out.

We might somehow discover another planet and visit it. Or maybe contact is made here on earth. The easy case is when the life we discover is intelligent, but not enough to create civilizations. We would still clearly be at the top.

But what if they are smarter than us? I mean, what would it really be like to have to acknowledge that we're inferior, no matter how hard we try? That even if they shared technology with us, we're still just humans and can never be as intelligent as them. I mean a clear, marked difference between, like between apes and humans. Only this time, we're the apes. That seems hard to accept -- That we can be smart enough to have so much knowledge and culture, and still be below some other species. How would we deal with that?

Now on the other hand, what if we discovered a civilization that was some place in the grey area between ourselves and apes? Smart enough to have some language and social structure that we can recognize, but still clearly below us. How would we deal with them? What would that be like?

And what if we weren't able to tell which species was more intelligent than the other? How about if we seemed extremely intelligent in some areas, like creating inventions and machines, and they were better at something else, in ways we can't even imagine? What then?

[b_dubb]

Holy Fuck!!! ET Noory?!?!?!? Can you imagine seeing a ship land, creatures come out, they all have ridiculous mustaches and the first thing they say when they see you is ... COULD IT BE AN ANGEL?!?!??!!!!

Oh my fuck that would be horrible

[PortlandDangler]

Now on the other hand, what if we discovered a civilization that was some place in the grey area between ourselves and apes? Smart enough to have some language and social structure that we can recognize, but still clearly below us. How would we deal with them? What would that be like?

And what if we weren't able to tell which species was more intelligent than the other? How about if we seemed extremely intelligent in some areas, like creating inventions and machines, and they were better at something else, in ways we can't even imagine? What then?
[/quote]

Some of me wants to believe that "our" drive as a species to explore, combined with the quest for knowledge may lead to HUMANS being the first space traveling race. Highly unlikely if life has evolved (in the galaxy) before us but an interesting thought none the less.

[preston]

Now on the other hand, what if we discovered a civilization that was some place in the grey area between ourselves and apes? Smart enough to have some language and social structure that we can recognize, but still clearly below us. How would we deal with them? What would that be like?

And what if we weren't able to tell which species was more intelligent than the other? How about if we seemed extremely intelligent in some areas, like creating inventions and machines, and they were better at something else, in ways we can't even imagine? What then?
Some of me wants to believe that "our" drive as a species to explore, combined with the quest for knowledge may lead to HUMANS being the first space traveling race. Highly unlikely if life has evolved (in the galaxy) before us but an interesting thought none the less.

Do you mean a species that does not kill each other because they want
to be free and left alone?