Why do people think we will contact aliens?

SKYLINE

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Stephen Hawking: “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans…

We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”

shut up phenlyan u think u r cool but u r not

how so?

Although I think if a society evolves to become advanced enough to travel thousands of light years, a) they are going to think we and our planet are very insignificant, and b) they are likely to have developed morals etc so probably wouldn't want to harm another sentient being - or even any living organism.

"If the entire history of the world were expressed in 24 hours, we'd only make up 2 seconds of it"

That quote really gets to me, I mean think what came before, and what is to come. In the "two seconds" we've been here for, we've had a major impact on the world.

I think that the statistical chance of Alien Lifeforms indicate that it is a major possibility. Personally i believe they exist so, there are millions of planets which have the ability to harbour life, its just a matter of having one planet whose species evolved faster than ours, and had the resources to travel near light speed.

Anything is possible, even time travel. Simple logic would indicate that if it were possible we can travel in time, somone would have already come to our time to talk about it. Don't you just love Paradox's ?

Although I think if a society evolves to become advanced enough to travel thousands of light years, a) they are going to think we and our planet are very insignificant, and b) they are likely to have developed morals etc so probably wouldn't want to harm another sentient being - or even any living organism.

Why do you assume we won't be here in a few thousand years?

The universe may be that old but it most certainly could not support intelligent life for all that time.

Why is it unlikely? There are billions of star solar systems capable of supporting intelligent life. What makes you so sure we're the only ones?

Although I think if a society evolves to become advanced enough to travel thousands of light years, a) they are going to think we and our planet are very insignificant, and b) they are likely to have developed morals etc so probably wouldn't want to harm another sentient being - or even any living organism.

That or they'll do to us what we do to cattle.

no, i'm saying i know life does exist, will exist and has existed in the universe; my point was out of the 15 billion years the universe has been here why do you think so much life would exist right now?

and i know our civilisation won't last long because just look at the past - sparta, the roman empire, the british empire, the mongolian empire - civilisations do not last long and it is ignorant to assume ours will survive forever. also, i said a few centuries not a few millennia. i doubt it'll even last our lifetime terribly well.

no, i'm saying i know life does exist, will exist and has existed in the universe; my point was out of the 15 billion years the universe has been here why do you think so much life would exist right now?

and i know our civilisation won't last long because just look at the past - sparta, the roman empire, the british empire, the mongolian empire - civilisations do not last long and it is ignorant to assume ours will survive forever. also, i said a few centuries not a few millennia. i doubt it'll even last our lifetime terribly well.

just as Columbus thought the native Americans were insignificant. Where were Columbus's morals?

humans were clearly very primitive in the 16th century and still are today.

Why not?

What do you mean look at the past? Empires do not last long, but humanity has survived just fine.

i think there's more chance of us or computers doing that to humanity than for a bunch of green men to travel millions of light years to farm and eat us. they would have probably done away with eating and other primitive activities altogether.

the only civilisation to possess technology is today's which we now know won't last long by looking at the track record of humanity. so when our civilisation collapses we will lose our technology. this can be applied to other civilisations out there.