Is there anybody out there ???

[Steve Axford]

Probably smart to tackle the problems you know you have rather than to assume that some other problem will come along to save you (or destroy you, so that the first problem didn't really matter)

[arthurking83]

Probably smart to tackle the problems you know you have rather than to assume that some other problem will come along to save you (or destroy you, so that the first problem didn't really matter)

Of course! That goes without saying

.. and I'm sure the people of Pompeii and Herculaneum way back in 79AD all thought the same thing until they stopped worrying about .. well everything!

And Kev, I agree totally with what you think too .. most scary prospect is that we are the the most advanced(and by default) intelligent crew in the galaxy as it stands.
What hope for the rest of the galaxy when we do make contact.

[Cage]

Humankind, whether we like it, or accept it, has governance over this tiny, rather insignificant in the overall scheme of things, rock we call Planet Earth.

What we actually live on is a lump of semi- molten rock that has cooled enough on the outside to sustain what we call 'life'. According to those that profess to know these things, the radioactivity in the mantle gives us a shelf life of 700+ million years and the sun's useful life is in the billions of years.

I wonder if the gurus have done the math on how much we can dig up and burn before we put our little rock out of kilter, and we spiral off into space like a balloon does when you blow it up and let it go.

[Mark L]

Arthur, I guess that would assume that we are more advanced than any discovered intelligent life. But, what if we weren't? That would give us some serious reason to reevaluate.

Good to see you back Steve.
And we will decide what is intelligent and the circumstances of who comes to this earth. No need to reevaluate.
I suspect you ascribe more smarts to us humans than we are showing at the moment.

[ameerat42]

Mark. We can always send them to the moon, or to some asteriod.
Of course, even if they qualify for resident alien status, they won't be
allowed to settle here. Maybe a 3rd world can take them.

In fact, they'd be smart not to come here in the first place.

Hmm! From their patent absence from this planet, I'd say they're quite smart.

[arthurking83]

.....

Hmm! From their patent absence from this planet, I'd say they're quite smart.

Actually! Has anyone seen a movie called District 9?
it's a South African movie(and hence makes for an interesting piece in itself as it's not from bloody Hollywood! ) .. anyhow, it's about an alien spaceship that gets stranded here(in Sth Africa) and how they get treated and stuff.

It's not great, but also not bad .. so it's worth a watch if you ever stumble across it.

[MEK]

There is life everywhere !
And just what is intelligent life ( The 64 Billion dollar question )

Think about this for a moment :

Dogs can understands us / Dolphins can understand us / monkeys of all sorts / whales and it's a rather long list of animals that learn to understand human language to some extent !

Funny thing though ! We humans are yet to learn any animal language . So if animals are smart enough to say learn a limited amount of English , why are humans not smart enough to learn a limited amount of Dog , or cat , or dolphin , or monkey , or and the list goes on !

Im not saying we need to speak , Im talking about understanding ( Listening skill ) .
So there is the quandary , if we are supposedly so smart , why is there so much evidence to refute that ?

My point being ( long last ) .
Are we smart enough to recognize intelligent life if we were to stumble across it ?
And if life out there is like way ahead of us , whats to say they don't see us as anything more than a plague of pests on this planet .
Much like we may view a rabbit plague .

What is that saying , intelligent is as intelligent does . ( The human race does so much to refute the intelligent part )