What will extraterrestrial intelligence look like?

[Bill Angel]

There was an intriguing presentation of an alien invasion of a planet in the movie "Starship Troopers", with the aliens are organized like an insect colony. There were workers, warriors, and "thinkers".

[michel123456]

Insects are used because:

1. they are frightening

2. they are easy to make in virtual reality.

[Przemyslaw.Gruchala]

And I remember somewhere having read a theory that said that first humans were merely scavengers.

 

The all meat eaters are scavengers as long as meat is not yet rotten.

Whether they treat meat as rotten depends on their stomach.

What is not eatable to one meat eater, still might be eatable to other with better adopted stomach.

Crocodiles, hyena, don't might eating something not eatable anymore to f.e. lions. And have more chance to survive (and spread gens).

Edited December 29, 2012 by Przemyslaw.Gruchala

[michel123456]

E.T. intelligence will look like nice guys with flowers in their hair giving us welcome gifts with a smile.

Most probably we will exterminate them.

After some years we will dispute their remains between the British Museum, the Louvres and the American Museum Of Natural History. After some more centuries, the few survivors ET will ask for their remains to go back home. We will refuse that demand of course.

Edited December 29, 2012 by michel123456

[too-open-minded]

I'm sure intelligence has a good deal to do with food. I mean intelligence is something we have evolved to procreate, sustaining energy is a top priority. Although I don't think that just because food comes easier to get that we would stop getting any smarter. Although it could effect the speed we evolve intelligence.

 

Intelligence also has alot to do with emotions, I mean your mood has alot to do with what your thinking right?

I wonder if humor would still be an emotion present in a relatively highly advanced space fering alien species. What emotions would be the strongest? Would recreational activities be a thing of the past? Humans are a curious species who are less fearful to do new things than most the other animals on our planet. Would fear even be a relevant emotion in an alien species? Maybe something more like a deep concern?

[ZVBXRPL]

What if we cannot see the aliens, so we have no idea what they look like.

They might be made of a form of energy that we do not even know exists.

What if there are space faring alien civilizations travelling back n forth through our solar system, yet they are unaware of our existence, and we are unaware of their existence.

We only "see" what we have evolved to "see".

Just as it was human arrogance that made people believe we we the centre of the universe not so long ago relatively, I think it is just as arrogant today to believe that we mere humans are aware of everything that exists in the entire universe. Its actually worse now because at least back then they had an excuse of religious brainwashing

 

I think that if we have ever been visited by aliens in the past, or will ever be in the future, then they are much more likely to "appear" from very close by rather than them travelling for thousands of years across the cosmos.

[alpha2cen]

If they were able to use superluminal technology and quantum telepotation, we might meet them in the future.

Does it have any meaning talking about the appearance of such creature which has very advanced technology?

They could ealily change their appearance without any difficulty.

[too-open-minded]

So nobody has really said much about what their intelligence will look like....

[ajb]

So nobody has really said much about what their intelligence will look like....

 

You mean how they would use their intelligence?

 

Peacefully we hope.

[ewmon]

I agree with convergent evolution within reason. I think why we see convergent evolution typically in geographically different areas because of common factors on Earth (the amount of gravity, oxygen, water, minerals, winds, etc). I would expect to see humanoid-like intelligent beings on Earth-like planets. But what if a planet is completely covered in water and has ten times Earth's gravity?

[michel123456]

So nobody has really said much about what their intelligence will look like....

 

There are 3 possibilities:

 

a. they are less intelligent than we are.

b. they are exactly stupid just like us.

c. they are more intelligent.

 

case a. makes them animals; we will exterminate them

case b. makes them ennemies, we will exterminate them

case c. makes them extremely dangerous ennemies, we must exterminate them ASAP.

Edited January 2, 2013 by michel123456

[zapatos]

Just as it was human arrogance that made people believe we we the centre of the universe not so long ago relatively, I think it is just as arrogant today to believe that we mere humans are aware of everything that exists in the entire universe. Its actually worse now because at least back then they had an excuse of religious brainwashing

I apologize for going off topic but I'm wondering why in nearly all your posts you denigrate people/scientists/religion.

 

It is not arrogant to believe you are at the center of the universe if the evidence points to that, which it did before we better understood the cosmos.

 

I know of no one, scientist or not, who believes 'humans are aware of everything that exists in the entire universe'.

 

It is hardly brainwashing ('systematic use of unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated'-wiki)to introduce your children to a widely held belief system, particularly when at the time the masses were generally uneducated and science was so poorly understood.

 

It may be best to simply reply to the topic of the thread, and open your own thread if you wish to discuss the problems with people/scientists/religion.

[Moontanman]

The original intent of this thread was to discuss the possibility that human like intelligence would mold the shape of the creatures that possess such intelligence. If it does does mold the shape of such creatures would it have the same or similar effect that water does on the creatures that live there, like the similar shapes of dolphins, ichthyosaurs, sharks, swordfish, even ocean going squids can assume that "shape" when swimming fast.

 

Would the general shape of creatures with human like intelligence be similar? This would "not" mean they would fall in love and have children any more than a shark and a dolphin would do so but would their overall shapes be similar?

 

Edited for clarity: "Not" added to sentence...

Edited January 7, 2013 by Moontanman

[ajb]

Would the general shape of creatures with human like intelligence be similar? This would mean they would fall in love and have children any more than a shark and a dolphin would do so but would their overall shapes be similar?

 

Emotions are also tied in to intelligence. Empathy, for example, requires a lot of abstract thinking: you have to "put yourself in their shoes".

 

Thus I would imagine that any alien intelligence would have feeling comparable to our own. They may have methods to suppressing these, like we do via "dehumanisation" of certain people. Because they love each other does not mean they will love us!

[too-open-minded]

Well humans can look at other species and find them "cute." Like a puppy or a kitten, I find it awesome that we can look another species in the eye and want it to survive even though its not our own. Although I think this is mainly because the human brain is wired or learns (the idea is debated) to recognize human faces.

 

empathy stems from love just as anger stems from fear. I'm sure that most likley if an alien species relies on their fellow individuals to survive, empathy will be a present emotion at some point in their evolution.

 

I wouldn't call it suppressing emotions, I'd call it evolving out of.

 

I think humans have evolved enough out of fear that we can be curious. Other animals have too but humans by far have outgrown the emotion of fear farther than any other animal.

 

What i'm wondering is, what emotions come next?

[Moontanman]

 

There are 3 possibilities:

 

a. they are less intelligent than we are.

b. they are exactly stupid just like us.

c. they are more intelligent.

 

case a. makes them animals; we will exterminate them

case b. makes them ennemies, we will exterminate them

case c. makes them extremely dangerous ennemies, we must exterminate them ASAP.

 

 

I do question that there is only three possibilities but I wonder if it is possible for them as a species to be significantly "smarter" than we are? What would being smarter than we are mean? IMHO intelligence would be similar in most species due to the similar forces shaping their evolution. Just MHO though.

 

Would anyone else like to explore this?

 

Case a. seems unlikely unless we discover them. If we do discover them I have to admit that humans have in the past demonstrated a proclivity to hate anything different, especially if the difference is small, the Europeans managed to stir up quite a bit of hatred for native Americans, dehumanizing them was seemingly the first step, aliens would start out dehumanized by definition. This could be a problem.

 

Case b. seems a bit extreme, I am not a big fan of aliens wiping us out type scenarios simply because space is so vast and resources so freely available. There could be an alien refueling station in the Saturn moon system and we would never know it, I can't see where the conflict would necessarily arise.

 

Case c. seems overly simplistic, if they are more intelligent than us... you would expect their technology to be superior as well. They might be rather difficult to wipe out...

[michel123456]

 

 

I do question that there is only three possibilities but I wonder if it is possible for them as a species to be significantly "smarter" than we are? What would being smarter than we are mean? IMHO intelligence would be similar in most species due to the similar forces shaping their evolution. Just MHO though.

 

Would anyone else like to explore this?

 

Case a. seems unlikely unless we discover them. If we do discover them I have to admit that humans have in the past demonstrated a proclivity to hate anything different, especially if the difference is small, the Europeans managed to stir up quite a bit of hatred for native Americans, dehumanizing them was seemingly the first step, aliens would start out dehumanized by definition. This could be a problem.

 

Case b. seems a bit extreme, I am not a big fan of aliens wiping us out type scenarios simply because space is so vast and resources so freely available. There could be an alien refueling station in the Saturn moon system and we would never know it, I can't see where the conflict would necessarily arise.

 

Case c. seems overly simplistic, if they are more intelligent than us... you would expect their technology to be superior as well. They might be rather difficult to wipe out...

(bolded mine)

Well in history the barbarians ruled over the Roman Empire, the vikings won, the mongols won. Even the Romans won over the Greeks (in this case the Greeks were the educated ones). If the aliens are "smarter" and more educated than we are they will not waste their resource in weapons as we do. We will exterminate them.

[Moontanman]

(bolded mine)

Well in history the barbarians ruled over the Roman Empire, the vikings won, the mongols won. Even the Romans won over the Greeks (in this case the Greeks were the educated ones). If the aliens are "smarter" and more educated than we are they will not waste their resource in weapons as we do. We will exterminate them.

 

 

While this direction of discussion does assume quite a bit, like us or them having something akin to FTL travel. I remember reading something about this many years ago, I think it was Issac Asimov, he said that given FTL travel he could see occasional waves of conquerors spreading out into the galaxy but without that capability such actions become highly unlikely.

[Semjase]

If this is any indication the peaceful intent of all aliens here's an excerpt from a human alien contact

 

There are also many animal and even plant forms of life which have themselves evolved to high forms of life. So there does exist many sorts, which have reached large knowledge and freed themselves from their planets and travel through the Universe and sometimes come to the Earth.

Many of them are but rather nasty contemporaries and live in a certain barbarism, which is still worse even then yours. Your should be on your guard of these types, because they often fight against and destroy everything that comes along their way. They have often even destroyed whole planets and beaten their inhabitants into barbarous bondage. This is one of our missions, to warn the Earth human about these creatures. Let the human beings know this, because more and more the time approaches where a conflict with these beings becomes unavoidable.

[michel123456]

If this is any indication the peaceful intent of all aliens here's an excerpt from a human alien contact

 

There are also many animal and even plant forms of life which have themselves evolved to high forms of life. So there does exist many sorts, which have reached large knowledge and freed themselves from their planets and travel through the Universe and sometimes come to the Earth.

Many of them are but rather nasty contemporaries and live in a certain barbarism, which is still worse even then yours. Your should be on your guard of these types, because they often fight against and destroy everything that comes along their way. They have often even destroyed whole planets and beaten their inhabitants into barbarous bondage. This is one of our missions, to warn the Earth human about these creatures. Let the human beings know this, because more and more the time approaches where a conflict with these beings becomes unavoidable.

what do they look like?

[Semjase]

There definitely not human,but we don't have worry, there are many prophecies

about the future that say after a negative turn soon, their there will be a golden age beginning

where there will be 1000 years of peace and no more wars. This attack of aliens is

way in the future.

[Moontanman]

There definitely not human,but we don't have worry, there are many prophecies

about the future that say after a negative turn soon, their there will be a golden age beginning

where there will be 1000 years of peace and no more wars. This attack of aliens is

way in the future.

 

 

Not human? Quite recently you were at least asserting they were humanoid at least, the picture that is your avatar to be precise...

[too-open-minded]

I doubt an alien species capable of long distance space travel or even sustaining life in space on vessels, would have any problem with wiping us out. The Greeks were a few hundred years or revolutions of our planet around the Sun more educated than vikings etc.

 

Anyways, psychologically what will an aliens brain look like? New lobes? Would recreational activity become something primitive to a highly evolved space fearing species? What would they do for fun? Would humor still be a present emotion? Where would their brain go?

Edited January 8, 2013 by too-open-minded

[Moontanman]

Where would their brain go?

 

 

I just can't believe you would give me a straight line like that...

[too-open-minded]

Well i'm trying to get my questions across, but nobody ever understands what the F i'm asking as usual...

 

dam my limited vocabulary.

Edited January 8, 2013 by too-open-minded