Too late- they (& their earthly stooges) regularly post on this very Forum in fact. Most queries begin with such torments as "You've got to help me/my circuits all wonky/the course deadline is in 3 hours..." Thankfully Dippy's cynical responses both keep them at bay and show the true spirit of us humans, otherwise we'd have all been putty in their hands by now. Stan.
Instructables
- Thread starter Rickharris
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Rickharris
Senior Member
INTELLEGENT!!! we keep killing each other, we can't manage our activities for the global best - we are ruining our world (the only one we have) one way or another, We fail miserably at even providing a decent education for 90% of the global population, Most of us would die if the shops closed, We are fast loosing the ability to get around without a machine to take us, most of us would get totally lost even given a mapI think my cynical responses keep them at e-bay
No-one ever seems to consider that we actually be the first 'intelligent' life in the Universe - after all, someone has to be first....
INTELLEGENT?? We are possibly on the first rung of the ladder, even Microbes show a better grasp of survival and living together
Calm down me old chum, you don't want to lose your sense of humour
It's nearly lunchtime and you don't want to lose your appetite either.
I knew the use of 'intelligent' (even in inverted commas) would be like baiting a hook.
"We keep killing each other" - I can't remember doing so, though I'm sure there will be an abstract argument to say that I have.
Maybe we should separate having intelligence with what we do with it ?
In many areas/fields it's never been better.
Gosh, this is a complex and enormous subject... and everyone is right of course.
Microbes (as a generic term) are jolly clever - many of them kill us in their quest to survive and live together.
Actually, they're not clever - they are simply on autopliot.
Darwin et al were so right.
Competition; Goor bad? Discuss on 300 sides of A4.
Good luck
It's nearly lunchtime and you don't want to lose your appetite either.
I knew the use of 'intelligent' (even in inverted commas) would be like baiting a hook.
"We keep killing each other" - I can't remember doing so, though I'm sure there will be an abstract argument to say that I have.
Maybe we should separate having intelligence with what we do with it ?
In many areas/fields it's never been better.
Gosh, this is a complex and enormous subject... and everyone is right of course.
Microbes (as a generic term) are jolly clever - many of them kill us in their quest to survive and live together.
Actually, they're not clever - they are simply on autopliot.
Darwin et al were so right.
Competition; Goor bad? Discuss on 300 sides of A4.
Good luck
Actually, there’s a fair amount of evidence that we are, as a species, less intelligent than we used to be. Early humans, around the time we discovered farming, had to live on their wits from day to day, and there was no respite. As Darwin used to say, ‘use it or lose it’. (Well maybe he didn’t, but you get the point). Most of the brain mass/structure we have now is the same as we had then, but we used to use more of it. Which is presumably why it’s so much bigger than it needs to be now. (Yes, as evolution progresses, human brains will probably get smaller.)
Intelligence has nothing to do with what you know. It’s how quickly you can figure stuff out. Like, for example, if thrown into a completely unfamiliar and dangerous situation, like in the middle of a forest in Canada, 500 miles from the nearest help, naked, with nothing but a rock. Could you survive? Could you prosper, raise a family, pass on your genes?
(No jokes about trying to make a family when you’re alone please)
“No-one ever seems to consider that we actually be the first 'intelligent' life in the Universe - after all, someone has to be first....”
Actually that’s statistically unlikely. Life on earth arose almost immediately as it cooled after formation. Even before the bombardment phase had ended. In fact it seems to have been wiped out and independently started again and again. To the first few waves of living organisms, oxygen was poisonous! This tells us that where a planet is habitable, life can easily and quickly arise.
But the earth (and the solar system) formed well into the evolution of the universe. About 4.5Bn years ago, when the universe was about two-thirds of its current age. So there must have been many other planets that were formed, (and became habitable) long before the earth. And of those many other life bearing planets, some must have prospered, since planet-wide sterilisation events are so unlikely (once the solar system has settled down).
So the answer to “are we alone in the universe” is almost certainly “NO!”.
Unfortunately, so is the answer to “will we ever meet any of them”.
Intelligence has nothing to do with what you know. It’s how quickly you can figure stuff out. Like, for example, if thrown into a completely unfamiliar and dangerous situation, like in the middle of a forest in Canada, 500 miles from the nearest help, naked, with nothing but a rock. Could you survive? Could you prosper, raise a family, pass on your genes?
(No jokes about trying to make a family when you’re alone please)
“No-one ever seems to consider that we actually be the first 'intelligent' life in the Universe - after all, someone has to be first....”
Actually that’s statistically unlikely. Life on earth arose almost immediately as it cooled after formation. Even before the bombardment phase had ended. In fact it seems to have been wiped out and independently started again and again. To the first few waves of living organisms, oxygen was poisonous! This tells us that where a planet is habitable, life can easily and quickly arise.
But the earth (and the solar system) formed well into the evolution of the universe. About 4.5Bn years ago, when the universe was about two-thirds of its current age. So there must have been many other planets that were formed, (and became habitable) long before the earth. And of those many other life bearing planets, some must have prospered, since planet-wide sterilisation events are so unlikely (once the solar system has settled down).
So the answer to “are we alone in the universe” is almost certainly “NO!”.
Unfortunately, so is the answer to “will we ever meet any of them”.
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I'd dispute the notion that people today are worse in figuring something out. Just the things that need figuring out are different. 50000 years ago it was how to make fire, how to kill an animal with a spear (or how to make a spear), where to find wild fruit and vegetables in the forest. Today it's how to read and write, how to use a computer, how to do you taxes, how to drive a car (to get food from the supermarket etc etc. Just as important for survival in the modern world as making fire was 50000 years ago. To counter our example, throw a stone-age man into the middle of Manhattan and see if he can survive, prosper and raise a family. (my guess is, he would probably survive because he would get arrested and put into prison or a mental institution the first day because he tried to take food from the next available corner market without paying, all while running around naked and uttering strange noises
I'm amazed daily by my small kids when I see them how effortless they learn e.g. to use the web browser, much of it without me ever telling them how it works.
About using our capabilities in an intelligent way that keeps Earth livable in the long term, that's another story (I don't even want to imagine how f***d up our environment will be in another 100 years).
Wolfgang
etc etc. Just as important for survival in the modern world as making fire was 50000 years ago. To counter our example, throw a stone-age man into the middle of Manhattan and see if he can survive, prosper and raise a family. (my guess is, he would probably survive because he would get arrested and put into prison or a mental institution the first day because he tried to take food from the next available corner market without paying, all while running around naked and uttering strange noises I'm amazed daily by my small kids when I see them how effortless they learn e.g. to use the web browser, much of it without me ever telling them how it works.
About using our capabilities in an intelligent way that keeps Earth livable in the long term, that's another story (I don't even want to imagine how f***d up our environment will be in another 100 years).
Wolfgang
Bah. Don't worry about it. There’s nothing we can do that could compare to the environmental changes of the past. Global biological and nuclear war. Poison the sea, strip the ozone and kill everything larger than a cockroach, whatever. Makes no difference in the long term. The earth will go on, perhaps without us, but It’ll do just fine. In a few hundred thousand years, this era will probably be characterized mainly by the large plastic content of a thin rock layer.
On contacting other planets:
Until recently, the earth was radiating quite brightly in the RF bands used by radio and television. This cosmic broadcasting began in the 30’s and is well past its peak. New technologies, satellites and such, use just a few Watts of power to service a whole continent, where 30 years ago it would have taken many tens of thousands of Watts and many massive widely distributed terrestrial antennas.
Within the next say 50 years or so, our ‘visibility’ to RF detectors in other solar systems will have dwindled to almost nothing. So, as a civilization, we have essentially made most of the interstellar RF noise we are ever likely to. An expanding spherical shell of ever thinning radio waves, about 100 light-years thick. And if the aliens miss that, they’ll probably never know we’re here.
It’s rational to assume something similar applies to other intelligent civilizations on other worlds. Reducing significantly the chances of anyone, on any planet, ever detecting another.
On contacting other planets:
Until recently, the earth was radiating quite brightly in the RF bands used by radio and television. This cosmic broadcasting began in the 30’s and is well past its peak. New technologies, satellites and such, use just a few Watts of power to service a whole continent, where 30 years ago it would have taken many tens of thousands of Watts and many massive widely distributed terrestrial antennas.
Within the next say 50 years or so, our ‘visibility’ to RF detectors in other solar systems will have dwindled to almost nothing. So, as a civilization, we have essentially made most of the interstellar RF noise we are ever likely to. An expanding spherical shell of ever thinning radio waves, about 100 light-years thick. And if the aliens miss that, they’ll probably never know we’re here.
It’s rational to assume something similar applies to other intelligent civilizations on other worlds. Reducing significantly the chances of anyone, on any planet, ever detecting another.
BeanieBots
Moderator
Seems a good time to bring in the Ghia theory.
Ghia (not sure about spelling) is the belief that planet Earth itself is a living organism and that humans are just a simple part of workings.
What makes the theory particularly interesting is that to be a living entitiy requires the ability to reproduce.
So, how can planet Earth reproduce?
Well, that's where WE come in.
After several thousand years of sapping the earth's resources, (just like an unborn infant does in the womb), we are about to embark on space travel to other planets. Besides putting up an American flag, what's the first thing we do whenever we go somewhere new? Make it like home.
On a grander scale, we'd make a new planet just like this one. Low and behold, a new Earth! Ghia is about to give birth. Us being the 'seed'.
IMHO, a lovely theory.
Leaves an interesting question. Who/what gave 'birth' to Earth?
Were our ancestors really aliens? Quite a bit of evidence to suggest they might have been. If humans were wiped out, what evidence would be left after a few millions years? Maybe a few long straight lines that were once motorways? Dunno, just a fun thought.
Ghia (not sure about spelling) is the belief that planet Earth itself is a living organism and that humans are just a simple part of workings.
What makes the theory particularly interesting is that to be a living entitiy requires the ability to reproduce.
So, how can planet Earth reproduce?
Well, that's where WE come in.
After several thousand years of sapping the earth's resources, (just like an unborn infant does in the womb), we are about to embark on space travel to other planets. Besides putting up an American flag, what's the first thing we do whenever we go somewhere new? Make it like home.
On a grander scale, we'd make a new planet just like this one. Low and behold, a new Earth! Ghia is about to give birth. Us being the 'seed'.
IMHO, a lovely theory.
Leaves an interesting question. Who/what gave 'birth' to Earth?
Were our ancestors really aliens? Quite a bit of evidence to suggest they might have been. If humans were wiped out, what evidence would be left after a few millions years? Maybe a few long straight lines that were once motorways? Dunno, just a fun thought.
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BeanieBots
Moderator
We call it "rag week" in the UK.
What do you call it in Aus?
What do you call it in Aus?
"..what evidence would be left after a few millions years?"
- ME. I'd still be sitting here waiting for a reply from Panasonic about a PVR that I sent 8 months ago
(Why do these funny humans refer to them as Personal Video Recorders? What's personal about them? They're big and they let anyone use them. That reminds me, I'm off to Brize soon).
Looks like we'll be moving into theology next - I'll look forward to more theories which become facts.
- ME. I'd still be sitting here waiting for a reply from Panasonic about a PVR that I sent 8 months ago
(Why do these funny humans refer to them as Personal Video Recorders? What's personal about them? They're big and they let anyone use them. That reminds me, I'm off to Brize soon).
Looks like we'll be moving into theology next - I'll look forward to more theories which become facts.
One of the more durable items we have produced in quantity is the glass soda bottle.
Some future group of archeologists will likely try to determine the tribal beliefs and customs that led to there being worldwide distribution of the small statues of the green god CocaCola ;-)
John
You surely must know the 1980 The Gods Must Be Crazy movie !? It's a great send-up of civilisation
Rick Harris must be obeyed -trust a FLED will do?
Rickharris
Senior Member
The voices - The voices!!!
Good One - to be honest when you started this I for one didn't think it would work. For that doubt I apologise oh Master!!!