Communicate with aliens
Carl Sagan posed this problem in Cosmos.
How can humans assume we will be able to communicate with an alien species from outside the Earth if we are unable to communicate with ANY other intelligent species native to Earth?
It does seem quite presumptuous of us that we believe we can speak to an alien civilization yet be unable to communicate in any meaningful way with whales or dolphins!
Silly Humans
1
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5 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Interesting question. Depictions of what appear to be humanoid aliens appear everywhere in ancient records, one major difference between us and these depictions is that they are represented as having three fingers and three toes. There is an interesting program on GAIA called "Unearthing Nazca" that is examining skeletons found in Nazca. Worth watching. Real or not, the jury is still out.
orion
Level 5
Nov 17, 2017
1
The problem is not related specifically to intelligence. It is more a matter of long time experience, the ability to engage in abstractions, and the capability to manipulate things. We share no direct experience with cetaceans, thus it is difficult to find a place to begin building communication.
However, with aliens who have developed technology, there are many pegs upon which to hang mutual experience and build communication. I know it's cliche, but if they have achieved a high level of technology, they have to have developed mathematics to a reasonable degree of sophistication. Mathematics would be a moderately easy first step.
I see the major difficulties in the realm of understanding. Oh, I don't mean understanding that this is a prime number and that is a right triangle, but more at the psychological foundations of logic and rationale. It is there that we may diverge most greatly from one another.
evidentialist
Level 8
Nov 16, 2017
1
Hmmmm.... i hope aliens never come here. Some assume they have. I know it will be a sad day if it happens. Aliens would have to be able to fly the speed of light or fold the universe to get here. They would be the gods to bow down to. For a partical of dust to hit something traveling the speed of light would be equal to the moon exploding. You know air becomes a liquid when its compressed. A vacuum with particals of atoms hitting something solid at the speed of light would be the biggest atom bomb ever to explode. What do i know about this? Just guessing the size of the explosion. It will super big by what the physicists say.
BucketlistBob
Level 8
Nov 16, 2017
0
That's because mid 2oth century man became too sophisticated to believe in God, as per Nietzsche's famous statement, God is dead , and yet faced with the existential angst brought about by this new state of affairs some humans resorted to reinventing the entire concept for the modern age , with a supposedly scientific technologically advanced imaginary friend.
An alien species who might come here to save us from ourselves are Gods by any other name. People have merely invested in another outside agency, they want their daddy to sweep down from the sky and make everything all alright.
Nothing will truly advance until we human beings stop negating our own individual power and responsibility for our own agency.
We need to grow the hell up
Why do people always assume that were aliens to exist , they would be superior in intelligence to ourselves? Chances are when we find them, they will be amoeba or summat.
It's just wishful thinking by people who have still not accepted the truly existential nature of human consciousness.
OutlawJosie
Level 6
Nov 16, 2017
0
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