Why we might miss extraterrestrial life.
"In that sense, humans might be so focused on searching for aliens using the kind of technology familiar to us that we miss the communications all around us, the researchers wrote. To demonstrate human inattention, the researchers conducted an experiment inspired by a famous psychology protocol from 1999. In the original experiment, researchers asked participants to do a task (say, counting the number of passes in a pickup basketball game) while watching a scene in which the investigators had inserted something truly ridiculous (say, a guy in a gorilla suit strolling right through the middle of the game). The researchers found that hardly anyone noticed the gorilla."
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.If there are extra terrestrials I expect that they have a way to over-ride the laws of Physics. The closest star to our solar system is Alpha Centauri, 4.25 light years away. So aliens visiting earth would have a round trip of 8.5 years traveling at the speed of light.[Zero Mass] So I think such a trip would not be readily possible. Of course, it is possible that aliens are hidding in our solar system out of sight of our telescopes but that also seems improbable. IMO people like to believe friendly Aliens will come to earth and solve all their problems. But Aliens could come and eat us.
nicknotes
Level 8
Apr 15, 2018
0
I’ve seen that video and it’s quite interesting that I did not notice the gorilla passing through. That said, I don’t think you can compare that with the search for extra terrestrial life. One involves a human using their eyes to observe a scene, the other involves instruments analyzing data.
indirect76
Level 7
Apr 15, 2018
1
I think rather than actual alien hunting, it was more about the human expectations and behaviors. It brought up some interesting ideas about dark matter.
Why would they want to talk with us? The first vessel we sent out to the ends of the solar system includes drawings of a naked man and woman. Yes, we sent ET a dick pic. They probably would swipe left. They might think we are just too creepy
Otterpop
Level 6
Apr 15, 2018
4
??
Also there's the reverse hypothesis that if/when aliens actually visit us they will try to communicate with our microflora on our skin and gut thinking human bodies as just a host. The microflora could appear to be a more complex network i.e. sentient intelligence then the human body.
Lukian
Level 8
Apr 15, 2018
1
That may be true but Neil DeGrasse Tyson points out that our DNA is different from the great apes by only 1%. If the difference in DNA between ours and extraterrestrial life is only 1% WHY would they even want to communicate with us.
silverotter11
Level 9
Apr 15, 2018
1
The article also talks about the length of a space journey and how civilizations may rise and fall during a message's travel from one galaxy to another or further.
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