space invaders
So, the other day, Steven Hawking declared that the chances of alien life making a friendly visit to slim. He said that the visit would be devastating to human beings.
I read the article about it, thinking that he'd say it would be such a huge mental shift that society wouldn't be able to accept it. But no, he said that any alien visitors would likely be conquering space nomads.
What? Really? The "greatest living mind" is seriously thinks that any aliens that would come to earth would be like Ghengis Khan? Although it makes for a fun movie, I seriously doubt this.
Here, dear reader, are my reasons:
1) Space is so vast and quick travel through it so impossible, that I find the possibilities of visiting life on other worlds to be so, so, so slim. In the time it takes to travel to another world, whole civilizations could have evolved, flourished, and gone extinct.
2) Hawking has a pretty narrow outlook on the motives and organizations of an alien species. Honestly, we're talking about a life form that has nothing to do with those of earth. What are the chances that they'd think and act like humans? One could make the argument that, as we only have one example of natural history to learn from, we don't know if the patterns life took on earth is the only way life could go. Perhaps there could be convergent evolution between worlds, but I don't think life is so uncreative. Alien life could think in ways that have little to do with how we think and act. As much as I love sci fi movies, there's always been a tiny voice in my head that's said, "No way." I recognize that a lot of how aliens are depicted have more to do with special effects budgets and heavy-handed-easy-to-learn morals. (E.g. Star Trek) But still, why can't they push the bar a little more?
I read the article about it, thinking that he'd say it would be such a huge mental shift that society wouldn't be able to accept it. But no, he said that any alien visitors would likely be conquering space nomads.
What? Really? The "greatest living mind" is seriously thinks that any aliens that would come to earth would be like Ghengis Khan? Although it makes for a fun movie, I seriously doubt this.
Here, dear reader, are my reasons:
1) Space is so vast and quick travel through it so impossible, that I find the possibilities of visiting life on other worlds to be so, so, so slim. In the time it takes to travel to another world, whole civilizations could have evolved, flourished, and gone extinct.
2) Hawking has a pretty narrow outlook on the motives and organizations of an alien species. Honestly, we're talking about a life form that has nothing to do with those of earth. What are the chances that they'd think and act like humans? One could make the argument that, as we only have one example of natural history to learn from, we don't know if the patterns life took on earth is the only way life could go. Perhaps there could be convergent evolution between worlds, but I don't think life is so uncreative. Alien life could think in ways that have little to do with how we think and act. As much as I love sci fi movies, there's always been a tiny voice in my head that's said, "No way." I recognize that a lot of how aliens are depicted have more to do with special effects budgets and heavy-handed-easy-to-learn morals. (E.g. Star Trek) But still, why can't they push the bar a little more?