Life in the universe

Mike102Mike102
in General

In the vast expanse of the universe, with countless galaxies, stars, and planets, each potentially harboring life or conditions for life to arise, what does it mean for humanity and our understanding of sentience if we were to one day discover extraterrestrial intelligent beings? How would such a revelation impact our perception of ourselves, our place in the cosmos, and the nature of consciousness and sentience as a universal phenomenon? Extra credit if you relate your answer to cuddling.

Comments

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972
    edited July 2023

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

  • [Deleted User]Umoja (deleted user)

    @JohnR1972 ~
    Nailed it..

    With the way that we down here can't even seem to find a way to stop murking one another, if they've got any sense, they'll just observe us---- behind foot-thick walls!

    I have to admit, however, that if there were a peaceful, sentient, telepathic lifeform that had 8 tentacles, I'd probably try to lure one of them into a cuddle! lol All those arms? Yep. Sign me up! :)

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    @Umoja - LOL, all of a sudden I am having flashbacks of watching Captain Kirk hitting on attractive green alien women 😂😂😂

    Just an FYI for anyone who didn’t know… in 1968, Captain James T. Kirk and Lt. Uhura shared the first interracial kiss broadcast on American television.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/fifty-years-ago-star-trek-aired-tvs-first-interracial-kiss-180970204/

  • [Deleted User]Umoja (deleted user)

    ...And Umoja's tiny world completely changed!!! hahahahaha!! I don't have any bones, but that gave me my first...nevermind!

    Don't remind me!!! lololol!!!

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan

    It wouldn't make any difference to our perception of ourselves or anything else. Intelligent alien life has been a staple of popular culture for the best part of a century. Everybody is thoroughly used to the idea.

    The big transition from "we are special" to "maybe we're not that special after all" started with Copernicus, if not earlier, and went through its death throes with Darwin. Hubble discovering that the universe was a hundred billion times bigger than we previously thought was just the final nail in the coffin.

  • [Deleted User]Kaylise (deleted user)
    edited July 2023

    My kind of topic.
    I see life with all its uniqueness and undiscovered phenomenons as one connected whole, even if I have yet to understand it. I love to use the analogy of when one first comes in contact with new knowledge, such as magnetism. It's common today but there was a time you didn't know it existed. Yet it was always there with or without our awareness. That being said, aliens coming to earth would for me, be a point of expansion to my experience and mind. It is simply adding to my "knowing" and there by my overall connection to life. Our perception of ourselves is simply that, a perception, that can change as easily as our minds do. So our perception as humans would change into something grander or defective yet again depending on how a thing is 'perceived'. The real power is in being open to the universe, for we do not know all there is to know, and there by can lay no judgements upon all the forms it comes in. For if you exist, why can't everything else?

  • [Deleted User]CharlesInWI (deleted user)

    @JohnR1972

    Yes indeed, the first televised inter-racial kiss happened well after that same show had written and aired a handful of inter-species kisses…

    People that want to use time travel, or political parties, to go back to the “good old days” are, at best, delusional.

  • cuddle_bug88cuddle_bug88

    You could take it a step further and ponder that you're only talking about the infinite fathomable universe on this time/space plane....

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    If we are a failed self-destructive species why would aliens want to pick us up? Wouldn’t they build an intergalactic wall to keep us away?

  • WriterGFWriterGF

    @BoomerSpooner Maybe Earth is located in an important strategic location.

  • BearBear

    It will be interesting to eventually find out if they are here now, have been here for a long time, or will be here in the future.

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    @CharlesInWI - I am not sure of the point you are making about the “good old days”.

    My comment was simply an acknowledgment of a significant milestone in American society (when I was 2 years old).

    Something that was largely looked down upon at that time was portrayed on screen in a positive light - a small but significant step toward normalizing interracial relationships. I see that as a positive regardless of how many aliens Captain Kirk had hit on before before that kiss occurred.

    My comment had nothing to do with political parties or wanting to go back in time.

  • cuddlefaerycuddlefaery

    Kurzgesagt has some of my favorite videos about the Fermi Paradox, aliens, space, and science in general. Y'all should check them out!

    Here's some of the most relevant:




  • ScroogeMcduckyScroogeMcducky

    Nirvana is about freeing yourself from human form and peeking into universal existence.
    I know there is existence beyond Homosapiens and outside of our perception, I just do not think I have the discipline to reach it before I pass on.
    But if something wants to throw me a bone I would take it, if not, I will just try and focus when lifes responsibilities slow down enough.

  • JubalJubal
    edited July 2023

    It wouldn't make any difference to our perception of ourselves or anything else. Intelligent alien life has been a staple of popular culture for the best part of a century. Everybody is thoroughly used to the idea.

    @CuddleDuncan I have to disagree. Even though a significant chunk of our society is used to the ideas presented in pop culture/sci-fi/speculative fiction, it doesn't mean that they're actually ready, willing, and able to ACCEPT a reality where an advanced alien civilization came to visit us.

    I'll try to find you an online copy of a speech made by Robert Heinlein in 1941 where he spells out the reasoning on this, but here's an excerpt to give you the idea:

    "Now, where were, we? —You speak of this sort of thing to an ordinary man,
    tell him things are going to change; he will admit it—oh, yes, he will admit
    it—but he does not believe it, he does not believe it at all, it is just with
    the top of his mind. He believes in "progress”—quotation marks on that; he
    believes in "progress". He thinks things will get a little bit bigger, and
    louder, and brighter, and a few more neon signs. That’s standard, that’s
    orthodox doctrine; he believes in that. But he does not believe that any actual change in the basic nature of the culture in which he lives or its technology will take place Oh no! Aeroplanes he thinks are all right; but those
    ..er..those crazy rocket ship things—; Why, a rocket ship couldn’t possibly
    fly—it hasn’t got anything to PUSH on! That is the way he feels about it.
    There will never be rocket ships. Thai; is alright for Buck Rogers in the funny
    papers. But ha does not believe that there could be rocket ships; nor does he
    believe that there will be things that will make rocketships look like primitive gadgets that even the wildest of the science fiction writers have not been
    able to guess or think about. R"

  • BearBear

  • TxTomTxTom
    edited July 2023

    "So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

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