# What happens if we find intelligent life out there?



## Alligatorob (Nov 3, 2022)

I think the odds are pretty low, in our life times anyway.  But we are looking, what's the plan if we find it?  

*The missing plan for alien first contact*
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221101-should-extraterrestrial-life-be-granted-sentient-rights


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## Pepper (Nov 3, 2022)

Hoping our first contact will be with the Vulcans.


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## Gaer (Nov 3, 2022)

"What happens if we find intelligent life out there?"
IMO: Nothing.   We would be too ignorant to identify it.


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## jujube (Nov 3, 2022)

If we find intelligent life out there, they'll be horrified by us.


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## Murrmurr (Nov 3, 2022)

"There are no international agreements or mechanisms in place for how humanity would handle an encounter with extraterrestrial intelligence, says Niklas Hedman, executive director of UN Office for Outer Space Affairs"

Our Pentagon and Homeland Security do have a protocol in place. Like similar instructions from those sources, it's a booklet. But it's classified Top Secret. Anyway, that's what some retired general whose name I forget said on a serious talk show like Frontline.


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## bingo (Nov 3, 2022)

there's  none here..so...why there..ha!


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## hollydolly (Nov 3, 2022)

Pepper said:


> Hoping our first contact will be with the Vulcans.


well if they are, at least we know what to expect from them...


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## C50 (Nov 3, 2022)

More than likely the world's governments would have to reach an accord about how to react.  The meetings will drag on for years with no agreement and the aliens get tired of waiting and fly home.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 3, 2022)

C50 said:


> More than likely the world's governments would have to reach an accord about how to react. The meetings will drag on for years with no agreement


That part I believe!


C50 said:


> the aliens get tired of waiting and fly home


Might be wishful thinking...


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## Don M. (Nov 3, 2022)

I suspect that the reports of UFO's may have some truth.  However, if alien life has visited Earth, they probably consider Humanity unworthy of sharing in their advanced knowledge.


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## Muskrat (Nov 3, 2022)

I suspect we will try to destroy it. We try to destroy anything we do not understand. And we certainly would not understand intelligence.


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## JimBob1952 (Nov 3, 2022)

Realities of time and distance make it highly unlikely we will ever contact anyone, or they us.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 3, 2022)

JimBob1952 said:


> Realities of time and distance make it highly unlikely we will ever contact anyone, or they us.


Yep!


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## Tish (Nov 3, 2022)

I agree with @JimBob1952


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## Alligatorob (Nov 3, 2022)

Tish said:


> I agree with @JimBob1952


So do I, I just thought the question of what plan we might have was interesting.  We are looking, so some kind of plan would make sense.

However I think the odds of it being implemented are about the same as my winning the lottery, and I don't buy tickets.


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## JimBob1952 (Nov 3, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> So do I, I just thought the question of what plan we might have was interesting.  We are looking, so some kind of plan would make sense.
> 
> However I think the odds of it being implemented are about the same as my winning the lottery, and I don't buy tickets.



That line about the lottery is a good one!


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## Nathan (Nov 3, 2022)

Earth's radio(and TV) transmissions travel at the speed of light, so the broadcast over the radio of the War of the Worlds in 1938 has traveled in all directions into space out *84 light years*. Any intelligent civilization within 84 light years(493.92 trillion miles) has listened to that broadcast, understood it to be false, and likely decided to have nothing to do with the inhabitants of planet Earth.


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## hawkdon (Nov 3, 2022)

And yet we keep spending millions sending a few
folks into space...looking for who know what??


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## Tish (Nov 3, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> However I think the odds of it being implemented are about the same as my winning the lottery, and I don't buy tickets.


Neither do I.


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## JimBob1952 (Nov 3, 2022)

I don't buy tickets either.  But if I win, I will share with all the good folks at SF.


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## David777 (Nov 3, 2022)

That BBC link misses some important issues that media and science fiction writers never want to mention.  The human biome contains over 10,000 different microbe species.  Within our bodies containing 30 trillion cells are like numbers of bacteria and ten times as many viruses.  Every large Earth life animal creature has a similar microbe zoo biome.  Most astrophysicists would doubt there is much to fear from worlds that might have life within our Sun's solar system because some levels of contamination have likely already occurred at least at primitive microbe levels.  But worlds many light years distant could be vastly different and not even DNA based.  Potentially some alien microbes from elsewhere could totally destroy most all surface DNA life on the planet.  And likewise microbes from Earth could do so elsewhere.  There is a key IF bearing on contamination issues.  If life everywhere is generally DNA based, then we have far less to worry about than if alien life is truly alien

I'm a proponent of the panspermia hypothesis that conflicts with the long dominant standard dogma that DNA life began then evolved on Earth. The more I understand as do other scientists, the more the narrative that primitive DNA life started here seems unlikely. Thus expect over 14.6 billion years, primitive life, most likely DNA based has cross pollinated DNA life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and also across galaxies in our Universe. 

Another key issue are the vast astronomical distances between stars.   The Voyager spacecraft will take 73,000 years traveling at 17.3 kilometers per second to reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri.  The popular scifi notion of warp speed is hyper-warp nonsense, highly unlikely EVER regardless of levels of future science. That does not mean aliens will never visit us because that possibility has only considered ORGANIC life, not potential non-organic life that Earth monkeys scientists have only recently considered given the vast increase in computer science with the potential now for Singularity level machines likely within near centuries.  Organic Earth life faces enormous high energy electromagnetic particle dangers beyond Earth, some that cannot be shielded.  Thus some scientists including some at NASA now expect any intelligent alien visitors won't look like big-headed ET but rather Cylons because they would be able to survive travel over hundreds to thousands of years to other worlds.

Another issue is I personally suspect is likely true, is Earth may be a zoo for an ancient race of Ultimate Intelligent Entities that have some sort of Prime Directive of non-interference once a planet develops intelligent species with science and technology.  That key possibility is also why I hopefully lean towards the possibility that although much in the Bible was not inspired, that Jesus was truly part of a UIE plan and Christian eternal life within electromagnet containers that I live for, may indeed be possible.

This link to a long boring document shows NASA and other scientists, out of sight from media have serious concerns that are being threshed out.

https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25773/chapter/1#ix


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## Bella (Nov 3, 2022)

*"What happens if we find intelligent life out there?"*

That's an interesting question, Rob. Well, it has to be_ somewhere_ in the universe, doesn't it?  If the powers that be find it and can't understand or control it, they'll try to imprison or kill it. That's what they do.


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## Sassycakes (Nov 3, 2022)

I doubt if we will ever find intelligent life out there, so far we haven't found it.


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## RadishRose (Nov 3, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> I think the odds are pretty low, in our life times anyway.  But we are looking, what's the plan if we find it?
> 
> *The missing plan for alien first contact*
> https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221101-should-extraterrestrial-life-be-*granted*-sentient-rights


Granted?  LOL!


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## RadishRose (Nov 3, 2022)

David777 said:


> That BBC link misses some important issues that media and science fiction writers never want to mention.  The human biome contains over 10,000 different microbe species.  Within our bodies containing 30 trillion cells are like numbers of bacteria and ten times as many viruses.  Every large Earth life animal creature has a similar microbe zoo biome.  Most astrophysicists would doubt there is much to fear from worlds that might have life within our Sun's solar system because some levels of contamination have likely already occurred at least at primitive microbe levels.  But worlds many light years distant could be vastly different and not even DNA based.  Potentially some alien microbes from elsewhere could totally destroy most all surface DNA life on the planet.  And likewise microbes from Earth could do so elsewhere.  There is a key IF bearing on contamination issues.  If life everywhere is generally DNA based, then we have far less to worry about than if alien life is truly alien
> 
> I'm a proponent of the panspermia hypothesis that conflicts with the long dominant standard dogma that DNA life began then evolved on Earth. The more I understand as do other scientists, the more the narrative that primitive DNA life started here seems unlikely. Thus expect over 14.6 billion years, primitive life, most likely DNA based has cross pollinated DNA life throughout the Milky Way Galaxy and also across galaxies in our Universe.
> 
> ...


I've always suspected WE are the Martians.


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## David777 (Nov 3, 2022)

Science has recently discovered two bizarre organisms that I will suggest may have came from outer space.  Thus provides evidence of possible panspermia. *Tardigrades* aka water bears, that can survive in outer space for periods, and *slime molds*, _physarum polycephalum_, do not fit in any Earth life phyla but do have DNA. Slime molds have some type of unique electrical waves used for intelligence that are unlike nervous systems of other Earth life.  Slime molds also have strangely ancient DNA.  

https://www.france24.com/en/live-ne...e-slime-mould-to-blast-off-for-iss-experiment

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature.2012.11811

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1212/1212.1203.pdf

The incredible Cambrian explosion also provides evidence of hypothesized *Directed Panspermia *and as such supports my mentioned possibility that Earth is a UIE zoo. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrian_explosion


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## Jules (Nov 3, 2022)

It’s not just if they’re intelligent, it’s whether they’re nice.


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## Gary O' (Nov 3, 2022)

What happens if we find intelligent life out there?​
If they were truly intelligent, they'd pull the blinds, shut off the porch light, and deadbolt their door......like Halloween in a bad neighborhood


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## Lara (Nov 4, 2022)

They've already been here. Look no further than the top of Machu Picchu. 
Had to be a much higher intelligence before the Incas.


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## RadishRose (Nov 4, 2022)

hawkdon said:


> And yet we keep spending millions sending a few
> folks into space...looking for who know what??


A place to put our garbage.


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## Mr. Ed (Nov 4, 2022)

Intelligent life, you mean like another Einstein?


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## officerripley (Nov 5, 2022)

Are humans even capable of recognizing intelligence when they see it?


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## Mr. Ed (Nov 5, 2022)

What happens if we find intelligent life out there? Hold it, cherish it and reproduce to ensure the continuation of the human mistake.​


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## Old_Dame (Nov 5, 2022)

“What happens if we find intelligent life out there?”


Ditto.


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## senior chef (Nov 5, 2022)

I don't doubt that intelligent life exists somewhere in the universe.  The number of stars in the universe is uncountable. How many trillions of stars ? Many, if not most, of the stars will have planets. Surely some of those planets must have developed life. Where life develops, intelligent life will eventually develop.


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## Bretrick (Nov 19, 2022)

Exactly what would we do if a fleet of spacecraft landed and 10,000 aliens disembarked?
Friendly or hostile?
Would our Leaders attempt to blast them out of existence?
Imagine this visitation, our lives would be changed forever


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## RadishRose (Nov 19, 2022)

Bretrick said:


> Exactly what would we do if a fleet of spacecraft landed and 10,000 aliens disembarked?
> Friendly or hostile?
> Would our Leaders attempt to blast them out of existence?
> Imagine this visitation, our lives would be changed forever


why is it the first thing males do is consider war?


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## Marie5656 (Nov 19, 2022)

*If there was no intelligent life, it sure would be an awful waste of Space
                                                                                    Carl Sagan*


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## Lilac (Nov 19, 2022)

Thinking about what David777 said ...

One TV show said that analysis done by scientists from information received from the Mars rovers showed it was possible that Mars supported life similar to ours and that life came here. They went on to say that our sleep cycle is more akin to the length of day on Mars than on Earth, and that our body temperature tolerance is more acclimated to what the Mars equator temperature would have been. Just gives you something to think about and even if the scientists are on the right track.

Besides, if someone is out there watching, why would they want to interact with us with the way we behave towards each other. Either they are shaking their heads at us in disbelief, or looking at each other saying WTF?


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## horseless carriage (Nov 19, 2022)

Bella said:


> *"What happens if we find intelligent life out there?"*


The reason why we have never encountered intelligent life is because, being intelligent, they have the common sense to stay away from us.


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## oldpop (Nov 20, 2022)

What happens if we find intelligent life out there?​Major changes for our civilization.


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## Ruthanne (Nov 20, 2022)

That would be great.  I think there would be lots of questions we'd have for each other.


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## Bretrick (Nov 20, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> why is it the first thing males do is consider war?


Because that is what many world leaders would think in this scenario.
Self preservation.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 20, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> why is it the first thing males do is consider war?


Good point, that is what most of the movies tell us.

Maybe they will come for se*, seems just as likely and could make an interesting movie...


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## Lilac (Nov 20, 2022)

This is one of those late-night thoughts of WHAT IF...

I loved watching _The Twilight Zone_ as a kid & still do. Does anyone else remember a few of episodes when the aliens lived alongside everyone & no one knew it? Now I wonder who they ticked off on their planet to get that job.

I watched _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ all the time as a kid with Dad. I thought it showed that potential visitors weren't always going to be bad. They would be telling us to grow up & clean up our act, or else. I still think that Helen & her son Bobby should have left with Klaatu.

My dad was 17 when he was in the Civilian Conservation Corp. in Oregon. Everyone in the barracks was listening to the radio the night Orson Wells did his broadcast. No one heard the intro & so they all thought it was real. He said all he could think of was how he was going to get home when he was 2,000 from it.


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## Lewkat (Nov 20, 2022)

Someone recently posted a cartoon of aliens observing us, and decided we on earth, have a lot of issues.   It was hilarious.


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## JaniceM (Nov 20, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> I think the odds are pretty low, in our life times anyway.  But we are looking, what's the plan if we find it?
> 
> *The missing plan for alien first contact*
> https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221101-should-extraterrestrial-life-be-granted-sentient-rights


Send it here!  It's very much needed!!


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## Tabby Ann (Nov 20, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> I think the odds are pretty low, in our life times anyway. But we are looking, what's the plan if we find it?


They have already found us and the plan is already in effect. Their technology is so far advanced the plan is for the military/ government to cooperate with them they as best they can and keep the whole thing top secret.


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## oldpop (Nov 20, 2022)

David777 said:


> The incredible Cambrian explosion also provides evidence of hypothesized *Directed Panspermia *and as such supports my mentioned possibility that Earth is a UIE zoo.


I have pondered this thought myself and it is definitely a possibility. Thank you for the links.


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