They can't build radio transmitters [img]smile.gif[/img]
The only extra terrestrial life our species will ever have any hope of finding will have to have the necessary technology to send a signal out into space that we might intercept and decipher.

Well, unless of course they have the technology to be smart about it and NOT send signals but rather wait to *receive* them. I mean, we all know how history has tended to treat the "discoverers" as opposed to those who are discovered. ;)

True, but either way, they're intelligent, we meet. Whether we benefit or not is irrelevant [img]smile.gif[/img]

um, its not likely that we're ever going to meet intelligent life... that would be, um, very unprobable

If we meet intelligent life, we couldnt comunicate with them.
For example, can you comunicate with a butterfly?
No, so we know a lot of about them.
How will we comunicate with alien creatures even if we would know a bit?
I think the alien life exists (as cells) but like us... this is unprobable.

Shaide

Haven't you heard? Europeans are from Venus, and Americans are from Mars ;)

shade, assuming the life form was intelligent, it would have to have some language whether spoken or ESP. now, assuming that it didnt harm us with mental waves by trying to merely communicate with us, we would eventually discover some means of translating languages. sorry mathemeticians, math would not be it. most likely it would be through image/word association.

tens/hundreds of thousands of years from now doesn't necessarily constitute 'never' [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 05-31-2004, 08:08 PM: Message edited by: The Hierophant ]

Actually, over 200 billion, last count. Assuming 1 per, that's over 50 billion planets within a given distance capable of supporting life.

So Yorick, the numbers for this galaxy alone are in our favor. In fact, the nearest star to our own (Alpha Centauri, subject, central element and locale of one of the best turn-based strategy games ever made: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri) may have planets capable of supporting life, with a little effort. It isn't so hard when you crunch the numbers.

Quite honestly, I don't believe in the prospect to suit my desire to not be alone. I've felt quite alone for a long time, and I wouldn't be capable of communicating with these creatures, intelligent or not, and they live and die in the same infinite and cold universe I do. The blackness turns over, and we are alone, to paraphrase Rorschach. Though there is something instantly comforting about that. No purpose, no delusions, just existence. Exist for existence's sake. That's fine enough. To live for the sake of living is one of the few acts to be done in such a fashion that I can truly admire.

[ 05-31-2004, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: Oblivion437 ]

There's a lot of truth in this statement. [img]smile.gif[/img]

I'd go further and try to outline Appollonian/Dyonisian paradigms as first laid out by Nietszche, but why muck with a good summary.

[ 06-01-2004, 01:03 AM: Message edited by: Timber Loftis ]