The discovery of intelligent alien life would be met predominantly with...
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 3675 votes
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- By the end of 2026, how useful do you think agentic/multi-agent AI systems will actually be in your daily work or personal projects? Posted on March 11th, 2026 | 27 comments
I told ya so! (Score:2, Insightful)
The discovery of intelligent alien life would be met predominantly with...
I told ya so!
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“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to big lasers. Big lasers lead to pissed off aliens. Pissed off aliens lead to suffering.”
It'll never happen (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It'll never happen (Score:5, Interesting)
Sufficiently intelligent beings who have learned to travel faster than the speed of light would be totally uninterested in visiting low life forms such as humans.
How do you know that? Maybe they'd be interested in us the same way anthropologists are interested in "less developed" cultures. Perhaps they would be interested in seeing the path we have taken to arrive at our current technological state to see how it compares to their own. Or maybe they'd just want to collect some of us for their intergalactic zoo [wikipedia.org].
Re:It'll never happen (Score:5, Interesting)
We certainly *CAN* predict (with very near certainty) that faster-than-light travel is impossible - and that is the overwhelmingly most likely reason that aliens will never visit us in person.
Actually that is not entirely accurate. See Alcubierre drive:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A... [wikipedia.org]
https://www.princeton.edu/~ach... [princeton.edu]
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/gl... [nasa.gov]
There has been a lot of debate and research on this very subject, even a proof of concept in the works:
http://www.extremetech.com/ext... [extremetech.com]
Current data suggests FTL travel to be impossible, but that is also in a relative sense. Even if an alcubierre drive turns out to possible we have a lot more work to do before it is feasible.
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Very true, the drive theory was specifically thought up to overcome the single object being accelerated to FTL. I love the idea of it though, its all highly theoretical of course, but very interesting none the less.
Re:It'll never happen (Score:4, Interesting)
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You
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You're also assuming that such an advanced species would necessarily care about the resulting shockwave.
A massive shockwave may not be a problem for one-way trips out of the solar system to uninhabited worlds. But it presents a mighty difficulty in anyone returning home. It also precludes attempts to search for life on other worlds, as the shockwave may obliterate it. And because such a shockwave could easily destroy most life on Earth, the technology would need to be kept under tight control by trustworthy bureaucracy. Which is basically an oxymoron.
If there is no better method than an Alcubierre drive for F
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Actually, in the links they describe there are a ton of different calculations on the energy requirements. Some take insane amounts (like you pointed out), others show negative energy (anti-matter) but there are a few designs that show feasible energy requirements (about 700kg is what one said). The biggest problem comes to how you fuel the thing, because they have no clue.
This is all theory and nothing but speculation anyway though (the energy could be insanely high requirements) and they definitely have
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Negative energy isn't antimatter. If it was, then colliding anti-matter with regular matter would produce a soft 'poof' sound rather than a gigantic explosion. E=mc^2 applies to antimatter...it doesn't have negative mass - so it doesn't have negative energy either.
Negative energy means your idea doesn't work.
Re:It'll never happen (Score:4, Insightful)
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i..e. Sufficiently intelligent beings who have learned to travel faster than the speed of light would be totally uninterested in visiting low life forms such as humans.
"Sufficiently intelligent" does not necessarily imply the wisdom to not exploit the resources of solar systems inhabited by "low life forms".
(If there's perceived value in the resources. If not, we're probably safe from them. But we don't know what might be valuable to them. Even without "replicators", advanced material science could make our resources not needed or not worth the trouble. (Our current push to develop alternatives to rare earth metals is an example of trying to make something "not worth the
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The calculation is based upon assumed energy requirements. In other words the resource to be exploited cannot possibly be valued more than the assumed energy required to obtain it.
Of course this line of rationale falls in to the "rational actor" fallacy. Since humans aren't rational actors, why would aliens have to be?
Re:It'll never happen (Score:5, Funny)
You don't need to be able to shake hands in order to discover life. Perhaps we merely pick up their version of Dancing With the Stars". Wait. Never mind, it's supposed to be intelligent life.
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I think you are referring to the Fermi Paradox: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... [wikipedia.org]
It can be stated briefly as "The apparent size and age of the universe suggest that many technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilizations ought to exist. However, this hypothesis seems inconsistent with the lack of observational evidence to support it."
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They don't have to go faster than light speed if they just lived a super long time and had a very slow speed of thought. For such beings, it would just seem like the speed of light was much faster than it is to us and the universe would seem much more accessible.
It takes us 25,000 years to get to the nearest star, and to us that's an eternity. Maybe to a being that lives for 1 million years, and has a single thought once a year, a 25,000 year trip to proxima centari is just like a long car ride.
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travailing near the speed of light would give you a long life and slow speed of thought, relative to the slow moving observers.
Re: It'll never happen (Score:2)
The Fermi Paradox assumes that we know what to look for.
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The Fermi Paradox assumes that we know what to look for.
and that's enough 'Fermi' to worry about today.
[ducks]
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We are sufficiently more intelligent than microbial life, but would shit a brick if we found some.
Re:It'll never happen (Score:5, Insightful)
Sufficiently intelligent beings who have learned to travel faster than the speed of light would be totally uninterested in visiting low life forms such as humans.
For which reason humanity never developed any interest in biology generally but restricted its research exclusively to human biology, yeah?
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Re:It'll never happen (Score:5, Interesting)
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How is space tiny relative to the time it has been around when it is expanding at a rate greater than the speed of light? Galaxies that a over 5 gigaparsecs away are travelling away from us at a rate higher than the speed of light so there is no way, without FTL of us ever getting there, let alone our current snails pace tech.
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would of easily had enough time in the billions of years that have passed to colonize every single planet a thousand times over in the entire galaxy
I take the more pessimistic view: it means that interstellar travel is so difficult that no species has ever managed it.
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Everything would suddenly have an alien connection (Score:5, Insightful)
There would probably be precious little talking to the aliens themselves. Except for those looking at how to take advantage of the aliens. Or how to use the aliens to take advantage of or obtain mastery over other people.
Re:Everything would suddenly have an alien connect (Score:4, Funny)
Everything historical would suddenly have some alien connection.
So basically what you're saying is that Giorgio A. Tsoukalos was right all along [cdn.meme.am]?!?
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Agreed. And it is the basis for my prediction: Fundamentalists from every religion will be threatened in a way they never have before. They'll at each others' throats trying to prove to/convince/intimidate one another (and themselves) that their beliefs are still the one and only truth, and they'll drag the rest of us into global conflict.
And, on top of the existing whack jobs, millions more will come out of the woodwork in response to the new alien presence, bickering and squabbling over what their pres
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Not that you have no good reason to think of religion as just another way for humans to divide ourselves based on dogma and, more importantly, trivial social identity, with a bit of metaphysical weirdness sprinkled in, but:
Religion doesn't get enough respect. There is real value to be found in bringing the spiritual into your life. Sadly, as society has become more and more secular, our greatest minds have mostly fled religion and most of who remains are really simple tribal types. But even among the simpli
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I can be altruistic without believing in invisible gay unicorns.
I don't see much altruism in killing people because they don't.
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You hit the nail on the head. The first thing any leader will do is try to get the aliens onto their side, be it by duplicity, cunning or whatnot.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were something like the Prime Directive out there, just because the lesson of an advanced civilization bumping into a lesser one usually means the lesser one is immediately eradicated. Our history shows this to be evident over and over again. (Aztecs, anyone?)
I would suspect any advanced power that can visit the earth undetected
Hatred (Score:3, Insightful)
The Great Filter (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing is that if we find no good reason why the earth is essentially unique as a place for life to form (and all evidence is that it's not) - and if we find no other intelligent life out there (which, oddly, we haven't) - then it seems overwhelmingly likely that intelligent life forms are always obliterated before they can become capable of communicating with us, or very shortly afterwards...perhaps because of things like global climate change and running out of key resources before they become capable of expanding off their home planet That's very bad news for humanity - it strongly suggests that we're doomed...and within not too many more generations!
This is explored in some detail in: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter
So if we find other intelligent aliens, then it's far more likely that we'll also survive.
Hence, happiness is the right reaction to finding them.
Of course, humanity has grown up with a culture where 99% of fictional alien encounters end incredibly badly...so I suppose the majority of us will go for the fear and/or giant lasers options....sigh.
-- Steve
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The Great Filter is what I was thinking here too. Find aliens more advanced than us? Good, we may well make it there ourselves! Find that we're the most advanced things around? The odds are no longer in our favor.
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Of course, humanity has grown up with a culture where 99% of fictional alien encounters end incredibly badly...
This is based on solid experience. Name one single example of a primitive race benefiting from contacting a more advanced race.
If we discover evidence of a remote civilisation (e.g. SETI), I will be happy as you say. But in the far more unlikely event of meeting aliens here, I will be extremely fearful.
Curiosity... (Score:5, Funny)
About how much I should be afraid.
After the first shock... (Score:2)
Missing Option (Score:5, Funny)
Horniness. Ever since dreaming of alien life man has had but one true goal: seek out new life and fuck it until it stops squirming.
Missing: Denial (Score:2)
There will be mass denials. A very sizable section of the population will simply not be able to comprehend it, therefore will deny it. Even if they were presented face-to-face, they still wouldn't believe it.
Fooking Prawns (Score:3)
Probably they'd eventually be viewed with hatred born out of fear :(
The obvious response. (Score:4, Insightful)
Denial. Isn't that how we greet all major discoveries. FAIK, no alien life mentioned in the bible so obviously not possible.
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You know, when the early explorers made it to the New World, there wasn't any religious explanation for the Native Americans. Somehow the religious managed to cook one up that kept their faith intact.
On one hand I think that discovering alien life, hostile or benign, would usher in a new age of atheism for the planet. More and more though I think the religious would pull the same thing they did in the early 1500s.
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A new explanation wasn't needed. We've always known that there are godless heathens in foreign lands. Alien life on another world is a much bigger step, theologically speaking.
Lasers (Score:2)
Think about it. We're not going to discover alien life by having it drop by for a visit. We're going to discover them by long-range communications, and reply the same way.
Lasers might not be a bad way to get a decent amount of bandwidth between stars, and we'd need a big freaking one to be visible at astronomic distances.
Curiosity and Fear (Score:2)
Let's face it, we're not going to discover another intelligent species on our own for quite a long time so any contact would be almost entirely on the aliens. Their technology will be beyond our imagination and we'd likely be at their complete mercy. Explorers or survivors? My fear would be they came here to finish what we started, pillage the planet of valuable resources and move on.
Insect Overlords (Score:2)
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
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Missing option: Welcome
Remember what Yoda said. (Score:2)
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to big giant lasers.
Not so fast... (Score:5, Funny)
The discovery of intelligent alien life would be met predominantly with...
We haven't even found intelligent life on Earth and you're jumping to intelligent alien life.
Slow down, cowboy.
Aliens vs. Religion (Score:3)
I would think that it would destroy most religions.
But my guess is that it would end up being like the episode of South Park where missionaries immediately try to convert these new beings (hopefully getting vaporized while doing so).
Re:Aliens vs. Religion (Score:5, Insightful)
I would think that it would destroy most religions.
It might destroy a few of the more brittle fundamentalist strains, but most religions would quickly adapt. People are quite capable of modifying their beliefs to deal with new facts, when necessary.
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No, only the Abrahamic religions.
Most other religions don't have a problem with non-human intelligent creatures and don't postulate that humans are intrinsically special.
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They'd probably try to convert us to their religion.
Fear and violence. (Score:3)
Hope (Score:3)
FBRs and Hoping for Answers (Score:2)
I for one hope we get the answer to this poll soon. There is an astronomical phenomenon recently in the news called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). [skyandtelescope.com] Most astrophysicists think these are probably neutron stars collapsing into black holes or other exotic stellar phenomenon, but there is also speculation they are beacon signals from extragalactic civilizations. Of course Pulsars were called LGMs at for “Little Green Men” at first.
FBRs are probably not Benford Beasons [astronomynow.com], but it seems likely to me our fir
The world would fear (Score:2)
While most of the world would dissolve in fear and panic, I'd just be happy to have the opportunity to actually meet intelligent life. There sure isn't much on this planet!
we've yet to find intelligent life on Earth. (Score:2)
See thread topic.
I voted curiosity (Score:2)
Not from high-mindedness, though. What I suspect will happen is that everybody will try to glean support for their personal worldview by studying the aliens, which will at first will mainly consist of jumping to self-serving conclusions ("See - I found something that proves creation!")
Must be 'Introspection' (Score:2)
We'd look inwards to see what this means to us as a species. We're not alone. We're not special. Where there's one there be hundreds. Thousands. Will they be friendly. Will we be friendly? Can we hide? Can we opt out? What will they think like? Will they be smarter than us? Suppose they are, what can we do?
Sort of like the thoughts that go through the mind of an ex-only child when mum and dad come back from the hospita
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Disbelief (Score:2)
How intelligent? (Score:2)
It's interesting how the common assumption is that if we find humanoids on other planets, they will be more technologically advanced than we. Imagine the disappointment when we find a planet populated by cavemen. Then again, there will likely be those among us who will seek to enslave them.
Knives... (Score:2)
Invasion, subjugation and slavery (Score:2)
Invasion, subjugation and slavery until they rise up and free themselves from us.
from MiB (Score:2)
Greed (Score:2)
They have it. We want it. Make up an excuse. Take it.
Denial (Score:3)
Many scientists and most religions will deny it.
Obviously it depends (Score:2)
Indifference, because ... (Score:2)
Of course, if we start receiving Radio Alpha Centauri, things might be less indifferent.
Confusion (Score:3)
How, if we stumbled across intelligent life, would we be able to recognise it?
Fear driven by the governments, to get more money (Score:3)
Never let a crisis go to waste. Everything that can be used to drive fear, which makes the populace accept higher taxes, which funds more bureaucrats and politicians, who drive the next fear cycle.
Is there any way off this merry-go-round?
...on intelligence and technological advancement (Score:5, Insightful)
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Microbial life on Mars will hardly instill much fear but a lot of curiosity
The question asks about "intelligent" alien life. That implies a higher order than microbial life at least.
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He's talking about the kind of microbes who, when viewed through a microscope, form "TAKE US TO YOUR LEADER" text with their bodies.
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Depends on if it's a Vogon Constructor Fleet or something similar... and also whether they start reading poetry or not.
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Followed by a permanent appearance of Michael Crichton on Faux news lying about how this is just like Andromeda Strain or some other hack novel he put together
Re:...on intelligence and technological advancemen (Score:5, Insightful)
Followed by a permanent appearance of Michael Crichton on Faux news lying about how this is just like Andromeda Strain or some other hack novel he put together
Then he himself would be causing greater headlines than aliens, seeing as how he died about 4.5 years ago.
Re:Fear (Score:5, Funny)
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Dude, I accidently modded you overrated when I meant Funny.
Now I'm nuking all my mod points in the thread by posting to appologize.
Modding evidently needs an undo in the first few seconds.
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Re:Slashdot can't count votes? (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot runs on Pentium processors. The math is close enough.
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That moment when you realize 1995 was 20 years ago.
Re:Slashdot can't count votes? (Score:5, Funny)
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1995 was 20.000000006 years ago
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Or, if you're using a Pentium, 19.95 year ago. Or 20.03. Something like that.
Close enough.
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Re:Slashdot can't count votes? (Score:4, Funny)
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matthew mcconaughey clones?
Kill me now.
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