What would alien life look like?

[Anomalocaris]

How rare is incomprehensibly rare?

[ignoramus]

I have nothing to go by

[AFTT47]

A major question mark is intelligent life. Our planet is about 4.5 billion years old but only in the last few million years or so did evolution favor big brains. The dinosaurs did fine for a 100 million years+ without it until that damn asteroid hit about 65 million years ago.

Current understanding is that extra-terrestrial life is probably very common but intelligent life may be rare.

We just don't know yet.

On the other hand, lineages of non-intelligent extra-terresterial life would likely rarely cross interplanetary divide and perhaps hardly ever cross interstellar divide even when looking at sample pools spanning multiple galaxies.   But intelligent alien life may develop interstellar travel capability with significant frequency and thus spread across interplanetary and interstellar divide quite often.

So I suspect that while nonintelligence alien lineages may be very numerous and be everywhere, Intelligent alien lineages, although may be very few, but still can also everywhere.

We just simply don't know. I personally believe it is likely (based on our current understanding) there is some species somewhere that has evolved to a god-like level. Given the age and expanse of the universe, it seems inevitable. My argument is that I don't believe we are capable of comprehending what such a species would do or want to do. How could we? An ant could not possibly comprehend you or I but the laws of physics imply the existence of beings as far beyond us as we are beyond the ants.

[Paleophyte]

I have nothing to go by

We have numerous examples of non-simian species that are borderline. We seem to be the only ones to have stepped over the border thus far. Our existence may provide the selection pressure to nudge some of the others over the edge to full intelligence. If that happens, we are going to have the worst oldest sibling complex ever.

One big question will be whether or not the speed of light is an absolute upper limit. If it is then don't expect to hear from anybody soon. Intelligent life will be too distantly separated in both space and time. Our own light shell is less than 100 ly in radius and likely too low power to be detected against the noise at much more than 10 ly or so. It's also growing darker as we learn to communicate more efficiently, using fiber optics and directional lasers rather than belting signals off the stratosphere around the planet.

If light speed isn't an absolute barrier then our universe could be quite noisy. Efficient communication is vital to any form of governance, a fact demonstrated by every empire that has ever fallen. Anybody with FTL travel should also have FTL communication. They may also have sprawling empires spanning galaxies. SETI hasn't found signs of intelligent life yet because ET doesn't phone home with anything that plods along at the speed of light.

[The Valkyrie]

Nicholas Cage.

[ignoramus]

I have nothing to go by

We have numerous examples of non-simian species that are borderline. We seem to be the only ones to have stepped over the border thus far. Our existence may provide the selection pressure to nudge some of the others over the edge to full intelligence. If that happens, we are going to have the worst oldest sibling complex ever.

One big question will be whether or not the speed of light is an absolute upper limit. If it is then don't expect to hear from anybody soon. Intelligent life will be too distantly separated in both space and time. Our own light shell is less than 100 ly in radius and likely too low power to be detected against the noise at much more than 10 ly or so. It's also growing darker as we learn to communicate more efficiently, using fiber optics and directional lasers rather than belting signals off the stratosphere around the planet.

If light speed isn't an absolute barrier then our universe could be quite noisy. Efficient communication is vital to any form of governance, a fact demonstrated by every empire that has ever fallen. Anybody with FTL travel should also have FTL communication. They may also have sprawling empires spanning galaxies. SETI hasn't found signs of intelligent life yet because ET doesn't phone home with anything that plods along at the speed of light.

Is it feasible to extrapolate that because we haven't decoded anything yet from space means that there ultimately is no FTL comms capable or just no one to send it?
Or they're a lot further away. I mean, take 2 cut lunches with you farther away! And to extrapolate further, no FTL comms probably also suggests no FTL travel.

[Anomalocaris]

On the other hand, lineages of non-intelligent extra-terresterial life would likely rarely cross interplanetary divide and perhaps hardly ever cross interstellar divide even when looking at sample pools spanning multiple galaxies.   But intelligent alien life may develop interstellar travel capability with significant frequency and thus spread across interplanetary and interstellar divide quite often.

So I suspect that while nonintelligence alien lineages may be very numerous and be everywhere, Intelligent alien lineages, although may be very few, but still can also everywhere.

We just simply don't know. I personally believe it is likely (based on our current understanding) there is some species somewhere that has evolved to a god-like level. Given the age and expanse of the universe, it seems inevitable. My argument is that I don't believe we are capable of comprehending what such a species would do or want to do. How could we? An ant could not possibly comprehend you or I but the laws of physics imply the existence of beings as far beyond us as we are beyond the ants.

I agree.  But I suspect when god like power is developed, it would unlikely to be by what can still be considered as one specie.   Rather, I tend to think once some specie has proceeded a few hundred or thousand years beyond ours in technology, but still considerably less than god like, the it will have both the power and the interest to create cyborgs, self replicating intelligent machines, genetically modified intelligent organisms, and ground up engineered intelligent organisms that are conscious and sentient to serve as tools or place in useful roles.   The civilization at that stage will gradually transition from the paradigm of one intelligent technic specie and its tools, which is basically similar our how civilization have always been, to a new paradigm of an ecosystem of many different types of intelligent biological and robotic entities, many of which will have the sentience to formulate and assert their own interests, that coexist in a mixture of competition and cooperation.   At that point even the descend of the original intelligent biological specie that founded the civilization may be modified into multiple tailored lineages for,different roles and environments, and may bear little resemblance to their ancesters who made the first steam engine or computer.

---

We have numerous examples of non-simian species that are borderline. We seem to be the only ones to have stepped over the border thus far. Our existence may provide the selection pressure to nudge some of the others over the edge to full intelligence. If that happens, we are going to have the worst oldest sibling complex ever.

One big question will be whether or not the speed of light is an absolute upper limit. If it is then don't expect to hear from anybody soon. Intelligent life will be too distantly separated in both space and time. Our own light shell is less than 100 ly in radius and likely too low power to be detected against the noise at much more than 10 ly or so. It's also growing darker as we learn to communicate more efficiently, using fiber optics and directional lasers rather than belting signals off the stratosphere around the planet.

If light speed isn't an absolute barrier then our universe could be quite noisy. Efficient communication is vital to any form of governance, a fact demonstrated by every empire that has ever fallen. Anybody with FTL travel should also have FTL communication. They may also have sprawling empires spanning galaxies. SETI hasn't found signs of intelligent life yet because ET doesn't phone home with anything that plods along at the speed of light.

Is it feasible to extrapolate that because we haven't decoded anything yet from space means that there ultimately is no FTL comms capable or just no one to send it?
Or they're a lot further away. I mean, take 2 cut lunches with you farther away!   And to extrapolate further, no FTL comms probably also suggests no FTL travel.

We have no clue how to receive FTL comm.

[onlinebiker]

I can't tell you what alien life will look like, but I can tell you it won't stand out in the crowd in San Francisco....

[Anomalocaris]

I can't tell you what alien life will look like, but I can tell you it won't stand out in the crowd in San Francisco....

Unlike in trump country, where alien life wear funny red MAGA hats, scream “build the wall”, and applauding ripping children from their “invaders” parents, so they can’t possibly be mistaken for humans

[onlinebiker]

I can't tell you what alien life will look like, but I can tell you it won't stand out in the crowd in San Francisco....

Unlike in trump country, where alien life wear funny red MAGA hats, scream “build the wall”, and applauding ripping children from their “invaders” parents, so they can’t possibly be mistaken for humans

Noooooooo...


The Trump camp is definetly indigenous.

And quite possibly firm evidence that Neanderthal man didn't go extinct.