Why Only Americans Are Interested in the Hunt for Alien Life

[Powerogue]

I'm sticking to, even if there is other life out there for us to find, it's so absurdly far away that we'd never be able to reach it with our current technology. Let's say we come to see a planet with clear intelligent life on it 10 thousand lightyears away. We even have the technology for an infinitely replenishing spaceship to take humans there to meet them at lightspeed. We reach there 10 thousand years later...and their frivolous race wars ultimately lead to the use of superweapons which obliterated the planet and all life on it. They just couldn't get over the shape of their nipples.

[endersblade]

Insects can only grow so large due to environmental and biological limitations. Ensuring they will never be large enough to be anything other than lower lifeforms.

Reptilians are also impossible due to their cold blooded nature. Cold-blooded animals don't have the metabolism to provide enough energy and oxygen to the brain, or the proper thermoregulation to keep an advanced brain nice and cozy. Another reason why advanced insects are impossible.

Instead of insects and reptiles its birds and mammals that will be what we encounter when it comes to intelligent life. I guess you could see a Saurian(dinosaur) like or fish like alien as some are warm blooded.

Such earth-bound, closed-minded thinking. This is the thing I always hate hearing from people who talk about life outside of earth - you relegate it to earthly thinking. "We can't have silcon-based, sentient life, because it can't happen here on earth." "We can't have reptilian sentient life, because reptiles here on earth can't do it". Right. ON EARTH. We barely know how our own planet functions, how life on earth does its thing, let alone the entire universe. The truth is, we can't even hazard a guess as to what type of other lifeforms exist out there, outside of what we know here on earth. But what we know here on earth may have dick to do with what happens out there. So trying to say "We can't have insect aliens because insects on earth can't house an advanced brain" just makes you look silly.

[Fargus]

Such earth-bound, closed-minded thinking. This is the thing I always hate hearing from people who talk about life outside of earth - you relegate it to earthly thinking. "We can't have silcon-based, sentient life, because it can't happen here on earth." "We can't have reptilian sentient life, because reptiles here on earth can't do it". Right. ON EARTH. We barely know how our own planet functions, how life on earth does its thing, let alone the entire universe. The truth is, we can't even hazard a guess as to what type of other lifeforms exist out there, outside of what we know here on earth. But what we know here on earth may have dick to do with what happens out there. So trying to say "We can't have insect aliens because insects on earth can't house an advanced brain" just makes you look silly.

You know, you're pretty reasonable when you're not condoning pouring boiling water on caged rats.

[Nathreim]

Insects on Earth, in current conditions, you mean.

A planet with entirely different conditions would allow for larger insects. Even here, millions and millions of years ago, there was enough oxygen to support much larger insects so it's not a stretch at all. Who are you to say that there are no planets out there that have the perfect conditions for this kind of life?

The reptilian "impossibility" is also debunked by the fact that giant dinosaurs existed who were larger than the land animals we see today. There is absolutely no scientific basis to say it is "impossible" for one to have an advanced brain.

This is all speculation, mind you, as we don't know what kind of life there is out there. We don't even have a full understanding of life itself on this planet, so to say an insectoid or reptilian alien is "impossible", especially with a whole universe out there, is just being narrow-minded (and arrogant).

High enough oxygen levels would make it impossible itself. Imagine a cave man starting the first fire with flint then blowing up. Thats what it was like during the period on earth when we had super high concentrations of oxygen even a small spark turned into a raging inferno. Insects cant have lungs because they have exoskeleton which prevents them from having an advanced enough intake system for oxygen to feed an intelligent brain.

So to become intelligent they would have to evolve to have at least a partial endoskeleton in the chest area, they would need to evolve lungs, and a new blood capable of transporting oxygen to the brain(because Hemolymp(insect blood) doesn't transport oxygen). By then they would not be an insect anymore.

Dinosaurs are not reptiles they were warm blooded like birds this has been known for 20 years now. I even listed them as possible candidates of higher evolution along with birds.

Large sauropods existed because they had very large tracks of habitat compared to what mammals have. A Sauropod would have habitats the size of continents to roam and graze on habbitats for mammals have always been much smaller except for marine mammals. The largest animals to ever live on earth were not dinosaurs but whales.

For carbon based lifeforms to survive the conditions cannot fluctuate radically from Earth. Thats the reason we spend so much time looking for Goldilocks planets that have similar conditions to our own. This makes the type of creature we would encounter easily predictable.

[chazus]

I feel like (Without any research done), it may be an issue of bottlenecks. Any kind of SETI research requires massive undertaking, both financially and asset-wise. That same asset system could be used for a lot of other things that actually yield information, or simply other projects in the same budget. If you had a choice to spend money on a thing that does something, or a thing that is sort of a maybe/not really... You put money somewhere useful.

[Fargus]

High enough oxygen levels would make it impossible itself. Imagine a cave man starting the first fire with flint then blowing up. Thats what it was like during the period on earth when we had super high concentrations of oxygen even a small spark turned into a raging inferno. Insects cant have lungs because they have exoskeleton which prevents them from having an advanced enough intake system for oxygen to feed an intelligent brain.

No it wasn't. You're exaggerating.

You are assuming you need lungs to have a highly developed brain. These are unsubstantiated assumptions when we are talking about alien lifeforms, for all you know they have a different respiratory system that may be more efficient than our own.

So to become intelligent they would have to evolve to have at least a partial endoskeleton in the chest area, they would need to evolve lungs, and a new blood capable of transporting oxygen to the brain(because Hemolymp(insect blood) doesn't transport oxygen). By then they would not be an insect anymore.

You have no idea what is required to become intelligent.

Dinosaurs are not reptiles they were warm blooded like birds this has been known for 20 years now. I even listed them as possible candidates of higher evolution along with birds.

Wrong.

'Our results showed that dinosaurs had growth and metabolic rates that were actually not characteristic of warm-blooded or even cold-blooded organisms,' said University of Arizona evolutionary biologist and ecologist Brian Enquist.

'They did not act like mammals or birds nor did they act like reptiles or fish.

'Instead, they had growth rates and metabolisms intermediate to warm-blooded and cold-blooded organisms of today. In short, they had physiologies that are not common in today's world.'

Some turtles have that kind of metabolism. Turtles are reptiles.

The largest animals to ever live on earth were not dinosaurs but whales.

I said land-based animals.

For carbon based lifeforms to survive the conditions cannot fluctuate radically from Earth. Thats the reason we spend so much time looking for Goldilocks planets that have similar conditions to our own. This makes the type of creature we would encounter easily predictable.

Want to see the potential for alien life? Look at our very own extremeophiles. There's a lot we don't know, so calling it "predictable" is also the height of arrogance. If you want a recent example, take a look at Pluto. Most scientists prior to New Horizon's data thought that Pluto was a dead, uninteresting icy world. Due to the recent data, it is much more than that.

[Puupi]

The US spends let's say 0.0000001% of its public science funds on SETI. That is still exponentially larger than potentially a full 0.05% of the Dutch public science funds. Not just larger, but potentially also a significant chunk of public funds that could be used on other pure science projects with more immediate relevance, like the Large Hadron Collider.

SETI is a private organization and is not funded by the government. All their ET searches are funded by private money.

[Nathreim]

No it wasn't. You're exaggerating.

You are assuming you need lungs to have a highly developed brain. These are unsubstantiated assumptions when we are talking about alien lifeforms, for all you know they have a different respiratory system that may be more efficient than our own.

One of the reasons for the Devonian age extinction even is believed to be massive world wide wildfire due to the extremely high levels of oxygen. Kunio Kaiho of Tohoku University in Japan and a team of paleontologists from around the world have found high amounts of organic carbon associated with forest fires at the end of the Devonian age sediment marker. Be hard to have a civilization during an era with high oxygen levels a single accidental fire could wipe out a continent.


You need lots of oxygen to feed a brain lungs are required for intelligent carbon based lifeforms. If they had a different system of breathing other than what insects have they are no longer insects. Any insect as large as a human also can never walk upright gravity would crush them as soon as they molted.

You have no idea what is required to become intelligent.

These guys do and they are professors.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...e-insects.html

This was written by Prof. Matthew Wills an expert paleobiologist saying its impossible for insects to become advanced like humans.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...st-claims.html

Professor of Biology Conway Morris also saying advanced aliens would be human like.

Wrong.

That study was flawed. A newer one addressed the study and its flaws while adding more evidence that dinosaurs were warm blooded.
http://www.livescience.com/51162-din...wth-rates.html

Want to see the potential for alien life? Look at our very own extremeophiles. There's a lot we don't know, so calling it "predictable" is also the height of arrogance. If you want a recent example, take a look at Pluto. Most scientists prior to New Horizon's data thought that Pluto was a dead, uninteresting icy world. Due to the recent data, it is much more than that.

We were talking complex intelligent life. Single microscopic organisms and bacteria are tinker toys we already know things like this exist.

Complex highly intelligent lifeforms capable of FTL travel cannot evolve in overly harsh conditions. It needs a stable world where it can safely evolve and advanced enough in intelligence to master tools specially fire. Without mastery of fire civilization, technology and all the advancements that will eventually come with it are impossible.

[Mormolyce]

Cause they don't want their 4th of july ruined (twice).

I want to make a new sequel to Independence Day where the aliens are defeated on January 26th so the US is forced to observe Australia Day.

[mickybrighteyes]

If they have FTL travel then we don't need too they can visit us thats the real point in it all.

And before anyone says anything lifeforms that advanced would be as peaceful if not more peaceful than us. Anyone more violent would have destroyed themselves after discovering atomic weapons (hell we came close a few times).

simple thing to make this idea look silly...

why would they bother?

"oh look we just got a message from some place we didn't think existed?"

"it's just spam, delete it"

- - - Updated - - -

I want to make a new sequel to Independence Day where the aliens are defeated on January 26th so the US is forced to observe Australia Day.

WE'd just call it America fuck yeah day and get bigger and badder fireworks and black jack and hookers and be all "fuck australia day!"

[Deleted]

I thought this interest in Aliens was something that was popular last century.

All we see now are more illegal aliens taking our jerrrbs.

[breadisfunny]

because we are on the hunt for this:

they are said to be armed and extremely sexy.

[Cosmic Janitor]

My guess would be, that because only drunken hicks in america seem get abducted by aliens, they are the only ones with a personal intrest .

Jokes aside, while finding signs of intelligent life would be kinda interesting, the nature of this universe also makes that inherently hard to utilize. Maybe somewhere out there is the one thing that would open up feasible FTL travel (material or information), but I don't see it as being a very likely nor reasonable achievable thing anytime soon. At most it might piss off some religous people, and while that would be enjoyable I'm not dedicating my life to that :P.

[Mihalik]

SETI is a private organization and is not funded by the government. All their ET searches are funded by private money.

SETI is used as a broad term for "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence".

[Puupi]

SETI is used as a broad term for "Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence".

In addition to SETI Institute, general search for extraterrestrial intelligence isn't funded with public money either.

[Fargus]

These guys do and they are professors.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...e-insects.html

This was written by Prof. Matthew Wills an expert paleobiologist saying its impossible for insects to become advanced like humans.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...st-claims.html

Professor of Biology Conway Morris also saying advanced aliens would be human like.

I do not care what some random professor says. They are not experts in xenobiology - no one is. They are only guessing here, saying it's "impossible" is ridiculous and premature. I bet you my bottom dollar scientists were saying the same thing about Jupiter-like planets being extremely close to their sun fifty years ago. And that's the problem, so called "experts" proclaiming facts on something completely unknown. We simply do not have the knowledge to be going around and claiming such things are impossible when we struggle to explain how life is created from a primordial soup on Earth.

One of the reasons for the Devonian age extinction even is believed to be massive world wide wildfire due to the extremely high levels of oxygen. Kunio Kaiho of Tohoku University in Japan and a team of paleontologists from around the world have found high amounts of organic carbon associated with forest fires at the end of the Devonian age sediment marker. Be hard to have a civilization during an era with high oxygen levels a single accidental fire could wipe out a continent.

Again, you're exaggerating. You'll need to demonstrate oxygen levels were high enough to cause something that catastrophic from a simple campfire. Saying there were forest fires during that time isn't enough.

If they had a different system of breathing other than what insects have they are no longer insects. Any insect as large as a human also can never walk upright gravity would crush them as soon as they molted.

Insectoid don't necessarily need to be true insects. They can still have insect-like qualities. And considering these are aliens we're talking about, we'd have to classify them differently altogether.

That study was flawed. A newer one addressed the study and its flaws while adding more evidence that dinosaurs were warm blooded.
http://www.livescience.com/51162-din...wth-rates.html

Why was it flawed?

Because you don't agree with its conclusions?

Complex highly intelligent lifeforms capable of FTL travel cannot evolve in overly harsh conditions.

You don't know that though.

You are only guessing.

Don't pretend it's factual.

[Heathy]

ill just leave this here.

not really much of a hunt rather just waiting for time to pass.

in another 200 years that blue dot will be twice as big :/ it'll take over 100,000 years for it to reach the other side of the galaxy.

this is probably why aliens haven't been here, simply because if they do exist, they most likely don't know we are here yet. our radio broadcasts haven't even travelled spitting distance on the galactic scale.

[Deleted]

If we find a civilization that is more developed than ours it will probably mean an end to us.

[Ripster42]

He's a physicist. His opinion on alien psychology is largely worthless. You might think the universe is huge and effectively limitless and so there will be no competition for resources. That's because you don't take "the long view" in which it's not. There's no guarantee that aliens would have the same short sighted outlook. Especially in light of the theory that the reason we don't see many signs of ET signalling is because any society that gives its position away is wiped out. That they're essentially a sign that says, "Please come kill me before I become dangerous, I'm still stupid and optimistic." I'm not saying that's definitely the case, but game theory suggests that aliens aren't friendly because there's no real way to guarantee that we're friendly/moral even if within their own species they are, so the best way to be sure of survival is to treat everyone with suspicion and eliminate competition before they become a danger to your survival.

Insects, as they've evolved on earth, among earth's current inhabitants, aren't likely to evolve into a dominant life form. Saying things like them couldn't means you either don't understand why they're size restricted (exoskeleton[high gravity]/circulatory system[distribution of oxygen]), don't know how evolution works, don't understand distributed systems, or are artificially restricting them to being exactly like earth's insects. Let me know if your malfunction doesn't fit there. Regardless, your thoughts on this are wrong.

Also, there's no need for FTL travel or coms. Space is big. So what, eternity is long. There's 0 guarantee other species are as short lived as we currently are and are as short sighted as we are.

[TrumpIsPresident]

Also, in America, our greatest math students are becoming hedge fund managers instead of scientists and engineers.

Wonder how many great math students got turned away because colleges had met their quota.

Or because they couldn't afford to go to college in the first place because we'd rather piss away $100 to $200 billion a year (or more) taking care of certain "uninvited guests" instead of our own people.

Shit man think about it, the inventor of the FTL drive could be out there right now waiting tables.