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[dragnar]

Ah, but at first we couldn't predict the paths of other planets in a similar way to our own. It was only through many, many observations that we discovered earth was anything like the other planets, and it wasn't til newton that the idea they followed the same laws gained acceptance. In short, we needed more data, more planets to observe, just as we can't say much about other life without more date than just ourselves.

[PTTG??]

Why would aliens be concerned with attacking our world when there are far more resources available in a far more accessible places?

Also, is it not possible that there is some selective pressure towards compassion? After all, the Drake Equation suggests not one but thousands or tens of thousands of alien entities. If this is correct, there is already an existent culture of interacting groups. In such a group, aggressive, violent life forms would be co-cooperatively destroyed by others who vastly outnumber them, and peaceful ones would be accepted in, strengthening this federation, erm, republic... well... my point is, if there is one alien, there are almost certainly many aliens; and if there are many aliens, ones that aggressively strike out in a many-fronted war will quickly loose out. So, good news for us is that if there is alien life, it's already pretty co-operative and benevolent.

I for one suspect that intelligent life is far less common than we think it is. I think that the jump from subcellular to cellular is a very big step and may only happen incredibly rarely where the right combination of tide pools, chemicals, radiation... exist to make it useful. Similarly, multicellular life forms are also at a disadvantage compared to single-cells especially in highly unstable climates like we expect to find often in the galaxy. And the leap from small to large, and above all, the leap from sapience to sentience. We like to think that we humans have a great advantage, but we are far from the masters of this planet. It would be more accurate to call this world Bugworld, as insects have a far greater influence on the ecology than we do, and are more likely to survive any cataclysm.

I think that as (if) we explore the universe, we will find a great deal of planets that are almost alive, with surfaces covered in viruses and crude photosynthesizing gels, and we will find a smattering of planets more complex that have microbiospheres but not true multicellular (or at least macrocellular) life, and again a fraction- a tiny fraction- of those may have animals and plants that we would recognize, or perhaps some other distinction, and we might, somewhere, find some life that is in some way tool-using and intelligent. However, just as with the hard climb up the tree of life, I don't expect many aliens to have experienced the industrialization that humanity did. There was no force that drives humans to invent, and for the vast majority of our history, we remained at a very steady level of technology, sticking to what worked. I don't expect aliens to be any faster.

For this reason, I don't think it's too extraordinary to suggest that we may be the first intelligent, space-faring life in our local area. After all, that's what the only concrete evidence we have suggests...

[Earthquake Damage]

Why would aliens be concerned with attacking our world when there are far more resources available in a far more accessible places?

Why wouldn't they claim our resources if our planet is next on their list and their technology so great that we are easily brushed aside?

[Il Palazzo]

For the same reason you don't go stealing sand from neighbour's kid's sandbox - you've got all you'll ever need in your backyard.

[Jackrabbit]

That said, if there's a list involved, I don't see why they wouldn't.

But I don't think that'd happen for billions of years, considering the size of the galaxy. Hell, the planet might be gone by the time they get to our system.

[RedKing]

One resource that we have in abundance which are *not* found widely throughout the universe (to our knowledge) is complex organic compounds. Earth is a virtual biofactory of all sorts of fascinating hydrocarbons, amino acids, proteins, etc.

Maybe one of those turns out to be a cure for an alien plague. Or a drug. Or just a favored delicacy. I thought-gamed a scenario in a world-building group where an alien race goes to war with because they need our seawater. All of it.

Now of course, you can argue "But organic compounds are just carbon and hydrogen and oxygen stuck together in different ways! Those elements are abundant, and surely any race capable of interstellar travel could synthesize them." Which is true. But it's also true that we can technically turn lead into gold through nuclear transmutation. But it's a hell of a lot more cost-effective to go halfway around the world, dig really deep holes, and send people into dangerous conditions to extract tiny chunks of gold ore from the Earth.

Might be a lot easier to send a harvester to Earth for whatever chemical it is they're needing than to try and create it themselves. The good thing about that scenario is that if they're after a biochemical of some kind, they're not likely to unleash mega-weapons, as they need the Earth's ecology more or less intact to protect their supply. Might even be willing to trade for it.

[Jackrabbit]

Can we turn lead to gold? I thought they were put together too differently for that.

Note that I have no idea what I'm talking about, hence why I'm asking.

[RedKing]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_transmutation

This is a tangent, but the article mentions a cool idea I hadn't thought of: transmuting radioactive waste so that you turn the particular nasty bits with half-lives in the millions of years into elements with half-lifes of say, months or less. In theory, if you bombarded the hell out of it with a particle accelerator, you could move it up to some of those really high numbered elements that have half-lives measured in microseconds. Although you'd probably need an obscene amount of energy to do that.

[ChairmanPoo]

One resource that we have in abundance which are *not* found widely throughout the universe (to our knowledge) is complex organic compounds.

More abundant than you think

[Il Palazzo]

One resource that we have in abundance which are *not* found widely throughout the universe (to our knowledge) is complex organic compounds. Earth is a virtual biofactory of all sorts of fascinating hydrocarbons, amino acids, proteins, etc.

Maybe one of those turns out to be a cure for an alien plague. Or a drug. Or just a favored delicacy. I thought-gamed a scenario in a world-building group where an alien race goes to war with because they need our seawater. All of it.

Now of course, you can argue "But organic compounds are just carbon and hydrogen and oxygen stuck together in different ways! Those elements are abundant, and surely any race capable of interstellar travel could synthesize them." Which is true. But it's also true that we can technically turn lead into gold through nuclear transmutation. But it's a hell of a lot more cost-effective to go halfway around the world, dig really deep holes, and send people into dangerous conditions to extract tiny chunks of gold ore from the Earth.

Might be a lot easier to send a harvester to Earth for whatever chemical it is they're needing than to try and create it themselves. The good thing about that scenario is that if they're after a biochemical of some kind, they're not likely to unleash mega-weapons, as they need the Earth's ecology more or less intact to protect their supply. Might even be willing to trade for it.

Oh, come on. This comparision is flawed - lead transmutation requires huge effort and energy input, while all you need to do to produce some carbon compounds is grab a plant or some bacteria.
And don't tell me the aliens wouldn't have access to those, after all, they must've evolved from the bloody things.
Or you can synthetise those in your school laboraratory, no need for advanced equipment or space faring.

[RedKing]

One resource that we have in abundance which are *not* found widely throughout the universe (to our knowledge) is complex organic compounds.

More abundant than you think

You and your "science". When I was your age, space was nothing but lifeless rocks! And Pluto was a planet!

Dang meddlin' kids.

[ChairmanPoo]

When *I* was in High School, Pluto was the 8th planet of the solar system. Beat that

[PTTG??]

When I was a kid, Pluto was master of the underworld.

Now it's a Dwarf.

Kinda went full circle there...

[Kebooo]

Who's to say it's not just as likely these are righteous aliens who absolutely hate xenophobes, and if we don't make an effort to contact them, they will bomb our planet into dust to teach dirty paranoid apes a lesson.

Seem unlikely?  Why then would they spend an astronomical amount of resources to get here just to harvest, enslave, or force themselves on us?  Because that's what movies portray?

You can't rule the possibility of either out, but should we operate on the idea either is likely?

[RedKing]

I think Kebooo is one of their agents, trying to soften us up before the invasion.

<pointing> NOT ONE OF US!!