Terence Park's Blog - Posts Tagged "life-in-outer-space"
Would extra-terrestrial life pose a threat to earth?
Aug 12, 2014 10:20AM
The other day on Quora, I came across this question: "Would extra-terrestrial life pose a threat to earth?" As an avid SF reader, I've seen this developed in countless ways.
A good question. It depends.
Early opinions on how to approach this matter are, like many things, shaped by what we know and what we'd like to believe; in this case early SF imaginings and blind idealism out of the chaos of war. This mindset, almost certainly, fed the thinking behind gifting details about us, as a species, to the Voyager / Pioneer probes, currently on their slow but inevitable crawl out of the Solar System.
Science should speak for itself, the cure for this kind of SF is a big dose of realism and authenticity (but here I don't mean schlock).
Let's set the scene. As a species we colour our actions and motives according to prevailing ideas on what it is correct to believe. In my post: How Do You Start Writing? I re-examined the events the preceded the birth of the West. Over the centuries, the West has gradually moved away from ignorance. So how, now, do we in the West see ourselves in the universe? Have we advanced far enough to make a sensible stab at that question? To answer that, we need to examine changing beliefs in religion and science.
Ussher deduced the age of the Earth from the Bible. His Earth, a young Earth, begins 1300 years after urban societies (the mark of civilisation) appeared in Mesopotamia; 1500 years after the waters of the Mediterranean finally breached the Bosphorus to flood the coastal communities of the Black Sea; 70,000 years after the Toba event.
Ussher's conclusions weren't supported by advances in geology. The uniformitarians, an inspiration for Darwin, hypothesized a longer chronology. But as gradualists, they rejected continental drift and the later plate tectonics. Until the 1960's some answers couldn't be right, despite the evidence. Debates raged amongst those towering intellects. The scientific method describes the shape of things. Once key players are signed up to the hypothesis, it was (and still is) rolled out as fact. Opinions change. Tectonic movements plunged those belief systems into chaos, paving a way for a much older Earth. And thus knocking man from his perch at the centre of everything.
Assume an Old Earth. Old Sun. Old Universe. What are the chances that evolution and circumstance produce life? And if life, intelligence. And if here, elsewhere. And if elsewhere what? More advanced? A neat, civilised, benign arrangement? More belligerent? Can it be that we are alone?
The climb from ignorance is nowhere near complete. Human centric views dominate our thinking and the level of debate is typified by the type of Science Fiction popular over the past century which could be characterised as:
Are we alone? Are we monitored?
If there are intelligences out there, can they be as advanced as us? Surely human history is the measure of all things? making us far in advance of any star creatures. Alien beings compared to us are surely less than ants - perhaps they might look on us as Gods. Our society, our religions and grand economic structures - are doubtless robust enough to fare well. So there would be no perils to contact - we are still the centre of the universe.
Humanity's position in the scheme of things must surely be assured. Creatures from the stars must be fascinated in us and our planet - a race of beings. Us. Ready to climb from our planetary cradle. And the consequences of contact with such beings would be... good?
We are the pinnacle of evolution and civilisation, aren't we? AREN'T WE?
To which the answer must be: Consider a bubble of radio and TV transmissions 200 light years in diameter. Our broadcasts. Hear the racket as we wreck our nest. Shout it out: "We're here! Come and see us soil our small planet." 100,000 stars have heard us and know our location.
Returning to the original question
Science
Conventional wisdom suggests that if anything can get here, it ain't going to be alive. The given constraints are things like speed of light, how long things can live in space, etc.
Under this thinking, hypotheses that suggest alien life could make it here become untenable. There is a problem though. Most of that 'science' is actually an agreed upon structured system of supposition.
As a contrast, what circumstances would support the idea of a threat?
God
I'm a God-ist - i.e. I believe in the likelihood of a supreme being. That doesn't prevent me from accepting that there's a lot out there we don't know - and maybe some things we'd rather not know.
Let's go back to science and take panspermia as an example. It treats organic material from outer space as suggesting that some, or all, life has its origin at an unspecified place in the universe. i.e. not here.
Follow that thought and you must conclude the near certainty of intelligent extra-terrestrial life.
Peaceful coexistence
It's worth pointing out that peaceful coexistence is an ideal honoured more in the breach than practise. You can't idealise away the wars and suffering in the last 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years. These wars are about anything: self-determination, control of resources, different ideologies... you name it. How can intelligent life from space have our values?
So: intelligent life. What if it comes calling and there's organic incompatibility?
H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds uses that as the nemesis of the Martians. Ahem. A highly advanced race unable to cure a bug? The sheer size of the universe suggests tremendous scope for organic incompatibility originating out there.
When considering faster than light travel (FTL), a good point to bear in mind is how does humanity treat less advanced life forms here? Slaughtered, farmed and hunted out of existence comes to mind.
That covers peaceful coexistence. What about self-interest....
A key principle on Darwin's Theory on Evolution is that life expands to saturate available niches. This is borne out by human life on Earth.
Are we of interest?
Only if we are a threat. Refer to peaceful coexistence.
What would happen if we got out of this system? I think it's our good fortune that the speed of light is so slow - we've only been pumping out radio and TV babble for 100 years-ish. A reaction to this could be anything from an embassy to a 'stay-away' notice for unsuspecting travellers - that's assuming a final solution isn't headed our way - say a planetary ecosphere-bursting asteroid.
What should we look for?
The local stellar group is dead. Why? Hopefully it's because the systems could never have supported life. It's worth looking at those that are life suitable - but don't actually support it and then ask ourselves: Why?
Could we get along with critters from outta space?
This is a big, big topic. There are many hurdles which look insurmountable given unadulterated imperatives such go forth and prosper, manifest destiny, the promised land... In short, not the way we, as humans, are currently configured.
What does that mean?
In real life, it's all too possible that we as a species are too dangerous to be allowed out of our planetary playpen - or maybe even exist.
That oughtta set alarm bells ringing.
______________________________________________________
As a Writer...
I find this an interesting area but I prefer the idea that we can sort of get along with intelligences from out there, otherwise the story devolves into 'Planet Earth has just had the crap kicked out of its biosphere due to multiple asteroid impacts', which seems a bit of a dead-end. This still leaves plenty of fascinating ideas to explore.
Many of the above points are given a fictional treatment in my novel: A Guide to First Contact. Guide delves into our origins, where we could be headed and gives a few different takes on first contact, which are examined in the context of an imploding West.
The story goes on to consider the human condition and those aliens who, for their own reasons, choose to interact. The causes behind the collapse of civilisation are worked out. There are moments of reflection but the darker, atavistic parts of the human psyche are also explored. It is epic.
US POD http://www.lulu.com/content/14164270
UK POD http://www.lulu.com/content/7614126
Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EUI42U2
Here's a thought for those who would like to take something away without reading it through: Beware of Alien Gifts.
In Lucky, the main character is a humanoid refugee - Lucky because she's lucky to still exist. She treads a fine line between protecting herself and becoming a victim. Being exposed as a real alien would assuredly be a bad thing in the sink estate where she lives. Besides, discovery would mean publicity, which would undoubtedly be picked up by the aliens monitoring Earth; if she's noticed, the risk could be very high for us at a species level, as in technological terms we're just a side-show. But her presence spells danger.
In Joe and the Xenophids, humanity, having made it to the stars, encounter xenocidal aliens. These are the xenophids. We failed to find a way to communicate with them. They traced us back to Earth.
Both Lucky and Joe are included in my collection
Lucky and other stories: http://www.lulu.com/content/9139356
Lucky is also a stand-alone novella on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IMNXWK2
The other day on Quora, I came across this question: "Would extra-terrestrial life pose a threat to earth?" As an avid SF reader, I've seen this developed in countless ways.
A good question. It depends.
Early opinions on how to approach this matter are, like many things, shaped by what we know and what we'd like to believe; in this case early SF imaginings and blind idealism out of the chaos of war. This mindset, almost certainly, fed the thinking behind gifting details about us, as a species, to the Voyager / Pioneer probes, currently on their slow but inevitable crawl out of the Solar System.
Science should speak for itself, the cure for this kind of SF is a big dose of realism and authenticity (but here I don't mean schlock).
Let's set the scene. As a species we colour our actions and motives according to prevailing ideas on what it is correct to believe. In my post: How Do You Start Writing? I re-examined the events the preceded the birth of the West. Over the centuries, the West has gradually moved away from ignorance. So how, now, do we in the West see ourselves in the universe? Have we advanced far enough to make a sensible stab at that question? To answer that, we need to examine changing beliefs in religion and science.
Ussher deduced the age of the Earth from the Bible. His Earth, a young Earth, begins 1300 years after urban societies (the mark of civilisation) appeared in Mesopotamia; 1500 years after the waters of the Mediterranean finally breached the Bosphorus to flood the coastal communities of the Black Sea; 70,000 years after the Toba event.
Ussher's conclusions weren't supported by advances in geology. The uniformitarians, an inspiration for Darwin, hypothesized a longer chronology. But as gradualists, they rejected continental drift and the later plate tectonics. Until the 1960's some answers couldn't be right, despite the evidence. Debates raged amongst those towering intellects. The scientific method describes the shape of things. Once key players are signed up to the hypothesis, it was (and still is) rolled out as fact. Opinions change. Tectonic movements plunged those belief systems into chaos, paving a way for a much older Earth. And thus knocking man from his perch at the centre of everything.
Assume an Old Earth. Old Sun. Old Universe. What are the chances that evolution and circumstance produce life? And if life, intelligence. And if here, elsewhere. And if elsewhere what? More advanced? A neat, civilised, benign arrangement? More belligerent? Can it be that we are alone?
The climb from ignorance is nowhere near complete. Human centric views dominate our thinking and the level of debate is typified by the type of Science Fiction popular over the past century which could be characterised as:
Are we alone? Are we monitored?
If there are intelligences out there, can they be as advanced as us? Surely human history is the measure of all things? making us far in advance of any star creatures. Alien beings compared to us are surely less than ants - perhaps they might look on us as Gods. Our society, our religions and grand economic structures - are doubtless robust enough to fare well. So there would be no perils to contact - we are still the centre of the universe.
Humanity's position in the scheme of things must surely be assured. Creatures from the stars must be fascinated in us and our planet - a race of beings. Us. Ready to climb from our planetary cradle. And the consequences of contact with such beings would be... good?
We are the pinnacle of evolution and civilisation, aren't we? AREN'T WE?
To which the answer must be: Consider a bubble of radio and TV transmissions 200 light years in diameter. Our broadcasts. Hear the racket as we wreck our nest. Shout it out: "We're here! Come and see us soil our small planet." 100,000 stars have heard us and know our location.
Returning to the original question
Science
Conventional wisdom suggests that if anything can get here, it ain't going to be alive. The given constraints are things like speed of light, how long things can live in space, etc.
Under this thinking, hypotheses that suggest alien life could make it here become untenable. There is a problem though. Most of that 'science' is actually an agreed upon structured system of supposition.
As a contrast, what circumstances would support the idea of a threat?
God
I'm a God-ist - i.e. I believe in the likelihood of a supreme being. That doesn't prevent me from accepting that there's a lot out there we don't know - and maybe some things we'd rather not know.
Let's go back to science and take panspermia as an example. It treats organic material from outer space as suggesting that some, or all, life has its origin at an unspecified place in the universe. i.e. not here.
Follow that thought and you must conclude the near certainty of intelligent extra-terrestrial life.
Peaceful coexistence
It's worth pointing out that peaceful coexistence is an ideal honoured more in the breach than practise. You can't idealise away the wars and suffering in the last 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 100 years. These wars are about anything: self-determination, control of resources, different ideologies... you name it. How can intelligent life from space have our values?
So: intelligent life. What if it comes calling and there's organic incompatibility?
H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds uses that as the nemesis of the Martians. Ahem. A highly advanced race unable to cure a bug? The sheer size of the universe suggests tremendous scope for organic incompatibility originating out there.
When considering faster than light travel (FTL), a good point to bear in mind is how does humanity treat less advanced life forms here? Slaughtered, farmed and hunted out of existence comes to mind.
That covers peaceful coexistence. What about self-interest....
A key principle on Darwin's Theory on Evolution is that life expands to saturate available niches. This is borne out by human life on Earth.
Are we of interest?
Only if we are a threat. Refer to peaceful coexistence.
What would happen if we got out of this system? I think it's our good fortune that the speed of light is so slow - we've only been pumping out radio and TV babble for 100 years-ish. A reaction to this could be anything from an embassy to a 'stay-away' notice for unsuspecting travellers - that's assuming a final solution isn't headed our way - say a planetary ecosphere-bursting asteroid.
What should we look for?
The local stellar group is dead. Why? Hopefully it's because the systems could never have supported life. It's worth looking at those that are life suitable - but don't actually support it and then ask ourselves: Why?
Could we get along with critters from outta space?
This is a big, big topic. There are many hurdles which look insurmountable given unadulterated imperatives such go forth and prosper, manifest destiny, the promised land... In short, not the way we, as humans, are currently configured.
What does that mean?
In real life, it's all too possible that we as a species are too dangerous to be allowed out of our planetary playpen - or maybe even exist.
That oughtta set alarm bells ringing.
______________________________________________________
As a Writer...
I find this an interesting area but I prefer the idea that we can sort of get along with intelligences from out there, otherwise the story devolves into 'Planet Earth has just had the crap kicked out of its biosphere due to multiple asteroid impacts', which seems a bit of a dead-end. This still leaves plenty of fascinating ideas to explore.
Many of the above points are given a fictional treatment in my novel: A Guide to First Contact. Guide delves into our origins, where we could be headed and gives a few different takes on first contact, which are examined in the context of an imploding West.
The story goes on to consider the human condition and those aliens who, for their own reasons, choose to interact. The causes behind the collapse of civilisation are worked out. There are moments of reflection but the darker, atavistic parts of the human psyche are also explored. It is epic.
US POD http://www.lulu.com/content/14164270
UK POD http://www.lulu.com/content/7614126
Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00EUI42U2
Here's a thought for those who would like to take something away without reading it through: Beware of Alien Gifts.
In Lucky, the main character is a humanoid refugee - Lucky because she's lucky to still exist. She treads a fine line between protecting herself and becoming a victim. Being exposed as a real alien would assuredly be a bad thing in the sink estate where she lives. Besides, discovery would mean publicity, which would undoubtedly be picked up by the aliens monitoring Earth; if she's noticed, the risk could be very high for us at a species level, as in technological terms we're just a side-show. But her presence spells danger.
In Joe and the Xenophids, humanity, having made it to the stars, encounter xenocidal aliens. These are the xenophids. We failed to find a way to communicate with them. They traced us back to Earth.
Both Lucky and Joe are included in my collection
Lucky and other stories: http://www.lulu.com/content/9139356
Lucky is also a stand-alone novella on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00IMNXWK2
