Strangers In The Sky - The Fermi Paradox, Space Travel, & The Future Of Mankind [ IFC S2R1 ]
Although I'm a little late to the party, round one of the Information Finding Championship Season 2 contest is definitely something I wanna give a shot. If that wasn't exciting enough already, the topic this time around is also something that has been one of my favorite things to study: The Universe.
How convenient, lol.
I did in fact write a blog post several months ago about something similar titled "Imagining Life Beyond Earth - A Stargazer's Dream" which was also a winning entry for a writing contest organised by @averageoutsider in which I shared my love and curiosity for space exploration, finding alien life, and the vastness of the universe.
Well, today we will be talking about all that, and a lot more. So get your comfy chair and sit tight.
A Whole New World
Remember how as a kid you used to look up at the night sky full of stars, pull your hand up and dream about how someday you will get to go there? Me too and apparently, so does all of humanity. Space exploration and understanding of our cosmos is something that we humans have been after since the very beginning of our civilization.
The only difference is that now, we have the potential and the resources to make these dreams of ours slowly become a reality. If you went back in time and somehow communicated with our ancestors and told them that man will one day walk on moon and set home on another planet, that would probably not be a smart decision because you would most likely not return home.
Jokes aside though, the rate at which we are making progress in this specific field is beyond amazing. Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, predicted that we may even reach Mars as soon as 2025! If you really think about it, that's a relatively small amount of time when talking about something as dramatically big and expensive as colonizing an entirely new planet. Not a city, not a country, but an entire freaking planet!
We are at that point in time where we will get to witness some of the most brilliant and most memorable achievements of mankind, ones that will be a part of our history someday and students in the far far future will read and learn about this stuff in their books (if they don't bunk lectures) just like how we did about Neil Armstrong's first moon landing.
War Never Changes
But are we safe doing all this? Short answer: Hell no. Long answer: Depends from which perspective you are asking. If you are talking about the potential and inevitable failures of some of the projects, then no. If you are talking about alien life trying to dominate our world, still no. But this 'no' is less likely than the former one because upto this point in time, we haven't received any signals from the outer space that may indicate the presence of alien life near us.
This doesn't mean that alien life doesn't exist at all, though. I explained why in my older post. There can be so many reasons why we haven't got a signal yet. For one, the distance. Space is so incredibly massive that even if they did send us any kind of signal, it would take millions or billions of years to reach us, not to mention how frequencies start to fade as they travel long distances.
But if we do find them or if they find us somewhere in the far future, when mankind is able to explore the space at its will and develop extremely complicated and powerful systems to sustain life in the harsh conditions of space, it would probably not be a friendly meet-and-greet. In fact, the chances of an intergalactic war are rather higher. Our greatest discovery might become our most horrifying doom.
The reason? Survival. Civilizations, ours or alien, sooner or later, will look for new planets where they can set up new homes and exploit resources of that planet to sustain life, until they eventually use up all of the resources of that new planet and jump to the next one to do the same as the cycle repeats.
Now, the problem is, if there really are other intelligent civilizations out there, they too will look for new homes just like us and there will come a time when we will have to compete with them to gain control over planets, stars and even entire galaxies if we want to survive as resources are limited and only one civilization can win the battle to survival, until it too dies off eventually as the universe keeps expanding and dark energy takes over gravity.
Sigh, that's some heavy stuff, isn't it?
The End Game
Mankind has always been fascinated with the idea of "what lies beyond" and always will be. It's in our very nature of being to want to span out, to unfold our arms and to reach. This drive and this curiosity of ours, though being the reason for countless deaths and misfortunes, is the last thing that keeps us going.
It's that exploratory itch to want to know, to want to reveal secrets, to confront the ultimate truth of everything that defines us more than anything else in this world. We will keep trying no matter what. We will gladly fight an entire alien civilization if it means getting to live, explore, and learn for just a little while longer.
Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.
- Stephen Hawking
(1942-2018)
Follow Me: @ayushjalan
All images are taken from Pixabay
Welcome to the @ifc! Great first post, and I love the Fallout quote "War never changes"!
The idea of expanding out and just discovering and exploring... it's completely intoxicating!
It is! It's the same reason why so many of us, especially the younger generations, make traveling one of our main priorities in life. Our desire to know and see new things and experiences is indeed addictive!
Excellent first entry in the contest! Glad to see you taking part. :)
Your entry was very well crafted and made me think. The threat of war with other species certainly is a real one in my opinion especially since we are such a warlike people, or at least our governments are. And it seems like we would be at a major disadvantage because most likely any other species we encounter would likely be much more technologically advanced than us, but I suppose it's possible we could encounter one or some that are similar in their understandings and evolution. That's an unsettling thought to think about especially considering how much we battle with each other here on earth already and how much pain and suffering and loss is the result.
I do a bit of research into conspiracy theories and those in relation to space and aliens and I personally tend to think we are already being visited and have been since the beginning of recorded history and that if they wanted to be hostile they would have already done so, however... I suppose it's possible there is the "predator" theory sort of akin to what Don Juan spoke of in the Carlos Castaneda books. And that maybe they are here more covertly and treat us similar to how we treat the farmed animals of this planet. In that case an overt war would be much less likely as they would likely gain more from us not knowing of their presence.
Though from all the testimonials of people getting abducted in the thousands, it seems like only a very small percentage report negative experiences and most report neutral or positive ones.. I personally doubt they are all lying or mass hallucinating so that would imply to me that there are friendly aliens out there as well and that perhaps they have a more benevolent intention. Yet in all reality I've never seen any 100% hard proof so who knows, perhaps we are alone in regards to highly advanced sentience, though I highly doubt that! It just seems mathematically to make sense that others are out there and would be shocking to me if we were indeed alone. Definitely something to wonder and think about though! I wonder what the truth is! Thanks for your interesting and thoughtful entry! Definitely made me ponder the possibilities a bit! Cheers!
Some really interesting thoughts there. Let's talk about that.
Firstly, yeah, it is possible that we have been visited several times before considering the old paintings and carvings in ancient caves and walls that point towards the possibility of alien life that came to Earth for the purpose of providing us with knowledge, maybe, so to boost our technological progress so they can finally communicate with us when we become "worthy enough". And I might be crazy, but I do sometimes think that this is how religion came into existence.
Think about it.
If we humans, millions of years from now, when we are all sci-fi and shit, if we were to visit any other planet where life is new and the primary "human-like" species is still very early in their stage of evolution, they would probably think of us as Gods too because for them we would be the aliens and the marvel that we will perform would seem like magic and they too, will start to worship us because we are just too intelligent for them. This is just a wild guess. But this is something that always intrigues me: to combine the concept of religion with that of our cosmos.
Secondly, about all the conspiracy around alien abduction, if something like that has actually happened (as it's still a highly debatable concept), I think the reason why they would do something like that is the same reason why we research on animals: to know more about them so as to control them and use them as per our needs. Maybe they are doing the same. Abducting people to study mankind and eventually with all the information they need, they will use us as a resource for their advantage. ALL of that, WHILE being almost completely anonymous. That's scary AF!
And about the part where you mentioned friendly aliens, it's pretty likely that alien civilizations will form teams with other alien civilizations to compete with other teams, just like how we do now in wars on our own home planet. Countries support each other in the times of war in the expectation of getting that same help back in the times of need. But soon when all the other teams are defeated, all the galaxies conquered, colonized, used and destroyed, the leading team splits up and fights each other as resources are on the verge of depletion. This is why even the very last civilization, human or alien, might never reach true immortality. Time will kill everything and everyone.
Sure! Sounds good.
That sounds reasonable, though I think it could be for other reasons as well. Perhaps a terraforming event? Or even something more nefarious...
Agreed.. And while it is debatable.. I think the sheer number of testimonial accounts all throughout history is extremely compelling.. I don't think they were all lying or hallucinating.. It would make a good amount of logical sense that we have had contact in the past, yet.. I can't say 100% for sure because there just isn't 100% hard evidence and I haven't met any aliens myself.. So.. Even though it seems rather overwhelming.. I just can't say in conclusive manner. So yes it is debatable and yes I tend to agree that they would probably want to study us, but perhaps there's other reasons involved here as well.. Like similar to your first paragraph maybe they want to help us evolve so we stop warring and killing each other so much and then perhaps even spreading that violence outwards into the stars when we venture further out. The way we are now we would be a danger to other forms of life, and it seems like we need to mature a lot spiritually before we go around the universe. Reminds me of a quote by MLK jr that says something like.. "We have technology to create nuclear weapons that destroy life but we do not have the spiritual wisdom to use it properly" I'm butchering that quote but it went something like that.
Hmmm.. That certainly is sort of terrifying and apocalyptic sort of scenario and could end up being the future, though I would hope there's enough renewable resources that it doesn't have to end that way!
Totally agree with you on that one. If all that we're busy doing is war and dirty politics, we would have no time and capital to finance these important research and studies that are ultimately our only hope of survival in the long run. But we humans are greedy and emotional beings. We like to act based on our feelings and not on rational thinking and that's why I think it's gonna take a long time before we come to a global understanding and decide that it's time to focus on what really matters.
Also, I want you to watch this video and share your thoughts on it so we can discuss some things further.
I sort of agree, though I wouldn't say that collectively. Some aren't so bad and I personally think that it's optimal to try to balance our feelings with our rational thinking.
A lot of peoples feelings and rational thinking are both misguided and of "selfish" nature, but if we were to truly care about ourselves and others in consistent logical manner I think that would be ideal.
Also I watched your video last night and while I agreed with the majority of it I feel like it was sort of going off of the most current accepted scientific though and didn't really go into unknown territory itself in regards to much knowledge contained in the conspiracy theory realm.
I do think there is a lot of evidence for visitation and beings elsewhere in the universe whereas the video claimed there was none, it also suggested something to the effect that because of such lack of evidence we are sort of the one the responsibility falls on, though I think it's entirely possible that there are benevolent beings out there waiting for us to get our "shit" together so to speak and that they are letting us evolve for ourselves without intervening directly and that if we try to go too far out into space with our warlike attitude then they will intervene to stop us from destroying other innocent and still developing cultures and beings elsewhere.
I think it's probably that we are laggards and that there are civilizations much more advanced, and that our own governments know this and keep it from us because they are so paranoid and warlike they want to make it seem to their people that they are in control when they are not.
All speculation of course, I can't prove it. Though that's a theory I like to entertain and I also think it's possible that the reality might be something that none of my theories or the ones in the video applies to and the real truth might be entirely different from all of that and something most if not all humans haven't even thought of or conceived yet.
I think that's one problem a lot of researchers into this subject come across is they tend to anthropomorphize the aliens and expect them to be sort of like us, when in reality they might defy every conception we would have of what they should be like.
I remember I wrote a post about the same a couple of months ago explaining how it's quite natural for humans to be "selfish" as it may have been used as a survival strategy in the early stages of evolution which we adapted to and still live by. You can read it 'here' if you want. It'd be cool to know your thoughts on it.
Indeed. Like I said earlier, they might be waiting for us to become "worthy enough", but we're rather slow (because again, we like to waste time on meaningless wars and politics) and that's why, like you said, they might have came to visit us numerous times before, and aid us to boost our technological progress without intervening too much, or to you know.. tear us in half and study our insides.
Though it sounds really cinematic, I'm gonna have to disagree. I don't think the government would hide such a thing because:
But I do get your point though. If they reveal such a thing, it would cause massive panic and people would become uncontrollable and harder to manage because of their fear.
True. We always tend to think of "intelligence" as a human quality, when in reality it could be something totally different for a different species. For example, an ant is pretty dumb, but a whole ant colony is super intelligent and organized. What counts as "intelligent" for one species, might look like total mediocrity for the other.
That part reminds me of the end to season 1, maybe we will one day find that we really aren't alone in this universe. I for one often wonder how could we be the only advanced species. There has to be something out there. But then again, I like to dream! Good luck in the contest!!!
Exactly. Space is just too damn big for it to be empty and lifeless. There are billions of habitable planets out there which gives life plenty of opportunity to survive and thrive. If there really is an intelligent alien civilization out there, it's highly probable that they are questioning the same things we are.
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STOPVery well done post, and never to late to play in a round of IFC. I had a blast with it last year and am hoping to have a blast this year. Welcome to the fun, and exemplary first IFC post.
Thank you for the kind words! Hoping to participate more often :)
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It is my dream that the human race expands out into the universe, I just hope we can evolve a bit more before we do. Loved reading this!
We will! Like I said, we don't really have any other choice.
Intelligent civilizations hold the power to destroy their own planet. It's only a matter of time before we run out of enough resources and will have to jump to a new planet to exploit its resources and continue life.
Thanks for dropping by!
Such a wonderfully put together post <3 Love the flow of thoughts from one to the next, and the images are very nicely chosen also <3
I think you're right....... even if it is fraught with dangers, we are always meant to discover, to explore, to go a little further than our ancestors had been :)
Wonderful blog. I follow immediately * ___ *
Thank you for the kind words ^_^
$upvote YOUR-POST-LINKand you will receive upvote on your post.Well, it happened in Mass Effect.
Humans explore space. Humans fight aliens because of misunderstanding. Humans then part of galactic alliance.