Question #2 -- Aliens?
February 22nd 2007 14:57
I admit, to me this isn't all that big of a question. It's hardly an issue that keeps me awake at night. But, it is worth some discussion, so here goes.
Since the Roswell incident in 1947, a new mythology has been shaping up in America. The premise is that we are being visited by an advanced alien civilization capable of traveling vast distances through space (actually, there are some who speculate that we are visited by numerous alien civilizations. Apparently the earth is an intergalactic tourist area. Who doesn't love Disney?). The purported reasons why this might be so are as numerous as the people claiming to have seen a UFO. While the alien craze may have peaked in the 70's-80's, this idea is still alive and strong today. So, the question is: are we being visited by aliens?
In order for us to believe that we're being visited by aliens, we must first accept several ideas. Firstly, we must suppose that these alien beings are possessed of technology so far advanced beyond our own, that they are capable of traveling trillions of miles through space to get here. Second, we must suppose that the energy cost of such travel is immense (basic physics demands this, even on wildly theoretical levels) and that our little planet is somehow important enough for this expenditure. Third, we must assume that no physical evidence of these visits exists, or if it does, it has been covered up on a scale unimaginable in light of our history.
These are not simple problems. Let me touch on the last one first, and only briefly. We are to believe that something as tremendous as the discovery of alien civilizations is being covered up, successfully, by all the governments of the world. For decades. I can't even think of a way to convey how implausible that is, other than to say watch the news and see how they handle running everything else, and tell me you still think that's possible. The other two suppositions I mentioned are the true obstacles worth talking about.
It is completely possible, and even expected, that an advanced civilization would have technology far in excess of our own. However, technology is not magic. There are no plausibly inhabitable worlds anywhere in our immediate neighborhood. Even the nearest possibilities would be many, many light-years away. IF a civilization ever became advanced enough to figure out a technology to overcome this vast distance, we arrive at the second problem: energy. There really is no way around this, as there's no such thing as "free energy." In order for alien visitation to be possible, we're talking about three leading travel theories: 1) sub-light-speed travel, during which the aliens place themselves into suspended animation for part or all of the trip (assuming they are not long-lived on an order of many centuries) 2) Light, or super-light speed travel. According to physics, the amount of energy required for travel increases exponentially the closer one gets to light-speed. By the time speeds approaching 99.5% of light-speed were reached, the energy needs would be so enormous that it is difficult to fathom sustaining the speeds for even a few light-seconds, let alone traveling dozens of light-years 3) The "wormhole" premise, that says there are ways to bend space so as to travel a long distance in a shorter period of time. For all intents and purposes this amounts to teleportation, as a certain amount of distance would appear to have been traveled almost instantly. All three of these possibilities would require energy on a scale I can't even imagine. This is possibly the biggest flaw in the idea of alien visitors, but it is not the one that I find the most daunting.
To me, the bigger issue is that of: why? Why would they come here? As I noted above, there are innumerable hypotheses as to why. Some basic ideas involve aliens coming to study us, coming to help us, coming to harm us, checking up on us since they created us, etc. The Raelians are the leading UFO cult out there right now, and it is their belief that mankind was created via DNA experiments by aliens. It's no stranger than a lot of other ideas out there, I guess....
At any rate, I can't see any good reason why these creatures would expend so much time and energy on us, but not make true contact with us (at least not with the majority of us). In truth, this has a very distinctive ring to it: this idea is reminiscent of the various gods that supposedly exist, speaking infrequently to a very, very select few people (often of questionable disposition), do not interact with the general population at all, but expect us to recognize their existence anyway. True, for the most part aliens are not supposed to require our belief (see the Raelians for an exception to this), but in many other aspects the parallels between belief in aliens and beliefs in religion/mythology are very similar. The aloofness, the near unlimited superiority, inscrutable motives, the unsubstantiated claims made by a devoted following.....yup, pretty similar indeed. It is my personal opinion that aliens function, to some people, as a surrogate religion
While my surrogate religion idea may apply to a portion of UFO believers, I think that for the general population aliens have by and large replaced vampires and werewolves as our bogey men. With science's help, many of the old superstitions have been laid to rest. We understand some of the behaviors and conditions that may have given rise to the old legends. More importantly, with the earth populated in every corner, there is no longer anyplace here for these childhood nightmares to hide. However, who could say what creatures are hiding in the vast unexplored reaches of space? Aliens provide a new focal point for our apparent human susceptibility of believing in monsters in the unseen corners of our world. There is a sleep disorder known as sleep paralysis (it really is pretty fascinating. Click on the link if you want to learn more about it). In short, this disorder can cause sensations and visions that mimic, almost line for line, the experiences of UFO abductees. I have (thankfully) never experienced this myself, but it appears that a small but significant portion of the population suffers from this problem. From what I understand, the feelings of dread and helplessness experienced during sleep paralysis are very real and very powerful. Heck, if I didn't know about the condition and I experienced it, I'd probably be on Oprah talking about my abduction. The key is in knowing the truth. Understanding the condition seems to result in the sufferer being able to critically examine the experience and diminish the dread.
To me, all of this points to the immense improbability of alien visitations. I chalk it up to the egocentricity of the human race. We have always been inclined to place ourselves, either literally or figuratively, at the center of the universe. With this being said, let me state for the record that I DO believe in extraterrestrial life. We know that the conditions for life exist on at least one planet, so it's reasonable to assume it exists on more. A quick look at the numbers bears this out: there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe. That's roughly 10000000000000000000000 stars (10 with 22 zeros). Let's assume that only 1/10 of 1 percent of these have at least one planet. That's 10000000000000000000 (10 with 19 zeros). Now, assume that only 1/100 of those planets is capable of sustaining life. That's 10 trillion planets. This number is certainly over-inflated, but let's divide it by a billion. That would still mean one million habitable planets with life on them.
Now, these are just numbers, and they can be tweaked a bit to make a point. The true numbers are almost assuredly nothing like this, as it's all speculative. But the main point is valid: the odds say that life should exist elsewhere. That doesn't mean it does, and if it does, it might be unicellular. We might not be alone in the universe, but we might as well be.
Since the Roswell incident in 1947, a new mythology has been shaping up in America. The premise is that we are being visited by an advanced alien civilization capable of traveling vast distances through space (actually, there are some who speculate that we are visited by numerous alien civilizations. Apparently the earth is an intergalactic tourist area. Who doesn't love Disney?). The purported reasons why this might be so are as numerous as the people claiming to have seen a UFO. While the alien craze may have peaked in the 70's-80's, this idea is still alive and strong today. So, the question is: are we being visited by aliens?
In order for us to believe that we're being visited by aliens, we must first accept several ideas. Firstly, we must suppose that these alien beings are possessed of technology so far advanced beyond our own, that they are capable of traveling trillions of miles through space to get here. Second, we must suppose that the energy cost of such travel is immense (basic physics demands this, even on wildly theoretical levels) and that our little planet is somehow important enough for this expenditure. Third, we must assume that no physical evidence of these visits exists, or if it does, it has been covered up on a scale unimaginable in light of our history.
These are not simple problems. Let me touch on the last one first, and only briefly. We are to believe that something as tremendous as the discovery of alien civilizations is being covered up, successfully, by all the governments of the world. For decades. I can't even think of a way to convey how implausible that is, other than to say watch the news and see how they handle running everything else, and tell me you still think that's possible. The other two suppositions I mentioned are the true obstacles worth talking about.
It is completely possible, and even expected, that an advanced civilization would have technology far in excess of our own. However, technology is not magic. There are no plausibly inhabitable worlds anywhere in our immediate neighborhood. Even the nearest possibilities would be many, many light-years away. IF a civilization ever became advanced enough to figure out a technology to overcome this vast distance, we arrive at the second problem: energy. There really is no way around this, as there's no such thing as "free energy." In order for alien visitation to be possible, we're talking about three leading travel theories: 1) sub-light-speed travel, during which the aliens place themselves into suspended animation for part or all of the trip (assuming they are not long-lived on an order of many centuries) 2) Light, or super-light speed travel. According to physics, the amount of energy required for travel increases exponentially the closer one gets to light-speed. By the time speeds approaching 99.5% of light-speed were reached, the energy needs would be so enormous that it is difficult to fathom sustaining the speeds for even a few light-seconds, let alone traveling dozens of light-years 3) The "wormhole" premise, that says there are ways to bend space so as to travel a long distance in a shorter period of time. For all intents and purposes this amounts to teleportation, as a certain amount of distance would appear to have been traveled almost instantly. All three of these possibilities would require energy on a scale I can't even imagine. This is possibly the biggest flaw in the idea of alien visitors, but it is not the one that I find the most daunting.
To me, the bigger issue is that of: why? Why would they come here? As I noted above, there are innumerable hypotheses as to why. Some basic ideas involve aliens coming to study us, coming to help us, coming to harm us, checking up on us since they created us, etc. The Raelians are the leading UFO cult out there right now, and it is their belief that mankind was created via DNA experiments by aliens. It's no stranger than a lot of other ideas out there, I guess....
At any rate, I can't see any good reason why these creatures would expend so much time and energy on us, but not make true contact with us (at least not with the majority of us). In truth, this has a very distinctive ring to it: this idea is reminiscent of the various gods that supposedly exist, speaking infrequently to a very, very select few people (often of questionable disposition), do not interact with the general population at all, but expect us to recognize their existence anyway. True, for the most part aliens are not supposed to require our belief (see the Raelians for an exception to this), but in many other aspects the parallels between belief in aliens and beliefs in religion/mythology are very similar. The aloofness, the near unlimited superiority, inscrutable motives, the unsubstantiated claims made by a devoted following.....yup, pretty similar indeed. It is my personal opinion that aliens function, to some people, as a surrogate religion
While my surrogate religion idea may apply to a portion of UFO believers, I think that for the general population aliens have by and large replaced vampires and werewolves as our bogey men. With science's help, many of the old superstitions have been laid to rest. We understand some of the behaviors and conditions that may have given rise to the old legends. More importantly, with the earth populated in every corner, there is no longer anyplace here for these childhood nightmares to hide. However, who could say what creatures are hiding in the vast unexplored reaches of space? Aliens provide a new focal point for our apparent human susceptibility of believing in monsters in the unseen corners of our world. There is a sleep disorder known as sleep paralysis (it really is pretty fascinating. Click on the link if you want to learn more about it). In short, this disorder can cause sensations and visions that mimic, almost line for line, the experiences of UFO abductees. I have (thankfully) never experienced this myself, but it appears that a small but significant portion of the population suffers from this problem. From what I understand, the feelings of dread and helplessness experienced during sleep paralysis are very real and very powerful. Heck, if I didn't know about the condition and I experienced it, I'd probably be on Oprah talking about my abduction. The key is in knowing the truth. Understanding the condition seems to result in the sufferer being able to critically examine the experience and diminish the dread.
To me, all of this points to the immense improbability of alien visitations. I chalk it up to the egocentricity of the human race. We have always been inclined to place ourselves, either literally or figuratively, at the center of the universe. With this being said, let me state for the record that I DO believe in extraterrestrial life. We know that the conditions for life exist on at least one planet, so it's reasonable to assume it exists on more. A quick look at the numbers bears this out: there are 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the universe. That's roughly 10000000000000000000000 stars (10 with 22 zeros). Let's assume that only 1/10 of 1 percent of these have at least one planet. That's 10000000000000000000 (10 with 19 zeros). Now, assume that only 1/100 of those planets is capable of sustaining life. That's 10 trillion planets. This number is certainly over-inflated, but let's divide it by a billion. That would still mean one million habitable planets with life on them.
Now, these are just numbers, and they can be tweaked a bit to make a point. The true numbers are almost assuredly nothing like this, as it's all speculative. But the main point is valid: the odds say that life should exist elsewhere. That doesn't mean it does, and if it does, it might be unicellular. We might not be alone in the universe, but we might as well be.
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Comment by Wendi
Yup, bending space fabric... I was going to go there. Fascinating theory, indeed, although not very practical. I've raised the issue of sleep paralysis in other threads here in the past. Terrific insights about surrogate religion.
If I were to dig (and break a sweat to dig deep) in order to find something in your article to debate, the only issue I believe I'd be able to cling to with relative confidence is the energy factor.
The human understanding of energy, using energy, misusing energy, energy sources, etc. may be a very different from that of advanced civilizations. I think the article loosely assumes that extra terrestrial life thinks, functions, and operates under the same principles of human understanding.
There is no way to debate the fact that space travel would require energy, however, it could be possible (not necessarily probable, but possible) that a technologically and likely intillectually advanced civilization could have developed means other than those understood by humans today. Remember, our own civilization once thought it impossible to travel to space at all, much less land on the moon. Yet, here we are sending out rockets and satellites. If we could do it, why couldn't someone else? However, being able to present the possibilities of how does not tackle the issues of "why", and you have valid points. The only issue I could raise here is mere curiosity - the same reason we search for alien life could be the same reason they'd search for us.
I agree whole heartedly with you in regard to governments hiding information. Information spreads too fast and I believe it would be near impossible for multiple governments to hide certain information over long periods of time. Someone along that chain would crack eventually, selling their stories to make a quick buck and a moment in the spotlight.
I do believe in UFOs, but according to their very definition and not assuming that just because I can't identify the object means it must be aliens. I'm sure many UFO sightings can be attributed to natural causes and/or military involvement. UFO is not synonymous with extra terrestrial, and I think a lot of us forget that.
I do believe other life forms exist in the universe. I think we'd be arrogant to assume that we're the only intelligent life forms in space. However, I don't necessarily believe they've made it to (and would continue to return to) our little nook of the neighborhood.
Nicely done. Once again, I've enjoyed having my first cup of coffee with you this morning.
Would it be okay if I linked to this post from my own UFO starter topic? I was going to write on the issue, but it looks like we've scratched each other's backs this morning and you've saved me the trouble.
W
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Of course, the energy issue is rather nebulous beyond a certain point. Is it conceivable that alien life has developed some form of energy that, for all intents and purposes, is unlimited and easily harnessed? Of course. We still have a lot to learn about all that the universe has to offer. However, I tend to keep my arguments limited to what our current science predicts is within the boundaries of feasibility. While we do have a lot to learn, we are light years ahead of where our understanding lay 100 years ago. We have telescopes that have peered back to the dawn of time and revealed objects in space so strange no one even imagined them. We have a good, if not perfect, grasp of our surroundings. But so far, nothing we've observed would easily lend itself to the sort of usable energy I'm talking about here. You are absolutely correct in stating that feats undreamed of 200 years ago are common practice now. It is with this in mind that I don't TOTALLY discount the possibility of aliens visitors. I just conclude that it is very, very unlikely.
I try not to assume that aliens would be human-like (although, given the pop culture image of aliens, that's a pretty reasonable assumption!), but I think that bias just has a natural tendency to creep in. You're right to call me on that, I should have made a stronger attempt to point out that we have little reason to think that aliens will have much in common with our appearance, thought processes, etc.
I would be flattered if you linked to my post. The only qualifications I have on these topics is curiosity and a lot of time spent mulling over weird ideas. My only little goal here is for a few people to read this stuff I'm dumping into my PC, and maybe look a little harder at some things we tend to take for granted.
As always, thanks for reading. Your feedback is helpful and welcome!
Comment by Wendi
Okay, I've updated my own UFO post. Here's how it reads:
2-22-07 Update: I've just come from reading a terrific post here on Orble about Alien Encounters. So well was the article written, I tip my hat and rest my pen with thanks to Winston. Because his thoughts are so well presented, and so much in accord with my own, rather than writing my own theories, I refer you to his. Check it out: Question 2 - Aliens
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Comment by Mark Schultz
Random Musings on Life, Love and Everything
Let's Get Down To Business
But, look at how fast our technological advancement is accelerating. 150 years ago we couldn't fly, let alone go into space. We couldn't communicate quickly over long distances, and yet here we have billions of strangers networking and interacting almost instantaneously over the internet. That's just over the last 150 years.
I'm not a scientist, I'm nowhere near clever enough for that. But there are exciting new developments being made, especially in the field of quantum technology. Applications of research regarding the quantum foam and zero point energy could generate mind-boggling amounts of energy. For example, I can't verify this, but when I first heard about the quantum foam, I was told that if you could release the energy contained in a 1cm^3 area of the quantum foam, it would release enough energy to boil away all of the Earth's oceans.
You also ignore the other places that aliens could come from: other dimensions. Why is the idea of interdimensional travel any more farfetched than interplanetary travel? Scientists have found ways to verify the existance of alternate dimensions, even if we are nowhere near capable of travelling between them. You talk about the motives behind interplanetary travel, and that's fair enough. However, I think this becomes less of an issue if the aliens come from an alternate dimension. Let's look at it in terms of motives: instead of travelling to a new planet (and exploring the possibilities offered by another planet), an alien civilization could travel to a new dimension and explore the possibilities offered by an entire new universe.
And as for the lack of publicity... I agree it's kind of suspect, but look at it this way. If you were planning a planetary invasion, would you want to face a prepared defence, or would you want the population convinced you didn't exist and face a complete lack of organized opposition?
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. It's hard to fight something most people dont belive in. I'm not saying I'm one of the paranoid, live-in-the-woods-and-prepare -for-the-coming-invasion loonies, but I'm saying that there could be a plausible explanation for the lack of publicity, such as this one.
Just my two cents.
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
With that being said, might I end up being proven wrong someday? Sure! On this issue I'm willing to admit there's a slight chance that I could be surprised. I have little doubt that life exists SOMEWHERE else in the universe. My issue is with the idea that this life, which in all likelihood has arisen countless light-years from us, has somehow made it a priority to visit Earth for years in secrecy. As I said in my article, it has been our practice as human beings to attribute great significance to our existence. Sometimes we forget that it's a big universe out there, and our presence has done very little to effect it.
Comment by Damo
For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics
You have really done your homework here.
Despite the advances in science and education the population seems to have little understanding of basic physics and energy.
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Thanks for checking out some of my early Orble works
Comment by D. Armenta
The Florida Keys and Everglades
The Black Sheep Chronicles
What constitutes bad manners?
The male mystique
Debate Fan
L.A.M.P.
At the risk of being obnoxious by using a form of the word "anthropomorphic" twice in a row (just used it on your blogmate's latest):
Interesting how mankind tends to anthropomorphize all entities outside his area of experience/knowledge; god(s), aliens, spirits/souls/ghosts/recycled human energy/whatever they call that now, etc. Kinda narrow thinking, it would appear.
And yet I, the uber-"scientific explanation" fan who hasn't a mystic bone in my body, saw a ghost once. Still trying to figure that out.
As to why other lifeforms haven't visited us in recent times--maybe the human race is sort of like the state of Arkansas. Everyone knows it's there, but no one wants to go there.
Comment by Winston
Small Thoughts on Big Questions
Interesting how mankind tends to anthropomorphize all entities outside his area of experience/knowledge
Bullseye.
I believe that you saw something. Was it a ghost? Who knows. I personally doubt it, but you knew that. There are about a million tricks our brains can play on us, and even the most rational person can't always call them out. One of my best friends had many paranormal experiences when he was younger, but he is not sure what to call it. I think the important thing here is that neither he nor you are claiming that ghosts must be real, and running around with night vision cameras. You're able to retain some balance and curiosity, rather than making a snap judgment that ghosts must be real.
Same goes for people who see UFOs. I'm sure they saw something. Aliens? Probably not.