Intelligent Alien Life May Be Found by 2040, SETI Astronomer Believes

[Ace Morologist]

So, in twenty years we might find signals from a technology an alien race might have used millions of years ago.

Awesome job, the world's most optimistic archaeologists.

-Morology!

 

[Pyrian]

The significance of this being of such severity that our immune systems might be so absolutely incompatible that they don't even have a chance to learn how to defend the body from alien microbes (and possibly vice versa).

More likely vice-versa. Immune systems are gloriously indiscriminate - "Disintegrate anything unrecognized". Our bodies have a whitelist. Anything not on the list... Destroy. Pathogens, in contrast, tend to be much more specific. They have all kinds of very specialized ways to get around their target immune systems. Diseases in even closely related species are often completely incompatible. Diseases that cross kingdoms are extremely unusual, and those that exist are highly adapted to both hosts, anyway. A pathogen trying to infect a completely different evolutionary history that its ancestors have never been in contact with before? I'm not going to say it's impossible, but... It's very unlikely.

On-topic: I don't think SETI will ever find anything that wasn't created to be found. If I understand correctly, it's not even close to being able to detect a civilization like our own was some decades ago - and since then our emissions have gotten dimmer, not brighter, as our technology advanced.

 

[james.sponge]

Man it's sure going to be funny once people finally see space isn't full of Star Trek forehead-aliens. I would die happy if I just got to witness that enormous blow to human-ego.

I've always thought it'd be incredibly mind-blowing if we finally find aliens and...they're humans. Like, damn-near identical to us in every way. That somewhere out there there's an Earth 2 where homo sapiens evolved same as we did. It'd be pretty boring, yes, to finally find alien life and it turns out to be more humans...but how frickin' ridiculous would that be? What are the astronomically small chances of that happening? That's why I think it'd be mind blowing. :3

What would be even more incredibly mind-blowing is finding almost identical species with more advanced technology and then being enslaved and colonized by them. I mean who would have thought universe is full of rotten species like us.

 

[GamemasterAnthony]

Am I the only one thinking of a Khan reference with the name SETI? Because I cannot shake that reference from the second movie...of the ORIGINAL series, not the lensflare reboot.

 

[meatshield]

I am glad they post things like this here and there. makes for a good read. Also learn that these guys have been alone listening to radio waves to long..lol

 

[Ickabod]

If that is the case then we better have a strong orbital defense capability because until they prove otherwise I will assume that all Xenos are hostile.

If they can get here, then we'd already be doomed if they were hostile. We'd have 0 chance to defend ourselves.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

They would simply claim that God made the whole universe and everything in it, just as they do now. Since God is the name of their god, they can simply say that whatever god the aliens worship is the same god as their god.

If the aliens worship no god, there will be no dispute. It will be no different than atheists on earth.

Were you hoping for some big revelation?

I don't think you are taking everything into account here, it's not a matter of us and the aliens worshiping different gods or anything.

Alien life might actually disprove many things, stuff like 'the bible' says, and people wouldn't like that. Like us being made in God's image, and the fact humanity believes itself to be the endall of everything; the center of the universe. It's a concept worse in some religions then others, and I was just curious what those particular anthropocentric religions would do if there was now tangible, real opposition to everything they believe; things they couldn't just argue against.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Man it's sure going to be funny once people finally see space isn't full of Star Trek forehead-aliens. I would die happy if I just got to witness that enormous blow to human-ego.

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

I think you confuse ego with ease of creation and budget concerns.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

They would simply claim that God made the whole universe and everything in it, just as they do now. Since God is the name of their god, they can simply say that whatever god the aliens worship is the same god as their god.

If the aliens worship no god, there will be no dispute. It will be no different than atheists on earth.

Were you hoping for some big revelation?

I don't think you are taking everything into account here, it's not a matter of us and the aliens worshiping different gods or anything.

Alien life might actually disprove many things, stuff like 'the bible' says, and people wouldn't like that. Like us being made in God's image, and the fact humanity believes itself to be the endall of everything; the center of the universe. It's a concept worse in some religions then others, and I was just curious what those particular anthropocentric religions would do if there was now tangible, real opposition to everything they believe; things they couldn't just argue against.

So? The Bible has been irrefutably proven to be false in pretty much every way already, it hasn't stopped religious people from claiming it true regardless. All the evidence in the world is against them and it hasn't stopped the religious, what makes you think that all the evidence in the universe will?

 

[Reed Spacer]

Man it's sure going to be funny once people finally see space isn't full of Star Trek forehead-aliens. I would die happy if I just got to witness that enormous blow to human-ego.

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

Is that what you call them? I call them 'the nose of the week.'

And even if they found something, it'd be far too far away for it to be much more than of academical importance.

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

I'm pretty sure aliens are aware of our existence, they just don't care.

 

[WeepingAngels]

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

They would simply claim that God made the whole universe and everything in it, just as they do now. Since God is the name of their god, they can simply say that whatever god the aliens worship is the same god as their god.

If the aliens worship no god, there will be no dispute. It will be no different than atheists on earth.

Were you hoping for some big revelation?

I don't think you are taking everything into account here, it's not a matter of us and the aliens worshiping different gods or anything.

Alien life might actually disprove many things, stuff like 'the bible' says, and people wouldn't like that. Like us being made in God's image, and the fact humanity believes itself to be the endall of everything; the center of the universe. It's a concept worse in some religions then others, and I was just curious what those particular anthropocentric religions would do if there was now tangible, real opposition to everything they believe; things they couldn't just argue against.

Sending probes to space has yet to turn up the location of Heaven but that doesn't deter religious people who can claim any number of things. Heaven is beyond our current reach, it's invisible, it's not in space at all but rather under the sea or in a volcano. You get the idea.

Perhaps you know of the Bible story about the people who built a tower to reach God and that angered God and he spread them across the planet speaking different languages. We should have never made it to space in the first place if that story is to be believed. Religion always adapts and it always will.

 

[Reed Spacer]

I'm pretty sure aliens are aware of our existence, they just don't care.

Except for the crop circles, mutilating cattle and anal raping probing rednecks.

An alien's gotta have hobbies, right?

 

[sleeky01]

I'm also really curious to see the fallout in all the religions around the world. Books and movies could be made about this alone.

I'd be more curious if the aliens turned out to look like the aliens depicted in Arther C Clarkes Childshood end.