I thought about this some more and thought maybe investigating UFOs could be important in that it is part of the larger goal of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence could hold at least several opportunities/implications for us.
Opportunities
They could provide us with knowledge and technology that gives us the push past the point where survival is extremely improbable. Or, alternatively, maybe we would have found the knowledge and built the technology eventually without their help. If this were true, then obtaining the knowledge and technology through them would bring improved living conditions for billions of humans sooner than we would have brought it on ourselves and thus we have more time to possibly come up with more breakthroughs that would enable us to live longer.
We could partner with them. We could perhaps form some kind of trade agreement. Or perhaps they would be willing to help us for altruistic reasons. Maybe they have asteroid deflection technology, climate control technologies, solar flare protection technology, and other technologies that they would use to help us. Even if they didn’t have much interest in partnering with us, if they are visiting us, depending on their intentions, we could make their stay more worthwhile which might warrant something in return from them.
Implications
Maybe, as suggested by Robin Hanson in James Miller’s podcast (https://soundcloud.com/user-519115521), we are here because of panspermia.Then it is possible that aliens developed from the same seed we started as but on a different planet. In that case, however different from us they ended up because of their different environment and upbringing, we would need to realize they are essentially the same as us. Maybe we share the same common seed with many alien species in the universe. Maybe some would be much younger than our species and some would be much older. I suppose some could be only a few hundred years younger than us. It could probably be ruled out that there are any that developed radio around the same time as us or we would have found each other. Maybe some species are similar to us, some are very different, and some are radically different. We might be appalled by some of the species’ customs. If they all come from the same seed as we do, finding all these aliens would involve a coming to terms with the fact that, no matter how shocked we are by them, we all have a common ancestor/seed.
As suggested by Robin Hanson, they might be concerned that we would be appalled by their customs and they would be appalled by our customs. For that reason they would choose not to know anything about us and not let us know anything about them. Conflict might erupt because of one side being offended by the other side.
Aliens might have the technology of time travel or otherwise have some kind of prescience and are observing us to ensure some fate doesn’t happen to us. Maybe their extremely long existence or extremely sharp prescience has taught them that certain technologies lead to inevitable doom. It is possible that if we learned what they knew about us we would get our hands on a forbidden fruit and spell doom for ourselves and/or the entire universe. In that case, trying to learn more about their intentions for visiting us could have negative consequences.
I thought about this some more and thought maybe investigating UFOs could be important in that it is part of the larger goal of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence could hold at least several opportunities/implications for us.
Opportunities
They could provide us with knowledge and technology that gives us the push past the point where survival is extremely improbable. Or, alternatively, maybe we would have found the knowledge and built the technology eventually without their help. If this were true, then obtaining the knowledge and technology through them would bring improved living conditions for billions of humans sooner than we would have brought it on ourselves and thus we have more time to possibly come up with more breakthroughs that would enable us to live longer.
We could partner with them. We could perhaps form some kind of trade agreement. Or perhaps they would be willing to help us for altruistic reasons. Maybe they have asteroid deflection technology, climate control technologies, solar flare protection technology, and other technologies that they would use to help us. Even if they didn’t have much interest in partnering with us, if they are visiting us, depending on their intentions, we could make their stay more worthwhile which might warrant something in return from them.
Implications
Maybe, as suggested by Robin Hanson in James Miller’s podcast (https://soundcloud.com/user-519115521), we are here because of panspermia.Then it is possible that aliens developed from the same seed we started as but on a different planet. In that case, however different from us they ended up because of their different environment and upbringing, we would need to realize they are essentially the same as us. Maybe we share the same common seed with many alien species in the universe. Maybe some would be much younger than our species and some would be much older. I suppose some could be only a few hundred years younger than us. It could probably be ruled out that there are any that developed radio around the same time as us or we would have found each other. Maybe some species are similar to us, some are very different, and some are radically different. We might be appalled by some of the species’ customs. If they all come from the same seed as we do, finding all these aliens would involve a coming to terms with the fact that, no matter how shocked we are by them, we all have a common ancestor/seed.
As suggested by Robin Hanson, they might be concerned that we would be appalled by their customs and they would be appalled by our customs. For that reason they would choose not to know anything about us and not let us know anything about them. Conflict might erupt because of one side being offended by the other side.
Aliens might have the technology of time travel or otherwise have some kind of prescience and are observing us to ensure some fate doesn’t happen to us. Maybe their extremely long existence or extremely sharp prescience has taught them that certain technologies lead to inevitable doom. It is possible that if we learned what they knew about us we would get our hands on a forbidden fruit and spell doom for ourselves and/or the entire universe. In that case, trying to learn more about their intentions for visiting us could have negative consequences.