Aug 29, 2004

Aliens!

This may seem like a strange thing for me to say, what with my general skepticism and lack of religious belief, but I don’t understand how people can not believe in aliens.

I’m not saying I believe in little green men who walk among us. I’m not saying I believe in any sort of government cover-up conspiracy, past UFO landing, or mind control/anal probing horror story. But I can’t believe that out of all the billions of planets out there, ours is the only one that’s managed to develop intelligent life.

True, the odds of another planet having intelligent life right now are a bit slimmer than the odds of other intelligent life ever exitisting, but think about it- our galaxy alone could contain 100 billion stars. Our sun is just one of those. If only 1% of the stars in our galaxy had a single planet, and if only 1% of those planets were capable of supporting intelligent life, and if only 1% of those capable of supporting intelligent life supported it right now, that would leave 99,999 other planets with sentient life. That’s quite a few.

Saying we are the only intelligent species out there seems a little too self-important. Yes, humans are unique and special and deserve any amount of back-patting, but we’re not that special. We’re not the only ones.

I think a lot of our problems are caused by our thinking we rule the universe. We don’t. We don’t even rule the planet- or, at least, we shouldn’t. We aren’t the only ones who matter.

Posted at 7:18 PM in The World

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Comments

K D at 10:26 AM on 8/30/04

Yay aliens! I think there is a government cover-up conspiracy *has been watching too many alien shows on sci-fi*, but it’s for the best. I mean, really, remember when Orson Wells did that whole radio thing with H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”? They caused a complete panic! Even though I’d like to know and stuff, I think any information on the definite existence of aliens from the government would definitely cause a panic. Anyway, did you know that there’s a common firefighter’s guide (it’s in most firehouses) with a section for dealing with situations in which fires were caused by UFO’s? It goes on in detail about how not to touch the UFO, what if it lands in a school, what to do if there are alien bodies around, should you rescue them or not, et cetera et cetera, and it’s the only known document to teach this stuff like ever. Except in France, I think the French government has admitted the existence of aliens to the public. Russia too I think.

Loden at 12:56 AM on 9/1/04

It doesn’t seem very practical to have a UFO guide in firehouses because we have no idea what the UFO’s would be like. What if the firepersons (I am too PC for words) were instructed to put out a fire on a UFO by spraying it with hoses, but spraying water was some sort of taboo in the alien culture? An otherwise benign delegation of extra-terrestrials could become violent.

That isn’t really very plausible, is it?

K D at 2:32 PM on 9/1/04

It is plausible. The guide pretty much says, do what you think is right. Besides, if a UFO caught on fire (like not from oil or anything, like it exploded), I don’t the the aliens would be alive to care.

Loden at 6:13 PM on 9/1/04

But what if there was more than one UFO? If you’re going to send ships all the way to another planet, it makes sense to send more than one.

K D at 1:29 PM on 9/2/04

Maybe it’s a scout? Like the mother-ship is hovering out in space and they sent a couple scouts around the world. Besides, even if there were lots of ships right there, what are the chances that all of them are going to malfunction and crash into the same spot simultaneously?

Loden at 7:58 PM on 9/2/04

Besides, even if there were lots of ships right there, what are the chances that all of them are going to malfunction and crash into the same spot simultaneously?

That’s my point. If there were more than one, they wouldn’t all be dead.

Good point about the scout ships, though. That makes sense.