What will our first alien encounter be like?

[Odin]

I think the nature of a sentient species depends on what they evovled from. Carnivores would be very violent, like the Klingons in Star Treck. Omnivores, like us, would have a mix of peaceful and warlike cultures. Herbivores would have a very peaceful disposition. technically, we are omniherbivores, omnivores that eat mostly plant material, but eat some animal products. That puts us about 20% towards the peaceful side.

The exporation habits of a species depends on were it evolved. A species that evoved (like us) in relatively dry areas woud have to search more to find food, species from wet areas would explore less since thier ancestors did not have to go long distances for food.

[Aeson]

I think there is a good possibility they would be nothing like any life on this earth, having traits and qualities which don't have any parallel to those we posses. Aliens in science fiction are based off of humans for the most part, taking certain traits and amplifying them, or combining them with traits from other species on this earth.

These lifeforms certainly wouldn't be based off of us.

An electrical storm in a very dense atmosphere? A chemical process in fluid? Sentience could develope in so many different mediums. Also the scale of those lifeforms doesn't have to be on the same scale as we are. For all we know we are living on a little spec that is a very small part of what comprises these aliens or their environment, or vice versa.

If it does happen, I think that contact, and those beings, will be like nothing we've ever imagined.

[Zkribbler]

"Man, these spacesuits are really bulky. Makes it kinda hard to walk."

"Hey, Bob! Watch where you're stepping!"

[squish] "Or darn. Ya think it was alive?"

"If it was, it isn't anymore."

"Let's keep this just between you and me, okay?"

"Roger that."

[DRoseDARs]

"That's one small step for Man, *pauses*...one, giant squish for Mankind."

[Darkworld Ark]

If they're less technological than us we'll proboly take their planet & put them on a horrible death moon of a reservation, like the Native Americans, on greener. This is of course if they aren't horrible insect aliens like in "Starship Troopers". ( The book, not the movie)

[Joseph]

Ask our Government, but they are not talking. However they do lied.
That Army Air Force Major found something outside of Roswell and it was no weather balloon.
Then there was the incident in England and there was at lease one in Russia.

[Odin]

The chemistry of living things on different worlds will probably be similar since earthlike planets will probably start out with similar atmospheres; mostly nitrogen, carbon dioxide, ammonia, methane, water vapor, and hydrogen, with no oxygen. Pass lightning through it and you get the same thing no mater what world you're on; amino acids, sugars, nitrogeneous compounds that make the code carrying parts (Adenine, Thiamine, Cytosine, and Guanine) of nucleic acids, coenzymes ,("vitamins") etc. The only chemical differences will be in the details. For example, on earth, the backbone of DNA and RNA are based on phosphate ions and 5-carbon sugars. (ribose, Deoxyribose, etc.) On another world, nucleic acids might have a backbone of sulfate ions and 6-carbon sugars. (glucose, fructose, etc.) Amino acids that make up proteins might also differ slightly. Some amino acids may be universal since they were very common in the primordial soup. (glysine, alanine, lysine) But the rarer amino acids, like methionine, tyrosine, aspartate, phenylalanine, etc. on earth, would differ. The major differences will be in the form of the organisms. no intellegent species will look similar to us, that takes far to many doses of convergent evolution.

[Ramo]

They recognize the mouse as the most intelligent lifeform on earth, which they work together with to subjugate humans as slaves.

[jdd2007]

Re: What will our first alien encounter be like?

Originally posted by UberKruX
What will our first alien encounter be like?

quick and bloody.

[jdd2007]

Originally posted by Joseph
Ask our Government, but they are not talking. However they do lied.
That Army Air Force Major found something outside of Roswell and it was no weather balloon.
Then there was the incident in England and there was at lease one in Russia.

people who believe conspiracy theories are idiots...

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by jdd2007


people who believe conspiracy theories are idiots...

And people who dismiss them (the conspiracies and their believers) out-of-hand are blind and hopeless. We've had plenty of evidence that governments aren't always honest, hide secrets, cover-up mistakes. Pretending such things don't happen or are impossible is just asinine and dangerous.

[Asher]

Michael Jackson

[Darkworld Ark]

Originally posted by Asher
Michael Jackson

*shudders*

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs


And people who dismiss them (the conspiracies and their believers) out-of-hand are blind and hopeless. We've had plenty of evidence that governments aren't always honest, hide secrets, cover-up mistakes. Pretending such things don't happen or are impossible is just asinine and dangerous.

I think it's fair to dismiss them because contact with an alien species is so astronomically improbable.

Covering up breaking the law is one thing. Covering up what would be the most important discovery mankind has made since fire...don't think the secret could be kept.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


I think it's fair to dismiss them because contact with an alien species is so astronomically improbable.

Covering up breaking the law is one thing. Covering up what would be the most important discovery mankind has made since fire...don't think the secret could be kept.

Didn't say I believe the UFO conspiracies, just saying that calling others who believe are idiots is just begging for the something in the universe to come around and bite the insulting party in the ass...the universe has that tendancy...