Quote Originally Posted by Crocodile View Post
I apologize if I had hurt you, that was not my intention. Usually, I'm pretty sarcastic when expressing my opinions, so I would appreciate if you could cut me some slack on that. This conversation is interesting for me too. Actually, I'm so interested in the topic that some time back I used to dig into the exobiology and exopsychology to get some better understanding of the topic.
No problem. I may have been too defensive. I enjoy the conversation - but I get irritated when I think people are talking down to me.

That's true, no one does for sure until we actually have an experimental base, i.e. until we meet some extraterrestrials. However, the big question here is - should we do some thinking before that happens or should we actually not think about it? If we meet nobody, then the worst thing that happened - we've done some extra unnecessary thinking rather than having an allegedly meaningful discussions about, say, what exactly some politicians do with some service maids in the US hotels, which probably would not be that harmful. However, if we do meet someone and we are not prepared, our behaviour in that very first contact can change our future for better or for worse. Or cause our complete destruction as a race. Say, you go in the woods and you see a strange colourless mass slowly approaching you and making some sounds. What do you do? Stick your hand forward and hope the mass will think you offer good greetings? Believe it or not, but even the remote tribes on our own planets would interpret that gesture as an attack. With the possibly sad consequence for you personally and for our entire race which from that point on will be perceived as aggressive until that misunderstanding is cleared. If ever.
Well, as for me, I would run up and lick the colorless mass with my tongue. Or roll over and show it my stomach. No, actually I would not do anything because any action could be completely misinterpreted. But then, so could doing nothing. If/when we meet alien life, it's a guarantee there will be misunderstandings! Maybe I would just start singing at it. Music is based on mathematics, so maybe that would be perceived as communication. What do you think? I figure it would be an even playing field with everything having an equal chance of being perceived wrong, so I may as well sing a song.

So, what the "exo" sciences are trying to do is to think what's common and what's unique and extrapolate what's common onto the unknown with some degree of probability.

Therefore, I think this topic is important and it also helps us to better understand ourselves. Regardless of the outcome, it's like learning the foreign language - you may not learn it properly, but in the end you understand your own language better.
Oh that is very true! But learning Russian really messes with my head. When I speak Russian for extended periods, like I did when I lived in Russia, my English grammar gets messed up and I start speaking English "wrong." Does that happen to you?


So, let's discuss the "war" issue. You see, the evolution of bodies goes from the more primitive to the more complex in the way that the more complex are built up of the primitive and combined in a certain way. That leads to the more complex being CONSUMING the more primitive (or whoever they could) to sustain their complex bodies in the most economical way. So, the sheep would not hunt the bunnies, but it would still consume the grass. So, when we're talking about the sentient extraterrestrial beings, we should realize the great chance of those beings consuming some other beings on their native planet thus being intimately familiar with the destruction of the foreign life in support of their own life. Which is a solid foundation for war. There should be something stopping those beings from war, otherwise the war would occur naturally. And the hostile environment may help (I mean our Earth environment may be hostile towards the extraterrestrials), but it might also not stop the war either, because those beings might want to "Exoform" our Earth the same way we want to "Terraform" other planets......

Exactly. Humans (like some of the other organisms on our planet) are both competitive and cooperative based on the circumstances. So far the political systems based on the cooperation have lost to the competitive systems by almost all points.
I am not so convinced that the aggressive political forms always win. It seems to me that the "war" between aggression and cooperation never ends, but continues, round after round, into infinity. Conservatives versus liberals, etc. Cooperation is just as inherent in our gene pool as aggression. After all, we had to help each other to survive at the dawn of humanity and the same is true today. When times get tough, people come together and help each other. It might take a threat from an alien force to unite humankind completely. But in the meantime, I still believe in the power of cooperation, and love, to be greater than aggression, hate and destruction. Maybe you would think I am naive, and maybe I am, but I will never agree that aggression and killing is superior to cooperation and caring for each other.

A bit more than that. He-3 does not exist on Earth but is thought to be abundant in the Moon's regolith. He-3 is praised as the next-generation fuel for the fusion reactors which should satisfy the humanity's energy needs.
Sure, there are abundant ways in which the Helium-3 would help us. I favor establishing an international moon colony where the stuff can be extracted. But we will see how "international" it is in time... It would seem to me that the brightest scientists on the planet would prefer, if possible, to work together for the greater good and combine their wealth of knowledge, rather than be pitted together by governments intent on destroying each other. But that has always been the feeling of scientists and more intelligent people. Unfortunately, the most intelligent people are rarely the ones who lead us. Instead, it seems that the aggressive, power-hungry types of people are the ones who rise to leadership, and then try to pretend they are Alexander the Great and conquer the world under the guise of some "preferred" system of government - be it democracy, communism or god knows what else.

BTW Helium-3 is produced on earth as a byproduct when nuclear warheads are dismantled.


All in good time. The space tourism will help to build the market, improve the technology to get to the orbit cheaper and safer, and the rest will follow.
Perhaps. I don't mind space hotels. But I think there ought to be a way for the "99%" to benefit from such an experience, and not solely the uber-wealthy.