Why would ET's be interested in us???

[junoomaha]

I saw a documentary on the Discovery Channel about that and although there were cattle mutilations, no-one was quite sure who came up with the story about ''surgical precision.'' (It was one of
those allegorical stories.) What the people did say was that their was a turf war between cattle barons which may have been responsible and that with some of the mutilations dog hairs were found and
that there were also reports of perverts loose in the area, (like the horse slashers in Britain who are also known to cut off an animal's naughty bits.)

[bluelighttouch]

Well I never heard ot that.. nor the Slashers chopping off horsey bits... Maybe thats where the pony burgers came from

[13thatthetable]

I do believe in aliens .... I believe in aliens in a far off galaxy .... but as for coming to Earth I very much doubt they have been here , are coming here or will ever be here.

Why am I so cocksure ?

Well if we look at the nearest star Alpha Centauri which is 25 trillion miles from Earth.

The Voyager spaceprobe launched in the late 1970s is allegedly at the outer limits of our Solar system after 35 years travelling at 60,000km/hr and is the fastest moving man made object to date.

At this rate the craft will take 70,000 years to get to this system.

At present we are bound to Einstien's chains of his theory that the speed of light is the fastest we can go .... if we achieved this then the journey will take 4.3 years to achieve however the theory is that as we achieve light speed there is a time dilation where time will pass quickly for the occupants of the space craft however several generations will have passed on Earth. Basically all you had known .... family , friends , all you knew and loved would be gone.

It would be a one way journey in other words.

As we accelerate towards such a velocity there is a shift in the light from stars due to the Doppler effect where the starlight would be shifted to wavelengths such as gamma rays which can have devastating and deadly effect on human tissue.

Human beings are also captives to gravity as exposed to zero gravity for long periods our bone structure becomes brittle and our muscles atrophy. There is also the means for humans to survive for such long periods , how to sustain themselves with food and water for such long periods ......

So for human beings at present it is a journey ripe with peril and would take considerable resource to be able to achieve same .... and I believe that this will be the same for any distant civilisation.

When Carl Sagan and like minded individuals founded S.E.T.I. in the 1960s they realised that the most economical means of contact with a distant civilisation would be by radio signal .... so far there has been nothing of any significance picked up from deep space.

So for the moment ..... then this is it ..... so best take care of it ... because it all we have

[kayls]

wow, what an interesting post

unless theyve invented another way, like teleportation or something.....but what is the likelihood of the aliens being way more technically advanced than us

[13thatthetable]

Thanks Kayls , I hope so.

The bottom line is that the resources to commit to such a project would have to be in question ... what would they have to gain with such a journey with all the perils they have to overcome and to keep them alive for such a journey?

There is a theory regards "wormholes" or time vortex but there is a problem that again it would ( possibly ) be a one way journey in that they could collide with themselves on the return journey.

Frank Drake , a founding father of S.E.T.I. calculated that to propel a craft the size of an airliner to 1/10th the speed of light would require the energy that the United States produces within 100 years. If you had a fusion reactor operating at 100% efficiency to convert mass to kintetic energy would consume 100 tons of fuel would be the bare minimum to just get started. It just does not sound practical.

So they have to overcome the following :

To protect the crew from solar radiation and the Doppler effect which would require heavy screening
To keep the crew fed and watered in that time ..... even if in hibernation the human body for instance would require to be cleansed of all material in the gut
A means of energy to propel a craft across the immense gulf of space to another distant star system

... and for what ?

It is a jump into the unknown and for what ... after all that effort they could be wiped out by a virus on another world very like the Martians in " The War Of The Worlds "

It is a mighty leap for another civilisation to take and dedicate a lot of resource to despite all the technology they allegedly have at their disposal.

Still .... if an alien vessel appears above Big Ben clock tower .... then the drinks are on me

[SandDancer]

Well!!! You obviously haven't watched Star Trek.

If you had you'd know all about 'warp' speed.

[13thatthetable]

There is a story that in the late 60s somebody did call Gene Roddenberry and ask him " how does your teleporter work then ? "

He replied " Very well thank you " .... and hung up

[SandDancer]

Sounds like I'd have liked him!

[13thatthetable]

Well have to admit that anybody who can create a race of aliens called " Klingons " has to have a wicked sense of humour and I have no doubt that VIZ comic have been singing his praises to this day

[3DWaffle1]

They want our natural resources and our genetic material. However, it is difficult to determine until we made contact. I hope they came in peace.