Why I Don't Really Believe In Or Care About Aliens
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| Ross Perot with an alien |
I'd take that bet.
How can we speculate so blindly about the universe? Sure, intelligent life may be out there, but why should the likelihood be so high? There is no hard evidence to support the theory of intelligent extraterrestrial life. The supposition of aliens is akin to a belief in deities. A mythology sold as vaguely scientific, when in fact it's nothing more than a vehicle for profit-making.
I realize that our universe is a massive collection of galaxies too numerous to count, and that they are composed of the same elements and structures as our galaxy. However, the vastness of the universe alone provides no support for the theory of intelligent extraterrestrial life. There is no known relationship between the measure of space and the likelihood of intelligent life (other than this simple one: the entire size of the universe = one occurrence of intelligent life). However, there is empirical evidence that the property of uniqueness exists all over the place in the universe.
Imagine an individual human as an analogy for intelligent life on earth. The human looks around and sees other humans, composed of the same matter as him/her, and with many similar properties. Would it be logical for this human to assume that on earth somewhere there must be more humans who have all of the exact same properties as them? No. The presupposition of extraterrestrial intelligence is the assumption of the presence of many unique things. It isn't logical, and it goes against our understanding of the nature of the universe.
I have a prediction. Stories about UFOs, Klingons, and little green men will continue to provide great fodder for the entertainment industry. Organizations like SETI will continue to receive funding. Yet we will never, in any way shape or form, ever, come close to making any sort of discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence until the very distant future when we ourselves have traveled across the universe and met up with different alien versions of our own offspring.
NOTE: There is evidence that the building blocks of life may have existed on Mars or elsewhere in our solar system. These pieces of our own evolutionary puzzle in no way support the theory of intelligent life arising independently elsewhere in the universe.
Comments
Also worth noting is the concept of human intelligence as a superior perception or way of being. We have incredible technology and reasoning tools, but these things may also lead to our demise. Other creatures on this planet may not have the same tools as we do, but in exchange for this they have greater resilience to changes and disruptions. Take for instance the humble ant which is widely adapted and has even been proven to use tools and engage in a form of agriculture and husbandry. The exent of the collective intelligence of these creatures may likely remain a mystery because our failure to revere their unique intelligence as something other than novel. In short our very idea of intelligence may be flawed.
There are likely tens of billions of planets in this galaxy alone, the conditions that make life possible here may not be all that unique after all. Within the next 20 years we will be able to detect life through spectroscopy, the nature of that live may take much longer to discern.
I'm a firm believer of the zoo hypothesis that states that not only does intelligent life exists, there is intelligence vastly superior to our own which prohibits interacting with beings on other planets until they have reached a similar level of intelligence and development (peace, habitat preservation, respect for all life, etc.) and the ability to make contact with similarly developed life.
You can say "I'm a firm believer in the alien hypothesis", but you aren't providing any support for these beliefs. By making it into a matter of (your) faith, you make it impossible for me to debate you, and impossible for us to move any closer to truth.
I could say that I believe firmly in a galaxy where giant neon dildos spin around in the sky and communicate via telekinesis. I could SAY anything I want and try to make it sound convincing, but that's not philosophy, that's not science.