Why We'll Never Meet Aliens • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

#51

Post by cnp » Sat, May 04, 2013, 12:16 AM UTC

dram wrote: post #46

cnp wrote: post #19

I'd like to humbly suggest that, if given the opportunity, one experiment with DMT. It's the closest thing to a "nearest neighbor" argument that I can come up with, but of course I have no explanation. This is the best write-up that I've come across on the subject: http://ewwty.com/2012/02/24/dimethyltryptamine-dmt-experienc... And for a longer treatment I recommend reading "The Cosmic Serpent", which centers around…

It sounds silly but the effect of DMT is not like a typical drug. The universal experience of flying through "hyperspace" and feeling some intelligent force attempt to interact with you is a legitimate mystery of brain chemistry. It exists everywhere in nature including the Acacia tree which is thought to be the "burning bush" from the Bible.

I agree. Its SO much different, and so infinitely fascinating. Every time I've made it "through" it was an utterly different world that was populated by autonomous, interacting intelligence.

I posted this because I feel it a very real possibility that our proximity to alien life has nothing to do with physical distance or resources, so to speak.

Re: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

#52

Post by fchollet » Sat, May 04, 2013, 12:32 AM UTC

krsunny wrote: post #26

fchollet wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curiosity, by this point, is extremely likely to be a required condition for intelligence in any species. You should look into the AI work done in developmental robotics and Artificial Curiosity...

By what point? In time? In evolution? Because curiosity can be simulated with machines why does that prove that its a characteristic of all developing biological life?

"by this point" == "given the degree of understanding of Intelligence that we have reached so far"

Re: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

#53

Post by drakeandrews » Sat, May 04, 2013, 1:24 AM UTC

biot wrote: post #23

dicroce wrote: post #7

If there are or were aliens, why have we not heard them? Forget visits, why haven't we heard a peep? From anywhere? The universe is 13.77 billion years old. It took planet earth 4.54 billion years to evolve a species capable of emitting significant electromagnetic radiation. I'm starting to be pretty convinced that we are the first advanced species, and perhaps life is a lot more rare than we imagine.

Perhaps pulsars are interstellar beacons placed by advanced civilizations to signal a rendezvous point for any species capable of reaching it. (Anyone know if this is the basis for a sci-fi story?) As an aside, I find it somewhat amusing when people lay out a statistical basis for how life is so incredibly rare to the point where it's unlikely that we even exist.

Contact is close, in that (spoilers, in case anyone hasn't read the book) the signal being broadcast contains instructions on a device to send its occupants via a wormhole network to a rendezvous point.

Re: Why We'll Never Meet Aliens

#54

Post by platz » Sat, May 04, 2013, 6:48 AM UTC

pjscott wrote: post #37

platz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Paperclip Maximizer: inconceivable, conceivable but not metaphysically possible, or metaphysically possible? I sense the approach of the p-zombie.

I'm not sure what you mean by "conceivable" and "metaphysically possible", and I don't see a resemblance to p-zombies. Could you elaborate?

just trolling. The distinction was posed here (http://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl). The resemblance: if a superintelligent AI lacks 'conscious experience, qualia, or sentience'.