A couple of thoughts about the SETI program, aliens, and mathematics

 

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Are we alone in the universe? We are alone until we are making contact with aliens. 

Culture and motivation are key elements for advancing technology.  A mathematician is calculated that there are 2-26 intelligent races in each galaxy. That is not much. And there is a possibility that in some galaxies is only one intelligent species. But how some alien can be so lucky? How the race can own the entire galaxy? 

One of the most terrifying visions is that one dominating civilization has swept other civilizations away from the galaxy and created the cosmic empire. That's the reason. Why we must concern and think carefully if we are getting signals from other civilizations should we answer or keep our systems silent. Because if we are making mistakes, that thing can cause the end of our civilization. So that's why we should analyze the motives of aliens very carefully if they want to make contact. 

We must remember that if the alien's home planet is 3000 light-years away, the signal from there travels to Earth 3000 years, and the signal travels back another 3000 years. So the entire time between sending and receive messages is 6000 years. And there are many things, that might happen in 6000 years. There might be some kind of catastrophe in Alien's home planet, and that means aliens might be forced to start to conquer Earth.  And in that case, we hope that those aliens would not have WARP-drive. 

The cultural aspect of advancing technology has been forgotten in the discussions about intelligent lifeforms. Culture is a so-called humane aspect of advancing technology. Civilization requires a motive for creating spacecraft and technology. The humanitarian aspect is the thing that makes the SETI program and especially modeling the alien evolution more complicated than we ever thought. The intelligent lifeform might not create technology at all. Or it creates the other types of technology that we humans created. The thing, that controls the motive for creating technology is the environment. 

If the chemical environment of the hemisphere of the planet is different from than Earth hemisphere. That means that aliens might have different types of technologies than humans have. That means that if in the hemisphere of the planet is a very low level of metals, like aluminum, that means the creation of aircraft could be harder for an alien, who lives on those kinds of planets. 

So in wild imagination, I have thought that the aliens might have advanced computer technology, but they might not have aircraft at all. That means aliens would not have similar inventions with people on Earth. If the alien planet is desert. And there are only small and shallow water areas those aliens might not know seafaring at all, even if they have advanced spacecraft. Before we get the first contact, everything that we write about aliens is purely hypothetical thoughts or the production of the imaginations. 

The possibility to find intelligent and complex life from another solar system is interesting but at the same time complex thing. Things like the Ferm paradox and Drake's equation have been dominated attitudes for things like the SETI program. The biggest problem with the SETI program and Ferm paradox and Drake's equation is that in the time when those things introduced exoplanets were only theories. 

There were no other known solar systems other than our solar system. This means those formulas are "old fashion". The fact is that complex and intelligent lifeforms might have a different cultural background because their planet is different than Earth.  

Things like technical advantages are cultural things. But we must think that if the species is intelligent, it would be also technically advanced. If species is intelligent it must be curious, and the need to find things out is the thing that motivates species to make things like rockets and other things. But what if the intelligent and complicated species lives on the planet, what has a big ocean. In that case, the species would live in isolated islands, and in that case, there is a possibility, that species would annihilate itself. 

The isolated islands are offering a good background for dictatorship, and suspicion against each other. And if the civilization is advanced but it cannot discuss things, it would destroy itself. In many models of cultural evolution, the species must pass the test for reaching the Kardashev-scale. 

The test is that for becoming the civilization, what conquer the new planets, the civilization must learn to live in peace with each other. Without that ability, civilization would destroy itself. This thing is called the "test".  Only the species that are reaching the Kardashev scale 1 are mature enough to form the civilization, which means that species would rule its planet and solar system. Colonizing the solar system requires massive resources. And in that case, the species must work together for working for a great goal. 

But when we are thinking about culture, and the ability and motive for creating advanced technological equipment. We must realize that the conditions and environment are in a key role for that thing. Species need a motive for creating technical equipment. But it needs also equipment for making those things like arrows and axes. The reason why I write about those primitive inventions. Is that there is a strong possibility that there are no civilizations. 

Which the first invention was the quantum computer. The first inventions of all species must be more primitive, and the thing is that the environment gives the rule, what kind of equipment the species can make. What if the intelligent species would live on the planet, where are no metals at all? First, we must remember that the first tools that humans made were not made by using metals. They were made of silicon stone, and that thing is remarkable. The reason, why we are using metals is that they are easy to handle. But making metal tools requires the ability to make fire. 

There is not the possibility to make a fire in underwater conditions. We know many planets that are covered by oceans. The "ocean world" means the planet, where is not a dry landmass.  And also in the seas of ocean planets, can live intelligent lifeforms. But could those lifeforms have the technical equipment, because they cannot make the campfire? The hypothetical intelligent lifeforms that are living in oceans can use volcanic temperature for making tools. The fact is that we don't know any other civilization than our own. 

And until we find another we are alone in the universe. When we are searching the universe, we must keep our minds open for things, that is unexpected. Before we find the first extraterrestrial civilization, we can introduce all kinds of theories about them. Before we have contact with other civilizations, all things that we are introducing are purely hypothetical. We don't have a single piece of evidence, what aliens might even look like. 

We are waiting and we are fearing the first contact, what can come tomorrow or it can come after 10 000 years. The thing that we don't know even where we can search for intelligent and technical allies. Intelligent aliens wound not necessarily have highly advanced technology. And even if they are sending one drone to the other solar system. 

That doesn't mean that interstellar travel is the routine either for those hypothetical aliens. And even if one of their probes visited Earth 10 000 years ago. That doesn't mean that they would visit our planet simultaneously. So the fact is there is one problem with discussions about aliens, and that thing is oversimplifying things. The advancing of life is a very complicated process and the advancing of the culture of intelligent species. 

Which has the motive to advance its technology is even more complicated. Even if the aliens could have advanced and complicated computers, that doesn't mean that they have rockets or they can fly by using aircraft.  Or even if they have advanced space programs, that doesn't mean that they have manned spacecraft. Our humanoids can operate by using highly advanced artificial intelligence and they might be very different from us. And in that case, I mean that their way to think about things might be something else, what we use to think. 

The fact is that even if someday in the future the alien craft would land on the Central Park of New York, we would not find out anything about the species, what sends that hypothetical craft. The alien race can send the highly advanced robot probe, which operates by using remote-controlled sub-robots. So the identity of the sender of that hypothetical craft can stay a mystery. Or it can be covered by its senders. Even if we see the craft in the front of us

And even the aliens would land on our planet, we might not know what the species that sends that craft would look like. The craft can be an automated drone, which is using artificial intelligence, or that craft can communicate with its sender by using quantum communication, which means that electrons are like in long stick between the craft and its sender. So the hypothetical aliens might operate by using robots, which they are remote-controlling. 

()https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/astronomer-calculates-the-odds-of-intelligent-alien-life-emerging?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1625188707

()https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/Search-Extraterrestrial-Intelligence

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

()https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale