Because they are testing us... Surely dolphins are the 2nd most intelligent, if mice are the smartest?
Surely if mice were smarter, we wouldnt be seeling them and watching them go mazes for our amusement, lol. Well those apes in planet of the apes were inferior, but they sure enslaved us, lol
IIRC it was the humans who were inferior in that movie. Besides, THG2TG says so, therefore it's true. (The Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy)
Humans had all that tech in the 20th century, but the apes dismissed reports of "flying objects"ie. paper airplanes and they used crude bolt action rifles.
Ah, but think about it! Is a creature really so stupid when it realizes that all it has to do to get fed and taken care of for all its life is perform a few simple tricks? Wouldn't you do the same, when offered permanent housing and three meals a day just for standing on your head once in a while? This is exactly the kind of assumption that I disagree with. Where is the logic in this statement? Just because you're technologically advanced enough to do one thing, you will automatically be able to do another? We have put several men on the moon in our history, but we cannot cure a cold... There is no reason to assume that a) aliens will be either peaceful or warlike, b) that we will not stand a chance against them if they decide to fight us, or c) that we're supposed to have met some already unless they don't exist. Yet people do this all the time.
This is exactly the kind of assumption that I disagree with. Where is the logic in this statement? Just because you're technologically advanced enough to do one thing, you will automatically be able to do another? We have put several men on the moon in our history, but we cannot cure a cold... There is no reason to assume that a) aliens will be either peaceful or warlike, b) that we will not stand a chance against them if they ah, but no personal choice to go where u want and such, but what u say sure sounds tempting, somewhat
i would suggest that vastly superiour weapons will always prevails given suffcient forces brought to bear and a willingness to wage total war ie spanish steel trumps aztec stone edged clubs ...breech loading rifles trump zulu steel ..dresden or hamburg come to hanoi ,or mabey enola gay...success in vietnam was about politics and not technology ....i think wether the aliens had the ability to cure the common cold or not would have little to do with their ability to shut down our military power
Haven't you seen or read War of the Worlds The common cold is the only effective weapon we have against the martians... Oh, and Slim Whitman music
SLIM WHITMAN WOULD PROLLY SCARE THE CRAP OUTTA THE MUJAHADEEN AND NVA TOO ...call thee pentagon at once!!
My point is that development in one particular area of research (in this case, space flight) does not necessarily mean a similar level of development in a completely different area (for example, weapon technology). On earth, these fields have absolutely nothing to do with each other - as far as I know, none of the spacecraft actually built by man carry any real weapons.
roel ...the mercury program is in fact a direct decendant of ww2 ,the german (von braun ) rush at penemunde to build an icbm (albiet with conventional warhead ) was produced as a weapons technology that would not have happened for decades without the pressure of war ...ditto for me626....anti sub sonar ,radar ,projectiles ,armour ,high alt ,optics exposure ,g suites...everthing , jumped 20 years because of the battle of the boffins ... ie 40 to 45 ...and its ALL INTERCONNECTED ...the search for a war stress solution often begets another problems solution by accident WELL ..WE COULDNT FIX A ...but i think this might be of help with the navys problem with B...
And because it went like this on earth, it must automatically have happened exactly like that on other planets? That makes no sense. Besides, like you said, war sped up the development of new technology but it did not create that development altogether. Generally, when it comes to alien life, people don't think of them as quite as different as they are likely to be. We can't go about thinking of them as little humanoids with a spoken language, a hierarchical society and a technology based on the needs of war. Whatever it is they are, why would they be like us?
i would suspect they evolved from a lesser life form ( like us ) and that their technology also evolved and it would be impossible for them to get where they are without some destructive knowhow along the way. wouldnt you ?
Thought I should post this http://www.news.com.au/sundaytelegraph/ ... 21,00.html woops, looks like someone already posted this.
I'm not saying they will be altruistic or anything, but all options are open as far as we can tell. There are no real assumptions we can safely make. What if they had no natural enemies? Or what if they simply never developed their weapon technology beyond what was strictly necessary? After all, despite the ascendancy of gunpowder weapons, many people still use knives, don't they?
individuals can use knives or cricket bats or fists ...a military force armed with these things could expect destruction and defeat by virtually any other military force within minutes of contact ...this has been the case for the last 500 years or so ...bringing knives to a gunfight has been repeatedly proven to be imprudent and ill advised ...gurkahs ,goums and sengalese troops prefer to use knives but are not so silly as to actually chose them over guns in combat
So now you're assuming that these alien races must be constantly at war with each other, just like we are? My point was that despite the appearance of gunpowder weapons, knives will still do the trick if you're trying to kill somebody. So there is no real reason for guns to be used. Therefore, it's very well possible that whole species simply never bothered with projectile weapons. Again, I'm not saying it's not true, I'm saying that all options are open. We cannot make any reasonable assumptions about alien life like this. We cannot assume that they are like us. We have no way of knowing. Whereas what you're saying is basically that if they are a developed species, they will be exactly like us. Why?
not exactly like us , but i do assume that they evolved from a lower life form... like us . they being animals had to compete for food , for women ,for secure homes for their children ...the natural world on earth is not a disney cartoon . i would expect that other worlds would be similar . we ,in the west live in very secure enviornments ,food ,shelter ,protection from rapacious invaders , health care , rule of law ...these things are very recent devolpments in the world ...we members live in a paradise of security and ease compared to our ancestors of the past 10000 generations ...the very first things created by man were weapons ,tools for killing animals ...describe for me a world where there is no such thing as competition for food ,space ,mates ...it is possible ,i suppose ...though i can not really see how...aliens live in a garden of eden perhaps , and they ALWAYS have? this is the only possible way i could envision the world you posit ,roel...
All it would really take would be for their development of society to progress a little differently. For example, if they had discovered better farming methods sooner, it is possible that they could have dispensed to a large degree with the 1,000+ years of national & religious warfare that we suffered through after the break-up of the ancient world. The biggest competition is always for survival, but given better food-gathering that gets ruled out. Or maybe it makes it worse, because you have bigger populations. Any given variable can affect a population in unforseen ways - and that is humans with a human mindset. What if the aliens reproduce asexually? That eliminates a huge area of potential strife.