Alien Life, Expect the Unexpected

[Agape]

To Find Alien Life, Expect the Unexpected

Highlights of a Library of Congress symposium on first contact with extraterrestrial life

By Dirk Schulze-Makuch
airspacemag.com
September 25, 2014




Last week experts from a variety of fields answered a call from Steven Dick, the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, to meet for two days and discuss the possible discovery of extraterrestrial life and the impact such a discovery would have on society. The symposium consisted of individual talks and panel discussions, along with remarks by Rep. Lamar Smith, chair of the House science committee, Mary Voytek of NASA’s astrobiology program, and Steven Dick, who spoke on how far we have advanced our understanding.

Some spectators from the media and “UFOlogists” in the audience may have been disappointed when Seth Shostak from the SETI Institute opened by stating that no signal from extraterrestrial intelligent beings has been discovered as yet. On the first afternoon I gave a talk about the “Landscape of Life,” which—as philosopher of science Carlos Mariscal put it—is extremely difficult to evaluate, since N still equals 1: There is only one biosphere we know of. And given that life on Earth is already extremely diverse, we can only image how diverse it would be in the universe.

Neuroscientist Lori Marino continued with a presentation about the “Landscape of Intelligence” among animal species on Earth, and anthropologist John Traphagan spoke about how cultural and ethnic differences influence how we imagine aliens (and often reveal more about ourselves than about the aliens!). Marino pointed out that human interactions—such as historical encounters between aboriginal and western cultures—are often used as analogs for a first contact with extraterrestrials. A better analog, she says, would be our relationship with whales, dolphins, and other intelligent species on Earth.

The morning session of the second day included philosopher Carol Cleland taking up a question that nicely complemented Marino’s talk: What would be the moral status of indigenous microbes on Mars or intelligent extraterrestrial animals? Philosopher Susan Schneider spoke about artificial intelligence and whether we might expect to contact not organic beings, but rather a “machine mind”—some sort of robot, android, or Borg. Brother Guy Consolmagno of the Vatican Observatory then considered the theological implications of first contact. To the question “Would you baptize an extraterrestrial?” he responded, “Only if he desires so!”

The second day’s afternoon session included more elaboration on the theme of cultural bias in the field of astrobiology/SETI. Clearly, we’ll have to free ourselves of our own cultural mindsets to fathom what aliens really might be like. A technologically advanced octopus? A superior hive mind? Or maybe a smart, individually inclined warm-blooded animal like we see in the movies?

Personally, I expect—based on evolutionary biology—a social predator, probably an omnivore (eating both animals and plants). There is a reason why cows are pretty stupid. They only need to graze and run away from predators. On the other hand, the predator has to be smart to eat the cow and anticipate its future movements. And of course, there’s always the possibility of swarm intelligence, as in my own sci-fi novel Alien Encounter.

There was plenty to talk and think about at the meeting, and it’s not too soon to start the discussion. Some SETI researchers expect to detect intelligent signals within the next 25 years, given the current progress in technology. Who knows, perhaps we’re receiving the signals already, and just don’t see them or know how to interpret them!



Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-pla...#ixzz3GIGzgKOA


Landscape of Life ( video, 22 minutes, great lecture ) :

https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/p6g6ev5m0fi/...&pbMode=normal

How are we looking for Alien Life and what would it mean to find it ( Seth Shostak , 25 minutes , funny but intelligent lecture ) :

https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/p7sdwei4nvb/...&pbMode=normal



http://www.loc.gov/loc/kluge/news/na...gram-2014.html

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8L6KGuTr9TI

Ok that would be totally unsuitable .

Maybe next time ...

[Buzzie]

I can't believe it. How can this group stand there and pontificate with a straight face. There is a myriad of evidence for extra-terrestrial life. Thousands have had contact world wide. I myself have had limited contact. There have been untold numbers of abductions. UFOs and AVCs (alien visitation craft) are seen and photographed daily. There are untold numbers of Youtube videos addressing the subject.

I can only conclude that this meeting was arranged as some sort of dis-information campaign for the public. Even if they received signals from off world intelligent beings, would they tell us? Would we care?

[Agape]

Hello Buzzie , to my best knowledge and experience , these are some hard working individuals who sincerely believe in what they do and also believe there's life elsewhere in the Universe .
It took them few decades from the SETI project ( started as project Ozma ) was launched to be taken seriously and accepted by the rest of scientific community as sort of 'credible scientists' , namely because their aspirations can't be immediately proved or accomplished , good telescopes and all other sensitive equipment too is costly and many people consider looking for ET life a luxury or even a nonsense while there are so many problems to sort here .

They're not 'disbelievers' , i think that some of them are more than aware about the numbers of alleged or even genuine ET encounters worldwide ,
that go to hundreds or thousands each year ( much more in recent years and after the widespread use of internet ) however ..
they are not able to make good sense of those reports, or investigate them .. they claim , till there's any solid proof of objective evidence that would beat them to it .

In fact , I started another thread on the topic some time ago... called The Proof of Evidence Thread ...

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...vidence-Thread

where I asked other people ( no matter how much I'm involved in the subject ) what kind of subject matter do they think represents the 'hard core proof' that we, they or anybody else has been contacted and visited could or should provide so that we are working on 'clean table' .

You think that something of this kind would be handy , and very supportive to our cause , read my initial posting in above thread ,

to get these scientists to full picture and where we need them to be .

I don't think they're members of secret club , or part of government conspiracy . In fact, most of your governments consider this matter the least substantial and rather anecdotal ( unless it would be landing on their own lawns and back yards ) so do most other people i know of ..who never experienced ET contact event .


These scientists , some of them at least are people with big heads and far seeing ideas .. and they're the one who should be ready to handle the situation better,
namely the science of it ,

rather than pushing us all to 'alternative ways' and corners .

[sheme]

Perhaps they are simply afraid for their loved ones.

[Agape]

Posted by sheme (here)
Perhaps they are simply afraid for their loved ones.

I think so too , that's what people repeat so often .. like in ''you know truth may be there but i have family to feed' .

People have careers . Papers in peer reviewed journals . The first person who tries to send paper on presence of ET intelligence on Earth that would defy all current scientific dogma and the trail they follow by common consensus ,
namely Darwinian evolution and Gaia hypothesis will be under extreme fire from all the other 'true scientists' from around the globe who will demand proofs .

[rgray222]

Posted by Buzzie (here)
I can't believe it. How can this group stand there and pontificate with a straight face. There is a myriad of evidence for extra-terrestrial life. Thousands have had contact world wide. I myself have had limited contact. There have been untold numbers of abductions. UFOs and AVCs (alien visitation craft) are seen and photographed daily. There are untold numbers of Youtube videos addressing the subject.

I can only conclude that this meeting was arranged as some sort of dis-information campaign for the public. Even if they received signals from off world intelligent beings, would they tell us? Would we care?

Yes, there may be a lot of contact but there is no "scientific" proof that aliens actually exists. At least not proof that would be of world convincing quality. Instead of pointing the finger of accusation at humans, we should be asking the question of why are extraterrestrial beings not coming forward. This is by far a much more intriguing question.

I think the government and alien races know that the old, stale excuse that the world would panic is just that, it is an excuse. There is a reason that ET stays in the background. Whether it is of a sinister nature or not, it certainly calls their motivation into question.

An alien race could make their presence known in a matter of minutes around the world. It is likely that the world at large will never be convinced that extraterrestrials really exist until ET comes forward.

That is why people should be considering the following questions.
1. What brings them here in the first place?
2. What motivates them to stay in the shadows?
3. How could they possibly benefit and what can be gained by staying in the shadows?
R

[Flash]

I saw a few of their presentations at McGill University and some were just short of talking about intelligent life elsewhere in fact they seemed to be a pretty excited groupat being zble to now speak out of the certainty of life elsewhere, albeit still at the microbial level. I do not think they are afraid for their families but rather for their career if burning the consensus bridges before it is time. They were just short o affirming intelligent life on other planets. So short that i got the feeling they had been told to start disclosing step by step.

[Agape]

This isn't exactly an answer but maybe , little thinking experiment for todays generation ...

Posted by rgray222 (here)
That is why people should be considering the following questions.
1. What brings them here in the first place?
2. What motivates them to stay in the shadows?
3. How could they possibly benefit and what can be gained by staying in the shadows?
R

Move yourself mentally , 20 or 30 years back , depending how old are you in human years but even if you're younger than that you may have a 'feeling ' of the way how our parents thought, lived ..only few decades ago ( from the perspective of Universe or , more pertinently 'space traveller ' who has traversed vast time and space differences between 'then' and 'here' ,
few decades of planet earth may constitute 'a moment' ) .

Think of 60s , 70s , 80s ... how many 'ET encounters' have been reported in those years ?

Some of the older generation researchers here could probably testify ..because they did the 'field work' in those days . Of course there were tens of cases reported each year but most were , actually , sighting of lights or other phenomena that can be explained , plus pranks and hoaxes , and mentally disturbed individuals .

There was but handful of reports that had 'headers and footers' , for example the Betty and Barney Hill case that made people wonder , unless they were in complete denial .

Would anyone ask these questions you have asked , that time, in open , with serious face ?


So what has happened since then ... acceleration of many kinds, social and technological evolution took a steep step up and forwards .. we are now talking 'globally' and information is shared in open . It's unfortunately still not true for many countries of this world ( think Africa, China or the Middle East ) but ..it's becoming available .

So also many 'ETs' came to fronts to reveal their motivations and experiences in open , even if in minor ways .

What happens next ? Human plagiarism , at its best , of course because this is not 'scientific field' and plagiarism happens on academic grounds as well , as most of you know of . People covet each others ideas, impressions, borrow original thoughts and works from ancient ( or less ancient ) literature ,
some consciously, more unconsciously because they don't know better . This is why it's said 'human mind is an illusion' , unless you work hard on yourself and keep your morals in check,
human being - generally - is not trustable .

This is why 'scientific method' and 'scientific protocols' become so important because if there are none, society turns wild .

In the sea of photocopies , of photocopies that are being created in human minds , from information 'about ETs' from unverified sources ,
can you discern what's original and not ?

Yes, if you are experienced individual, in more than one way .. otherwise it's hardly the case .


....


It's not an answer of course, just sort of thinking exercise ..

My answer is .. ETs are subtle . Quite a bit more complicated to explain to average human being than it'd be to explain integers to average 4 year old kid who knows few numbers ..and think he won the competition , and demands cake .

[Agape]

And then he/she says ... ''I don't have the time to learn integers .. they don't seem to make good sense , and mum said it's not important for life and our school teacher says you should let me play .. '' .

''Ok kid'' , says an average ET , ''it's not worth the abuse and spoiling your best years'' and walks calmly away , with lowered head ..

[Frenchy]

Hello flash,
Hope this; although off-topic, is of interest to you ? Mc Gill Uni, is one of around six or seven institutions, I read of, as being high up-there, in the early days of MK & Monarch, so, yes, where there were vipers nesting, on treads with care ! !

[betoobig]

We´ve been taken, simple as that, by aliens. All this is just a cover up giving the general public the knowlege little by little becouse the beans have been spill all around already. I am not doubting of the people involve or how must they got into play. Too sad but i understand perfectly, i hope we all can help them loose the fear and step forward.
It is more than time for them (whoever) to talk staright.... all this kind of issues need straight talk which i don´t see, instead they´re playing a roll, like a puppet.

[Frenchy]

Salut ! Flash !
Just a pointer, though you might well be aware of it, wasn't McGill Uni a seat of MKUltra, esp with Young children being experimented on ? ( just mention it, for one does not always knows what happens 'down the street ' ! )

Point is, ther emight even be reasons why a particular Venue is chosen ? Just a thought !