ktlight
27th February 2012, 07:15
""Chances are, when we meet intelligent life forms in outer space, they're going to be descended from predators." - Michio Kaku
"The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning." - Paul Theodore Hellyer, former Canadian Defence Minister
What do you think?
"Dr. Kaku uses a critical term, 'chances…' in his thesis about what ET might be like and I appreciate and understand his pulling punches about characterizing the ET we have not yet met. I tend to go along with Dr Kaku that predation is a likely early stage of resource competition in an ET evolutionary path from primitive micro-organism to space travel, but I feel, as other commentators here do, that actual predation is left behind as it is learned/experienced that a consequence of having the predator trait can be species self-destruction as weaponry advances.
"Thus 'chances are’ the ET we meet will view us with interest and self-awareness from their own root beginnings. This might result in ET being unafraid of us or very leery or ..., creating a matrix of ET decisions whether to make themselves known to us or stay away.
"But Kaku’s thought about predation also makes one think about other ET characteristics of the so-far-undetected-or-unrevealed-contact. For instance, what might be the ‘universals’ of any life form we encounter? Certainly predation seems to be good candidate to being a universal (maybe one is being too anthro-centered here).
"But what about the notion of ‘evolution’ itself, is evolution a universal? The answer to this seems a simple enough, ‘yes, but'. And what other universals might there be: energy cycles, carbon-based biochem, bio-information mechanisms (is DNA universal, indirectly I believe NASA seems to think so), development of a brain, temperature-pressure environment (I believe that dependent on the bio-chemistries involved life has a much wider temperature-pressure window than NASA’s “Goldilocks” optimum), individualization (as opposed to group inter-linking), bilateralism as opposed to radial, bi-sexualism e.g., male and female and…, etc.
"There is a lot more thinking to be done along these lines. But, thanks again, Dr. Kaku.""
source
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/mondays-comment-of-the-day-michio-kaku-on-extraterrestrial-life.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond+%28The+Daily+Galaxy+--Great+Discoveries+Channel%3A+Sci%2C+Space%2C+Tech.%29
"The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning." - Paul Theodore Hellyer, former Canadian Defence Minister
What do you think?
"Dr. Kaku uses a critical term, 'chances…' in his thesis about what ET might be like and I appreciate and understand his pulling punches about characterizing the ET we have not yet met. I tend to go along with Dr Kaku that predation is a likely early stage of resource competition in an ET evolutionary path from primitive micro-organism to space travel, but I feel, as other commentators here do, that actual predation is left behind as it is learned/experienced that a consequence of having the predator trait can be species self-destruction as weaponry advances.
"Thus 'chances are’ the ET we meet will view us with interest and self-awareness from their own root beginnings. This might result in ET being unafraid of us or very leery or ..., creating a matrix of ET decisions whether to make themselves known to us or stay away.
"But Kaku’s thought about predation also makes one think about other ET characteristics of the so-far-undetected-or-unrevealed-contact. For instance, what might be the ‘universals’ of any life form we encounter? Certainly predation seems to be good candidate to being a universal (maybe one is being too anthro-centered here).
"But what about the notion of ‘evolution’ itself, is evolution a universal? The answer to this seems a simple enough, ‘yes, but'. And what other universals might there be: energy cycles, carbon-based biochem, bio-information mechanisms (is DNA universal, indirectly I believe NASA seems to think so), development of a brain, temperature-pressure environment (I believe that dependent on the bio-chemistries involved life has a much wider temperature-pressure window than NASA’s “Goldilocks” optimum), individualization (as opposed to group inter-linking), bilateralism as opposed to radial, bi-sexualism e.g., male and female and…, etc.
"There is a lot more thinking to be done along these lines. But, thanks again, Dr. Kaku.""
source
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/02/mondays-comment-of-the-day-michio-kaku-on-extraterrestrial-life.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDailyGalaxyNewsFromPlanetEarthBeyond+%28The+Daily+Galaxy+--Great+Discoveries+Channel%3A+Sci%2C+Space%2C+Tech.%29