a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  3174 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Prof. Stephen Hawking backs venture to listen for aliens

Yeah, I have the same thoughts. Humans tend to think that the only kind of sentient life that exists is ones they've already seen. It doesn't occur to them that other forms of life in other areas of the universe could be radically different, in ways we can't conceive. They may innately have a mastery of quantum reality. Their insides can be their outsides. They may be invisible. They may be part of the conscious air, with hands reaching down into whatever for them counts as grass. They may play with gravity as infants, tap into wellsprings of physics, propel themselves into motion like it's a playground. They may exist as dark matter. They might breathe solids. They may exist in a timeframe one shift away from our own.

And right there is only the stuff my limited human mind can try to imagine. I think the reality would be immensely more fascinating, and I hope if we encounter such lifeforms, humanity can lose its hubris.

    “They are very young. And on their earth, as they call it, they never communicate with other planets. They revolve about all alone in space."

    "Oh," the thin beast said. "Aren't they lonely?”

    ― Madeleine L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time





enjoyablethings  ·  3173 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Also, they may live for a long time and communicating one sentence could take years. They might perceive time differently.