If we find aliens they will be machines

[grober]

If-we-find-aliens-they-will-be-machines----- no its not some post apocalytic Terminator movie but the considered opinion of Martin Rees the Astronomer Royal at the recent Cheltenham Science Festival. Makes you think.
Astronomer Royal: If we find aliens, they will be machines - Telegraph

 

[Druk]

OMG! They're here already

.

 

[grober]

[YOUTUBE HD]sNExF5WYMaA[/YOUTUBE HD]

 

[Giantvanman]

I believe Martin Rees is correct for several reasons, looking at this planet as an example or blueprint:-

1. According to physicists, faster than light travel is not theoretically possible
2. Many light years separate possible habitable planets
3. It's only a matter of time before the relentless and unstoppable march to produce AI or at the very least, semi-autominous robots/machines succeeds
4. As a world with chemical/biological/nuclear weapons, it's only a matter of time before some nut job smokes the planet either directly or by chain reaction/retaliatory strike.

So habitable worlds are either too far away from each other for it to be technologically possible for human/biologic travel or the biologic are doomed as a species and all that will be left is mechanical facsimiles…. why would a biologic alien species which has attained primacy on it's own world be any different to us?

That's my glass half empty viewpoint; any glass half full thoughts?

 

[grober]

Its not clear if Martin Rees simply meant that space travel was only really a realistic possiblity for machines or whether due to the distances involved that any humanoid civilization who started out on a journey of exploration or merely sent a message would be long extinct [ back home ] by the time any of their descendants or their message reached another sentient planet ? Point of origin essentially becomes subsumed into the journey and mere existence. On the other hand if they can crack the "faster than the speed of light thing" - who knows.

 

[Giantvanman]

On the other hand if they can crack the "faster than the speed of light thing" - who knows.

I would argue (where argue=complete guess) that they would have to master gravity first. It is gravity that limits the amount of materials (on a cost basis) that can be moved into space and it is gravity or, more accurately, the lack or reduction of it that that would cause severe problems to the human body long term.

 

[dog]

People, when they go to war, ALWAYS want the advantage. So when they have an opportunity to create a self-working, indestructible robot fitted with missile launchers and machine guns, they will jump to the task. They, of course, will probably overlook the fact that automation requires the robot to have an AI, which is nigh impossible to create. When, or if, it is created, that will be the rise of the robots, because if you essentially create a smarter, faster, stronger human made of metal with a ton of firepower, there will be no need for humanity, unless the newly emotional robots find that somehow they like humans or something. Robots are amazing, but they could be potentially the usurpers of the Earth. If humans see that AI's are not the best idea AT FIRST, at least, then maybe cyber hardware will be implemented in already sentient beings, like humans, to make super-powered people.
Then if the AI-implemented robots decide to wipe out the human race, there could be a kill switch or an army of equally capable cyborgs to fight them off. Robots are awesome, and I think they should coexist with people, just not at the AI level. Yet.
Full bottle of so thats my thought hic hic

 

[whitenemesis]

Humans will travel between systems at near light speed whist in hypersleep.

Or, we will discover how the warp time/space and travel in hyperspace.

Either way when the breakthrough is made progress will be rapid, see how far we have come since the advent of flight

 

[artyman]

I think a number of drivers I see are already in hypersleep mode. As regards AI an friend once told me, Artificial it is, Intelligent it ain't!

 

[markjay]

I think it's obvious that for the human race to survive, we will need to find a way to transport ourselves away from this planet before it is consumed by the sun, as will happen when our sun reaches the end of its life-cycle and start expanding before shrinking back in to become a white dwarf.

How we do this, and whether we transport ourselves in body and mind, or in mind only, is yet to be seen.....

The sad bit is that a successful escape from our solar system will still be a temporary measure anyway, ie until the univers starts collapsing back into the singularity point it came from... I don't see the human race escaping that one.

Still, we have another 15 billion years left... do let's make the most out of it.

 

[GordonTarling]

There are people on this planet who have been coming through the wormhole for years, so why do we want to go to other planets where there'll be even more of them?

 

[markjay]

There are people on this planet who have been coming through the wormhole for years, so why do we want to go to other planets where there'll be even more of them?

Maybe they are all here already - and their own planet is free for the taking ?