The Pursuit of Alien Life

Don’t worry buddy, I’m comfortable with myself too. [Clip From the Movie Undead]

Alien Life: Are We Even Advanced Enough To Know Their Existence?

Lately I’ve been reading a lot about humanity discovering Exo-Planets, and we’re finding them ludicrously quickly. Yet a new article has reminded me of a simple, and glaring, loop hole in how we process information. Thanks to this article, and the study it details, I am reminded of the complexity of human perspective and experience.

Scientific study is still extremely flawed despite best efforts from some very intelligent people. While Ben covers the medical industry in his Ted Talk specifically, the factors that make these studies bad science are still just as prominent in searching for alien life. As is with a placebo, do we warp the outcome of our searching by having expectations of what we find?

Could categorizing life as sentient or simply organic be a mistake? For example: If we search for “Alien life” on a planet that cannot house human-like life, what exactly are we searching for? Any organism capable of living in the environment?

Or are we expecting some sort of sentient life to have formed out in the universe? The Fermi Paradox details how any sentient alien species that could produce technology could expand to entire galaxies within a small cosmic period of time. Given that idea, many believe that given how old the universe is there is bound to be some sort of alien life to discover.

The Fermi Paradox: Are We Really Alone?

What if we really are alone? What if the universe really hasn’t been hospitable enough for more than our own species to thrive? While the numbers are not in favor of this, it doesn’t eliminate the possibility. The next hard hitting question: Could searching for alien life be taking too much focus away from making humanity the first to reach the stars?

I don’t particularly feel one way or another towards this question since there are a lot of factors that drive a species towards the stars. One thing we can definitely count on is if other species have existed before us, they likely dealt with very similar problems and may have simply been unable to surpass them.

Many forms of entertainment wax about the possibility of aliens and the place they’ll take in the history books of humanity. Not many cover the idea of humanity being the only ones to make it to the great black sea of the universe. Why is that?

While I understand the concept of being alone in the universe can be incredibly daunting, it hardly takes away from the importance of the existence of humanity. I would argue that if we are alone, it’s vastly more important and meaningful for us to continue to exist among the stars.

Could we extend our pursuit of alien life to discovering the species that didn’t make it past a certain point? Could the future of alien study be more focused on civilizations lost to time?

Departure by Artur Sadlos

Could Aliens Already Be Here?

While we look towards the stars with our pre-conceived expectations of what we’ll find, could we be completely missing the “gorilla banging it’s chest” in plain sight? Could they be among us and we simply don’t know? They totally could be.

In my experience the human population at large has a difficult time differentiating between culture and natural tendencies. It’s a massive problem not just with studies. It’s a massive problem in whether humanity will be able to tackle this last great filter. I would wager if a sentient species existed enough to monitor us, they could do so without us ever knowing.

If they can do it without us ever knowing, they may simply be watching us, expecting us to be another civilization to be another to fail to reach the stars. We would likely do the same if we could identify the factors that determined whether a species would truly make it past it’s own infancy. I’d wager if a species that can populate the galaxy, they can somewhat understand the factors that push a sentient species towards new horizons.

They likely dealt with the same issues we do. A vast majority of the population is carried on the minds of the few who do look towards these concepts. Cultural and political gains often get in the way of the species advancing. The age of technology warping people’s perceptions of reality and information. And goodness knows how many more they may have tackled before reaching the stars.

Humans Have A Long Way To Go

As I conclude thinking on this issue I often find myself wondering: Could we just be being ignorant like we have been for so long?

I don’t mean ignorant in a derogatory sense either. Do we simply not have enough information to tackle this problem for us? And if we don’t, are we really any worse off in life without it? Perspective is a beast, and depending on how you look at the world life could be the most unimportant thing to the universe. Or it could be the single most important thing to happen to the universe.

Either way, we may never know the true answer. Either way, the universe will continue to exist. With or without us. It’s up to us to make humanity an important factor to existence. Are we really happy as a species staying on a mote of dust suspended in a sun beam? Is this mote the only place we wish to explore? Are aliens the thing that makes going to space worth it? I’d wager many people can answer a hearty NO to all of these questions.