The answer to the question of whether we are the only intelligent beings in the Universe or not is reliably unknown to anyone, but most suspect that we are not. Moreover, not only because it is very likely that there is another advanced life form somewhere, but also because this is a very exciting topic for discussion, as it perfectly stimulates our imagination. However, imagining how such a life form might look and behave, we easily make a number of different assumptions, some of which look downright ridiculous.
The general idea of how extraterrestrial beings should look is largely determined by depictions of art and entertainment, which, in one way or another, were created for ease of use for narrative purposes at risk of believability. If we live in a multiverse, then virtually any kind of life can exist at a certain point.
But let's imagine that humanity is on the verge of first contact with a particular species and civilization that lives on a planet located close to ours. What can and what can we not assume about them? What should interest us in them? Let's explore, in a speculative spirit, a number of factors to think about, and how they relate to science fiction and real science.
10. Appearance?
It's not just that we pretend they look like humanoids (standing on two legs, two limbs protruding from the upper torso, there is a nose, mouth, ears and eyes on the head), but that they are completely leading themselves as earthlings. Even when we try to recreate them as different from the typical humanoid species that science fiction envisions them, we still associate their morphology with the fauna of the Earth: reptiles, crustaceans, or at worst insects, human-sized or slightly larger.
This actually makes sense. If we begin to build our ideas about extraterrestrial life from scratch, we make anthropological assumptions about their morphology. After all, we are the only intelligent species, which is why we imagine aliens as humanoid.
First, we believe that any intelligent species should have biochemistry similar to ours. Subsequently, the resulting life form had to reach a multicellular level in order to be able to develop the brain system. Moreover, the skeleton must develop in order to cope with gravity, and the body must grow to a minimum size so that the brain can develop to the level of cognition that we can enjoy.
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They must have at least a pair of limbs in order to move and another pair to use tools. They also need to have a "set of senses" in order to interact with the world around them, they need to have a large body and be strong enough to thrive in their ecosystem. After all, they have to think outside the box.
We base ourselves on the fact that their world is similar to ours and that evolution has made its biodiversity similar to ours. But they don't have to be the same size as us. We fully admit that intelligent aliens may or may not be the size of a small building or the size of a freight train. They do not have to have the same heads and limbs as ours, they do not even have to have skin similar to ours, it can be made from cellulose or some exotic compounds.
It would be even more interesting to contemplate extraterrestrial life forms that do not share our biochemistry at all. There have been suggestions that, for example, creatures based on silicon would have a crystalline structure, and they would live in places with high temperatures, although the biochemistry of silicon is not as flexible and not as inclined to life as the biochemistry of carbon.
9. Energy?
Regardless of their shape and appearance, aliens need a source of energy in order to live, we know this, at least based on the laws of physics of our Universe. But what kind of energy could it be? Evolution is a very powerful force, but there are hardly any creatures with built-in nuclei jumping around hydrogen atoms. However, this variable is highly dependent on multiple effects and biochemistry and cannot be left without discussion.
Given the presence of the elements that make up the compounds of which we are composed, it would not be an exaggeration to believe that there are aliens whose diet is similar in chemistry to ours. But what they eat determines their characteristics and traits, ranging from their anatomy and social life and pumping them with economics and attitudes towards other forms of life.
Do they view us as prey, as predators, as competitors, as intrusive earthly inhabitants of a tasty planet, as a waste of precious iron and other minerals in our blood, or as disgusting excrement? Or vice versa, is it their diet that makes them inherently disgusting and undesirable to us (say, if it's an ammonia-based diet)? Do they leave their planet in search of food, or is their planet full of food variety, and they leave because their altruistic hearts want to feed the suffering?
Another interesting, but no less significant and energy-related question is how powerful their infrastructure and technologies are. What are they doing to keep their eventual ships afloat or to keep the electricity going, can we apply that to our technology? Is it more effective than ours or not? All these are questions for which there are no answers yet.
8. What is their story?
Life began about 3.5 billion years ago, when our last universal ancestor lived. All the way to the present day has been accompanied by natural disasters, giant dinosaurs, early empires, religions, nations, fleets, colonizations, world wars and the cold war.
This is all we are responsible for, what we are proud of and what we are ashamed of, but, of course, our story is very interesting. What can they tell us? Is their evolution related to the same variety of life forms as ours? If so, is their planet facing, for example, events such as species extinction? And their civilization is breaking up into different peoples? If so, have they successfully managed all of this?
Again, the way they want to get closer to us will be determined by their history. A society not accustomed to violence can be benevolent by mistake, almost naive when first interacting with other intelligent societies. On the other hand, they can also be extremely wary, realizing that not all civilizations view the concept of harmony with such devotion.
On the other hand, a society that is used to conflict is likely to develop more sophisticated apparatus in diplomacy and military approaches. We can only guess to what extent and on what they will rely. Some believe that if we ever come into contact with a civilization that is superior to us, or at least similar to us, then, judging by the results of the most significant meetings between the two societies, it is likely that a higher civilization will dominate through a combination of tough power (coercion) and soft power (persuasion).
7. What are our expectations?
We hope that any contact with alien beings will have a mutually beneficial outcome - scientific collaboration, space exploration, resource sharing, and possibly shared art. Naturally, we also consider various negative consequences associated with their possible use of violence against us. But just because they may not use violence does not mean that they will not subdue us.
We ourselves often use plants and animals for our own self-preservation, and although some of us make efforts to improve our attitude towards animals, the fact remains: their living conditions depend on our will, regardless of whether they know about it or not.
Maybe a more advanced civilization will want to use us in some way, whether we know about it or not. Maybe they, like us, are constantly waiting for a connection with a higher race, so they are unprepared and afraid of being confused, just like us? Many scientists believe that being in constant expectation of contact with aliens is not what humanity should be doing. It is likely that the aliens are as wary of their first contact with us as we are with them.
6. How smart are they?
Unfortunately, our level of reasoning about the capabilities of other intelligent beings is limited by our own intelligence. If they are smarter than us, then we can imagine that they are more experienced in science and technology. Just like, for example, Neanderthals envisioned (if they knew how to imagine at all) more complex creatures who were the best hunters and tool makers, unable to imagine art, diplomacy, metaphysics or semantics.
What concepts, which we cannot even begin to comprehend, could a more developed intellect create, no matter how far our science and technology went? What level of understanding of life do they have?
Again, returning to the analogy with the Neanderthals, imagine that we come into contact with a race that is as intellectually advanced as the Neanderthals: they will understand meeting us in a completely different way from how we understand it. They are limited by their brains and will not understand our efforts to communicate with them, meanwhile, we will also be very upset and disappointed, since our interaction will be fruitless.
Now imagine that we come into contact with a race that is much smarter than us, so much smarter that we seem to them to be Neanderthals. Will they be frustrated by our inability to do or understand what they can do and understand? Or is there still a minimum level of intelligence, which we have already achieved, through which all forms of communication are possible.
The concept of coscism, developed by science fiction writer Howard Lovecraft, is in a certain way related to this issue, as it describes the inability of humanity to understand the higher powers that rule the universe, and suggests that the magnitude of these forces makes us insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
5. Developed artificial intelligence?
This is a fairly common question that occasionally pops up in science fiction, but it plays an equally significant role in fiction as well. We know, again not without the help of science fiction, that there is a risk of developing artificial intelligence that will not act in the best interests of humanity and that will threaten our existence. This may sound like an overly exaggerated prediction, but nevertheless, there is actually a real organization dedicated to the development of artificial intelligence known as the Singularity Institute.
Unfortunately, we have no control over what civilizations we did not have contact with will do, so there is a possibility that artificial intelligence is being developed somewhere, or it has already been developed. The likelihood of such a scenario developing is rather low and it is very unlikely that it could pose a threat to our existence.
4. Cognition and emotion?
Regardless of their intelligence, we cannot assume that aliens think the same way as we do. We cannot say that their memory works the same way as ours, or that they have the same concepts of themselves as we do, or that they communicate in the same way as we do, or that they view space and time. the way a person does it. It may surprise you how much our cognitive processes can vary from culture to culture.
For example, what is the Piraha people living in the Brazilian Amazon and the words of Carl Sagan: "the simplest thought has a complex logical foundation." When the Pirah people were asked to count the number of objects, it turned out that they have a very limited understanding of the count, because they use only three words - phrases for the amount equivalent to "about one", "more than one" and "many".
These are the same human beings, like you and me, who also physically evolved and lived in the same environment, but the colossal difference is obvious, which is probably present between us and the aliens. Counting is not the only difference.
Equally intriguing is the idea that they can feel and experience emotions differently than we do. Many of our emotions are supposedly byproducts of evolution, and the way we experience them has shaped our own unique evolutionary history. It is quite possible that no matter what extraterrestrial civilization we come into contact with, they will not understand our laughter, they will not feel anger, fear or panic. On the other hand, they may be experiencing emotions that we have not even begun to comprehend. This greatly complicates interplanetary diplomacy.
3. Knowledge of the Universe?
Is it possible that extraterrestrial civilizations are just one of the few things we don't know about in our universe? Presumably, some civilizations outside already know a lot, if not all ("theory of everything"), and they understand this to a much more complex degree than we do. Moreover, perhaps they have already managed to figure out the nature of dark matter and dark energy, they probably have created a grandiose cartographic base of the Universe, and they know where life is in it.
Some of these civilizations may even understand how to use the space-time topology to their advantage (a topic that has been exciting the minds of mankind for many decades). Their willingness to share their knowledge and technology with us will undoubtedly be of great benefit to us.
However, as mentioned, it is entirely possible that we are simply too intellectually limited to understand what another civilization is capable of. However, it is clear that humans do not stop in their development, and there is a possibility that we will have more intelligent species, or at least humans will become more intellectually developed after a few thousand years or even more.
2. Life expectancy?
Threats to life range from the local level (for example, the plague) to the universal (for example, the big bang), and no one is immune from them. Indeed, the grander the scale of the threat, the more potentially inevitable it can be. We can eradicate disease or prevent nuclear disaster, but we cannot defend against gamma-ray bursts or supernova explosions that wreak havoc.
This seems impracticable, however, even they look trivial compared to the possibility of extinction or the transition of the planet to a state unsuitable for life. This can happen in 97 trillion years, when the stars stop merging, or 1034 years later, when the protons start to rot, or in 10100 years, when there are only photons left, or it can happen on any day when we suddenly find ourselves in a "false vacuum "Condition.
In fact, any intelligent life form wants to prolong its existence indefinitely. What steps can other civilizations take to increase their lives?
Not so long ago, when the Big Squeeze scenario was considered the most likely end of the world, physicist Frank Tipler proposed a way out of the problem by creating an incredibly powerful computer that would absorb all the energy released by the Big Squeeze.
With this energy, he claims, the computer will be able to bring back to life everything that has ever existed. At the very last moment of objective time, the computer will be able to create an infinite amount of "subjective" time, in which it will be able to emulate all possible quantum states of the universe, including every form of life that has ever existed.
1. Where are they?
Within the framework of our narrow idea of which planets life can still exist, as well as with the help of green technologies, we have already managed to find several star systems with one or two planets that are similar to ours.
The bad news is that there is a fairly large gap between the ability to support elementary life forms and the ability to support the life of an advanced, intelligent civilization, and there is no reason to believe that one of the few inhabited planets actually hides intellectual life within itself.
The good news is that we have explored so little of the universe that the likelihood of life elsewhere is incredibly high.
However, here too problems arise, because physical limitations do not allow us to get to such remote places in any reasonable time. It is still impossible to travel at a speed faster than the speed of light, that is, we have not yet understood whether it is possible to interfere with "space-time" in any way.
Suppose that one day we distort space-time and be able to travel to distant corners of the universe, where do we need to keep our way? We have to look not only for planets located at a certain distance from their stars.
The size of a star, its light, its dark spots, as well as the planets orbiting it, the planet's atmospheres, the planet's rotation and tilt, the size and distance to other planets orbiting the same star, even the shape and activity of a galaxy are important factors to consider. …
Regardless, we are not going to fly out anytime soon in search of aliens. If we want to see them, it is only because, probably, they will come to us, and not vice versa. Nevertheless, extraterrestrial life is a rather fascinating topic, everyone really hopes that people will be able to adequately meet creatures from another planet and establish mutually beneficial relationships.
Balandina E. A.