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would intelligent alien life be like us?
Now there are multiple ways this could be interpretated there is the physical appearance which would generally be the bi pedal form. I think Aliens looking exactly like us eg indistinguishable from humans would be so freakishly unlikely one would have to entertain a myriad of different conspiracy ideas at that point. but two arms and two legs walking upright with eyes and a mouth is not as far fetched as it may at first seem.
to understand why we need to look at what evolution is. Now evolution is not necessarily the creation of life or the origin of life. Evolution is how live behaves once it is here. Though some people may claim rightly or wrongly that life originated from non life molecules replicating themselves until at some point they reach a point which could be classified as life but this would get bogged down in flawed semantics and go way off topic to the question here so wont go further with that.
Once live exists there are attributes that make it more likely to survive and pass on its genes then other attributes. with a large enough sample size even the slightest advantage will become dominant in the population at the expense of others. This may not always be as clear cut as people may think. things we may assume to be advantages may not necessary be so for the current environment. for example if we take longevity an individual living for a long period of time may appear to be an advantage but if that leads to longer generations and their competitors live shorter lives with quicker generations their competitors could vastly out number them, also their descendants could evolve over multiple generations faster. the same could apply for intelligence and muscle strength and wings. many things in theory give a big advantage but could be a disadvantage in actuality. as this costs resources to maintain and if not necessary is a disadvantage not an advantage.
but if something is particularly advantageous it could well be almost universal the eye and the ear have both evolved separately multiple times. So life on an alien planet may potentially closely resemble life here, if their is a natural probabilistic bias for this.
Of course the issue with that which many people may point out, is an alien world may be a very different environment to our own. and hence whilst we may see something been common on earth it could be non existent elsewhere. I would expect though sensory apparatus such as eyes and ears would be common throughout. Hands may be common too, so something like grays may actually be more likely then less.
What interests me more then physical form though is the behaviour. Would intelligent aliens be more war like or more peaceful then us? more benevolent/altruistic or would they be more selfish or hostile. Would they just be like us?
Now there are many mathematical models I could go into here namely based around game theory of course these would be suggesting hypothetical numbers which we cant actually know.
The most likely answer I would assume is some form of equilibrium they cant be too war like as otherwise theyd likely wipe themselves out before they got into space. but they cant be to peaceful otherwise they would be too open to conquest from within more aggressive members of their species. Richard Dawkins the selfish gene definitely inspires much of my thoughts here and I am currently re reading this book again.
to understand why we need to look at what evolution is. Now evolution is not necessarily the creation of life or the origin of life. Evolution is how live behaves once it is here. Though some people may claim rightly or wrongly that life originated from non life molecules replicating themselves until at some point they reach a point which could be classified as life but this would get bogged down in flawed semantics and go way off topic to the question here so wont go further with that.
Once live exists there are attributes that make it more likely to survive and pass on its genes then other attributes. with a large enough sample size even the slightest advantage will become dominant in the population at the expense of others. This may not always be as clear cut as people may think. things we may assume to be advantages may not necessary be so for the current environment. for example if we take longevity an individual living for a long period of time may appear to be an advantage but if that leads to longer generations and their competitors live shorter lives with quicker generations their competitors could vastly out number them, also their descendants could evolve over multiple generations faster. the same could apply for intelligence and muscle strength and wings. many things in theory give a big advantage but could be a disadvantage in actuality. as this costs resources to maintain and if not necessary is a disadvantage not an advantage.
but if something is particularly advantageous it could well be almost universal the eye and the ear have both evolved separately multiple times. So life on an alien planet may potentially closely resemble life here, if their is a natural probabilistic bias for this.
Of course the issue with that which many people may point out, is an alien world may be a very different environment to our own. and hence whilst we may see something been common on earth it could be non existent elsewhere. I would expect though sensory apparatus such as eyes and ears would be common throughout. Hands may be common too, so something like grays may actually be more likely then less.
What interests me more then physical form though is the behaviour. Would intelligent aliens be more war like or more peaceful then us? more benevolent/altruistic or would they be more selfish or hostile. Would they just be like us?
Now there are many mathematical models I could go into here namely based around game theory of course these would be suggesting hypothetical numbers which we cant actually know.
The most likely answer I would assume is some form of equilibrium they cant be too war like as otherwise theyd likely wipe themselves out before they got into space. but they cant be to peaceful otherwise they would be too open to conquest from within more aggressive members of their species. Richard Dawkins the selfish gene definitely inspires much of my thoughts here and I am currently re reading this book again.
Comments
You can rest assured of one thing. If alien life is like us it's not that intelligent. A bit like Richard Dawkins really.
Why do we always assume that any alien life would have to be intelligent.
A planet populated by Baldricks or Triggers would be amusing.
Earth is currently the only data point in the search for life. It is possible alien life could be vastly different from life as we know it, but for now, places similar to the home of humanity with liquid water on the surface offer a good starting point. We believe that keystone systems with multiple planets that are likely candidates for hosting life — like TOI-700 — offer the best use of observation time. By further studying TOI-700, our team will be able to learn more about what makes a planet habitable, how rocky planets similar to Earth form and evolve, and the mechanisms that shaped the solar system. The more astronomers know about how star systems like TOI-700 and our own solar system work, the better the chances of detecting life out in the cosmos.
There may well be intelligence out there which makes Richard Dawkins appear utterly stupid in comparison but for humans amongst our kind he is one of the smartest amongst us.
generally when I say intelligent alien life I mean civilization building capable of landing on another planet.
Baldrick is from black adder and I think trigger is from only fools and horses?
both characters are meant to be low intelligence compared to your average human being. a planet of mostly very low intelligences individuals could well be possible but this civilization is not advancing far without at least some smarter individuals.
I have two things I worry about with that though. firstly it could well be the case that this is so rare that we are the only case of it in existence. So if we blow it then everything ends and no meaning is left.
another thing that concerns me is if intelligent life does have many cases throughout the cosmos could it just be a statistical mathmaticial bias towards hostility so they all end up destroying their planet through pollution or nuclear war before any of it spreads?
it would be nice to think most of the universe is teeming with life that are all at peace and have formed a great council of universal life and we are just one of the few cases that gets ignored because we mess up, but I think that is sadly unrealistic and idealistic.