Do you believe in aliens?

Originally posted by Bentley
Well, then you could argue that their decision making is poorer because it's impulsive. Then we'd be assuming they are intelligent enough not to be the most intelligent they can be. Which is sort of where we are since we lie to ourselves terribly.

It does tell us that reasonable decision making departs from instict.

Yes, that is because the idea of mass suicide as the end of a race's lifetime came to me from discussing with a poster who was a big promoter of humans becoming essentially AI. By becoming AI they are already commiting mass suicide, so I don't think the AI would have much of a motivation to continue its existence indefinitively. Up to a point, machine intelligence and organic beings are very different things.

However, suicide is something that happen very often with humans compared with less intelligent animals because we are conscious of our actions. It's a part of the life equation despite the many efforts our society makes to hide it as a shameful thing. The more open and intelligent we become, the better option suicide seems to be. At some point we will allow people to kill themselves freely.

Just by looking at us right now I can tell death plays a big part in our desire for eternity, so if we continue to play god with technology it's very likely to be one of our ends. Then again, we could stray from that path given the right conditioning, but as we stand I remain sceptic.

Yeah, it sure does sometimes. Doesn't mean it's unreasonable to be happy.

Well, I believe that a sufficiently advanced AI could feel identical or very similar emotions and motivations to biological intelligences. So there's probably not a whole lot of difference there. The vast majority of people commit suicide due to psychological disturbances, not because they came to the conclusion that it's the best option through some sort of a philosophy. In fact, I think it's very telling that we can contemplate the meaninglessness of life without not only not immediately deciding to kill ourselves, but actually remaining happy.

What can I say: most of us are just not very comfortable with death.

In all fairness and as I said before, contemplating individual extinction to the erasement of an entire race certainly works at very different levels.

I think that most human happiness implies having reasonable expectations regarding our own finality, which is why I said that trying to expand ourselves to eternity is likely to be troublesome in our current mindset.

We don't actually need many things to achieve happiness, so as a society, a huge intelligence leap since unnecessary to reach such a goal. Which meets my idea of more intelligent not being "better", smarts being a limited procedure for task based stimuli.

Originally posted by Bentley
In all fairness and as I said before, contemplating individual extinction to the erasement of an entire race certainly works at very different levels.

I think that most human happiness implies having reasonable expectations regarding our own finality, which is why I said that trying to expand ourselves to eternity is likely to be troublesome in our current mindset.

We don't actually need many things to achieve happiness, so as a society, a huge intelligence leap since unnecessary to reach such a goal. Which meets my idea of more intelligent not being "better", smarts being a limited procedure for task based stimuli.

It could very well be troublesome, but as we become more advanced I believe we'll be able to take our evolution and biology into our own hands. I think that should eliminate at least some of the troubles.

True, but becoming more intelligent can definitely help us overcome involuntary suffering. At least a good deal of it.

By the way, this is a pretty nifty short film that you may find interesting: http://putlocker.is/watch-world-of-tomorrow-online-free-putlocker.html

There could be a time in which individuals that want to live are considered mentally ill.

I agree that we could still be a bit more intelligent and potentially happy, so far it has worked out.

I'll check the film after work, thanks!

I'm not saying I believe this, but some ufologists have argued that our own technology is evidence of contact with aliens. They argue that after the Roswell crash(which was in 1947) we experienced an unprecedented technological boom and a little over 2 decades later had a man on the moon.

I guess the implication being something crashed at Roswell and we reverse engineered some of the wreckage we found.

I admit I have always found Roswell odd. Merely because it was the military that first told us they had a UFO, but then they went back and said it was just a weather balloon. Prior to this incident the government was actual somewhat open with people about these kinds of things. But then Roswell is when they adopted the policy to just deny.

EDIT: If you want to read some really wacky stuff then read the "Blue Planet Project". It was a book with an anonymous author who apparently worked for the US government and it's basically all about aliens and how we deal with them and interact what them and what their goals are. It apparently lists over 100 different species that we know of. It also talks about how cover ups operated, etc. Here is a PDF link:

http://www.whale.to/b/BluePlanetProject.pdf

Oh and yep, there is stuff about psionic powers in there lol. It's amusing, though if the stuff in that book was actually true it's pretty horrifying.

So yep some of the aliens feed on human blood in order to survive. But no, not vampire style. Apparently they soak in some kind of bath with human blood and other fluids and absorb the nutrients.

Originally posted by Surtur
So yep some of the aliens feed on human blood in order to survive. But no, not vampire style. Apparently they soak in some kind of bath with human blood and other fluids and absorb the nutrients.

I was watching an episode of "Unsealed alien files" and there was this woman on there who is apparently a medium and she is in contact with a race known as "Arcturians" that are like our ancestors or something. They quite literally do an interview with her when she is "possessed" by one of these things.

Originally posted by Bentley
There could be a time in which individuals that want to live are considered mentally ill.

I agree that we could still be a bit more intelligent and potentially happy, so far it has worked out.

I'll check the film after work, thanks!

I don't think that intelligence necessarily has to lead to unhappiness.

Originally posted by Surtur
I was watching an episode of "Unsealed alien files" and there was this woman on there who is apparently a medium and she is in contact with a race known as "Arcturians" that are like our ancestors or something. They quite literally do an interview with her when she is "possessed" by one of these things.

The tv series is on Netflix if you have it.

I'm watching an episode of Ancient Aliens right now about nazi's that apparently found a downed UFO and used it to create time travel technology.

So we apparently have at least 7 weapons meant to fight aliens, only 2 of which are known. The "Joshua" weapon which is a low frequency pulse sound generating weapon and something called "Excalibur" which is a missile meant for destroying underground alien bases. It can drill through 1,000 meters of hard soil apparently.

It's good to know we are all in such good hands.

That sounds like a doozy. Too bad I don't have Netflix.

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
Now that would be a scary time indeed. Though I think that such an advanced civilization would respect a person's right to live or die.

I suppose, though it'd be irresponsible if admittedly "crazy" people are left behind with high tech devices to do what they want. But in this scenario we are really speculation about a whole lot of sociopolitics.

If a race had the option of staying alive pretty much indefinitively I think several anti-life measures would be taken to keep the material world more or less stable. It might be sterilization, it might be murder by lotery or people get to choose when they die, in which case, that society wants several people do desire death.

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
I don't think that intelligence necessarily has to lead to unhappiness.

Neither do I, but I think happiness assumes you're at peace with death, if Superior intelligences help entities to get happier, it probably includes among its elements a better acceptance of death.

Originally posted by Surtur
When I say aliens I do not mean any kind of alien life, but beings with intelligence rivaling/surpassing our own.

If you do believe, why? Is it because you just think it is highly probable intelligent life isn't unique to one planet? Is it because of certain sightings and encounters of UFO's you have heard about? Or even perhaps a personal experience with a sighting?

If you don't believe they exist, why? Is it just a lack of solid evidence? Or there are some people who believe the specific properties you need for intelligent life to come about will not ever occur anywhere else in the universe.

I believe in aliens more then I used too after being on KMC. There are some strange looking people here.

Originally posted by Bentley
I suppose, though it'd be irresponsible if admittedly "crazy" people are left behind with high tech devices to do what they want. But in this scenario we are really speculation about a whole lot of sociopolitics.

If a race had the option of staying alive pretty much indefinitively I think several anti-life measures would be taken to keep the material world more or less stable. It might be sterilization, it might be murder by lotery or people get to choose when they die, in which case, that society wants several people do desire death.

Neither do I, but I think happiness assumes you're at peace with death, if Superior intelligences help entities to get happier, it probably includes among its elements a better acceptance of death.

Indeed, but I speculate that such a race would naturally have extremely low birth rates making anti-overpopulation measure mostly unnecessary(especially if the race in question was colonizing other planets).

I completely agree that being at peace with death has a very positive effect on one's happiness.

Originally posted by ArtificialGlory
Indeed, but I speculate that such a race would naturally have extremely low birth rates making anti-overpopulation measure mostly unnecessary(especially if the race in question was colonizing other planets).

Admitting low birth rates does present us with an analog situation of that of educated couples nowadays that are uninterested in having kids. I think the more control we have over the environment, the more we have to rationalize life itself and thus, death. Anyways, that just based in our historical decisions.

Originally posted by Bentley
Admitting low birth rates does present us with an analog situation of that of educated couples nowadays that are uninterested in having kids. I think the more control we have over the environment, the more we have to rationalize life itself and thus, death. Anyways, that just based in our historical decisions.

I think it only makes sense, it might sound conflicting to our current biological paradigma, but times and civilizations change I bet it engineering will come naturally when it happens.

I also don't think it's such a "slippery slope" doomed future as other people make it to be.