Recently I saw a documentary about possible alien contact with humans throughout the history of civilization ranging from indigenous South American peoples to Egyptians, to Mayans and others. The supposition was that the pyramids, buildings and technologies that these cultures used derived not from the human mind but from the minds of aliens visiting these early civilizations based on the idea that no human of that time could have conceived of such wondrous and revolutionary ideas. It was interesting to say the least and while I'm not a firm believer it did get me thinking about a few things.
First of all, who is to say that humans couldn't have come up with such wonders as the great pyramids, Stonehenge and the Mayan calendar on their own. Certainly Albert Einstein was a genius of the highest order but certainly he is not the smartest human being to live is he? Some would argue that Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century and Leonardo da Vinci of the 16th Century were just as smart, if not smarter than Einstein. It stands to reason that history is littered with individuals whose genius far surpassed those of their peers. Certainly there were such geniuses in the Roman Empire, Egyptian and Mayan civilizations. Why would it be unreasonable to think that a group of smart Egyptians, whose only job was to engineer a lasting monument to the great Pharoah Kufu, would be able to conceive the idea for the pyramids within a decade's time?
When comparing the intelligence levels of humans now versus 100,000 years ago it is certainly easy to make the claim that the overall potential of intelligent thought is much higher now that it was then. But 4,000 years ago? Certainly as a species we haven't yet evolved so far, or previous peoples were so far devolved, that the great wonders and structures of the past could only be built with the help of an advanced civilization from another planet or corner of the universe. Preposterous.
Does this mean I belive that aliens haven't visited Earth? Indeed it does. If they had visited for such long periods of time and made contact with so many people wouldn't we have 100% definitive proof that they had visited us? Certainly a civilization advanced enough to send spacecraft from past our solar system to visit us might be clever enough to escape our detection a few times, but thousands of times each time they abduct a hick from Kentucky and give him or her a probing? Not likely. Also, who is to say that such an advanced species and civilization would harmlessly observe us like we were an interesting animal species (which we are)? If their nature is anything like ours they cannot simply observe said creature but would find a way to exploit or kill it. Certainly if we were to make contact with an alien race it is likely they would not be entirely friendly to us and would likely posess greater powers than we would have. Does that sound like a wasp's nest we want to be poking at?
Naturally, you may be wondering if I believe that aliens exist. Well, I do. Here is my reasoning. Life on Earth sprang up almost as soon as it could have given the conditions of the early periods of the planet. As soon as temperatures were, well, temperate enough to support life, the first twitches of living matter began to burst forth into creation. If one were content to believe we are the only life in the universe it could be easy enough to explain away by saying God planned it that way. But then why would God also create bacteria on Mars? To jerk us around? Certainly the bacteria must have been created during a period when the atmosphere and conditions on Mars were more conducive to life. If this happened on a planet close to us certainly it might happen on other planets with conditions similar to ours.
What are the odds this would be the case? Glad you asked. This is all merely speculative of course because nobody can be sure what the state of planets is on a universal scale, especially considering we are only now discovering planets that are 500 light years from us and that the universe extends in all directions around us for more than 10 billion light years. But here it goes. There are estimated to be 100 billion galaxies each having approximately 100 billion stars. This multiplies out to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe. Let us now suppose that only 1 out of 100 have a planet orbiting with them. Out of those stars that have a planet orbiting around it, only 1 out of 1000 have a planet with a solid surface. Of those with a solid surface only 1 out of 1000 have the elements that we know necessary for life. Of those planets, only 1 out of 100 are the correct distance from its star to keep temperatures moderate. And of these planets with all the right conditions only 1 of 100 will develop life with only 1 of 100 of those evolving to intelligent life.
Doing the calculations that would leave 100 million planets in the universe which would give rise to intelligent life. This is being extremely conservative as it is likely the ratios are much lower and thus the number of planents fostering intelligent beings is likely much much higher, perhaps by a factor of 10,000. That would leave as many as 1 trillion planets in our universe with intelligent life developing on it. So it would seem the universe would be teeming with sentient beings. But seeing as how there are 100 billion galaxies, that would leave only 10 planets in each galaxy harboring intelligent life. So as we see, beings who know they are special are still few and far between. Yet another reason I believe we haven't been visited yet.
Let's not be so naive as to think that we are the only ones alive in the universe able to take a step back and examine our place in it. Let us also not be so quick to believe that we are smarter and better than those who came before us simply because when we look at a calendar it reads 2009. Human beings have always been special and are as special now as they ever have been, though maybe not as special as we think.
First of all, who is to say that humans couldn't have come up with such wonders as the great pyramids, Stonehenge and the Mayan calendar on their own. Certainly Albert Einstein was a genius of the highest order but certainly he is not the smartest human being to live is he? Some would argue that Sir Isaac Newton in the 17th century and Leonardo da Vinci of the 16th Century were just as smart, if not smarter than Einstein. It stands to reason that history is littered with individuals whose genius far surpassed those of their peers. Certainly there were such geniuses in the Roman Empire, Egyptian and Mayan civilizations. Why would it be unreasonable to think that a group of smart Egyptians, whose only job was to engineer a lasting monument to the great Pharoah Kufu, would be able to conceive the idea for the pyramids within a decade's time?
When comparing the intelligence levels of humans now versus 100,000 years ago it is certainly easy to make the claim that the overall potential of intelligent thought is much higher now that it was then. But 4,000 years ago? Certainly as a species we haven't yet evolved so far, or previous peoples were so far devolved, that the great wonders and structures of the past could only be built with the help of an advanced civilization from another planet or corner of the universe. Preposterous.
Does this mean I belive that aliens haven't visited Earth? Indeed it does. If they had visited for such long periods of time and made contact with so many people wouldn't we have 100% definitive proof that they had visited us? Certainly a civilization advanced enough to send spacecraft from past our solar system to visit us might be clever enough to escape our detection a few times, but thousands of times each time they abduct a hick from Kentucky and give him or her a probing? Not likely. Also, who is to say that such an advanced species and civilization would harmlessly observe us like we were an interesting animal species (which we are)? If their nature is anything like ours they cannot simply observe said creature but would find a way to exploit or kill it. Certainly if we were to make contact with an alien race it is likely they would not be entirely friendly to us and would likely posess greater powers than we would have. Does that sound like a wasp's nest we want to be poking at?
Naturally, you may be wondering if I believe that aliens exist. Well, I do. Here is my reasoning. Life on Earth sprang up almost as soon as it could have given the conditions of the early periods of the planet. As soon as temperatures were, well, temperate enough to support life, the first twitches of living matter began to burst forth into creation. If one were content to believe we are the only life in the universe it could be easy enough to explain away by saying God planned it that way. But then why would God also create bacteria on Mars? To jerk us around? Certainly the bacteria must have been created during a period when the atmosphere and conditions on Mars were more conducive to life. If this happened on a planet close to us certainly it might happen on other planets with conditions similar to ours.
What are the odds this would be the case? Glad you asked. This is all merely speculative of course because nobody can be sure what the state of planets is on a universal scale, especially considering we are only now discovering planets that are 500 light years from us and that the universe extends in all directions around us for more than 10 billion light years. But here it goes. There are estimated to be 100 billion galaxies each having approximately 100 billion stars. This multiplies out to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars in the universe. Let us now suppose that only 1 out of 100 have a planet orbiting with them. Out of those stars that have a planet orbiting around it, only 1 out of 1000 have a planet with a solid surface. Of those with a solid surface only 1 out of 1000 have the elements that we know necessary for life. Of those planets, only 1 out of 100 are the correct distance from its star to keep temperatures moderate. And of these planets with all the right conditions only 1 of 100 will develop life with only 1 of 100 of those evolving to intelligent life.
Doing the calculations that would leave 100 million planets in the universe which would give rise to intelligent life. This is being extremely conservative as it is likely the ratios are much lower and thus the number of planents fostering intelligent beings is likely much much higher, perhaps by a factor of 10,000. That would leave as many as 1 trillion planets in our universe with intelligent life developing on it. So it would seem the universe would be teeming with sentient beings. But seeing as how there are 100 billion galaxies, that would leave only 10 planets in each galaxy harboring intelligent life. So as we see, beings who know they are special are still few and far between. Yet another reason I believe we haven't been visited yet.
Let's not be so naive as to think that we are the only ones alive in the universe able to take a step back and examine our place in it. Let us also not be so quick to believe that we are smarter and better than those who came before us simply because when we look at a calendar it reads 2009. Human beings have always been special and are as special now as they ever have been, though maybe not as special as we think.
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