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if you want to see what it would be like if we found proof aliens existed, I think all you need to do is see what happened when the New World was discovered - an equally world-changing event.

I believe the answer was "just another thing for us to war with each other over", pretty much.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

Voss wrote:

Aside from that, I think it would come down to can we interact with them or are they 500 light years away and we just know of them. If we interact with them, who knows. Maybe new technologies and common purpose change society and economies. If we just know of them, they there would probably be very little effect on society.

Bah. I expect riots in the streets (especially outside religious institutions) and murder/suicide rates to spike severely. And that's on 'just know of them.' Actual contact will spark full scale wars. If we're very lucky they'll be directed outwards, regardless of our inability to get there.

I think you vastly overestimate the human capacity to overreact about things that do not impact their lives directly, right now. When it comes to larger philosophical questions or long-term possibilities humans trend heavily towards apathetic in their actions. To use modern democracy as an example* many people will not spend a single day of their lives every few years to go vote even though that is tremendously important to their future. Because it does not have an immediate impact in their lives, right now.

*I am not trying to get into politics here, at all. The example just illustrates the point effectively and in a way everyone can understand.

I don't think that's particularly relevant. In modern democracies, voting is a normal thing that's part of their world view, whether they vote or not. Part of the reason its ignorable is its mundane and familiar, even though it is actually important.

Actual proof of aliens would take a hammer to the world views of a lot of people, creating a panic about how they fundamentally understand (or fail to understand) the world around them. That tends to be explosive. It is much more akin to discovering the 'new world' or the science of evolution (remember all those fun so-called 'ape trials'?) I think underestimating the human capacity for hysteria is dangerous. Anything they don't panic about is a free bonus, not the norm.

 Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:
Aren't we forgetting our science here? It's my limited understanding that because light travels at a certain speed, any info we got on this new planet or whatever, would already be out of date, because it would take hundreds of years to get to us or something. In that time, the Aliens might have become extinct due to war or a natural disaster or something.

I might be wrong. O Level Science was as far as I got.

Assuming we’re currently correct about physics. I mean, I’m not for a second saying we’re wrong. I am an intelligent man, but no physicist so I wouldn’t dare.

But, we could be. Outside chance as it may be, it however remains.

The other trouble is that if we’re intergalactic penpals as someone suggested? I’m not at all sure I’d want to be friends with us. One needs only look at the inherent insanity of our species to get why. We kill each other regularly over what are ultimately trivial reasons. Would you want to risk inflicting us on your civilisation? I certainly wouldn’t.

Again, why assume other civilizations are any better? We may contact another civilization and be "yeah we war over stupid reasons sometimes" and they could respond "we do that too, peope eh?"

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Again, why assume other civilizations are any better? We may contact another civilization and be "yeah we war over stupid reasons sometimes" and they could respond "we do that too, peope eh?"

There's an argument both ways. Some people think that having our level of dysfunctional violence and stupidity is too much of an obstacle to create the technological advances required for interstellar communication before a civilization destroys itself. On the other hand, there's an argument that the existence of another intelligent species is an existential threat, and therefore the only acceptable response is to immediately destroy it. In that case our first contact with another species may be in the form of relativistic kinetic attacks obliterating everything in the solar system without warning. Perhaps it may be some consolation to the few survivors (crew on spacecraft, presumably) that they can die knowing that we were not alone in the universe.

It’s hard to imagine whether aliens would want to have any contact with us, unless we imagine the aliens to be like us in at least a few fundamental ways. But I do find it rather tedious, this refrain that there is nothing any other intelligent life could find worthwhile about us. Do people who say this feel they are really being objective? Maybe aliens who are nothing at all like us, in any sense, would want nothing to do with us but I doubt that could be down to them finding us inferior, as the anti-human humans seem to fantasize about, as opposed to there simply being no shred of commonality that would make contact meaningful in the first place.

At the very least, they'd probably want to see our animation artwork. I know I'd want to see theirs.

Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Thats around 37,840,000,000,000km. If we were traveling at 500kph, it would still take us over 86 million years to get there.

Why would we be travelling at 500kph? That isn't even close to Earth's escape velocity.

Apollo 10 reached ~40,000kph, for example. Our probes to the outer regions of the solar system, such as Juno, reached over 200,000km/h.

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Jimi Hendrix is easily explained by the existence of his parents, James and Lucille, and their parents and so on.

Since you don't provide any context, your statement just sounds terrible.

I guess the question would be the purpose for mutual contact.

If it is scientists simply searching for life, even if we found it the signals we’d be getting would be incredibly old. So a reply would similarly take lifetimes to get there. Not a concern for immediate generations.

If aliens land on Earth and ask to be taken to our leaders, that would be frightening initially but assuming bombs don’t start dropping from the sky it would seem the aliens share our curiosity about the universe, so there would be something in common. Best case scenario we gain early access to technology that could allow humans to solve our current state of all eggs in one basket, and we could spread to other habitable planets.

Worst case scenario is Independence Day, except we clearly don’t win. We just get exterminated. I think that’s unlikely, as why would aliens travel such incredible distances to then expend resources wiping out civilizations when they could just go to a different planet?

So I expect it would be business as usual. We’d socially adapt to new technologies. Having been born in 1981, I’ve been able to witness both sides of a technological advancement... common smart phones. It’s funny because in our time, it seems so banal. But people 10 years younger than I wonder how we got by without them, the same way I wonder how my great grandparents got by without electricity. We’d have similar experiences with “how did people get by without FTL or Anti-grav or clean free energy”?

The other trouble is that if we’re intergalactic penpals as someone suggested? I’m not at all sure I’d want to be friends with us. One needs only look at the inherent insanity of our species to get why. We kill each other regularly over what are ultimately trivial reasons. Would you want to risk inflicting us on your civilisation? I certainly wouldn’t.

You have to browbeat most humans for them to feel bad about this, I see no reason aliens would mind if we kill each other.
I think that, by necessity, they are more likely to take a holistic view of the success of our species rather than worry about the vicissitudes of individual human lives.

I think definitive proof would galvanise humanity into going to space; both from rivalry as we would need to show these alien bozos who the best species was, and from enterprise as the lure of profits from new markets and goods is much more enticing that the barren rocks that we know of right now.

 Manchu wrote:
It’s hard to imagine whether aliens would want to have any contact with us, unless we imagine the aliens to be like us in at least a few fundamental ways. But I do find it rather tedious, this refrain that there is nothing any other intelligent life could find worthwhile about us.

Studying alternate biologies alone would be worth the trouble of alien contact. There's almost no reason to fight over resources and space is so big that if you can get to another solar system you've become impossible to eradicate as a species. There's always room to run and resources to exploit, even in intergalactic space. The only reason to wipe out an alien species is if their planet is suitable to live on for your species, but with all the resources of space you can build your own planets/colony cylinders/dyson swarms for habitation.

Only a near Kardeschev Type 3 civilization (close to exploiting the ENTIRE galaxy's energy/resources) would have any concerns about other races using the matter and energy just laying around the solar system. We'd have seen evidence of any such civilization long ago and we're looking for aliens in the range of K2 (entire solar system) and we haven't found any yet. So encountering any sub-K2 civilization, there's almost no competition for resources and way more to be gained from peaceful contact and/or simple conquest than relativity bombing Earth back into a ball of lava.

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Always wondered this:

What if we found absolute proof that aliens existed in the universe? Absolute total proof that there was at least one other technologically advanced species in existence. What would the effect on society be?

What would be the effect? All men would leave Earth to the alien´s home planet. Take a look at this documentary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJP8wVoTufg

 Kroem wrote:

The other trouble is that if we’re intergalactic penpals as someone suggested? I’m not at all sure I’d want to be friends with us. One needs only look at the inherent insanity of our species to get why. We kill each other regularly over what are ultimately trivial reasons. Would you want to risk inflicting us on your civilisation? I certainly wouldn’t.

You have to browbeat most humans for them to feel bad about this, I see no reason aliens would mind if we kill each other.
I think that, by necessity, they are more likely to take a holistic view of the success of our species rather than worry about the vicissitudes of individual human lives.

I think definitive proof would galvanise humanity into going to space; both from rivalry as we would need to show these alien bozos who the best species was, and from enterprise as the lure of profits from new markets and goods is much more enticing that the barren rocks that we know of right now.

If anything that seems to pretty accurate.

Also there is no saying but if we take our species as a potential template for indivual based species that is inteligent then i rekon other species may very well be either worse or better.

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

Best instrumentalist possibly ever actually if you want to speak on the subject on a intellectual level and actually having herd the good gak. It is not explainable the timing of his notes his highs and lows down the sound scale are completely unherd of, no other instrumentalists has ever even thought to do or even considered for a moment because its on another level, which has to be either a alien, or who ever created the universe is certainly channeling him. If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments, but i know when i see amazing gak no one else has ever done or can do. In-fact jimi hendrix is unspeakable, you either are aware hes amazing beyond believe as a musician, or you are highly ignorant on this specific subject, this is my opinion hope you are not offended at all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0CwSsV_Iw - Listen to whole concert which takes patience, then please come back and let me know why and how your statement is true. I feel you clicked some top viewed you tube vids, and some album songs and made your opinion up. All the magic is in the live performances, not studio album stuff. And this is only 1 out of several concerts where he is on top, this is probably like 5th on the scale of best but is still this is technically better instrumenting then any other instrumentalist iever instrumentilized

 Stormatious wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

Best instrumentalist possibly ever actually if you want to speak on the subject on a intellectual level and actually having herd the good gak. It is not explainable the timing of his notes his highs and lows down the sound scale are completely unherd of, no other instrumentalists has ever even thought to do or even considered for a moment because its on another level, which has to be either a alien, or who ever created the universe is certainly channeling him. If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments, but i know when i see amazing gak no one else has ever done or can do. In-fact jimi hendrix is unspeakable, you either are aware hes amazing beyond believe as a musician, or you are highly ignorant on this specific subject, this is my opinion hope you are not offended at all.

So you haven't heard of Robert Johnson, then. The guitarist who was so good that the whole "sell your soul to the devil to play guitar" legend began with him. Hendrix is not a one of a kind.

 A Town Called Malus wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

Best instrumentalist possibly ever actually if you want to speak on the subject on a intellectual level and actually having herd the good gak. It is not explainable the timing of his notes his highs and lows down the sound scale are completely unherd of, no other instrumentalists has ever even thought to do or even considered for a moment because its on another level, which has to be either a alien, or who ever created the universe is certainly channeling him. If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments, but i know when i see amazing gak no one else has ever done or can do. In-fact jimi hendrix is unspeakable, you either are aware hes amazing beyond believe as a musician, or you are highly ignorant on this specific subject, this is my opinion hope you are not offended at all.

So you haven't heard of Robert Johnson then. The guitarist who was so good that the whole "sell your soul to the devil to play guitar" legend began with him. Hendrix is not a one of a kind.

Oh come on i can give you so many examples of the magic but it would take all this thread up. I love so many guitarists and musicians you wouldn't believe it.


Hendrix can take you to jupitar, he goes all out for you taking you high past pluto. No other instrumentists has achieved this.

Edit - Forget it. All im saying if any humans are aliens, its Hendrix, do some research and listen to the good stuff like live at fillmore east, live at randalls island live hendrix live in atlanta hendrix live at new port, hendrix live at rainbow bridge.]


Hendrix never gave his soul to the devil, the oposite.

Well here's another thread lock for you to chalk up.

 Stormatious wrote:
If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments

This is one of the weirdest thread derailments I’ve seen in a while.

Im not trying to derail any thing, so i withdraw completely from this thread and sorry if i offended any one.

 Stormatious wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

Best instrumentalist possibly ever actually if you want to speak on the subject on a intellectual level and actually having herd the good gak. It is not explainable the timing of his notes his highs and lows down the sound scale are completely unherd of, no other instrumentalists has ever even thought to do or even considered for a moment because its on another level, which has to be either a alien, or who ever created the universe is certainly channeling him. If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments, but i know when i see amazing gak no one else has ever done or can do. In-fact jimi hendrix is unspeakable, you either are aware hes amazing beyond believe as a musician, or you are highly ignorant on this specific subject, this is my opinion hope you are not offended at all.

You don't play any instrument but we're supposed to take you seriously about this? Seems logical. There are so many things you simply can't understand if you don't play any instrument, let alone the one directly under discussion. Putting aside the obvious subjectiveness of this whole line of thinking, Hendrix was brilliant, no doubt about it, but he benefitted from being around at the dawn of the mass media age and from his flamboyant personality as much as his proficiency. There have been other guitarists since him who are at least as accomplished, and many before him too. As an instrumentalist Prince was almost certainly more accomplished, for example. Not that it matters too much since whatever else he was he sure as hell wasn't an alien.

 Stormatious wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0CwSsV_Iw - Listen to whole concert which takes patience, then please come back and let me know why and how your statement is true. I feel you clicked some top viewed you tube vids, and some album songs and made your opinion up. All the magic is in the live performances, not studio album stuff. And this is only 1 out of several concerts where he is on top, this is probably like 5th on the scale of best but is still this is technically better instrumenting then any other instrumentalist iever instrumentilized

You seem to be looking for objective proof of subjective statements, which is weird and futile.

 Stormatious wrote:

 Dreadwinter wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
Imo there is proof that there are aliens among us already, just unaware of it. Other wise how do you possibly explain jimi hendrix?

Edit - Im not trolling at all.

Why do we need aliens to explain a mediocre guitarist?

Best instrumentalist possibly ever actually if you want to speak on the subject on a intellectual level and actually having herd the good gak. It is not explainable the timing of his notes his highs and lows down the sound scale are completely unherd of, no other instrumentalists has ever even thought to do or even considered for a moment because its on another level, which has to be either a alien, or who ever created the universe is certainly channeling him. If you really believe your statement to be true then i would kindly say you know nothing about playing an instrument and creating sounds from it. I don't know how to play any instruments, but i know when i see amazing gak no one else has ever done or can do. In-fact jimi hendrix is unspeakable, you either are aware hes amazing beyond believe as a musician, or you are highly ignorant on this specific subject, this is my opinion hope you are not offended at all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0CwSsV_Iw - Listen to whole concert which takes patience, then please come back and let me know why and how your statement is true. I feel you clicked some top viewed you tube vids, and some album songs and made your opinion up. All the magic is in the live performances, not studio album stuff. And this is only 1 out of several concerts where he is on top, this is probably like 5th on the scale of best but is still this is technically better instrumenting then any other instrumentalist iever instrumentilized

Stevie Ray Vaughan is not an Alien.
Prince was not an Alien.
David Gilmore is not an Alien.
Jeff Beck is not an Alien.
Eric Clapton is not an Alien.

All guitarists who could easily reproduce what Hendrix did and honestly, those are just the super popular big names I was thinking of. Lots of studio guitarists or actual instrumentalists could do it. Nothing he did was overly special, it was just special for his time. It wowed people and for some reason it has stuck. At best he was a good guitarist. But the man could not write a coherent song to save his life and his singing was just, somebody should have kept him on the guitar and off the mic is all I am going to say.

Jimi Hendrix is not an alien. DEBUNKED

I seem to recall a documentary series called Men In Black that described a large number of celebrities as aliens, and I’m pretty sure Prince was on that list.

Ugh i cant believe this. No offense, but you dont know what your talking about on this specific subject. Not one instrumentalist has ever re created what hendrix has done, mainly this is because hendrix never plays the same way and is always improvising because he hes musical notes that these other musicians can never pull off. I have seen many of your so called "i can play hendrix" videos, etc etc etc, i have seen many professional guitarists try to replicate hendrix, no one can even come close.


Please show me eric clapton or some one copying hendrix's basic licks or some thing and call that "Lots can play hendrix"

No one can, even the number 1 hendrix impersonator can not pull off even close to any thing magical that hendrix was capabale off

Now i want to withdraw because i am aware now that im dealing with very limited musical knowledge.

No offense

I’m fascinated by this.

It’s either the best trolling I’ve seen in a while or this guy, who himself admits cannot play any instruments, really does believe that Hendrix is not a human being and anyone with actual musical knowledge who argues with him is rebuked as being ignorant.

I’d usually alert a mod by now but I really want to see more...

I cant have valid opinion on what makes a person a great instrumentalist bordering on alien life form because i my self dont play any instruments. This is factually incorrect do you realize?


Playing guitar or an instrument is not just about being able to read music and repeat the same stuff over and over the exact same way. Its about the feeling and energies that hendrix delivers, no one ever thought to play notes as high as this man in the same way in the same unexpected fashion. Hendrix can play a high note that will send you to mars and back man im not joking, i would love to end this discussion because im causing controversy, so please dont reply if thats ok/

 Stormatious wrote:
I cant have valid opinion on what makes a person a great instrumentalist bordering on alien life form because i my self dont play any instruments. This is factually incorrect do you realize?

No, you can have an opinion, but that's all you're entitled to.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Stormatious wrote:
I cant have valid opinion on what makes a person a great instrumentalist bordering on alien life form because i my self dont play any instruments. This is factually incorrect do you realize?

No, you can have an opinion, but that's all you're entitled to.

No what i mean is, i cant have a valid opinion, as in, its impossible for me to be aware of a great instrumentalist because according to the experts here you have to have experience playing an instrument to be able to judge what you are hearing and seeing in a VALID fashion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Any way based on 10 years of extensive research, i can tell you hendrix is no doubt the best musician ever created. Now i officially leave this thread with that statement so you know where i stand.

Good night. Going to bed.