[codeboost]

But let's say what we really hope for is true. What if we somehow discover that a large number of these planets are teaming with life ? What then ? How would that help us ? Spiritually, economically ? Wouldn't that make us feel even less significant ?

I'm just wondering, why are we hoping there is life out there and what would we do if we find it ?

[Tepix]

Hopefully, we'd get a little attitude adjustment, question religion more and work together as a human race in the newfound awareness of our place in the universe. Perhaps also work towards actually surviving as a race for a while instead of selfishly exploiting every resource before others do.

[VLM]

It'll revolve around the Native American Experience, hopefully minus the conquest and genocide, more likely as a pattern than an anti-pattern.

In the long run, some high school sports teams controversially named after the aliens, some B-list movies, some academic interest, and that's about it?

[lupatus]

"... and what would we do if we find it ?"

Grill it.

Even if it can talk to us.

In all sincerity, that's what I honestly think will happen.

Humans are the apex predators of Earth. Give us starships and we would be the apex predators of the galaxy in short order.

For tens to hundreds of thousands of years, there have been no creatures on Earth about which some human didn't think, "I wonder what that tastes like?" For Pete's sake, our ancestors ate giant, super-fast cave bears to extinction using little more than sharp sticks. Eskimos hunt huge multi-ton whales in the open ocean in flimsy canoes with hooked spears.

Sure alien life will be examined in labs and some will go to zoos. But, eventually, Monsanto would sell you Venusian steaks with a side of Martian scrapple. And, the most telling thing is, I would buy some and eat it. My mouth is already watering.

[macspoofing]

>Humans are the apex predators of Earth.

Probably most advance life would have evolved from predators. If you look at earth, the most intelligent animals are either predators or some sort of scavenger-predator hybrid. Which makes sense, predators need intelligence, cunning, sometimes pack awareness, to bring down prey. They need to be at the top or near the top of the food chain to devote some time to pursuits other than not being eaten.

[marcosdumay]

Probably, nothing changes untill we start communicating with them, what may take a while. If we start feeling less significant, well, list that in the benefits... But I doubt it'll happen.

Rationaly, we should start looking hard for the explanation to Fermi's Paradox. Since it's not in our past, it must be in our future, what's very bad. But we are not rational, so we probably won't.

[codeboost]

So we meet the aliens, we communicate with them, we become friends, they share a bunch of technological discoveries with us.. Then what ? We travel some more ?

If we can travel parsecs to meet them, wouldn't we be supremely technologicall advanced ?

I mean, the human race is pretty technologically advanced today, too advanced actually and it's hurting us as much as it's helping.

Will we some day realise that it is of no use to pursue higher mountains or more distant stars, because at the end we're still stuck within ourselves ?

What if the supremely advanced aliens realised this a long time ago and renounced technology all together, because it ended up destroying them ?

I wonder..

[repnescasb]

Renouncing technology you say... Also Medicine? If not so, overpopulation would soon become a problem and if by then they still don't know how to colonize further into space they face a serious problem.

[phreeza]

Assuming this life is not techological civilizations that were hiding in plain sight, such a discovery would be bad news for us because it put us before the great filter.

cf http://www.technologyreview.com/article/409936/where-are-the...

[maglos]

I think it's more dangerous to seek alien life, spiritually and economically then it is to actually discover it.

[blacksmith_tb]

Well, SETI isn't free, but it doesn't seem too expensive compared to some of the things we invest resources in. As for the spiritual danger of the seeking, I can't say it seems too fraught - finding, on the other hand, would at least require some adjustments to a few creation myths...

[VLM]

"Spiritually, economically?"

Community norms would be an interesting dynamic. Some groups of humans like to conform more than others. What does equal rights for beings with different numbers of tentacles mean to us? Humans think its hilarious good time to fight and kill each other over multinational corporations "owning" teams of grown men playing childrens ball games, so if you think humans aren't going to kill each other over "equal rights for unequal tentacles" from some alien culture, you're a little over optimistic.

Looking at politics, many humans behave as quislings and support groups that basically exist to ruin the groups the quislings are members of. What happens when the same type of quisling susceptible personality meets space aliens is so weird I can't even think of a sci fi story about it.

Also assuming light speed communication is more realistic than light speed transportation, something along the lines of internet trolling behavior is unfortunately highly likely. If you thought your mom browsing 4chan would be uncomfortable, wait till the space alien sociologists start reading /b/ and related. Or even worse, watching televangelist TV shows. Or reality TV. If they discover us by watching honey boo boo and decide to photon torpedo the whole planet, can we really blame them?

Does venture capitalism work across light speed delays? It would probably screw up exponential growth if the bubble has already popped before the IPO news even reached the other side. Can you do a bitcoin like protocol as a concept with multi year light speed delays between 3+ civilizations? What if latency is so long that it increases the likelihood of factoring attacks?

I would be most interested in learning about space alien UI fads. Our own fads are somewhat slow paced compared to faster paced ladies clothes/shoes fashions.

[dionidium]

Humans think its hilarious good time to fight and kill each other over multinational corporations "owning" teams of grown men playing childrens ball games...

This is obviously tangential to your point, but it doesn't make you sound smarter or more evolved when you talk this way about sports. This sort of stuff is just tiring. As a software developer in one of the cities that sent a team to the World Series this year, I assure you I've heard every "sportsball" joke a dozen times and each time delivered as though the person saying it thinks they're the first person to realize some cultural blind-spot.

It doesn't advance your point, in other words.

[gliese1337]

In general, I agree, but I think it does serve a valid rhetorical point in this case- i.e., that is the way in which we are likely to view a lot of the weird, different, unexpected practices of an alien culture. And yet, there will be people who embrace those things in all seriousness.