The aliens are coming!

Warning - don't read this if you have a fear of sci -fi horror stories/movies!

I don't understand much science, but I believe that planets capable of sustaining life that may be intelligent are too far away for aliens to travel here unless they have technology far in advance of ours. I think they would need a way to travel light years in a very short time without harming the crew, or be able to put them into suspended animation without any risks to their health.

And why would they come here? To visit a planet where there is always a war somewhere between groups of the supposedly most intelligent species on the planet?

If they were aggressive and territorial they might want to take over our planet, in which case we wouldn't have much chance - their superior technology would probably be able to stop bombs being dropped on them.

If they were just explorers and scientists looking to study the planet, they might see us as either like children or intelligent animals, although they would understand that we can be dangerous and would take steps to either stay hidden or circumvent our means to destroy them. They might think there are too many of us  and could put a process in place to stop so many children being born, to reduce our population and reduce the dangers to other species and the natural world that over population by humans causes. Maybe they'd put us in an enormous theme park and invite others of their species to visit and view us!

They might think purely logically, like Vulcans in Star Trek, and if so they might wish to change things. They could think it is illogical for some people to be mega wealthy while others starve, and might wish to govern our planet and redistribute the wealth and resources. 

They could have much longer life spans than we do, and they might just leave cloaked observational devices to send information to them about us, and wait for us to destroy ourselves before visiting.

We can't really guess whether aliens would want to visit and their reasons why, but I think that whatever their reasons were it would lead to some sort of takeover by them due to their advanced knowledge and technology. Whether that takeover would lead to a.positive or negative result for humans is of course impossible to guess.

Warning - don't read this if you have a fear of sci -fi horror stories/movies!

I don't understand much science, but I believe that planets capable of sustaining life that may be intelligent are too far away for aliens to travel here unless they have technology far in advance of ours. I think they would need a way to travel light years in a very short time without harming the crew, or be able to put them into suspended animation without any risks to their health.

And why would they come here? To visit a planet where there is always a war somewhere between groups of the supposedly most intelligent species on the planet?

If they were aggressive and territorial they might want to take over our planet, in which case we wouldn't have much chance - their superior technology would probably be able to stop bombs being dropped on them.

If they were just explorers and scientists looking to study the planet, they might see us as either like children or intelligent animals, although they would understand that we can be dangerous and would take steps to either stay hidden or circumvent our means to destroy them. They might think there are too many of us  and could put a process in place to stop so many children being born, to reduce our population and reduce the dangers to other species and the natural world that over population by humans causes. Maybe they'd put us in an enormous theme park and invite others of their species to visit and view us!

They might think purely logically, like Vulcans in Star Trek, and if so they might wish to change things. They could think it is illogical for some people to be mega wealthy while others starve, and might wish to govern our planet and redistribute the wealth and resources. 

They could have much longer life spans than we do, and they might just leave cloaked observational devices to send information to them about us, and wait for us to destroy ourselves before visiting.

We can't really guess whether aliens would want to visit and their reasons why, but I think that whatever their reasons were it would lead to some sort of takeover by them due to their advanced knowledge and technology. Whether that takeover would lead to a.positive or negative result for humans is of course impossible to guess.

What it they either don't recognise us as life or they don't see us as important.

Say they thought life could only exist in water, or underground, we might not be recognised.

Same as if they lived slowly, e.g a second to them is like an hour to us. A week to them would be like 70 years to us. We would be transient. There is no point engaging.

They might think of us like we do of bacteria. An irritation to be removed.

Lotus said:

I believe that planets capable of sustaining life that may be intelligent are too far away for aliens to travel here unless they have technology far in advance of ours.

There is a pretty narrow definition of "life" used in most human conversations about aliens.

In truth the specific conditions that allowed a carbon based life form to evolve (or if you are religious, spontaneously come into being in a 7 day IKEA self-assembly universe) are only one of may possible ways that life could exist.

We do not know if silicone based life forms can form but the chemistry is not so far from carbon. Metals exist in many forms liquid and solid so a metal based life form is also viable as is gaseous and energy based versions.

Even planets are complex enough to be considered life forms if you squint and look at it over your shoulder.

With the discovery of potential 2 additional dimensions to time then there is scope for transdimensional life forms.

The truth is we probably don't know how to spot life forms whose existance may be radically different to ours.

Series like Star Trek have done a good job at considering stories with these over the years - some with varying levels of cheese but all posing interesting questions nonetheless.

There is a film called The Darkest Hour about a possible unfolding invasion of energy based life forms and it makes quite a few valid points about how helpless we would be against them.

It is a scary Pandoras Box to open to start looking into this field and one that will probably bring nightmares.

If aliens were smart; they would take one brief look at our World, chalk it up to "nasty human infestation" and move on to the next more promising planet - without delay.