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What do we do if SETI is successful?

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174 points leephillips | 6 comments | 20 Oct 25 17:13 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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theletterf ◴[21 Oct 25 20:50 UTC] No.45661520[source]▶
For a somber, deeply intellectual view of what could happen, I can't recommend enough Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_%28novel%...

"Given that our civilization is unable to assimilate well even those concepts that originate in human heads when they appear outside its main current, although the creators of those concepts are, after all, children of the same age—how could we have assumed that we would be capable of understanding a civilization totally unlike ours, if it addressed us across the cosmic gulf?"

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themafia ◴[21 Oct 25 22:34 UTC] No.45662589[source]▶
Me and my dog cannot talk.

I understand my dog and he understands me.

If they experience death then we have massive common ground already.

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Kiboneu ◴[21 Oct 25 22:46 UTC] No.45662695[source]▶
Humans and dogs have evolved together to be cooperative…

would you feel common ground with a predatory fish? Or a plant? An insect colony?

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godelski ◴[22 Oct 25 04:27 UTC] No.45664879[source]▶

  > would you feel common ground with a predatory fish? Or a plant? An insect colony?
Yes.

Humans famously show compassion for all of these. I don't think alligators co-evolved with Steve Irwin.

Humans even show compassion for rocks and non-living things. We show compassion for the literal ground. We anthropomorphize it. Is this anthropomorphization not an attempt to understand and have compassion.

Regardless, you just asked how OP feels. I don't know how they do, but I can say how I do. "Yes"

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lelanthran ◴[22 Oct 25 10:00 UTC] No.45666892[source]▶
>> would you feel common ground with a predatory fish? Or a plant? An insect colony?

> Yes.

> Humans famously show compassion for all of these.

But alligators rarely show compassion for humans, barracudas are not known for saving drowning babies and plants frequently show no compassion to anything.

IOW, Alien life might resemble alligator mindsets more than human ones. We don't know.

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swiftcoder ◴[22 Oct 25 10:20 UTC] No.45667018[source]▶
> But alligators rarely show compassion for humans, barracudas are not known for saving drowning babies and plants frequently show no compassion to anything.

On the other hand, even predatory mammals are documented on occasion to render aid to humans (i.e. dolphins rescuing humans from drowning, or intervening in shark attacks), and in domestic settings can be convinced to raise young from other species (domestic cats/dogs will raise most baby animals if introduced correctly). It's not as cut and dried as a hard species boundary on compassion.

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1. godelski ◴[22 Oct 25 11:18 UTC] No.45667414[source]▶
Not to mention that traveling interstellar distances requires the work of multiple lifeforms working in conjunction. Which requires some form of compassion, slavery, or a really really intelligent and long living creature that is able to survey the land, smelt the materials, machine every screw, and build an interstellar spaceship. Even if it knew how to do such a thing, the time alone would be astronomical, so it really reduces the odds.

Compassion seems just a natural evolutionary direction as it is far more energy efficient for creatures to form coalitions.

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2. lelanthran ◴[23 Oct 25 07:46 UTC] No.45679306[source]▶
> Compassion seems just a natural evolutionary direction as it is far more energy efficient for creatures to form coalitions.

Coalitions within the species (family unit, clan, pack, etc), sure. Coalitions with external parties? That's rare outside of concurrent intertwined evolution (symbiotic relationships, parasitic relationships, etc).

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3. swiftcoder ◴[23 Oct 25 10:41 UTC] No.45680347[source]▶
We have a sample size of one, when it comes to self-aware sentient species, so I'm not sure we can draw any reasonable conclusions about likelihood of empathy between two such species
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4. lelanthran ◴[23 Oct 25 15:24 UTC] No.45682923{3}[source]▶
> We have a sample size of one, when it comes to self-aware sentient species, so I'm not sure we can draw any reasonable conclusions about likelihood of empathy between two such species

I'm not; I'm only pointing out that the conclusions I see ITT expressing the notion that a more intelligent species would necessarily be more compassionate is more unlikely than the converse, because from our one and only sample of life, we don't see it often.

IOW, I am replying "We don't know that" to the assertion "They will be compassionate.".

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5. godelski ◴[23 Oct 25 17:13 UTC] No.45684317[source]▶

  > That's rare outside of concurrent intertwined evolution (symbiotic relationships, parasitic relationships, etc).
You seemed to have carved out a way that everything falls under there

Everything evolves together. We're all on the same planet and working in the same ecosystem. Cross species collaborations isn't too uncommon and we even see it happen in some regions but not others.

The point is if you collaborate with your own you're very likely to collaborate with others. The smarter the animal the more common this is

6. godelski ◴[23 Oct 25 17:18 UTC] No.45684369{4}[source]▶
Well the point was about a species able to build an interstellar ship. There's no point to compare to a snake who can't even build a piano.

We have a sample size of zero.

But again, you cannot build a ship with an individual. Physics gets in your way.