seedmagazine.com/content/article … ny_aliens/
Damn!
I know it’s a long text but I think it’s worth reading.
Please discuss.
Its a variation of Nietzsche’s last man…
Um… why wouldn’t a technologically advanced but now extinct civilization NOT have AI tech still broadcasting some sort of signal? Or still mining or shipping despite everyone kicked it? Men die, their solar panels do not, I am sure if there was abundant life out there, a few would of invested in quality over crap and therefor should still be broadcasting.
Complex multicellular life on this planet is a extreme minority here, and most life doesn’t have a drive to complexity… Just to reproduce, and if ambitious enough, to become surface slime.
Someone has to be first. That could be us. No matter what, I am sure the first intelligent race assumed like we do there was others… But there wasn’t.
We know of 2000 planets, none can support earth light, and were looking hundreds to thousands of lightyears away for that info. We dont know how obvious it is for a alien species to play around and experiment with radiowaves. Fuck, most intelligent might be very small and are threatened by radiowaves like we are radiation and bullets.
or… Communications as we know it might not be central to intelligent life, abd were retarded freaks mechanically and electronically doing what other life does naturally via other means.
Or they mught of nited our planet’s athmosphere was formed from cell farts, and are doing everything they can to advoid the planet of the fart suckers. We pee in our oceans, and shit everywhere. Who wants that?
I saw Men In Black. There are plenty of aliens among us.
Uh, any of them you?
Good article, Vol, and it wasn’t really that long. I agree with Prof. Miller, people today are too plugged out of the Real World and too plugged into the world of Entertainment. It kind of goes along with D63’s thread about what technology is doing to the way we think.
How will human life evolve if the majority of young people pursue pleasure over ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?’ Especially if technology results in greater leisure time?
I’ve added the emphasis because these concern me–particularly delayed gratification. What I call ‘The I want It Now’ generation don’t understand delayed gratification. People in the generation preceding mine–wanted their children to achieve more than what they’d achieved. That was what progress meant to them. So they gave their children more, but the kids didn’t always realize why or at what expense. What mattered to the kids was that not only were their needs met–most of their wants were also met. This started with their parents who were the beginning of the I Want It Now generation.
But this is beginning to be a rant.
Did other life on other life-bearing planets evolve the way we’re evolving and, as a result, wipe themselves out? Or did they choose a different evolutionary path. Once again, we assuming all evolution will result in beings like us. But that assumes an exact replication of our circumstances in our Earth, doesn’t it? What would have happened given a bit less carbon and a bit more hydrogen? While our evolution can be traced, who’s to say that other life wouldn’t have followed a different path based on their environment?
The author gives an overly simplistic view of the state of the world today. I don’t deny the increasing prevalence of “fitness-faking,” I just don’t think it will necessarily lead down the road he takes.
I disagree strongly with this, and he doesn’t even try to provide any substantiation for these claims. Why does he ignore the possibility that, rather than substituting, teens are leveraging the latest technology expressly to address physical, mental, and social development?
It’s interesting to me how just about every generation seems to need to lament the sad state of “teens today”. 
So exactly how many MIT graduates are cranking out games for EA? And who’s to say computer games are counterproductive?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM[/youtube]
I wish he would’ve included more information here, such as if the majority of their patents were for entertainment-driven media, because those companies produce a lot more than just virtual entertainment.
Isn’t that what we do every time we read a book?
I realize Seed isn’t a science journal, but I’d still expect an article penned by a scientist to provide more factual backup than this article does.
Hmm, you took the article far more literally than I did - I thought it was a fun and intriguing read.
In reality, I think the only way video game lifestyles can be supported, is by using the video game mentality to do things like find habitable planets and go to war with the “aliens” who live there. You can play a video game within a video game, but you need to know how to manage real-life resources in order to do it. It’s like stealing money from hard-working people to maintain your drug habit.
Fair enough, anon, maybe I was taking it too seriously. I could have been reading too much into the intro to his commentary:
He brings up some interesting points, I just thought that he didn’t make a very strong case for his opinions. But then maybe he was just trying to raise awareness, rather than put forth a serious argument.
Have you read Ender’s Game by any chance?
I have. It was an ok book. I read it in portuguese though. Maybe the original version was better.
Apparently the there’s a film being made right now.
The article is tongue-in-cheek.