On the original point I can't see it happening in any conceivable amount of time.
Complex organisms only started to emerge over the last two billion or so years. Consider that from trillions of species that have come on gone since then we are literally the only ones in Earth history to be regarded as sentient.
Realistically if another were to ever emerge you would assume it would be long after humanity ceases to exist.
As far as intelligent species on Earth I agree. We became what we are now by rising up in the food chain and becoming the dominant species. Any other species would have to do the same, and judging by the way we dominate everything on the surface and in the air I don't see any species having the freedom to do that. We just get in the way too much.
The only places that a species can live untouched by humans these days is the rainforest or deep underwater. We seem pretty hell bent on raping the rainforest so that really only leaves the deepest reaches of the oceans. And there really isn't any benefit in a species from there coming up to land, anything that evolves down there would probably just stay down there.
I doubt we will.
The way we treat our planet now, I'll bet sentient species frown upon us and look somewhere else.
Unless we start taking care of this Earth, it will barely make it past the year 3000. Heck, it could die out before then. With all of our factories releasing the toxins, the oil rig off the coast of Louisiana (which has sprung a third leak underwater and, for some ridiculous reason, cannot be mended to at this time), and all of the species that are endangered are in the biggest threat of the world.
Not to mention, my generation of people, with all the obesity, will most likely die off before our parents. I'm not obese or even overweight. But for those of you that are, Death is staring you in the face. Mocking you.
At the same time, maybe those sentient species will help us out some. If they're not hostile. But they have every reason to be. Don't you agree?
**By sentient species, I mean space aliens.
[Edited by LifeOfGaming, 5/1/2010 1:47:53 PM]
And on what grounds do you come to the conclusion that any aliens who happen upon us would be peace-loving hippies with deep respect for natural worlds?
They could be rampant industrialist for all we know. They might land, strip Earth bare of any usable resource, fill the air with harmful chemicals, and then leave again.
Generally speaking, societies do not continue to progress technologically if every action they take they do so in mind of the local ecosystem. There comes a point in all societies where the natural resources as they are around you are no longer sufficient for advancing.
All our weapons systems are Earth based so I don't think we'd have much chance against a space-faring species. Intercontinental missiles could attack something in space but that's not enough to fight off hostile aliens.
We don't have any kind of space defense system to protect our satellites. An alien species that knows about our methods of communication would go for those right away. That would be a pretty big blow.
The thing I wonder about though is whether we'd know if aliens were snooping around the solar system. We can track all kinds of asteroids and comets out in space, would we be able to tell that something is some kind of spaceship?
Bah, I thought the title said student life.
I always wondered if we could even track a technologically advanced 'alien' race, they could stealth or superior technology that we've never even knew could exist. Aliens could already be among us for all we know.
Cloaking, that's a possibility, but I don't think we have a men in black scenario with aliens living freely among us, it just doesn't seem too likely.
SuperSkyline brings up a great point, are weapons are only designed for killing each other, other species may actually have weapons for fighting other things besides themselves (imagine that). If they have like creation cannons or photon torpedoes or any of that crazy space mumbo jumbo, I'm pretty sure we're screwed.
Well i was suggesting alien bacteria from comets and whatnot, but if you want to turn it into a movie scenario feel free to do so.
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