Queen's astronomer says aliens 'like us'

[Mikhayl Von Riebon]

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/world/queens-astronomer-says-a...

(The title is actually the header of the article and should be changed as this guy's words have clearly been taken out of context, but here you go)

• The Sun
• From: NewsCore
• February 22, 2010 5:14PM

ALIENS could be among us - but we just cannot recognize them, Britain's top astronomer has said.

The Sun reported that Lord Martin Rees said the visitors might be in a form beyond human understanding.

Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society academy of science and also astronomer to the Queen, said: "They could be staring us in the face and we just don't recognize them."

The respected professor went on: "The problem is that we're looking for something very much like us, assuming that they at least have something like the same mathematics and technology.

"I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms that we can't conceive.

"Just as a chimpanzee can't understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality which are beyond the capacity of our brains."

Lord Rees' comments raise the possibility of aliens being here - in the shape of anyone or anything.

He spoke out shortly after hosting the first conference on the possibility of alien life in the Royal Society's 350-year-history.

He also told highbrow Prospect magazine better telescopes meant the chance of finding life on other planets was "greater than ever."

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what are your thought? how might we go about identifying other life forms? what is the definition of "life"? how would we avoid fooling ourselves with natural processes and intelligent processes? i read somewhere that life could be considered that which actively reduces entropy. could that be argued?

Mikhayl

[EstrellaFugaz]

As it is portraited it mimics those kinds of 'conspiracy theories' about the queen being an alien an that....

hehehehe

[Mikhayl Von Riebon]

An amusing question but i would have though one would automatically imply the other. i guess the question is, if god has a definitive form, would this not be a limitation? and if so would this not be in contradiction to the idea that god is infinite (limitless?) perhaps it is we who are the image (physical limitation) of god?

its particularly interesting observing the backwards step the catholic church has made in respects to the existence of extra terrestrial life. but why it would be denied, when the christian god and the angels themselves could be considered an extra terrestrial intelligence, is very strange.

who knows. lets play an imagination game! what forms might you think extra terrestrial intelligence could take? why? and how would this function?

[Donald Weetman Cameron]

Many if not most humans believe we were made in the image of God. Does that mean that we look like God, or does that mean that God looks like us?

[Joe Fulton]

Will they be "like us"? The diversity of life that we've seen on this planet seems to both limit and expand the possibilities. For example you can have an extreme intelligence, but no way to express it (i.e. whales and dolphins) because of physical limitations. On the other hand you can have beings who have the means but not the capacity to express (i.e. the mentally deficient). What we're left with is still some variation on the Drake equation. I suspect, given that "limitation" we will encounter stuff that looks much like us (hands, feet, etc.) but who may mentally be ... well, Klingons, Romulans or Borg. Our own history of racial encounters on Earth doesn't make alien encounters look like a very appetizing affair...in most cases the vanquished ends up as slaves or worse.

I think we're doing a pretty good job so far. My only concern is one of what do you do once you find them? I kind of liked Sagan's book "Contact". It presented quite well a number of challenges presented by disparate technologies, including that weirdly subjective experience once inside the "capsule".

Perhaps this train of thought is too much "mainstream" SETI thinking but I really have a hard time imagining an "invasion" of celestial Buddhas...not to mention the possibility of wisdom at their level looking like something that is just totally messed up from our POV. In whatever case, once dealing with them becomes reality we must be really, really careful that we do not project our delusions and desires on to them...it may be the last thing we do. OTOH, life does seem to want to spring up all over the place...and maybe in another few million years we'll get the chance to make the same mistake all over again...something which some claim has already happened :)

There's another intriguing possibility here, to be found in Part III of the Yoga Sutras, "Vibhuti Padha," translated as "perfections" or "powers". See Sutras 26 - 28. One (material) interpretation lends one to believe that this may include perception of life on other worlds...but that's for you to determine.

Time to get out the towel and chug down another Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster!