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The Bulbagarden Conversational Chat Thread Vol 4

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Rainami

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I think that there's always a tiny possibility that ancient civilisation was contacted and communicated with alien life forms, and maybe they brought suitable technology or information for this civilisation, but I'd think such a momentous occasion would have been recorded for future generations, no tribe couldn't have the foresight to try record this possible event.

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That's basically what Ancient Aliens was about. I believed it for a while, too, but I don't think that show is very trustworthy. I don't have the information needed to make any valuable theories regarding that, but from what I have now....I suppose it's indeed possible. *Shrugs* It would be cool if it was true.
 

Lyrebird

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If was an ancient race, I would be the 2 actus dash.

I'm funny, totally funny. I need a drink....
 

industrial

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Those sorts of shows are pseudo-documentaries - the ideas proposed aren't really even theories, they're only hypotheses, with no real evidence supporting the wild claims. It's impossible to disprove them, and without hard evidence, impossible to prove them too! It still makes for some interesting thought, but it's the sort of thing you have to take with a grain of salt.

As far as alien life actually existing somewhere in the universe? Very likely. Even discounting the law of mediocrity, statistically speaking there is likely to be at least one (and probably many) solar system almost exactly like our own. Current studies suggest that the number of planets in our galaxy may be greater than the number of stars! It's really up for debate, though, as we're looking at a major sample bias -- we've only looked at a tiny part of the sky. Another consideration is timing - life and civilizations may arise at many places in the galaxy, but at different times: We've only learned details about even our closest neighbors, the planets, in the past few years; the blink of a cosmic eye. Who's to say that civilizations don't arise, and die off, all the time? Maybe we're the first. Maybe we're all alone in the dark.

Or maybe they walk among us. Let me go get my tinfoil hat.
 

mariowie

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Well alien life forms are really likely but the question is how far away are they. I guess that it is really far away otherwise we would have noticed it already.

Well the biggest problem is probably contacting them because travelling is really impossible now and I doubt they have the same way off communicating
if they are that far already.
 

Satoshi-chan

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And here I thought that the only aliens who made contact with our planet were just a bunch of teasers.
 

Jolene

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I don't believe in aliens. It seems very unlikely to me, but that is my opinion. No need to start a debate or anything like that.
 

Shiny Celebi

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I think the universe is a vast place, who knows what's out there, there could be aliens or not, I think there's a possiblity of life at least.
 

Mijzelffan

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On one hand the chances for intelligent life are infinitely small, there are billions of factors that need to be just right for it to happen. On the other hand the universe is infinitely big. So yeah.
 

dig

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New username motherfuckers.

Holy fucking god.

On aliens; I think it's very likely that there is alien life forms not too far from our horizons, and less likely that we will be able to communicate with them. There are just so many factors in alien communication for it to work right now. How do you communicate anything to an alien? They won't know our language, they may not even talk, drawing diagrams is likely to be pointless because of differences in life, a line pointing to something is very clear to humans but could be an abstract idea to aliens. I think a much higher life form will contact us, and that contact will only happen once we have the means of communication for that life form, and that might mean we'll be waiting for thousands of years to be on the same level of intelligence as one species of alien.
 

Jolene

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In other news, my eyelid swelling is going down. I just saved $100 for not going to the doctor. I am so glad I did not take anyone's advice and go to the doctor.
 

H-con

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I think a much higher life form will contact us, and that contact will only happen once we have the means of communication for that life form, and that might mean we'll be waiting for thousands of years to be on the same level of intelligence as one species of alien.

How would they know we could communicate with them, when we don't even know how they communicate? I would assume that any species capable of interstellar travel would be able to sort out a reasonable way to communicate with humans, it's hardly the biggest barrier present.

Speaking of interstellar travel, it would probably take a fucking long time for them to even be aware of our existence. Humans have been dominant on the planet, for what, not very long. It's hardly long since we actively started sending signals and spaceships into space. If you live on the other side of the galaxy, noticing Earth isn't going to be easy (not to mention actually detecting whether or not it has life), especially when humans can't reliably predict the existence of planets orbiting the star closest to Earth at this time. Without some sort of FTL travel (which is unrealistic), the distances are all pretty vast. Even at FTL, things are going to take a long time, unless you conveniently lived on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system.


So yes, we'll definitely be waiting for thousands of year for first contact.
 
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Italy-kun

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And plus, from a faraway planet, any extraterrestrial life would observe Earth as it was years ago. Maybe even centuries or millennia. So assuming that the aliens themselves have interstellar travel technology, they may have something analogous to the prime directive from Star Trek, meaning that in many years, when they see us land on our moon, they'll be like "Yo dawg, I see you have some spacecraft," and viola! First contact!
 

Satoshi-chan

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Perhaps the first contact that we have with an alien race will be when they destroy our planet so as to build a freeway.
 

蜃気楼

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Some tribe in Greece (can't remember there name) they were technology on par, if not higher then us. Stuff like that amazes me to this day.

Ehhm, what? I have the utmost respect for some of the scientific achievements of ancient civilizations and scholars, who managed to do pretty awesome things, but to say that they were technologically on par with us is just wrong.

Not on par, but really damn close to it. They invented solar energy, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

I adore Greek, Celtic, and Norse mythology, but obviously Welsh mythology is my favourite. xD Being raised on the Mabanogion and folktales and what not, it's basically a part of me.

And also, uh, excuse my ignorance, but how could ancient tribes have technology on a par/higher than us without us knowing about it? Maybe you're right, but that sounds a little ... I don't know.

All I remember is that they perfected something, we as humans have never done.
 

H-con

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Perhaps the first contact that we have with an alien race will be when they destroy our planet so as to build a freeway.

Having some lanes clean of (large) objects for interstellar travel kinda makes sense. That being said, even a grain of dust is going to hit like an ICBM at the speeds involved, so it's kind of a moot point in the end.

Not on par, but really damn close to it. They invented solar energy, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

ADo0fT1.jpg

Yeah, nah.

when they see us land on our moon,

I could only begin to imagine what kind of devices they would have to have just to pick up a ridiculously small vessel landing on a moon in a random system from what is probably thousands of light years away.
 

Italy-kun

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I could only begin to imagine what kind of devices they would have to have just to pick up a ridiculously small vessel landing on a moon in a random system from what is probably thousands of light years away.

I have to imagine that such technology would come along around the same time as any sort of sense-making interstellar travel.
 

industrial

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In other news, my eyelid swelling is going down. I just saved $100 for not going to the doctor. I am so glad I did not take anyone's advice and go to the doctor.

Good to hear! Keep in mind, the only correct sort of medical advice from a non-doctor is "Go see a doctor!"

And here I thought that the only aliens who made contact with our planet were just a bunch of teasers.

Perhaps the first contact that we have with an alien race will be when they destroy our planet so as to build a freeway.

Do you think the dominant life form will have four wheels?

I think I just fell in love. Marry me.





As far as ancient tech goes - human beings haven't really changed much in the past few thousand years. Our knowledge and technology has, but the capacity for innovation has not. It's plausible to suggest that ancient civilizations may have had technology we've never even dreamed of - and that no evidence for this technology exists today. Fossil, archaeological, and historical records will never be complete and I don't believe we'll ever have the entire story of our precursors.

Just recently we've discovered tools that may have been used in electroplating processes - hundreds if not thousands of years before any sort of electrical theory was known to be proposed. Fossil records are estimated to contain perhaps 1% of the species of animals that existed at the records' time.

This is exactly why preserving current events, technologies, and art is so important. Future generations, (or indeed, even aliens who may visit our planet millions of years after we've died out or moved on) will have much to learn and much to gain from a proper, long-lasting record of our triumphs, defeats, and beliefs. I'll now paraphrase/parrot some relevant cliches.

Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

Enlightenment is when old men plant trees whose shade they will never enjoy.
 
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Lyrebird

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I think Aliens have better things to do and worry about than us. I mean we are aliens to them. I bet they are like communicating in their language and are like "Dude what if there are squishy fleshy talking aliens in other universe" and then they will be like "I wonder if they have taryip nectar." and the other alien will be like "You've been drinking too much taryip nectar. Why would there be squishy fleshy aliens?"

They have their own issues to worry about than us.
 

Jolene

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If the world breaks out into Nuclear War, I believe most of mankind's knowledge would be lost, and we will have to rediscover everything. It will be like Adventure Time or the Crysalids.
 
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