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Why would aliens want to visit us?
If there exists an alien race so technologically advanced to allow interstellar, or perhaps intergalactic travel, wouldn’t they be so advanced in comparison to regard us as nothing but ants?
Think about it: Would you stop to talk to ants?
What’s the argument that we’re like ants to them? Would we be unable to understand their motivations and goals, how they communicate with each other, etc? I don’t buy it.
Sure a biological brain is slower than a computer, and humans can’t see gamma/xray/microwave/ultraviolet/infrared/radio waves without assistance, but would that really change anything?
Consider that we’re pretty damn sure lots of animals around us have language. Dolphins, chimps, elephants, parrots(shit, most communal birds really), meerkats, hell, I’d include eusocial insects. And we’re nowhere even close to being able to communicate to them in a meaningful fashion.
Now consider a species that evolved in a completely different environment, from completely unrelated ancestors, with completely different architecture of their minds, possibly running with completely different chemistry.
I have doubts we could talk to aliens even if they wanted to as well.
Dolphins just want fish, friends, sex, no pollution, etc, and they can’t meaningfully interact with the world outside the water. They say things along those lines, and not much outside of that. It would be cool to understand exactly what they say, but they’re not talking about nuclear fusion behind our backs.
For better or for worse, humans evolved to be able to understand much more. The post above implies there are “things humans can’t understand”, which is what I disagree with. Anything physically possible/solvable should be understandable to the human brain with enough tools. Humans understand chemistry to an extent that they could figure out an alien’s biology given enough resources and time. In this way, the human brain is analogous to a universal Turing machine, and sadly dolphin brains are not yet.
Not trying to be human-centric, but I would love an example of something that is fundamentally outside the range of human understanding that hypothetical aliens could understand that makes us like ants to them in the way that even if they understand our language and motivations, we could never understand theirs. I think it’s all handwaving.
