If so, possibly we should all be locked up.

Anyway, my reaction was like DR's.  Even if we deduce the existence of life on a distant world, the chances of our ever physically reaching that world and interacting with the life forms are awfully small.

The matter of space flight is alluded to in this recent essay on the late Arthur C. Clarke, the changing relationship between science and sci-fi, and the decreasing interest in space flight on the part of recent sci-fi authors, by the learned sci-fi critic David Itzkoff:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/23/weekinreview/23iztkoff. ...

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

And if there's anyone out there intelligent enough to talk to, the odds are that they're far more advanced than we are and that we're the ones who should be concerned about the effect of cultural contact.

For real, space environmental issues, consider Earth-orbiting space junk; control and use of potentially-limited water ice resources on the moon; and the appropriate level of effort to avoid contaminating Mars and other potential habitable sites in our solar system.  These are issues we need to think about in the same time context as our efforts on climate change (and space junk may be an even more immediate threat).

Of course, this is likely a long way off, but we don't really know what scientists will develop - or exactly how close life-supporting planets are. Indeed, it's possible (though quite unlikely) that underground oceans on moons in our own solar system support life. Better to come up with a policy before we start blasting off to other galaxies, even if it's 1000 years before (time flies at light speed after all).

How about we just fix the one we have now? - All in agreement great!

That would certainly provide more of a moral test than mere resistance to alien overlords. Would we be alien overlords if we had the chance? History does not leave one optimistic.

grist.org

(1) Similar to our obsession with superior beings right here, creating us, caring for us, and messing with our minds by giving different instructions to each tribe?

(2) Desperate for someone somewhere somehow to step in and save our asses, because it would be so much easier than rolling up our sleeves, learning to get along, and solving our own problems?

(3) We're greedy bastards who hope we can steal technology from someone else and make a buck or use it against others, including the folks we steal it from, to secure ultimate power for ourselves?

Just a couple ideas. Fun question!

Fortunately, we do not and probably will not have the power to reach them.

It would, however, be interesting the read and comment on their blogs...

Oh crap... I neglected the possibility of cultural contamination. What if they learn about someone like Barack Obama and build an entire religion around Him?!!! Or there's that Star Trek episode where explorers leave behind a book about Chicago gangsters and the locals build an entire culture around it!!!

Obviously someone is thinkin' ahead.

Plus, it could be like Calvin and Hoobes said: If there were life on other planets, they've probably gone out of their way to avoid us (lookin' a cut down tree stump).

Then again, we could always go Star Trek and invoke a Prime Directive.

First, absent transporter technology and really really cheap space habitats the majority of human beings will ALWAYS be stuck right here on this one planet.  An oversized soda can (say 20 miles long by 2 wide) of rock, filled with air and water does not an ecology make. Ecosystems are expensive and important for without them it is hard to breathe.

Second, absolutely free energy for everybody, say a Mr. Fusion that can put out 30 kilowatts, just means that we run into the next set of limitations before we cook off the atmosphere. But we will still cook off the atmosphere given any free source of power without the ability to improve our radiative thermal loses.

Third, who says we aren't alien overlords of other species here on Earth? If you asked the humpback whale or the humbolt squid they might have a different opinion of our role in the ecosystem. We are one species of many and a mere blip in the genetic history of the gingko biloba or the coast redwood.

Finally, science fiction writers are very clear in believing that the true wealth of the Earth is it's genetic diversity. Rock can be had in plenty as well as all varieties of gasses. Solar power is limited but the limit is very, very, very high. What isn't available is the wealth of different genetic solutions to problems found on a single acre of tropical rain forest. That is unique to that one spot and  not to be replaced for the wealth of empires.  We haven't even cataloged all of the species of ants.

When we understand THIS planet maybe we should worry about those other planets.


Put the Carbon Back

But sending Cheney and friends to Mars?  It's worth taking a chance.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

But start computing those odds from Day One, when Earth began to form out of that dust cloud surrounding a nascent Sol.  Along with seven other planets, many moons and asteroids, and comets, etc.
Each so very different, not at all like cookies in the oven.

Life, we know with certainty ('cause we're it), began to form on an undescribed Earth, developed into many forms each related to all, different in appearance but carbon-based and sharing similar characteristics like breathing oxygen, and surviving in the same way, ingesting nutrients, digesting, and excreting their remains.  

But there is a particular discreteness between conception and birth, and the Earth itself underwent a change which allowed life to start under certain circumstances, then altered to allow the development of diversity.

Each tiny step along the way stretches those odds into the point of singularity, reducing the possibility of alien life until only we are left, a cosmic fluke, alone in all the universe.  

Or maybe not.  

Des Emery