If Mars Attacks

Visions of the Rewilding Renaissance Grief & Praise
#1

The Chinese government has promised to investigate the unidentified flying object that forced Xiaoshan Airport to delay 18 flights last week. Tabloids rushed to cover the incident, with the U.K. Sun making a gratuitous “alien craft” reference, and video footage on YouTube led to numerous comments regarding the existence of extraterrestrial life. What if aliens were to make contact—do we have an E.T. contingency plan? Sort of. The U.S. government is not particularly interested in alien planning. Starting in 1947, the Air Force made a formal study of UFOs but stopped investigations in 1969 after having failed to uncover any evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles or of a threat to national security. In 1992, the government paid for a SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project through NASA—the Microwave Observing Program’s mission was to conduct targeted analyses of nearby stars—but deemed it unworthy of funding one year later. There is, however, a nongovernmental organization established by the International Academy of Astronautics to “prepare, reflect on, manage, advise, and consult in preparation for … a putative signal of extraterrestrial intelligent (ETI) origin.” That organization, the SETI: Post-Detection Taskgroup helmed by the theoretical physicist Paul Davies, has a set of recommendations in place.

The protocol, adopted in 1989, is that if someone detects a radio signal seemingly indicating that we’re not alone, he should get in touch with SETI researchers, who will help him verify whether the signal is really and truly evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. At that point, he should notify the International Astronomical Union as well as the United Nations and relevant research organizations. On the finders-keepers principle, the discoverer would get to make the first public announcement, but data should be made available to the international scientific community. (Source coordinates, however, would be kept secret, to avoid a situation in which anyone with a radio telescope could start up a conversation.) The next step would be figuring out whether a response signal were warranted and, if so, what message to send—a process that would involve not just scientists but other experts and government appointees. Probably something very simple would be best, like numbers in binary code. (You can hear Davies discuss this issue with Ira Glass on a recent episode of This American Life.)

In the farfetched Hollywood scenario wherein we detect an alien spaceship or aliens send us a Greetings, Earthlings!-type message—all bets are off. (If the Pentagon or some such has a plan for how to deal with contact, it’s classified.) Naturally the response would hinge on the nature of the contact: peaceful or violent, needy (give us fossil fuels) or helpful (cold fusion). Many scientists, including Stephen Hawking, believe that contact with intelligent aliens would end badly for us—we’d be the Native Americans to the alien Europeans. “I imagine they might exist in massive ships,” Hawking said recently, “having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”
Advertisement

Lacking official protocol, those worried about first contact can turn to the very unofficial Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion. Like Hawking, the authors believe humans would play the part of Native Americans circa 1492. They also think that, in light of the sluggish global response to natural disasters, there’s little indication that we could react effectively to invasion. Since we’ll probably be technologically outmatched, the best defense strategy would be guerilla warfare.

it’s funny to me how stephen hawking literally describes civilized culture right there. we’re the warlike aliens driven by an ever growing demand for and ever diminishing amount of resources. so if we’re the aliens, the humans would be all the other life on earth we rape as “resources”.

but of course, the only way hawking and many of his scientist buddies can express any amount of respect for these “inanimate” things is by creating a hypothetical space age story in which he speaks of humans being fucked by aliens instead of the planet being fucked by civilized humans.

i always find it funny where you can find the underlying story of this culture being told, even by the most “civilized” minds.

“Like Hawking, the authors believe humans would play the part of Native Americans circa 1492. They also think that, in light of the sluggish global response to natural disasters, there’s little indication that we could react effectively to invasion. Since we’ll probably be technologically outmatched, the best defense strategy would be guerilla warfare.”

hmmmmmmmmm… :wink:

source:

#2

It is like in SciFi - stories are told with the roles exchanged or placed in a distant future or galaxy but in fact, each such story tells and is supposed to tell us something on what is happening here and now.

That comment by Hawkins I saw some weeks ago and I thought “Yep”. If there is a space faring alien race, it would require a resource depleting civilization to get to that point and if this is the basis of their culture as it is ours here and now, I can just hope they all faced collapse or came to their senses before spreading out into the galaxy to conquer planets with that basic assumptions. But if they did, I agree I would not want to have them here.

But I bet they would not come in with guns blazing (and risk these humans doing something feeble but troublesome to get rid of in the end - like nuclear or chemical warfare)- They’d offer us scraps from their table (some minor technologies for example) in return for resources and workforce and the way this culture is working now, humans would probably accept it and only realize later that it is too late to fight back.

Then on the other hand - why should any alien race want to have this planet - the resources they could probably get elsewhere, so colonization is probably a much better motivator…

Am I beeing weird thinking about this? :wink:

#3

While i too tend to think of planet-conquering species much like human civilization would like to be, i also accept the idea that space-travesing species might be “wild” “indigenous” or “nomadic”. Whatever you wanna call it.

People and other animals traversed oceans and seas long before civ reared its ugly head, and i dont see why wild vibrant life should stop there? Life could have arrived here by “accident” on a piece or farflung rock or ice.

Also, alien life does not in any way have to resemble us. In fact im pretty certain most life looks quite different from us. Complex networks of Mycelium that seem to be sentient for example can seem utterly alien to us, and perhaps are?

Im just saying that id like to keep space in my head for the possibility of nomadic “wild” life in space.

:slight_smile:

#4

Funny this conversation came up. I’ve been working on an “Aliens vs. Rewilding” but it also made me realize I need to do a “Conspiracy Theories vs. Rewilding” too!

I have a hard time understanding this concept because… when people ask if I believe in “life on other plants” I respond, “Other planets are alive.” I believe everything is alive… so all of space has a sound and a light and a vibration and blah blah blah.

What they want to know if not “life on other planets” but “civilization on other planets.” And generally, I believe anything is possible. But I think that most of the concept of little green men is a narcissistic projection of civilizational progress onto all other living creatures.

#5

Yeah i think i can understand that Scout. I guess most people when speaking of Aliens are REALLY only interested in OUR story enacted against the backdrop of galaxies instead of just this world. Is OUR story Out There? Will Civ conquer worlds and solar systems? Not just our Civ. Any Civ.

Because that is what the Civ story promises us. Dominion over all. In his image…blah blah blah…

they arent really interested in alien life, because there is NON-human life right here all around us Yet still they look up to the stars for something… You dont need to go anywhere to find living breathing life !

#6

Well, I dont think it is like that in general. I think most people actually care mostly about “intelligent life” in the sense of civilization when they ponder about space aliens. But I think many people also are genuinely interested in life in space in general. Like if it is possible that life has formed on other planets at all. Of course, this most likely also comes back to either thinking about future development of that life into a civilization or it comes back to space colonization by humans. However one other direction of thinking is “what if this planet is wiped out” (usually they pull out some asteroid for that but in fact they know that civilization is also a likely cause) - will there still be (intelligent) life in the universe or is it all rocks and energy? That I think is a great motivator to look for life on other planets. Basically “is there a second chance for life?”.

When it comes to space, of course few things are impossible and if life is as abundant as I believe it is, many options are open. Also some kind of evolution of life that leads to some kind of space travel. I think however it would be really hard for any species to get off its home planet and venture into space without putting a lot of energy into such a development and for that requires a level of complexity and organization and civilization that it almost inevitably would mean that it has to amass and extract resources beyond a sustainable way of life.

But again of course, if you think of SciFi ways of describing life in the form of silicate life or “pure energy beeings” or such, this deduction fails. Also thinking of SciFi again, did anyone else think that “the borg” (or the original they have been copied from, the “Cybermen” from Dr Who) are closest to what I would expect as the way this culture would end up if it actually manages to survive that long? Conquer everything, assimilate everything, tightly bond with technology and loving the hive mind. This is what the current path leads to, no? People are cherishing the hive mentality of the internet, they want to have chips in their heads to experience VR and conquer/assimilate they already do big time…

#7

i remember my biology/natural sciences teacher, Dr. Burket, talking about how microscopic tardigrades or “water bears” could very possibly originate from the depths of outer space. i’ve been lucky enough to observe a few under a microscope and they’re really neat animals. they’re microscopic, yet they have heads, eyes, little legs with claws and they amble around and forage exactly like a bear might. amazing little creatures. and they’re everywhere!

"Astrobiologists work at the cutting-edge of scientific research, investigating the possibility of life elsewhere in our universe. They are, however, plagued by a single, potentially critical problem: a lack of samples. Studying alien organisms is naturally difficult when none have been discovered.

Some scientists have taken a novel approach to circumventing this issue. Life on Earth is abundant, and often very hardy. Extremophile creatures exist in places we would consider as exceptionally hostile, such as deep in the ocean floor or areas where even a drop of water is almost impossible to find. Similarly, some of the potential places for life elsewhere in our solar system, such as the planet Mars, Jupiter’s moon Europa, or Saturn’s moon Titan, have conditions that are viewed as extremely hostile but still potentially survivable. So extremophile organisms are studied in lieu of genuine extraterrestrial samples, to see if they could survive the rigors of life beyond the Earth.

Nearly Indestructible

Dr. Daiki Horikawa from NASA Ames Research Center has been examining strange creatures called tardigrades for the last seven years. He explains, “tardigrades are small invertebrate animals, 0.1 to 1.0 mm in body length, that live in terrestrial mosses, soil, or lichens. They also inhabit ocean and polar regions.” Often known by their nickname “water bears”, studies on these bizarre creatures have surprised scientists.

Recent research has shown that water bears can survive the dangerous conditions of space. Previously, the only organisms that have been exposed to the radiation and vacuum of space and lived to tell the tale are certain types of bacteria and lichen. That simple animals like tardigrades also can survive gives more credence to the theory of panspermia, which claims that organisms could move from world to world after traveling though space.
Water bears are fundamentally aquatic animals, using their eight legs to walk in liquid.
Credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames

Perhaps the most interesting feature of tardigrades is their ability to enter a suspended animation-like state when they cannot find enough water. In this kind of survival mode they become very resistant to harsh environments. When they encounter water they awaken and become active again.

Horikawa realized that if he wanted to produce worthwhile, reproducible studies, he would have to raise samples of water bears in laboratory conditions. Those collected from their natural habitat can be quite different to one another because of climate variations, nutritional differences and other environmental considerations. So Horikawa raised a collection on agar plates with green algae for food. Although labor-intensive, this produced uniform water bears which were then separated into groups and exposed to various stresses to see how tough they really are.

A Barrage of Tests

First, some were heated up to sizzling temperatures of 90ºC. Then a group was frozen at -196ºC. The next batch were given a dose of radiation similar to what they would receive in space – around 4,000 times stronger than that which would make humans ill. The last group of water bears were covered in a dissolving chemical (99.8% acetonitrile) which may be present in Titan’s atmosphere.

The results, published in a recent issue of the journal Astrobiology, were that water bears in their suspended animation state survived everything that was thrown at them. Active creatures were less fortunate, but some did tolerate the extreme conditions. Now that their tolerances to specific stresses are known, plans are underway to expose them to many harsh environments simultaneously.
Alien creatures with survival features like those used by water bears could exist on other worlds.
Credit: Daiki Horikawa, NASA Ames

If extraterrestrial life is as tough and resilient as water bears, then other worlds could be inhabited. “It’s a possibility that water bear-like creatures could survive and thrive on other planets despite harsh environments,” says Horiwaka. “Judging from data of the planets in our solar system, there could even be some in their suspended state on Mars.” There is a chance that Earth-based water bears could be transported to other worlds via meteorite impacts, but more research is required before this is known for sure.

Self-Repairing DNA

Horikawa plans on continuing his research, particularly looking at the ability of water bears to repair DNA after being exposed to high levels of radiation. As he says, “the most fascinating feature of tardigrades for me is their ability to survive complete dehydration of the body and high tolerance to radiation exposure which must cause critical DNA damages.”

Horikawa’s method of rearing water bears in the laboratory could lead to many more studies of these amazing animals, and may help astrobiologists in their search for genuine extraterrestrial life. Knowing the survival tricks of water bears also could one day be a key component in enabling the human exploration of the universe."

http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/2905/“alien”-water-bears-amaze-scientists

#8

Nice article. Water bears. I have not heard of them.

Here you have a way to spread life to other planets other than fancy generation ships filled with humans and data on DNA :wink:

Though one thing is not as easy. The planets that are out there and are int he “habitable zone” around their stars would have an atmosphere in equilibrium with the geology, meaning one that is similar to that of mars and venus in composition, meaning mostly CO2, N2, maybe Methane and H2O, no O2. Such planets would not actually be habitable to animal life and may without life even be too hot to be habitable after all.
This is based on palaeontological evidence. It means basically that life itself created a habitable planet. If it was not for bacteria who changed the atmosphere of Earth 2.2 billion years ago ((hehe - my diploma thesis was on rocks from 2.2 bil years ago)) into something containing less CO2 and more O2, the earth today would be too hot, too dry and without breathable oxygen. Especially the latter one would prevent any advanced organisms to take a hold on that planet. For bacteria it may be possible though. And of course a planet that already has bacterial life that changed the atmosphere would be susceptible to an alien invasion by multicelled tiny organisms.

Some people even think, that funghi would be a really good way for life to spread into space, as their spores are also quite resistant and they can also grow almost anywhere and also without oxygen.

This is a fascinating topic!

#9

i totally LOVE fungi because of that. i’ve heard that the tissue that makes up their roots is made of similar stuff brains are made of, and that they actually send electric signals along these roots systems (mycelium i think they’re called?) much like how thoughts are transmitted in our own brains!

i’m no astrobiologist, but doesn’t the dormant state that water bears go into make survival in these otherwise inhabitable places possible, i mean without the CO2 and H2O and all that stuff?
i guess they’re not really “alive” in their dormant state, but they could activate once they reach somewhere habitable after countless ages of dormancy, right? this article doesn’t say anything about how long they can stay dormant for, but i recall my biology teacher saying something about a tardigrade being found in the north pole in it’s dormant state that was dated from the earliest stages in the evolution of life on our planet, which would make it pretty “advanced” compared to all those other early forms of life, what with it’s eyes and limbs being developed and all. i’ll try and find some sort of credible source for that though…

#10

The stuff about water bears is really interesting. I don’t really know much about them, besides the part about them being indestructible. That’s really cool to learn that they forage and do other things most animals do, just on the microscopic level.

On the topic of aliens invading from space: I don’t think that any life depleting culture on any planet, would actually make it to the point of space travel that allows them to colonize other planets before their civilizations collapsed. This is based on how I look at this issue when people talk about “our” civilization colonizing other planets. All I can see when I imagine a culture moving in this direction, is that they use up all the resources, kill the planet, and then, well shit, they have enough to travel into space, but nobody makes it to a planet they can colonize. So basically to me any culture striving for this is just going to fuck themselves and everyone else over in the process, and in the end get nothing out of it.

So I’m really more concerned about people who believe we should just colonize other planets, it turns into their excuse for not defending the environment. “What if we kill the planet, and nobody can survive?” “Oh, well uh we’ll just colonize other planets.” People see it as a sign of superior evolution (which is civilized people butchering the actual meaning of evolution to kiss their own asses), but I view it as just a highly idiotic risk. Wouldn’t it just make more sense to take care of THIS land? Like people used to? “Dur stop ruining my space fantasy!”

Sorry I don’t have any resources to back up my argument, just my personal view of the scenario.