Here's something I think about sometimes....

[conuly]

If there's life on Earth, it seems fair to say there may be life elsewhere.

So, if there's another planet with life, they might also have sentient people and societies and whatnot, right? (And, lemme tell you, all these news stories in these past years about seeing planets outside of our solar system - we're living in a sci-fi age. It's a bit frightening, isn't it?)

So, these other societies... are they making the same mistakes we are (and often seem to keep making over and over again), or entirely different and novel mistakes (at least to us - betcha they make their mistakes over and over again too)?

And if they're making entirely different mistakes, based presumably on their evolutionary history (well, I can't think of any other reason for people to mistakes at all, other than that at one point it made sense!) or possibly the whim of their creator(s)... what might those mistakes consist of?

How many ways are there for a society/species to fuck everything up entirely, anyway?

I don't know, but I'd sure like to.

Comments

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Douglas Adams: They would all make different mistakes, but myseriously they would be called by the same names.

Isaac Asimov: No aliens, but the robots we build would eventually learn to make the same kind of human mistakes we do.

Robert Heinlein: Aliens will make different mistakes, but only after decades of careful deliberation.

George Lucas: Aliens will make human mistakes, but later we'll go back and edit so it looks like somone else did it.

J. Michael Straczynski: The mistakes they make will look strange and new, but upon more careful examination you'll find out that they have already been done in obscure cultures or parts of history on Earth.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I think about this too. And when I think about how old our planet is, I think it took us a really long time to harness electricity. Just think: the dinosaurs on Earth were killed by a giant asteroid collision, completely and permanently ending not only their domination of the planet but their very existence. This makes for a clean sweep mid-way to now. If other planets did not face such calamities, their evolutions and civilisations presumably developed earlier and more continuously from their original dominant forms.

Conclusion: they are far more advanced, and they don't look human. Watch the skies.

[conuly]

If I recall correctly, weren't there originally aliens, but the robots did some fancy shenanigans and moved us all to a universe without aliens on the theory that this was safest?

But I do love the list :)

[conuly]

Or they face such disasters much more often. That's cheery, isn't it?

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Maybe in one of his books. I've only read I, Robot and the Foundation series.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Don't forget flowers. The dinosaurs might have died off anyway due to the evolution of flowers.

[conuly]

What, seriously?

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yes!

Flowers were more evolutionarily fit than ferns. Think of all those pictures of dinosaur times - think of the plants. You don't see a lot of plantlife like that around.

The flowers were taking over. This is relevant because the mammals were able to work very well with the flowering plants to eat them and pollinate them and stuff, but the dinosaurs could not. So, the large herbivores were having to roam around trying to find food and having less and less food to find. And then the meat-eating dinosaurs were having fewer large plant-eating dinosaurs.

At least, that's how the theory goes. Flowers: they're not just sappy tokens of affection, but also dinosaur killers!

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Douglas Adams: They would all make different mistakes, but myseriously they would be called by the same names.

Isaac Asimov: No aliens, but the robots we build would eventually learn to make the same kind of human mistakes we do.

Robert Heinlein: Aliens will make different mistakes, but only after decades of careful deliberation.

George Lucas: Aliens will make human mistakes, but later we'll go back and edit so it looks like somone else did it.

J. Michael Straczynski: The mistakes they make will look strange and new, but upon more careful examination you'll find out that they have already been done in obscure cultures or parts of history on Earth.

[rpeate.livejournal.com]

I think about this too. And when I think about how old our planet is, I think it took us a really long time to harness electricity. Just think: the dinosaurs on Earth were killed by a giant asteroid collision, completely and permanently ending not only their domination of the planet but their very existence. This makes for a clean sweep mid-way to now. If other planets did not face such calamities, their evolutions and civilisations presumably developed earlier and more continuously from their original dominant forms.

Conclusion: they are far more advanced, and they don't look human. Watch the skies.

[conuly]

If I recall correctly, weren't there originally aliens, but the robots did some fancy shenanigans and moved us all to a universe without aliens on the theory that this was safest?

But I do love the list :)

[conuly]

Or they face such disasters much more often. That's cheery, isn't it?

[peebs1701.livejournal.com]

Maybe in one of his books. I've only read I, Robot and the Foundation series.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Don't forget flowers. The dinosaurs might have died off anyway due to the evolution of flowers.

[conuly]

What, seriously?

[leora.livejournal.com]

Yes!

Flowers were more evolutionarily fit than ferns. Think of all those pictures of dinosaur times - think of the plants. You don't see a lot of plantlife like that around.

The flowers were taking over. This is relevant because the mammals were able to work very well with the flowering plants to eat them and pollinate them and stuff, but the dinosaurs could not. So, the large herbivores were having to roam around trying to find food and having less and less food to find. And then the meat-eating dinosaurs were having fewer large plant-eating dinosaurs.

At least, that's how the theory goes. Flowers: they're not just sappy tokens of affection, but also dinosaur killers!