[ExI] More Advanced Extraterrestrials

[Robin D Hanson]

On Dec 25, 2014, at 12:47 PM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I agree they would be far more advanced from us; that was key to my
>> latest comment there. But why should being far more advanced mean
>> that we should "be unable to understand what they will be like"? We
>> don't understand everything, but we do understand some things, so why
>> can't we make use of what we do understand?
> 
> I assume that they will be post-Singularity entities. They won't be
> cowboys with spaceships and laser guns like Star Trek. Their advanced
> tech will be like magic to us.
> 
> I don't believe we will be able to understand post-Singularity aliens.
> We may not even be able to see them. As we don't see massive
> engineering redesigning star systems, they may go the nano-tech route,
> or disappear near black holes.
> 
> To quote Seth Shostak of SETI "You don't spend a whole lot of time
> hanging out reading books with your
> goldfish. On the other hand, you don't really want to kill the
> goldfish, either."

Goldfish don't understand much of anything, so it is hard to talk sensibly
about why they don't understand things. We humans, in contrast, are general
minds, probably capable of understanding many bits of what advanced aliens
might explain to us, if we took the time. So why shouldn't we be able to figure
out some of those things ourselves, without them explaining them to us?

Robin Hanson  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Res. Assoc., Future of Humanity Inst., Oxford Univ.
Assoc. Professor, George Mason University
Chief Scientist, Consensus Point
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323