Volconvo is a debate forum for the discussion of political, religious, and news-based topics.

ruiner · Jun 2, 2004, 11:41 pm

This topic branches off from the "Extra Terrestrial Life?" topic. In that topic nearly everyone seemed to agree that intelligent life probably does exist elsewhere in the universe.

Okay so lets assume they do. So what do you think the universal balance out there is? ie what are the politics like?

It is quite interesting because unlike Earth, universal civilisations will be amazingly out of step in terms of technology. Even a difference of 1000 years will be a huge difference. Therefore we can expect there to be several heirarchies of politics. The highly advanced races may only deal with each other and not consider races lower in the heirarchy worth communicating with.

What else might you expect about politics throughout our galaxy?

Do you expect all these alien races live in harmony or do you expect constant conflict like on Earth? Do you expect older alien races to be more peaceful or more warlike than younger ones (such as ourselves)?

Will religions exist, will there be religious tensions?

Will some of the older races have reached the limit of technology? What happens then?

Is it possible that biological species have been replaced by their own technology? (think The Matrix)

Biggest question of all: Can any of this thinking shed any light on why we have not detected any alien presence in our galaxy yet?

PatrickHenry · Jun 3, 2004, 01:52 am

Butterface, because no one can bring any facts to bear. Pure speculation. More interesting to me personally, what aliens in movies or literature are memorable?

**Pooeypants** · Jun 3, 2004, 04:57 am

Ruiner, err, slightly puzzled, we haven't had first contact yet so this is just pure science fiction...

Samildanach · Jun 3, 2004, 05:09 am

There are still extrapolations that should apply in general to any space faring culture. Admitedly they may not be particulalrly accurate but for instance if you look at all human cultures for example you can more or less get across a message using sign language
purely because of the way our bodies are built.
Likewise, any civilisation that has fought its way into space should have a certain number of progression paths available to them. Depending on which of these paths they chose to take will depend a lot on what their civilisation is like. Example, if they chose manned spacecraft eq xprise type of craft, they may have very advanced ship technology. If they chose the space elevator route they would tend to have more of a colective mentality and their engineering skills may well be more advanced. so we can make generalisations to fit theories and I don't think this is a waste of time at all. ITs always good to have say ten possible profiles of the type of intelligences you could possibly meet to be able to categorise them and their likely capabilities. The only thing we know about them for sure at the moment is they are likely to exist and they don't have any kind of high speed travel technology that we can detect or understand, or maybe like us it just doesn't exist yet, and all they have is theories.

Jun 3, 2004, 01:52 am	#2 (permalink) (top)
PatrickHenry 9/11: Inside Job Location: Hawai'i, Big Island Posts: 10,435	Butterface, because no one can bring any facts to bear. Pure speculation. More interesting to me personally, what aliens in movies or literature are memorable? "Arms in the hands of the citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defense of the country, the overthrow of tyranny or private self-defense." -- John Adams

Jun 3, 2004, 04:57 am	#3 (permalink) (top)
Pooeypants Neo Moderator Location: England Posts: 5,469	Ruiner, err, slightly puzzled, we haven't had first contact yet so this is just pure science fiction... War is Peace Freedom is Slavery Ignorance is strength Harness the power of Ingsoc, then you can capture someone killed the year before

Jun 3, 2004, 05:09 am	#4 (permalink) (top)
Samildanach Pragmatist Location: UK London Posts: 1,979	There are still extrapolations that should apply in general to any space faring culture. Admitedly they may not be particulalrly accurate but for instance if you look at all human cultures for example you can more or less get across a message using sign language purely because of the way our bodies are built. Likewise, any civilisation that has fought its way into space should have a certain number of progression paths available to them. Depending on which of these paths they chose to take will depend a lot on what their civilisation is like. Example, if they chose manned spacecraft eq xprise type of craft, they may have very advanced ship technology. If they chose the space elevator route they would tend to have more of a colective mentality and their engineering skills may well be more advanced. so we can make generalisations to fit theories and I don't think this is a waste of time at all. ITs always good to have say ten possible profiles of the type of intelligences you could possibly meet to be able to categorise them and their likely capabilities. The only thing we know about them for sure at the moment is they are likely to exist and they don't have any kind of high speed travel technology that we can detect or understand, or maybe like us it just doesn't exist yet, and all they have is theories. I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs and insanity for everyone, but its always worked for me. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime." (Ernest Hemingway)

Jun 2, 2004, 11:41 pm	#1 (permalink) (top)
ruiner Igneous Magma Posts: 180	This topic branches off from the "Extra Terrestrial Life?" topic. In that topic nearly everyone seemed to agree that intelligent life probably does exist elsewhere in the universe. Okay so lets assume they do. So what do you think the universal balance out there is? ie what are the politics like? It is quite interesting because unlike Earth, universal civilisations will be amazingly out of step in terms of technology. Even a difference of 1000 years will be a huge difference. Therefore we can expect there to be several heirarchies of politics. The highly advanced races may only deal with each other and not consider races lower in the heirarchy worth communicating with. What else might you expect about politics throughout our galaxy? Do you expect all these alien races live in harmony or do you expect constant conflict like on Earth? Do you expect older alien races to be more peaceful or more warlike than younger ones (such as ourselves)? Will religions exist, will there be religious tensions? Will some of the older races have reached the limit of technology? What happens then? Is it possible that biological species have been replaced by their own technology? (think The Matrix) Biggest question of all: Can any of this thinking shed any light on why we have not detected any alien presence in our galaxy yet?