There could be many reasons. Here are a few, where ETI = Extra Terrestrial Intelligences
Which might be tomorrow, or might be half a million years into the future or more.
And these scenarios don't necessarily mean they are better than us. In some they might be, in others maybe not. It might be they have a lot to learn from us.
Perhaps not technologically - though in some scenarios they could need technological help from us also (e.g. an ancient civilization that has "devolved" to be like children who don't understand their own technology any more, or ice moon civilizations that never were able to develop advanced technology at all though far ahead of us in all other areas of civilization).
But they might also have lost a lot of the vitality of a young civilization like ourself. Or they may be no longer so grounded as us or may need reminders in areas such as compassion and wisdom, in lives where everything goes so well they have completely forgotten, most of them, about the possibility of suffering and don't really understand it, or connect it to their own experiences, because they never experience anything like it. They may think they have solved all their problems. But we with our perspective as a younger civilization, we might look at their civilization and after we begin to understand it, we see they have many issues they have simply ignored and don't see any more themselves, got so used to it they have forgotten that you can be any different.
When sometimes people say we are bound to be "like ants" to ETIs - I'd be surprised myself. Could be that they are vastly more intelligent than us in some ways, and can solve complex problems quickly. Or could be not, they could as easily be less intelligent than us, if intelligence isn't greatly needed or valued in their society. After all if technology can do everything, do you need to be clever even technologically to make use of it? And even if they are more clever in some ways, this is not a linear thing. There are many people that are very intelligent in one direction, but lack even the basics of common sense in another direction. They may be like that also and we may end up wishing we could somehow help them, rather than the other way around asking them to help us. Or may be two ways, learning from them and them from us. If we do meet ETIs and they are interested enough to communicate with us, I'd be surprised if it is just one direction myself, just them helping us.
And as for them being antagonistic to us and invading etc - that seems so unlikely because with advanced technology, they could replicate and create anything, and there are no unusual raw materials we have, just life which they could easily replicate if there is any product of life that they want on Earth. But if they do do anything hostile, then that would show clearly that in some ways at least they have a lot to learn about compassion, if nothing else. That would show right away that they are not as advanced as they seem and need help, if they only knew it.
- Most ETIs have long ago forgotten about that archaic method of communication we call radio. They use it for observing the universe but have much better ways of communicating. Some day we tune into the same thing and find they've been sending us messages for centuries
- They communicate with teach other using laser beams or some future advanced technology that only uses energy in the direction you want to send the signal. It's very wasteful to broadcast a signal in all directions. Unless we are on line of sight with those beams of light or whatever, we will never notice
- Their communications are very efficiently coded, and pack a lot of information into every millisecond. The more efficiently you pack the information, the more it is indistinguishable from noise if you don't know how to receive it. So we receive their signals but just don't recognize it as anything but noise, because we don't have the key we need to unlock it and recognize it.
- They use radio, but the nearest ETI is a few hundred light years away and they don't need to shout in the radio wavelength. We couldn't detect ourselves even a few light years away unless the signal was targeted right at us.
- Most ETIs are non technological, don't have hands, or live in subsurface oceans like the oceans of our icy moons. They could be living even in the oceans of Europa and we wouldn't know they are there yet.
- ETIs don't colonize the galaxy. I think most agree that it would be foolish if you can invent a self replicating machine to send one out to fill the galaxy with copies of itself, in case it evolves through imperfect copies into something harmful. But colonizing may be seen similarly - filling the galaxy with uncontrolled self replicators that might do anythng to the galaxy and we wouldn't know for thousands of years. If ETIs don't colonize there could be a few thousand different ETI civilizations in our galaxy, and the nearest ETI is hundreds of light years away or more.
- ETIs are rare. There is lots of life but it takes a rare combination of conditions for the live to evolve to intelligence. We are the only ones in our tiny area that we are able to search with reasonable sensitivity to their signals.
- ETIs are really keen to contact young civilizations like ourselves. But they have a different sense of time from us. They have long ago learnt to extend their lives so they live for millions, or billions of years. For them, to contact us within a half a million years of when we first become a star faring nation seems like an almost immediate contact, equivalent of a decade for us. They just haven't noticed us yet, too far away, and just got receivers dotted every few tens of thousands of light years through the galaxy, and then it has to send the signal on to them wherever they are. We are due a message or a visit some time in the next few hundred thousand years. And they may conduct leisurely long distance conversations with us and each other where, maybe after an intial burst of greeting and information, typically you exchange messages only now and again every few millennia.
- Most ETIs lose interest in the universe outside of their own solar system because they understand it so well, and have got to know all their ETI neighbours - and maybe not as interested in them as we would be - and get much more involved in their own intellectual pursuits, or their social world, or music, or poetry or art. A few of them are still interested in the physical world and other ETIs, so we might encounter one of those but if we do, they will be considered very eccentric by their society.
- When their technology can do everything for them and they've solved all their problems, they become lazy, and also pursuit of knowledge and understanding not encouraged. And they become child like and lose the keen intelligence they had originally. So again just got caught up in their own world, and though relying on dazzling technology as it would seem to us, and we ask them in wonder about it - but they are not interested in it and have long ago forgotten how it works.
- They have had experience of contacting young civilizations like ourselves in the past and whatever they try, it never goes well. So they hold back on contact until we reach a later stage in our development. Much like the way we hold off from contacting the uncontacted tribes in the Amazon.
- There is a lot of life in the universe. But we have, for whatever reason, just chance, evolved far more rapidly than just about anyone else. We are the first ETI in our galaxy (say). We wouldn't notice because when we look back at evolutionary history it seems everything takes a long time. But actually, typically the step say from prokaryotes to eukaryotes (cells with a nucleus) takes say ten billion years, or a hundred billion years. Everything seems to have gone quickly to us - because by chance that's what would happen to one of the many ETIs, the only way they can evolve to be the first ETI in a galaxy is if all the steps happen quickly. So then they look at their history and think it is normal, but it is instead a rare outlier very improbable event. Someone has to be the first ETI in our galaxy, maybe it is us?
Which might be tomorrow, or might be half a million years into the future or more.
And these scenarios don't necessarily mean they are better than us. In some they might be, in others maybe not. It might be they have a lot to learn from us.
Perhaps not technologically - though in some scenarios they could need technological help from us also (e.g. an ancient civilization that has "devolved" to be like children who don't understand their own technology any more, or ice moon civilizations that never were able to develop advanced technology at all though far ahead of us in all other areas of civilization).
But they might also have lost a lot of the vitality of a young civilization like ourself. Or they may be no longer so grounded as us or may need reminders in areas such as compassion and wisdom, in lives where everything goes so well they have completely forgotten, most of them, about the possibility of suffering and don't really understand it, or connect it to their own experiences, because they never experience anything like it. They may think they have solved all their problems. But we with our perspective as a younger civilization, we might look at their civilization and after we begin to understand it, we see they have many issues they have simply ignored and don't see any more themselves, got so used to it they have forgotten that you can be any different.
When sometimes people say we are bound to be "like ants" to ETIs - I'd be surprised myself. Could be that they are vastly more intelligent than us in some ways, and can solve complex problems quickly. Or could be not, they could as easily be less intelligent than us, if intelligence isn't greatly needed or valued in their society. After all if technology can do everything, do you need to be clever even technologically to make use of it? And even if they are more clever in some ways, this is not a linear thing. There are many people that are very intelligent in one direction, but lack even the basics of common sense in another direction. They may be like that also and we may end up wishing we could somehow help them, rather than the other way around asking them to help us. Or may be two ways, learning from them and them from us. If we do meet ETIs and they are interested enough to communicate with us, I'd be surprised if it is just one direction myself, just them helping us.
And as for them being antagonistic to us and invading etc - that seems so unlikely because with advanced technology, they could replicate and create anything, and there are no unusual raw materials we have, just life which they could easily replicate if there is any product of life that they want on Earth. But if they do do anything hostile, then that would show clearly that in some ways at least they have a lot to learn about compassion, if nothing else. That would show right away that they are not as advanced as they seem and need help, if they only knew it.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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