A thought

[Nikos]

Why do so many people automatically assume that any intelligent extraterrestrial life we encounter will be more advanced then we are? There is no reason to believe this, in fact there are many reasons NOT to believe this. So what do you think makes people think this way? HAve we been watching too many movies?

[Baron von Sky Hat]

Firstly, I'd reckon the chance of meeting any intelligent life at all at even vaguely the same stage that we are is fairly unlikely, the scale time of the universe/galaxy compared to that of human civilisation for example, means that the chance of two such civilisations popping up at the same time is probably very slight, even if there are very many that will at some point pop up. Though that's just at a guess, I haven't done any maths regarding it. It may not be possible to really do any meaningful maths on it, given the huge number of unknowns regarding likeliness of other civilisations at all. Things like the Drake Equation are highly speculative to the point that it's not really useful from a quantitative point of view. Although, to be fair to the Drake Equation, I've always been under the impression that its intention was never to actually predict the number of communication capable aliens, more to provide a focus point for discussion of aspects relating to that.

However, if you assume that any civilisation currently in the galaxy is at the right sort of stage now (ignoring communication/travel times due to relativity), then I reckon you actually *would* expect it to be more likely to meet an advanced civilisation.

You could posit that our chance of finding another civilisation is proportional in some way to our level of development/technology, therefore other civilisations have the same dependence on technology. The higher levels of tech of each civilisation would result in higher chances of them finding each other.

That would be my first thought regarding the topic, anyway. I may decide it's stupid and flawed at a later stage, at which point I'll dissociate myself from it as much as possible and blame it on someone else....

It does also somewhat depend on what you mean by `encounter', whether that involves us going to them, them coming to us, or making communication contact.
Us going to them, assuming the distances could be traveled, you might expect to find them at presumably an entirely random stage of development (though again, you might also argue that the more technology they do have, the more likely it is that we'd notice them to find them, which again pushes the odds slightly in favour of advanced).
Them coming to us, and communication between us and them, obviously imply automatic lower limits to how advanced they have to be, in order to accomplish it in the first place.

There are so many variables involved that it's difficult to know really. Certainly I reckon that with non-sci-fi assumptions, ie the off chance that we catch a radio/etc signal, you'd expect a certain level of development, but not necessarily way beyond our own level.

[Chaigidel]

what reasons would you cite that would lend credence to the "probably not " more advanced than us category?

[Nikos]

what reasons would you cite that would lend credence to the "probably not " more advanced than us category?

There is no evidence to suggest that anything in the Universe is more advanced then we are.

Well if in the event that an alien race finds us, they would HAVE to be more advanced. Not so if we find them first.

I said that WE come in contact with which means we find it not the other way around.

[Copperknickers II]

It is doubtful that there is anything in the universe more intelligent than us. Besides, there is only so much intelligence can do - there are some things no amount of technology will be able to improve.

[Alba gu Brath]

It is doubtful that there is anything in the universe more intelligent than us. Besides, there is only so much intelligence can do - there are some things no amount of technology will be able to improve.

Why exactly is it doubtful? Also, if you believe in the theory of multiple universes then in another universe there could be way more advanced species than us, due to them being around for longer.

[Simetrical]

There is still a possibility though that our radio signals we have been sending for nearly 100 years could be intercepted by aliens though, and thus they could technically find out that we exist (or vice versa)

But not actually interact with us, or even communicate with us very much. The amount of time it would take to even be able to communicate basic concepts with multiyear latency is awfully large. So yeah, it's possible, but it doesn't make good sci-fi.

Also, if you believe in the theory of multiple universes then in another universe there could be way more advanced species than us, due to them being around for longer.

If there are other universes, then (by definition) we can't easily access them, so their contents are more or less irrelevant to us. There could be civilizations a billion years older than ours in our own universe anyway, so what's the point of talking about other universes?

[Alba gu Brath]

If there are other universes, then (by definition) we can't easily access them, so their contents are more or less irrelevant to us. There could be civilizations a billion years older than ours in our own universe anyway, so what's the point of talking about other universes?

Well if there's civilizations billions of years older than us in the galaxy then there's the big possibility that they are more intellegent than us. I threw in the multiple universes because if this theory is true then there could be civilizations that are trillions+ years old who may have found a way to travel through universes, again making us "not" the most intelligent species in the universe.

[Simetrical]

There is no evidence at all to suggest that there are advanced civilizations other then humanity in the Universe ATM. The Evidence to the contrary is that we exist and know how intelligent we are. There is no current reason to suspect that a more advanced civilization exists.

We have no good reason to believe that a more advanced civilization exists, but we also have no good reaosn to believe that a more advanced civilization does not exist. There is no good evidence either for or against the proposition. Therefore we should neither believe nor disbelieve it very strongly.

Well if there's civilizations billions of years older than us in the galaxy then there's the big possibility that they are more intellegent than us.

Sure. It's not certain, though. We can't extrapolate well from a sample size of one.

I threw in the multiple universes because if this theory is true then there could be civilizations that are trillions+ years old who may have found a way to travel through universes, again making us "not" the most intelligent species in the universe.

On what basis do you call something "another universe" if you can travel to it with good enough technology? Then it's really just a hard-to-reach part of our own universe, and doesn't deserve separate consideration.

[CtrlAltDe1337]

If we meet anything on another planet, they will probably be little more than worms or bugs. Maybe some bigger animals, but I would say that would be about it. People have been seeing too many secret aircraft flying around...

[DimondLight]

Well if in the event that an alien race finds us, they would HAVE to be more advanced. Not so if we find them first.

[Simetrical]

Well if in the event that an alien race finds us, they would HAVE to be more advanced. Not so if we find them first.

Precisely. That's all there is to it. We are not going to be capable of leaving the solar system on any significant scale for the foreseeable future. Therefore, if we meet aliens, they'll have to come to us. The mere fact that they're able to come to us, when we aren't able to go to them, means that they're more advanced than we are.

[Mar77]

There is still a possibility though that our radio signals we have been sending for nearly 100 years could be intercepted by aliens though, and thus they could technically find out that we exist (or vice versa)

[Digbert]

Why do so many people automatically assume that any intelligent extraterrestrial life we encounter will be more advanced then we are? There is no reason to believe this, in fact there are many reasons NOT to believe this. So what do you think makes people think this way? HAve we been watching too many movies?

True but for us to encounter them they would most likely have to come here so they would need a Faster than light drive or something similar so they would in turn be far more advanced than us

[Hakkapeliitta]

Well, although the aliens might be vastly superior to us technologically, it wouldn't necessarily mean they that they are inherently superior to us. They may have simply had more time to accumulate all that knowledge.

[Helm]

Why do so many people automatically assume that any intelligent extraterrestrial life we encounter will be more advanced then we are? There is no reason to believe this, in fact there are many reasons NOT to believe this. So what do you think makes people think this way? HAve we been watching too many movies?

The main reason being they will very likely have been around for much longer than we have given the evolutionary age of our species relative to the rest of the galaxy.

[Ketzerfreund]

It is doubtful that there is anything in the universe more intelligent than us. Besides, there is only so much intelligence can do - there are some things no amount of technology will be able to improve.

Heh... Certain kinds of thinkable specie's civilisations might even be completely unable to advance beyond a certain stage of technological development simply due to the environment they live in. Think of "fish people", for example. Under water they'll be able to make a high-voltage experiment exactly once.

[Simetrical]

There is no evidence to suggest that anything in the Universe is more advanced then we are.

Nor is there evidence to the contrary.

I said that WE come in contact with which means we find it not the other way around.

Then we'd probably be the more advanced, but it's not certain.

The main reason being they will very likely have been around for much longer than we have given the evolutionary age of our species relative to the rest of the galaxy.

That doesn't mean they have more technology. They might be intelligent but not technologically inclined, for whatever reason.

Heh... Certain kinds of thinkable specie's civilisations might even be completely unable to advance beyond a certain stage of technological development simply due to the environment they live in. Think of "fish people", for example. Under water they'll be able to make a high-voltage experiment exactly once.

I wouldn't discount them so quickly. They couldn't invent fire easily, so they'd have trouble making metals, and so on. But that doesn't mean they can never reach those technologies, just that they'd have to take an alternate route. They might still master biology, chemistry, and physics without inventing metal. IF they explored enough, they'd try to explore what it's like above the surface. Eventually they'd be likely to figure out some ways of heating things up (maybe with fire held above the surface of the water, maybe some other way) and making metals. They could invent electricity as we did, based on theoretical considerations -- they'd just have to make sure to insulate the equipment very well. And so on.

[Nikos]

Nor is there evidence to the contrary.

There is no evidence at all to suggest that there are advanced civilizations other then humanity in the Universe ATM. The Evidence to the contrary is that we exist and know how intelligent we are. There is no current reason to suspect that a more advanced civilization exists.

[Gaidin]

Why do so many people automatically assume that any intelligent extraterrestrial life we encounter will be more advanced then we are? There is no reason to believe this, in fact there are many reasons NOT to believe this. So what do you think makes people think this way? HAve we been watching too many movies?

In order to encounter intelligent ET life at this point in our technology, and have it be less advanced than us, it would have to be in our solar system, if not on the moon. Given our lack of ability to get out of our solar system with any dependability, any ET life we find(or finds us as the case is more likely to be), will be more advanced.