Nov 1, 2024 05:00 PM
https://bigthink.com/thinking/if-aliens-...vage-past/
EXCERPT: . . . We have many examples of intelligence on our own planet, including dolphins and whales, certain birds such as parrots and crows, great apes, and cephalopods like octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid. Perhaps the most interesting alien analog is the octopus. These invertebrate animals, related to snails and slugs, haven’t shared a common ancestor with humans for the last 600 million years, meaning their evolutionary history is very different from ours. Their anatomy alone seems alien — their neurons are mostly spread across eight arms rather than the brain. Lacking bones, they can squish through small crevices in rocks.
Octopuses are even known to be mischievous. Unlike rats, they don´t like to play along in intelligence tests designed by people. After staff members at the Vancouver aquarium noticed that other fish were missing from their tanks night after night, they put up cameras to resolve the mystery. An octopus in one of the tanks had been lifting the cover of its tank and going on nightly outings to dine on fish from the other tanks. After dinner, it neatly replaced the covers of both tanks so as to leave no trace.
Humans and octopuses can even forge a kind of friendship, as seen in the documentary My Octopus Teacher (though I hope the aliens would be better friends to us than the human in the film, who just stands by as his octopus friend gets ripped apart by a small shark). If the roles were reversed, and the octopus was much larger — size matters in the animal world — could it have gone the other way? Might the octopus even try to make a meal of its “friend”?
In contemplating whether we humans would be tasty to visiting aliens, we can only hope that we’re biochemically different enough from a species that evolved on another world. There’s a good chance “they” would find us poisonous, or at least unappealing enough to give them indigestion!
Or perhaps they are more altruistic than we are, taking care of wild animals in nature preserves. Nonhuman altruism has been observed in nature, the most famous example being dolphins who save humans from drowning even at some cost to themselves. These acts usually happen between somewhat related species, however, rather than, say, spiders and humans. Of course, we would have no relation to extraterrestrials at all.
So it’s an open question how exactly aliens would see us: Just another interstellar species to befriend in a large and wondrous Universe? Competition for resources? Zoo animals to be protected? Food? The lessons of biology allow for all of the above. Aliens may also be totally uninterested in our ethical concerns, especially if they believe they are further evolved than we are. Male lions taking over a new pride kill the cubs of their predecessors. On Earth, nature seems to care less about individuals and more about the survival of the species. Aliens may have taken that lesson to heart (if they have hearts).
Finally, even if the extraterrestrials have the most benign intentions, a misunderstanding could still lead to disaster... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: . . . We have many examples of intelligence on our own planet, including dolphins and whales, certain birds such as parrots and crows, great apes, and cephalopods like octopuses, cuttlefish, and squid. Perhaps the most interesting alien analog is the octopus. These invertebrate animals, related to snails and slugs, haven’t shared a common ancestor with humans for the last 600 million years, meaning their evolutionary history is very different from ours. Their anatomy alone seems alien — their neurons are mostly spread across eight arms rather than the brain. Lacking bones, they can squish through small crevices in rocks.
Octopuses are even known to be mischievous. Unlike rats, they don´t like to play along in intelligence tests designed by people. After staff members at the Vancouver aquarium noticed that other fish were missing from their tanks night after night, they put up cameras to resolve the mystery. An octopus in one of the tanks had been lifting the cover of its tank and going on nightly outings to dine on fish from the other tanks. After dinner, it neatly replaced the covers of both tanks so as to leave no trace.
Humans and octopuses can even forge a kind of friendship, as seen in the documentary My Octopus Teacher (though I hope the aliens would be better friends to us than the human in the film, who just stands by as his octopus friend gets ripped apart by a small shark). If the roles were reversed, and the octopus was much larger — size matters in the animal world — could it have gone the other way? Might the octopus even try to make a meal of its “friend”?
In contemplating whether we humans would be tasty to visiting aliens, we can only hope that we’re biochemically different enough from a species that evolved on another world. There’s a good chance “they” would find us poisonous, or at least unappealing enough to give them indigestion!
Or perhaps they are more altruistic than we are, taking care of wild animals in nature preserves. Nonhuman altruism has been observed in nature, the most famous example being dolphins who save humans from drowning even at some cost to themselves. These acts usually happen between somewhat related species, however, rather than, say, spiders and humans. Of course, we would have no relation to extraterrestrials at all.
So it’s an open question how exactly aliens would see us: Just another interstellar species to befriend in a large and wondrous Universe? Competition for resources? Zoo animals to be protected? Food? The lessons of biology allow for all of the above. Aliens may also be totally uninterested in our ethical concerns, especially if they believe they are further evolved than we are. Male lions taking over a new pride kill the cubs of their predecessors. On Earth, nature seems to care less about individuals and more about the survival of the species. Aliens may have taken that lesson to heart (if they have hearts).
Finally, even if the extraterrestrials have the most benign intentions, a misunderstanding could still lead to disaster... (MORE - missing details)
