"Aliens will be machines", astronomer says

[PoisonApple]

Astronomer Royal: If we find aliens, they will be machines

Prof Lord Rees told the Cheltenham Science Festival the first contact with aliens will be through robots

Alien contact is likely to come from machines living on other worlds outside of the solar system, the astronomer royal Martin Rees has said.

Prof Lord Rees, 72, told the Cheltenham Science Festival ‘I’m not holding my breath’ for signs of extraterrestrial life, but said if a signal was picked up it would not be from organic life, like humans.

He said that most space exploration would be carried out by machines, which would not constrained by the physical difficulties of existing in space or on other planets.

“I think it is quite likely that within a few centuries the overriding intelligence will be machines because they will have an easier time spreading beyond the Earth because they are not organic and most exploration will be by machines and not humans,” he said.

“If you were to detect a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) signal it would be far more likely that it would be from a machine and not an organic creature.

“There has been just a thin sliver of time when organic beings have existed and billions of years after machines will take over, so they will be the future.”

Prof Rees said that only a few adventurous humans would ever leave Earth to colonise the solar system, where they would be forced to use technology to adapt to inhabitable worlds and start new civilisations.

He claimed that such cyber adaptations to new planets or moons would mark the start of the ‘post-human era.’

Space Adventures Ltd is already planning the first tourist trips to the dark side of the Moon, while SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk which regularly delivers payloads to the International Space Station, is hoping to start transporting tourists as well as cargo into space in the near future.

Prof Lord Rees, 72, told the Cheltenham Science Festival ‘I’m not holding my breath’ for signs of extraterrestrial life

Musk has also spoken of his ambitions to start a colony on Mars stating he would like to die on the planet ‘just not on impact.’

Astronauts have not ventured beyond low Earth obit since the last manned flight to the Moon in 1972.

Prof Rees said: “We won’t see another Apollo mission because that was fuelled by super-power rivalry. I think there will be people who go, but not in the mode of traditional astronauts, but crazy adventurers like Ranulph Feinnes and Elon Musk.

“By the end of the century there will be some people living away from the Earth. We will wish them good look in adapting their progeny who will need genetic adaptations.

“That will be the start of the post-human era because they will evolve to be a new species.

"I would predict that in the next 50 years or so all of the bodies in the solar system will have been mapped and probed by machine and some people will follow."

Prof Rees said he was concerned about the rise in biotechnology and warned that computers and robots will soon be so advanced they will be able to create the next generation of machines without human intervention.

Stephen Hawking recently cautioned that the rise in artificial intelligence could spell the end of mankind.

“Some people think we ought to have guidelines while other people we think we should not worry about that. I am certainly concerned about these sub autonomous military robots which can just put bullets in people” Prof Rees added.

“But Stephen Hawking has pronounced on this in a dogmatic way and got much more traction that the vein deserves,” he added.

 

[Wind7]

This is an interesting premise simply because if you look at the greater base of technology especially today when some get a new cell phone for example, it seems people are not exactly as used to these devices as they could be.

Whereas children, especially younger children, seem to have some sort of prior knowledge or intelligence to be able to just walk right up to a machine and know how to use them sometimes if not most times much quicker than an adult, prior
to receiving any formal schooling.

Children are being born smarter.

If machines of technology are the aliens they're proclaiming,
who's to say that they are not
already ensconced right here
on Earth possibly changing genetic codes to further a
reliance upon them for our
future dependence for survival.

I know that this is just speculation, but it is interesting.

 

[Snake Plissken]

I think his views are based upon our current technology. Using our current methods of galactic travel, huge rocket ships guzzling rocket fuel then he is probably right. Unless we mastered cryogenics then robots would be the only way to travel across the stars. I think the intelligent Aliens that are already here have much more sophisticate means of travel.

I thought it was interesting that John Titor implied that UFOs and Aliens were likely to be time travellers from much further on in our future (time line).

 

[PoisonApple]

I think his views are based upon our current technology. Using our current methods of galactic travel, huge rocket ships guzzling rocket fuel then he is probably right. Unless we mastered cryogenics then robots would be the only way to travel across the stars. I think the intelligent Aliens that are already here have much more sophisticate means of travel.

I thought it was interesting that John Titor implied that UFOs and Aliens were likely to be time travellers from much further on in our future (time line).

I agree... Unless it's just unmanned probes they're sending, they already definitely have a much more sophisticated means of interstellar travel... How primitive we must seem, with our rocket ships..lol.

I believe some "aliens" or UFO crafts are actually future time travelers... It's a bit comforting to me to think that humanity has survived against all the odds given...

 

[Snake Plissken]

Yes but I dread to think (experience) the events that stand between our time now and that future Utopia.. Events that are possibly just around the corner. I think there is to be a lot of pain before we attain our future enlightenment

 

[Snake Plissken]

Going back to the Titor stuff (sorry to the thread originator as we are going off subject) I've read his full Postings several times and whenever I read the bit where he says that he likes to think that UFOs and Aliens are time travellers from a more distant future with more sophisticated devices, I always get the impression that he already KNOWS and is dumbing it down. Perhaps there will be some UFO disclosure or major event between now and 2036. I think he is dumbing down the truth because at our stage of current development the world is pretty much ignorant of the truth around UFOs and Aliens.

 

[Classicalfan626]

I think that there is a lot of information known by various governments around the world, including the U.S. one, that is not being revealed to the mainstream public. I think that there are missions from Earth, including manned ones, being done in secret using UFO technology.

@Snake Plissken - Don't tell me you believe that governments around the world and the mainstream media are telling the public everything they know. To think that they are is ludicrous!

 

[Num7]

I tend to agree with all of this. Sophisticated machines are much more convenient for space exploration. Up to now we have probes and rovers, we're doing fine, but perhaps in a few decades we'll have much more complex machines that can possibly do anything a human would.

That will work wonders for the exploration of other worlds. We'd just have to remotely control it when necessary, or let it explore on its own.

Now, about alien evidence being robots, I can buy that too. Perhaps other civilizations are organic species just like us. Imagine for instance, a civilization of dolphins that technologically evolved for thousands of years and reached the space colonization age. Their natural and possibly tolerable habitats are even narrower that ours. These guys would definitely benefit of robots to explore the universe, let alone the surface of their planet.

I guess it's just inconvenient to travel through space by ourselves for a lot of practical reasons.

 

[TimeFlipper]

Astronomer Royal: If we find aliens, they will be machines

Prof Lord Rees told the Cheltenham Science Festival the first contact with aliens will be through robots

Alien contact is likely to come from machines living on other worlds outside of the solar system, the astronomer royal Martin Rees has said.

Prof Lord Rees, 72, told the Cheltenham Science Festival ‘I’m not holding my breath’ for signs of extraterrestrial life, but said if a signal was picked up it would not be from organic life, like humans.

He said that most space exploration would be carried out by machines, which would not constrained by the physical difficulties of existing in space or on other planets.

“I think it is quite likely that within a few centuries the overriding intelligence will be machines because they will have an easier time spreading beyond the Earth because they are not organic and most exploration will be by machines and not humans,” he said.

“If you were to detect a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) signal it would be far more likely that it would be from a machine and not an organic creature.

“There has been just a thin sliver of time when organic beings have existed and billions of years after machines will take over, so they will be the future.”

Prof Rees said that only a few adventurous humans would ever leave Earth to colonise the solar system, where they would be forced to use technology to adapt to inhabitable worlds and start new civilisations.

He claimed that such cyber adaptations to new planets or moons would mark the start of the ‘post-human era.’

Space Adventures Ltd is already planning the first tourist trips to the dark side of the Moon, while SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk which regularly delivers payloads to the International Space Station, is hoping to start transporting tourists as well as cargo into space in the near future.

Prof Lord Rees, 72, told the Cheltenham Science Festival ‘I’m not holding my breath’ for signs of extraterrestrial life

Musk has also spoken of his ambitions to start a colony on Mars stating he would like to die on the planet ‘just not on impact.’

Astronauts have not ventured beyond low Earth obit since the last manned flight to the Moon in 1972.

Prof Rees said: “We won’t see another Apollo mission because that was fuelled by super-power rivalry. I think there will be people who go, but not in the mode of traditional astronauts, but crazy adventurers like Ranulph Feinnes and Elon Musk.

“By the end of the century there will be some people living away from the Earth. We will wish them good look in adapting their progeny who will need genetic adaptations.

“That will be the start of the post-human era because they will evolve to be a new species.

"I would predict that in the next 50 years or so all of the bodies in the solar system will have been mapped and probed by machine and some people will follow."

Prof Rees said he was concerned about the rise in biotechnology and warned that computers and robots will soon be so advanced they will be able to create the next generation of machines without human intervention.

Stephen Hawking recently cautioned that the rise in artificial intelligence could spell the end of mankind.

“Some people think we ought to have guidelines while other people we think we should not worry about that. I am certainly concerned about these sub autonomous military robots which can just put bullets in people” Prof Rees added.

“But Stephen Hawking has pronounced on this in a dogmatic way and got much more traction that the vein deserves,” he added.

I always knew that the Daleks would take over our world!!

 

[Snake Plissken]

Technically superior Dolphin species - I like the thought of that.

They might have problems using keyboards with their flippers tho
8)