Repercussions of the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Ooer.

Couldn't resist.


But back on topic, it hardly seems likely that alien life like that could survive such a journey through space.

Don't take anything to Earth until the best technology and best scientists from both sides can say it's clean. Also it could be so ridiculously incompatible with Earth biology that it dies immediately.

You know what a spaceship is, right?
Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

A what?

We weren't talking about life IN spaceships, we were talking about life ON spaceships. Do you really think that if a spaceship lands (which it won't), we're just going to be like "OMG YOLO LET'S DISREGARD ALL COMMON SENSE AND JUST OPEN IT!"?

And I don't know if you know what happens to objects when they enter our atmosphere, but here is a tip: they get quite hot.

Because interstellar spaceships can't slow down.

Tell them to stay in orbit until we get our stuff together and have a meeting on the moon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/bacteria-survive-nearly-three-years-on-the-moon/9931.html
I am not dure how you can claim that stuff can be made perfectly clean. Even now theres issues with putting rovers on mars and contamination.

I'm going to start asking these questions again

Who says they have scientists? Who says we have a commonly-understood form of communication? Why does incompatibility mean that it dies (instead of affecting us or our systems adversely)?

If they are more advanced, current bacterial evolution suggests itll be far more resistant thans our stuff. So yea its far likelier that itll flourish on earth and be incompatible with our diseases

Alright fine no space trading until we get some death row prisoners and do some human testing. For Science.

Because if it's incompatible then it can't reproduce, and it'll be destroyed by heat or something.

Who says its not asexual/self-reproducing?

.....Like all bacteria? It doesn't matter. You need energy/nutrients from the environment. If you can't get that you die.

ah i see the misunderstanding here.

Something can be genetically incompatible -say it uses base-4 in stead of base-3 dna encoding- but yet be chemically compatible.

That is: genetically it's unaffected by just about everything, like viruses. It could be partially chemically incompatible, e.g. it's protein markers are not recognized and common cell intrusion systems do not work. It could be superior because it's got a ton more resistances, say against radiation but also various common chemicals.

That doesn't mean it can not have enzymes that break down our protein into base structures or turn fat and sugar into energy.

So it can reproduce, while laughing at the chemicals we throw at it and laughing at the viruses and bacteria and immune systems trying to kill it.

If it can't survive off of solar energy, it'd be a pretty poor spaceborne lifeform.

There's an awfully great lack of light in the far depths of space. Within a solar system, you'd be right. But outside of that, I think you'd be better off going into a long deep sleep for a few hundred thousand years until you drift close to something warm.

I don't remember saying it's spaceborne. Don't worry, there's plenty of ancient viruses that could emerge from ice and kill us all on Earth.

What if the aliens are stealing our resources?


Personally, I think a great proportion of people will have rejected the idea of extraterrestials, and so their landing will result in mass suicide.

What resources? Anything they can get here they can get elsewhere, or make it themselves.

Biological Material.

Like brains?

Seriously though, they could just make it themselves. All they need is an initial sample and they can clone as much as they like.

Why clone when you could farm?

Because cloning is easier?
What if the resources they "borrow", go all War of The Worlds on them and murder them? You don't want to risk that. So just nick a couple of sheep (you won't notice they're gone) and figure out how they tick. If they tick in a fashion that isn't going to kill you, clone MOAR and souvlaki for everyone!