Popular Science article, “Could Robot Aliens Exist?” In it, NASA astrophysicist Steven Dick wonders if postbiological aliens, with their superior advanced bodies and computer minds, would not be interested in us because either our minds may be too primitive for them to be able to communicate with us or “they might consider meatheads like us too primitive to warrant their attention.”
Maybe. But I still think they would be interested in us.
On our planet, there are many primitive-minded creatures that we do, on a limited basis, communicate with. Our dogs understand commands and have recently demonstrated the ability to map language, which was previously thought to be reserved for humans only.Chimpanzees and apes have shown the ability to communicate using sign language. Sure, we can’t debate philosophical questions with Fido or Koko, but it is technically communication nonetheless. Not all humans care about this. Likewise, there may be some, even if only a few, of the superior aliens who may be fascinated by just how much communication can occur between them and humans. And maybe they will be a little surprised at how much communication can occur.
However, I wonder if it is a fair analogy to begin with. While dogs and apes are self-aware, like humans, they are not aware that the area they live in is but a small part of a planet that is circling a sun in a galaxy that is in a universe with many dimensions, and they are not increasing their awareness. However, we are aware. And, as a species overall, we are continually increasing our awareness. Sure, we don’t understand the nature of it all yet, and we keep finding more questions than answers, but that doesn’t mean we’re to the aliens what apes, dogs, or ants are to us.We have the capacity to understand much more than we do at the moment—and we will understand more than we do at the moment. That they are ahead of us in knowledge and experience does not make us impossible to communicate with.
Even if they are aware of something that is as far beyond the universe as the universe is beyond the local awareness of an ape, the earlier analogy still does not work. We know the apes cannot be made to understand that there is an awareness beyond their local awareness. But we can be made to understand. We can work with analogies and abstractions, and we can be told by advanced aliens that there is yet a greater awareness beyond what we are cognizant of. We may not, at present, be able to wrap our heads around that greater awareness, but we may be able to wrap our heads around the fact that there is a greater awareness beyond what we are presently capable of. And as we head toward the technology singularity, we may, sooner rather than later, be capable of wrapping our heads around that greater awareness (some predict the technology singularity will arrive as soon as 2040, others by 3000).
And even without the technological singularity, human beings of today are aware of and working to wrap their heads around incredible concepts (are there any in 11 dimensions?) that human beings of 10,000 years ago were not even remotely aware of. Our brains, as primitive as they may be for postbiological creatures, are still remarkable organs—they can be rewired, new connections formed, and greater awareness achieved.Plus, our brains may not be static—there are evolutionary pressures on our brains to evolve further as we advance technologically and culturally (though the latter seems to lag behind the former). There are limits to how far the brain can evolve on its own—hence the need for the technological singularity and postbiological life (or technology-enhanced biological life).
So the analogy that “aliens are to us like we are to dogs,” such that the aliens just won’t be able to communicate with us, is not an appropriate one. Dogs do not have anywhere near the same potential to increase their awareness as we do (if we give them a few million years to evolve further, maybe then).
I think a more appropriate analogy would be comparing modern humans to Neanderthals or Cro-Magnons. The aliens would most likely have to greatly simplify the smilies used to teach us, or introduce the idea of, advanced concepts, and thus would definitely have to skip the details, but some limited communication regarding the advanced awareness could occur. Communication may be slow, difficult, and, at times, frustrating for both parties, and details will have to be left out, but they would be able to communicate with us. and we would strive to increase our understanding. OK, not all of us individually, but overall, as a species, enough would be.
OK, so they say they can, with difficulty, communicate with us. But are we still “meatheads” and thus too primitive to warrant their attention? Why? Are sentient species only interested in what is at their level? I doubt they got to their level with that kind of narrow thinking. Exploring the universe, gathering knowledge and experience, discovering new aspects and new questions, and finding the occasional answer is what will most likely drive a species to push their intellectual evolution in the first place.
If humanoid sentient creatures like Earthlings are common, or if not common, then at least common enough that they’ve already encountered beings rather similar to us at least once before, the aliens may not believe we warrant their attention.
But let us say that earthling-like creatures are not common. There is probably one large rainbow of possibilities for life, including sentient life, in the universe. We may warrant attention because they’ve never seen anything like us. One of the galaxy’s many unique worlds, adding new data, knowledge, and possibly new questions for the aliens to consider.And one way to learn about these wacky Earthlings, besides observation, is to communicate with them—even if it is an everyday level of communication or an alien kindergarten level of communication.
Also, keep in mind that we are growing and working our way toward their level. And that alone may warrant curious, or cautionary, attention from the aliens.
