NASA has calculated that in our own galaxy alone there are over 17 billion earth like planets, wow!
That’s a lot of planets! The immediate question that comes to my mind is what these planets look like and how many of them sustain life?
Not many years ago it was said that earth was unique in the universe and that it was very unlikely that we would find similar planets. Well that was wrong. We are in the process of finding planets similar to ours, and undoubtedly before long there will be evidence of life on other planets out there. Maybe not your average martian, but life in some form. The question is do we really want to know? Do we really want to go there? Do we really want to bring it here?
In the movie Avatar a beautiful environment and species play with our imagination of what another planet could be like. But what is to say it has to be like that? Our sense of beauty have evolved throughout the ages and is intrinsically connected to our environment. By this reason alone we probably by some sort of evolutionary necessity is going to find an extraterrestrial biology and environment disgusting. What if we come across a planet where advanced species have evolved that look like giant insects, it would be totally repulsive. What if we find an eco system full of slimy disgusting creatures that can’t even be differentiated if they are something like plant life or animal life.
Given humanity’s tendency to fight with each other, be it with neighbors or neighboring countries, how can we possibly hold the belief that our hypothetical relationship with an extraterrestrial culture would be one of reciprocity and understanding? It is contradicted by the total accumulated experience of human history. Homo Sapiens exterminated the Neanderthals, Romans committed genocide against the Gauls, Europeans killed of the native americans and no less than 70 years ago the Germans tried to kill off just about everybody that wasn’t considered an aryan german.
Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I kind of like earth, the oceans, woods and the beautiful animal life and abundance of life everywhere. The air is good to breathe, the crops are good to eat and there is plenty of wilderness and the planet provides us with all we need, food, medicine, materials for our industry and knowledge. Turns out, our earth is a pretty nice place.
