I have been pre-occupied with the very important question of whether aliens could communicate telepathically with human beings if they were to ever visit our planet.
My inclination is that they probably cannot and here is why:
If two people wanted to communicate telepathically they would need two things:
a way one person could project his thoughs to the other (a signal), and
a way for the other person to recieve the thoughts of the other (a reciever).
Nature has already equipped human beings with mouths and ears that allow us to be remarkabley good at reading each others minds (“hey buddy, you scratched my car!!!” “bite my balls, pin job!!”). And chances are nature has created beings that communicate in a similar fashion but without the use of speech.
This implies that if you want to have a conversation with a human, you have to the right equipment (2 ears and a mouth). Same for if you wanted to have a conversation with an alient (3 griks and a lonk-hole). But if that is the case, there is not probable way that humans could have a telepathic conversation with alient (ala ID4, Start Trek, etc). We simply are not biologically equipped to recieve a telepathic signal. In the same way it seems possible that they might be biologically unequipped to recieve “speech”.
If this line of reasoning is true, then first alien contact will be a very scary prospect. Without the possibility of communicating we would be like two spiders that meet on a coffee table–neither knowing if the other means it harm or not.
BOTTOM LINE: PREPARE FOR THE INTERGALACTIC ARMAGEDDON!!
Good lord, we do! We have our little pineal gland. If that’s not for telepathy, I don’t know what could be. Perhaps some are even communicating not without even knowing it. Inspiration, ideas in dreams, this kind of stuff.
Is that nature with a small ‘n’ or Nature with a capital ‘N’? How would we know if we are equipped or not if we had never had the opportunity to test even the prospect of telepathy between aliens and humans?
While certainly not a question that we have any tangible evidence to point to, interplanetary evolution is a very interesting subject. I suppose it could be possible for aliens to have sensory functions that we can’t even imagine and aren’t just reorganizations of “sound”, “sight”, etc.
You’ve obviously not seen ‘The twilight zone’ in particular the episodes ‘To serve man’ (where the nine-foot-tall aliens DO communicate telepathically) and ‘Mute’ (which explains that the use of speech is a deviation from how homo sapiens originally communicated - from mind to mind). Seriously dude, you have to watch more TV. Otherwise you’re stuck with largely unfounded claims.
I suppose it could be possible for aliens to have sensory functions that we can’t even imagine and aren’t just reorganizations of “sound”, “sight”, etc.
yah, that’s true. of course, if that were the case, i wonder if such life forms would distinguish us from say plants. know what i mean? some plant certainly has some sensory functions (for example the venus fly trap sense vibration, light etc). but since those senses are so rudimentary would we say the plant is concious? similarly, maybe an alien with wholely unimagined senses might not even consider human beings to be conscious creatures.
My guess is that if the alien organism is on a similar scale to humans (i.e.: not planet sized and not microbial) then they will probably have some kind of electromagnetic sensory organ (like human eyes), a chemical sensor (nose), hot/cold sensors (touch) and pressure sensors (ears). My guess is the last (ears) are the least likely sensor and there are other sensors we don’t have that they may have (such as magnetic sensor). Chemical sensors I also find somewhat questionable.
The sure fire sensor, in my opinion, for any similar sized sentient being is the electromagnetic sensor. The problem though is that it is terribly unlikely that they will perceive the same “visible light” spectrum as we do. While there may be some overlap due to the physics behind why visible light is visible, it’s entirely possible that they may go out of that range on either end and start somewhere in the middle. This means that we should try to communicate with electromagnetic radiation (pictures) but we have to make sure our pictures are visible given any subset of visible spectrum! So we should paint several copies of all pictures using different electromagnetic (color) palets.
^ great thoughts. i was also worried when william suggested using geometry (pictures) for communicating that the other beings might not percieve the same light spectrum we do which might make it more difficult.
i like this suggestion:
This means that we should try to communicate with electromagnetic radiation (pictures) but we have to make sure our pictures are visible given any subset of visible spectrum! So we should paint several copies of all pictures using different electromagnetic (color) palets.
Good thread. Of course, the 800-lb. gorilla in the room is the issue of whether telepathy is even possible at all.
Your point about the difficulties in communicating with extraterrestrials is quite valid. It’s been brought up many times over throughout the preceding decades. Some thinkers, like Carl Sagan, believed that science and mathematics would be the foundations for communicating with extraterrestrials. On the other hand, if the extraterrestrials are bent on extermination or conquest, communication would be a waste of time on their part - unless it’s intended as a diversionary tactic, à la Mars Attacks! (“We come in peace!”).
Why even bother with something as high-falutin as telepathy? Even we humans have stereos and speech synthesis software. If they’re advanced enough to have FTL, I find it a little unlikely they wouldn’t be able to figure out human language.
P.S. Has anyone seen Solaris (not the crap remake version)? That is about a telepathic/incomprehensible type alien that the cosmonauts can’t communicate with.
