Stephen Hawking; Aliens Likely to be Hostile.

[Caliga]

I cannot think of a single reason why a machine AI would have a survival instinct, so i am not concerned about meeting them.  If we were going to encounter machine "AI," we just as likely already did, in the form of von Neumann-style machines that have come and gone.

Seems possible.  I'm sure there are intelligent civilizations in the universe that went extinct millions of years ago.  LOL was Jesus: space alien.

[Tamas]

I find it very bizzare that someone so smart can come to such an unlikely conclusion.

I think its quite a given that the opposite is true. Any aliens we encounter will be peaceful.
Just imagine if somehow we are out exploring space today (impossible but...yeah) and we stumble across a alien civilization. Are we going to go all Independance Day? Of course not. The press is bad enough when the military kills a few Arabs let alone wiping out an entire civilization.
It would be an amazing discovery which changes the way we look at the universe. We aren't going to destroy them just for the hell of it.
And thats our far from perfect modern civilization which still has a lot of the violent animal in us. Starflight is a few hundred years of development out of our reach at least- either we continue to become less violent or we destroy ourselves before we get anywhere.
Just imagine if spaceships were freely available today. There would be bound to be some nutter who decides to smash into earth at relativistic speeds.

Analogy to the past- doesn't work.
People say 'yeah but Earth has resources, the aliens will want those!'- not really.
Earth is a insignificant remote little skerry which is damn difficult to land on. We're the Faroe Islands (only relocated to the middle of the Indian ocean or something), not the Americas. If the aliens want resources they can get them far far easier in space itself with asteroids and comets and the like.

I am sorry but the post-Columbus destruction of the native Americans is the most probable scenario. Viruses and bacteria that would take the organisms of Earth by total surprise, A various aliesn among their piopulace seeing big profit in our planet thus creating conflicts, human xenophobia and idiots worshipping the aliens as gods here to save us etc.

Personally, I am puzzled by the huge amount of naivity regarding the perceived peacefulness of a space-faring civilization.
I hate to break it to you people, but our civilization has been on a near-constant rise in the last 4-5 thousand years because we are, as a species, lazy, greedy, violent bastards. These three characteristics have been the driving force behind the technological and economical development which resulted in such advanced and rich societies which could support artists and intelligentsia to create all the wonderful and peaceful art.

If a species is peaceful and content, it will never rise to a civilized level, because if you are content to eating leafs off a tree and hiding from the predators, you will never need agriculture, housing, etc.

[Tamas]

I cannot think of a single reason why a machine AI would have a survival instinct, so i am not concerned about meeting them.  If we were going to encounter machine "AI," we just as likely already did, in the form of von Neumann-style machines that have come and gone.

Seems possible.  I'm sure there are intelligent civilizations in the universe that went extinct millions of years ago.  LOL was Jesus: space alien.

He was a hippy high on mushrooms.

[Martinus]

I cannot think of a single reason why a machine AI would have a survival instinct, so i am not concerned about meeting them.  If we were going to encounter machine "AI," we just as likely already did, in the form of von Neumann-style machines that have come and gone.

Seems possible.  I'm sure there are intelligent civilizations in the universe that went extinct millions of years ago.  LOL was Jesus: space alien.

Doh. Of course. He was Jewish, wasn't he? 

[Josquius]

I am sorry but the post-Columbus destruction of the native Americans is the most probable scenario. Viruses and bacteria that would take the organisms of Earth by total surprise, A various aliesn among their piopulace seeing big profit in our planet thus creating conflicts, human xenophobia and idiots worshipping the aliens as gods here to save us etc.

Personally, I am puzzled by the huge amount of naivity regarding the perceived peacefulness of a space-faring civilization.
I hate to break it to you people, but our civilization has been on a near-constant rise in the last 4-5 thousand years because we are, as a species, lazy, greedy, violent bastards. These three characteristics have been the driving force behind the technological and economical development which resulted in such advanced and rich societies which could support artists and intelligentsia to create all the wonderful and peaceful art.

If a species is peaceful and content, it will never rise to a civilized level, because if you are content to eating leafs off a tree and hiding from the predators, you will never need agriculture, housing, etc.

Disagree hugely.
This hippy stuff about humans being especially violent dickheads. Bleh.
Animals fight all the time. Violence is life.
Humanity however is about overcoming this. We're the only species to have invented peace. We have accomplished all the great feats of our civilization because once in a while we can forget about killing each other and use a bit of logic and reason.
Sure, we've still got a huge dose of the animal in us, but as we get more advanced this aspect becomes ever further removed. Which is lucky because as we become more advanced our ability to destroy ourselves increases.

[Tamas]

I am almost as far from a hippy as you can get.

Animals in the wild live in "balance" because they have no means to consume more, they are largely the same as us we have just developed advanced brain functions to fulfill or various needs much more complexly than them.

Invented peace?!! We have developed methods to handle agression so as to it not destroy a given society, much like a wolfpack.

[jimmy olsen]

The thing is, I expect us to encounter intelligent machine life first, and since we have no true examples of a society populated by AIs, it's hard to say how they'd behave.  I think it's likely that they would view us as insects and be primarily interested in harvesting our mineral resources, though.

Given that machine AI is a fantasy right now, you are correct to say that it's hard to say how they would behave! 

I cannot think of a single reason why a machine AI would have a survival instinct, so i am not concerned about meeting them.  If we were going to encounter machine "AI," we just as likely already did, in the form of von Neumann-style machines that have come and gone.

Contact with von Neumann style machines is likely to go badly.

http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1416520759/1416520759.htm

[Viking]

He seems to run a pretty convoluted argument to get to an alien visiting earth. But as Neil says, It's not that they hate us, it's just they could use our molecules for something else.

Just ask yourself, if you are high tech enough, then... why would you travel across space and time for years and years when you can simply change the molecules you have around you. If they, Dilgar like, were escaping a supernova or something similar that might make sense.

[jimmy olsen]

I cannot think of a single reason why a machine AI would have a survival instinct, so i am not concerned about meeting them.  If we were going to encounter machine "AI," we just as likely already did, in the form of von Neumann-style machines that have come and gone.

Seems possible.  I'm sure there are intelligent civilizations in the universe that went extinct millions of years ago.  LOL was Jesus: space alien.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IfJesusThenAliens

[jimmy olsen]

I am sorry but the post-Columbus destruction of the native Americans is the most probable scenario. Viruses and bacteria that would take the organisms of Earth by total surprise

Bacteria and Viruses adapted for life on another planet is very unlikely to effect us.

[Caliga]

Bacteria and Viruses adapted for life on another planet is very unlikely to effect us.

How do you know that?  We have no examples available to us to judge either way.

[Josquius]

Animals in the wild live in "balance" because they have no means to consume more, they are largely the same as us we have just developed advanced brain functions to fulfill or various needs much more complexly than them.

Invented peace?!! We have developed methods to handle agression so as to it not destroy a given society, much like a wolfpack.

Animals tend not to live in balance. They tend to live in cycles of population boom and bust and constant attacks on each others territory and taking any chance to kill a rival.
And yes. That's my point. We can handle the aggression inherant in all animals. We're better than that. We're not yet perfect but we're improving.

How do you know that?  We have no examples available to us to judge either way.

Lizard virusses don't affect cows.

[Tamas]

Animals in the wild live in "balance" because they have no means to consume more, they are largely the same as us we have just developed advanced brain functions to fulfill or various needs much more complexly than them.

Invented peace?!! We have developed methods to handle agression so as to it not destroy a given society, much like a wolfpack.

Animals tend not to live in balance. They tend to live in cycles of population boom and bust and constant attacks on each others territory and taking any chance to kill a rival.
And yes. That's my point. We can handle the aggression inherant in all animals. We're better than that. We're not yet perfect but we're improving.

How do you know that?  We have no examples available to us to judge either way.

Lizard virusses don't affect cows.

We are getting better yes, but the attitudes which are in play for that will not get us into space, ever. It will be greed.

[Caliga]

Notice how he also said "bacteria".

[Razgovory]

I'm ashamed I even read this thread.