XPost: sci.skeptic, alt.paranormal, alt.atheism   
   XPost: alt.conspiracy, alt.alien.research   
   From: jtem01@gmail.com   
      
   On 11/30/25 2:07 PM, Mitchell Holman wrote:   
      
   >     In a universe 14 billion years old   
   > Earth has only had intelligent life   
   > for smallest sliver of time, less than   
   > half a million years.   
      
   We can't gauge the intelligence of humans living a million   
   years ago. That would require us to be able to distinguish   
   between a lack of knowledge and a lack of intellectual   
   capacity.   
      
   Humans go back millions of years, and we've been producing   
   tools at that time. We rightly expect a slow march of   
   progress and not a great leap from nothing to architecture.   
   They were certainly "Intelligent Enough" to not only survive   
   but survive for a lot longer than us so called "Moderns"   
   have.   
      
   > We are latecomers.   
      
   Humans are millions of years old.   
      
   I don't buy into the splitting everything into THIS genus and   
   THAT genus, much less all the different species. There's a   
   good argument to be made that we are the exact same species   
   as erectus, Neanderthals... Denisovans... a whole bunch of   
   others. Mostly because interbreeding took place and that is   
   the best test of "Same Species" in existence. It's not a   
   perfect test, but it is the best test.   
      
   > There are smarter species out there,   
      
   That's not only speculation but frivolous. If we do find   
   another species, the odds say it's roughly our level or   
   behind us... more likely behind us.   
      
   The problem here is that if we do find them, all we'll know   
   is that there planet hosts life. We'd detect the biosignatures   
   of all the life in their atmosphere. If they have reached a   
   point of industrialization, we may be able to detect   
   Technosignatures as well. But actually seeing them? Communicating?   
   Super duper unlikely to ever happen.   
      
   > but   
   > it is proof of our arrogance that we   
   > think they would bother trying to visit   
   > or even talk to us.   
      
   Communications would be out of the question. We would be unable   
   to communicate with them and in all likelihood they would be   
   even less advanced, technically, than we are. So communication   
   wouldn't happen.   
      
      
      
   --   
   https://jtem.tumblr.com/tagged/The%20Book%20of%20JTEM/page/5   
      
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