Aliens

[GoktimusPrime]

Personally,
I'm of the opinion that no human on Earth could possibly formulate an accurate opinion on what constitutes life or it's environment as even the most intelligent person on the planet really knows absolutely squat on a Universal level and therefore couldn't accurately fathom what another form of life could be comprised of or it's environment.

Have you seen or read Ghost In The Shell? I think you'd like it. It aired on SBS earlier this week. If you haven't seen it I recommend picking it up from a comic store or on DVD. I'd lend you my comic book, but it's in Japanese.

Unfortunately we humans are, at present, condemned to only understand that which is immediately around us and that which has come before - Even the most open of minds is limited by the overwhelming mass of closed minds that populates this planet as it is only something in the vicinity of 5% of the world's population that is actually doing any actual thinking, the other 85% just live off of what the others come up with.

We haven't even fully explored our own planet, let alone space. e.g. the ocean depths still remain a mystery to us - it's not uncommon for people to discover new species. We know so little about species like the giant squid -- most of the specimens we've seen have been juveniles. Sightings of full grown adults have been rare.

They could indeed be studying us but I IMO doubt this because what could they possibly learn from us? - Just by visiting they will of displayed how vastly superior to us they are, so it would be more likely that they'd be visiting a zoo of sorts.

The immense resources and cost required to even travel to Earth from the nearest galaxy would make occasional visits impractical unless they were able to profit from coming here (e.g. conquest, plundering resources etc.).

Imagine if we discovered the existence of an intelligent but primitive alien species in Alpha Centauri -- say with the cognitive level of chimpanzees. Would we bother to spend zillions of dollars to send a mission to study these creatures if there were nothing to gain? If they had something we wanted, like say Unobtainium, then we'd colonise them. If they resisted, we'd happily displace them (or even annihilate them).