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MARK L. BAKKE'S
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REPLY #3 TO
"UFOS"
Boldfaced statements are parts of the original essay (or a subsequent reply) to which the respondent has directed his comments.
 Italicized/emphasized comments prefaced by (R) are those of the respondent and are presented unedited. My replies appear under the respondent's comments in blue text and are prefaced by my initials (MB). (R) Roswell really was a weather baloon, any half intelligent person who reads up on the subject knows that. (MB) Obviously, I agree with you. But, let's face it, stories about crashed flying saucers and captured aliens are much more exciting than dreary details about failed weather balloon missions. (R) But lets go with the aliens exist idea(which i think they might). (MB) I don't think there's any question that we are not alone in the universe or in our galaxy. Given the astounding nature and implications of proving this, however, it is imperative that any evidence of encounters with extraterrestrials be solid and undeniable. To date, such evidence has yet to be produced. If and when it is found, I will celebrate the discovery as heartily as anybody. Until that time, I must remain skeptical. (R) First, the universe is gazillions of years old(not an exact number)(but a good estimate). We so far can blast a bucket to the nearest rock and get the men back alive, mars is still fifty times that distance. So if an alien race has the technology to reach us, fly around almost undetected, and have been doing this for thousands of our years, they must be a million years more advanced than we are(personally I think its more in the four million mark but i wont tell you who told me that) (MB) I don't think that any such civilization would have to be that far advanced over us (in time, anyway) in order to achieve interstellar travel. Consider the exponential technological leaps we have witnessed in just the last century of human history. If the same rate of advancement continues through the next century (and there's little reason to think that it won't), we may well be exploring the stars rather soon. It certainly won't take millions of years for us to achieve that level of technology. (R) So you ask, Why wont they just talk to us?.... (MB) One could think of many reasons. For example, such a civilization may well have something similar to the "Prime Directive" elucidated in Star Trek where they would be prevented from establishing such contact with backward civilizations. (R) simple, look at us a million years ago, apes.........lets say that in the morning you could talk to an ape, what would the conversation be like? ape...hello us...hi, how are you? ape...hungry us....no, i mean how is life, can i help you ape...give food us...ok,ok here now, would you like me to build you a computer controlled food finder? ape...more food us...please i'm trying to comminicate with your people, lets try something else ape...urg? us...how about, do you believe in right and wrong ape....more food get the point? these aliens are so far ahead of us that our minds would seem at least this primitive to them, what the hell would they want to talk to us about? (MB) While we may well seem primitive to another extraterrestrial civilization, we are hardly at the level of apes. While our science may certainly not measure up, they might well be interested in our cultural achievements or in acquiring basic knowledge of our planet or species. We could certainly provide such information to them faster than they could acquire it on their own. That, in itself, would be incentive enough for them to initiate a conversation with us. We do similar things today when our scientists seek out the primitive tribes still living in the rain forests of Amazonia.
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