Monday 26 May 2014

Finding A Grain Of Sand On A Beach

If someone asked you to find a grain of sand somewhere in the World but didn't tell you what beach it was on or even what country to look for it in, even with all the technology we have today it would be a daunting task.
As there are more stars then grains of sands on all the beaches in the World, its hardly surprising that we have yet to find life elsewhere but we keep looking.
Scientists at SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) are hopeful that they will discover intelligent life somewhere in the galaxy and that it should be detectable in the near future giving how quickly the technology is developing.
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer has said at the House Committee that he thinks the discovery will come 'within everyone's lifetime in this room' and that discovering sentient life in the universe 'would be the most significant discovery in human history'.
It would but as much as i would like us to discover new worlds, i do worry what would happen once we do.
Would the newly discovered life be friendly and share any technical advances or would it just see us as a threat and seek to destroy us.
Would we share our advances with it if it turns out that we are more intelligent or would we act with hostility?
What if the new planet has a much needed resource, would we take it? Would we go to war with any new World over it much as we do with countries on Earth that have what we want?
Maybe taking the time to find that grain of sand is not a bad thing.

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