Interestingly Gene Roddenberry addressed that in Star Trek with the spinoff episode “Assignment Earth” where an unknown alien species have been training and breeding humans for 6,000 years to come back to earth and help us over the rough spots. (In the ST universe they fail because we have the Eugnics wars & WWIII.) He tried again with a similar premise in “The Questor Tapes” TV movie pilot. The aliens had seeded an android with a 200 year span sometime in the past, that would interact and nudge humans in more developed and less violent actions. Each would construct his replacement. Questor was the last in our present of 1970’s to help us through our most dangerous time till his own demise in 2270’s. Too bad the networks weren’t interested.

We may not be able to survive this failure if the earth is too changed from so much damage humanity has caused, and that is without nuclear weapons being used at any time.

This is our only chance at existence.  And odds seem to solidify our demise by
way of religious conviction and/or M.A.D.

It’s shamefully tragic.

Night-Gaunt,
But what if other super-intelligent life say communicates via “sub-space” or
”...short circuiting the continuum on a 5 or 6 parsec level”* or some other
means not even considered now? Then what? We will be passed by. Noted and
maybe probes discretely sent to monitor emergent species but nothing else.
They have noticed the ant beds and decided to leave them to themselves. Of no
interest to a 1st-3rd level civilization might be. We are still a level Zero.

Yes that is possible.  Buts lets use a logical progression.  I agree with you that
we are level 0 (mostly burning dead stuff for energy).  I just read a discussion
on Space Daily where two physicists estimated that we would reach a Type 1
civilization, (where we master most planetary forms of energy), in about 200
years, type II, (where we master the power of a star), in about 3,200 years.  We
have some very serious issues now to deal with let alone that far into the
future.

I would assume that we are representative of early intelligent species that
would be found in the universe.  So other species would have to overcome
issues with aggression, population, resources, etc. that we do.  So how many
of them (if any?), last the hundreds, to thousand of years to make the jump
between the Levels while dealing with the ongoing issues of economies,
population, energy, food, pollution,...?

When you make the mental jump to imagine what a Level III civilization would
be like it is mind boggling.  But from what I’ve observed the devil is in the
details of surviving the thousands of years it takes to make it to that level.  I’m
not saying it is impossible for species to make those jumps, but I’m just
somewhat pessimistic of the probability.

But what if other super-intelligent life say communicates via “sub-space” or ”...short circuiting the continuum on a 5 or 6 parsec level”* or some other means not even considered now? Then what? We will be passed by. Noted and maybe probes discretely sent to monitor emergent species but nothing else. They have noticed the ant beds and decided to leave them to themselves. Of no interest to a 1st-3rd level civilization might be. We are still a level Zero.

* See “Forbidden Planet” (1957)

For several decades SETI has been listening for signals from intelligent life in outer space.  Nothing so far.  This leads to two possibilities that I can think of.  One is that life that is smart enough to build machines to send signals into space is extremely rare.  The other is that life that intelligent is not all that rare but
when societies reach that level of intelligence they simply don’t last that long.  So if you don’t happen to be listening to their planet for the few hundred, to
maybe a thousand years their society is capable of broadcasting, you will
simply hear nothing.

Use our own planet for example.  We started broadcasting radio signals roughly 100 years ago.  During that time the worlds population has grown from 1.6 billion
to 6.9 billion today.  We are starting to have issues with our supplies of clean
water, oil, and rare metals to mention a few.  Can we continue to grow at this
rate for another 100 years? 200 years?  A thousand years?

Even if by some miracle we could freeze our population at its current level, how
long can the planet support that many people?  Either way what happens when
critical resources are stretched beyond the needs of the overall population. 
Are we going to, in a peacefully organized way decide to reduce our population
and share these critical resources with each other?  The history of our species
does not support that outcome.

So how long will we continue to broadcast signals from our humble planet Earth.  A hundred years, a thousand years, a million years, more?  You tell me…

If as a people we choose to save the earth, our legislators will have to listen to Al Gore and Al Gore’s scientists, who aren’t paid to ignore the destruction of the earth, so that as a people we can STOP destroying the earth, otherwise there’s no need to worry about the Armageddon destruction of the earth, God won’t have to, we the people, will destroy the earth ourselves.

If as a people we choose to save the earth, our legislators will have to listen to Al Gore and Al Gore’s scientists, who aren’t paid to ignore the destruction of the earth, so that as a people we can STOP destroying the earth, otherwise there’s no need to worry about God destroying the earth, God won’t have to, we the people, will destroy the earth ourselves.

Lots of good science fiction on this.  One scientist,
Michio Kaku (WBAI), has often said, if there’s life out there, they are keeping quiet to avoid us (paraphrase).  On WBAI/Pacifica: there’s a been a coup,
so visit http://www.takebackwbai.org Great ques/ans.,videos,
  “latest news” link at top of homepage.
  also, http://www.wbixradio.org  New video of Tim Wise in Pittsburgh last weekend. See ON-DEMAND section.
  and http://www.wbaix.org  Latter two websites produced by “fired and banned” news person from “WAkeUpCall” morning show, Don DeBar. See ON-DEMAND section

Ironically the Darwin movie is far from “godless” by its very nature. So the title is a misnomer or a prevarication. One of the problems it may bring is that one of the attacks on Darwin is Darwin himself. And if he doesn’t act the way his detractors say. He was “confused” and “feckless” and “needed order” in effect mentally ill and that was why he “created” evolution not for scientific reasons. He was plagued by physical ailments and sever headaches constantly most of his life.

I was sorry to see that MarthaA wasn’t commenting here on purpose but by accident. Hope she catches that soon.

That would be a really good trick, Pfaff, but it won’t work.  The War in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan belongs to the Bush administration, as they were all originated by the Bush administration.  Some how President Obama will figure out a dignified withdrawal from Bush’s Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, as all of these countries were EXTREMELY assaulted by the Bush administration way before President Obama took office.  No matter how you slice it these wars belong to Bush.  Just because President Obama hasn’t been immediately able to withdraw, doesn’t mean these are the Obama administrations wars and just because the Republicans want to now make it appear they no longer own the Afghanistan assault and occupation; Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan are ALL Bush administration wars of assault and occupation left over for the Obama administration.

We are like children who have been given something
precious; only to abuse and destroy the gift. Think about it,we have
squandered the greatest gift ever; born and evolved on the most beautiful planet known in all the universe. Responsibly treated, our planet (misnomer),
this planet, could have been a paradise.  Fortunately
the earth, living being that it is, will survive us; maybe even destroy us.
If we should accidentally survive long enough to
actually be able to migrate to another planet; I
fervently hope something stops us. At present we are
like a virus and surely should be quarantined. The
original “The Day the Earth Stood Still” comes to
mind, but is far to much to hope for.

A common sense approach would be to care for the planet we currently reside, just for starts. Our planet needs to develop a maturity it lacks, simply that planets may not be disposable. Let’s just face facts, life here is an aberration not created by a god which had to be concocted because of the unknowns. It is an insult to a God to claim it was God which created us because let’s fact it folks human have not done/doing a good job of being the stewards of the planet. God makes a convenient scape goat for the failure of humans who are forever wanting to deny their responsibilities. This is what makes the false doctrines of the pretend christians appealing in that it provides the “I’m not responsible, god told me to do it and/or Satan made me do it”, but I’m not responsible.The fact that the “I’m not responsible ” doctrine has been institutionalized by the; churches, governments, businesses and persons which give it legitimacy because it is institutionalized “I’m not responsible”.

I support the research but doubt the solution offered. Research brings new discoveries but the distances are so vast, the technology completely absent and the money too scarce to offset the lack.

We are, for the foreseeable future at least, stuck on this old blue ball. I consider this article someones pipe dream, perhaps even conceived over a bowl of “something”....

ONE CHANCE

WE have _one_ chance. F___ this one up and it is over. The idea of another planet is _fantasy_.

Marie Louise von Franz - @3:38 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdPSPXMToOE

Laurens van der Post - “We must demand psychological illumination from our politicians. Otherwise they may spar with their own shadows, projected on ‘the enemy’.”

“The human being who starts by withdrawing his own shadow from his neighbour is doing work of immense, imediate political and social importance.” -

Matter of Heart - Part 9/10, to end of Part 10 - @7:08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meNT56CqtLE#t=07m08s

With the possiblites for life so expansive just on Terra (Sol 3 in Star Trek nomenclature) there will be a wider chance to find life out there. Just it may be too alien for us if we do stumble across some or they us in some very distant future we can’t imagine. But to get to that stage we have to survive our own self made apocalypse first.

We could practice by getting in touch with our cetacean and pachiderm friends first just to understand how such a bridging of species just might occur. We could only be so smart and fortunate.