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Ask HN: What evidence would convince you of intelligent extra-terrestrial life?

by flubert on 12/8/20, 1:55 AM with 42 comments

• by factorialboy on 12/8/20, 2:14 AM

  I think it is the height on human ignorance to believe that intelligent life could have only evolved on this tiny dirt ball. I am convinced it has to exist somewhere at sometime.

• by indrax on 12/8/20, 4:47 AM

  Good evidence pointing towards ~infinite energy or some other 'exotic physics' that invalidate my assumptions for the need for space colonization.

  Otherwise They should be trying to grab as much energy as possible, for whatever is it they want to do (as should we) and we should see at least some galaxies going partially dark.

  There was a paper I can't find that addressed this somewhat. It said that the energy stars burn is a small part (<1%?) of what they contain in total mass/energy, so it might make sense and harvest that energy later. (The paper did not explain a method for efficient matter/energy conversion but I think black holes can do that?)

  That paper didn't fully convince me but it's one of very few arguments that tries to address what I think is the core issue. (At least a few species will want as much energy as they can get.)

• by 8bitsrule on 12/8/20, 3:15 AM

  Something extraordinary. Say, intelligent signals arriving often and unquestionably from outside the Solar system that anyone can listen to directly, now, at will, -could- qualify as evidence.

  What any human has to say about it has no evidentiary value at all. Speculation, reports of personal experience, interpretations of strange infrared events in the sky, interdimensional transmogrification - no value.

  The intelligence found in the processes in mammalian genomes, how complex they are - to understand, let alone invent - tells me that we ourselves are just beginning to understand what 'intelligent' is. Until we are, we might not see it right in front of us.

• by eucryphia on 12/8/20, 3:33 AM

  The minimum evidence I would accept would be a widespread TV news reports quoting several sources over a number of months backed by a multi-government investigation.

  Of course if it turned up on one of my camping trips to introduce itself I'd believe, but would just keep it to myself.

  I could imagine meeting it again at a public function and we exchange knowing nods; 'Dude', etc.

  It's very likely to need a space suit and couldn't drink beer.

• by elviejo on 12/8/20, 3:17 AM

  Easy... simply provide a solution to 3 of the 6 remaining problems in mathematics... and I would believe the answers have been provided by a superior intelligence to ours.

  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Prize_Problems

• by rococode on 12/8/20, 8:13 AM

  This is a bit off on a tangent, but for anyone interested in this subject I highly recommend reading Stephen Webb's book "Where is Everybody?", in which he goes over and lightly refutes 75 possible answers to the Fermi paradox in three main categories: 1) aliens have already been to Earth (and may still be here), 2) aliens exist but we haven't had any way to interact with them yet (and maybe never will), and 3) aliens don't exist.

  He covers most of the popular theories - the zoo hypothesis, the great filter, aliens hiding from us, inter-planet communication being unsolvably hard, life being extremely rare, our planet having uncommon characteristics, alien life being fundamentally different to life on Earth in a way we can't comprehend, etc. and the common rebuttals - we haven't seen or heard signs of intergalactic civilizations (which we believe we know how to detect at this point), von Neumann probes haven't come to dismantle us, different alien societies would likely have different goals and outcomes (which invalidates the many theories that are worded like "civilization will always eventually ____"), etc. It's pretty thorough and a very fun read if you're into that stuff.

  Notably, though, one theory he doesn't address in too much detail is the idea that evidence exists but is rare enough that it can be covered up effectively and not all governments have it (so there doesn't need to be global cooperation). Throughout the book his stance is basically "it's a hard fact that we have no evidence of aliens", which is obviously at odds with conspiracy theories about coverups. Despite not generally being a conspiracy theory guy, I personally lean in this direction because after reading his book, the other solutions in which aliens do exist don't seem particularly appealing and I do hope that aliens are real. He also shares his own preferred alien-less solution at the end, which I found to be a bit somber but very reasonable.

  As for the question in this thread, I'd be convinced if any one major government (US, China, Russia, Germany, France, etc.) officially acknowledges it. It could be that they decide to come out and share the evidence they have. Or, perhaps more likely, it could be that something happens that's substantial and compelling enough to convince a huge amount of people that aliens are real, and the government is forced to respond with a confirmation, which I would treat as the moment of certainty.

  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/180506.If_the_Universe_I...

• by thisistheend123 on 12/8/20, 10:55 AM

  I would surely like to see something like what happens in Rejoice by Steven Erikson.

  An alien race, that is so advanced, that it can force us to live in a certain way and change the course of humanity, for every human on Earth, all at once. So there is no doubt whatsoever.

  PS: For those who haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

• by PhaedrusV on 12/8/20, 3:03 AM

  I saw an inertia-less, extremely fast aircraft playing around above the Sierra Nevadas one night about 22 years ago. Obviously you all don't know me from Adam, so I don't expect this to update your priors much, but my personal evidence threshold is pretty low now.

• by tobylane on 12/8/20, 9:30 AM

  The main burden of proof would be how was something from likely so far away detected. Peer reviewed submissions in key journals is the usual standard for accepting something we aren't qualified to understand. That doesn't change just because we can draw grey android blobs.

• by mikewarot on 12/8/20, 6:41 AM

  I'd accept any of the following

  1> Meeting them myself, for an extended conversation, and way to chat in the future.

  2> Theory of everything, and how that gets manifested into the technology they used to get here.

  3> My own craft to go, with supplies and directions for a road trip to say hi and visit.

• by VoodooJuJu on 12/8/20, 3:03 PM

  Between probability and us having observed like millions or billions of planets, I'm already convinced. But hard evidence? Direct observation of said extra-terrestrial life? No, I've seen none to convince me.

• by rasz on 12/8/20, 3:49 AM

  As Carl Sagan said, and extraordinary one. Even the smallest personal trinket belonging to a person capable to cross galactic scale distances should be able to blow away our experts and open new avenues of science.

• by dnh44 on 12/8/20, 10:27 AM

  I think us being unique in the observable universe is a more extraordinary claim than not being unique.

  However, in order to be absolutely convinced that such life was visiting Earth I think I'd need quite a lot of evidence.

• by neversaydie on 12/8/20, 1:56 PM

  Scientific and peer-reviewed.

  Some random civil servant from some random country slinging random stories? Zero interest in hearing them. Life's too short to click links for that sort of stuff, let alone engage with it.

• by vlod on 12/8/20, 3:21 AM

  When the current executive branch posts a tweet on how they are best buds with ET and they have just signed a new trade deal and it will be the BEST trade deal EVER and just so beautiful. :)

• by webmobdev on 12/8/20, 2:55 AM

  I'd be 70% to 90% convinced if the government claimed they had made contact with aliens and they exist. I'd be convinced 100% only when I interacted with one directly.

• by MR4D on 12/8/20, 3:28 AM

  The moon being destroyed by a blast of light.

  I’d be convinced by that. Kinda hard to fake it.

• by DrNuke on 12/8/20, 11:58 AM

  Artifacts of any kind? Even an un-naturally polished rock would suffice.

• by a3n on 12/8/20, 2:19 AM

  I believe it exists already.