WHY E.T. WOULD NOT CALL- Sorry Mr. Arthur C. Clarke
Created | Updated Apr 16, 2008
While taking the “90th orbit of the sun” in December, the prolific British-born sci-fi author and theorist Arthur C. Clarke made three birthday wishes: That ET would call someday, that man would kick his oil habit and peace would visit Sri Lanka.
It is unfortunate that ET did not call while Clarke was alive. Even more unfortunate is the fact that ET would never call, not in our lifetime, not over the next few generations, not for any stretch of time or imagination. While Clarke’s futuristic vision believed that they will. But history of evolution tends to differ.
The logic is that life has existed on this planet for about 4 billion years. Yet, no life form ever tried to reach out to the space, looking for other life-forms. Neither single-celled organisms "prokaryotes" called, nor the first marine animals did. Neither the ferocious carnivore Dinosaurs reached out to the space nor did the first mammals. Neither the first hominid tried to do it over the period of its evolution into modern humans, nor the fully evolved Homo sapiens did.
In fact, the fully evolved humans started thinking and imagining about the earth and the universe only a few thousand years ago. Modern telecommunications have developed only over a hundred odd years ago and space travel is as modern as a few decades ago. So while life existed on this planet for billions of years and humans are the only species that are able only to look into our spatial backyard and not go beyond too far, how can we believe that some species out there can do any better?
All our E.T. premises are based on the notion that other alien species may be more evolved and that would include intelligence and technological superiority. But if there was any correlation between evolution and intelligence, then out of 4.5 billion species that ever existed on our planet and out of 4.5 million species that still exist, at least a few thousand species would have been competing against one another in terms of intellectual superiority. But humans are one and only intelligent species and in terms of mathematical probability, it is nothing short of an accident that humans have gone off on a different tangent in terms of intelligence and technology.
If it is true, then it can only be a one-in-a-billion chance that any alien species out there is equally or more intelligent and technologically more advanced than us. So, it is highly unlikely that E.T. would call, ever.
Sorry, Mr. Clarke.
It is unfortunate that ET did not call while Clarke was alive. Even more unfortunate is the fact that ET would never call, not in our lifetime, not over the next few generations, not for any stretch of time or imagination. While Clarke’s futuristic vision believed that they will. But history of evolution tends to differ.
The logic is that life has existed on this planet for about 4 billion years. Yet, no life form ever tried to reach out to the space, looking for other life-forms. Neither single-celled organisms "prokaryotes" called, nor the first marine animals did. Neither the ferocious carnivore Dinosaurs reached out to the space nor did the first mammals. Neither the first hominid tried to do it over the period of its evolution into modern humans, nor the fully evolved Homo sapiens did.
In fact, the fully evolved humans started thinking and imagining about the earth and the universe only a few thousand years ago. Modern telecommunications have developed only over a hundred odd years ago and space travel is as modern as a few decades ago. So while life existed on this planet for billions of years and humans are the only species that are able only to look into our spatial backyard and not go beyond too far, how can we believe that some species out there can do any better?
All our E.T. premises are based on the notion that other alien species may be more evolved and that would include intelligence and technological superiority. But if there was any correlation between evolution and intelligence, then out of 4.5 billion species that ever existed on our planet and out of 4.5 million species that still exist, at least a few thousand species would have been competing against one another in terms of intellectual superiority. But humans are one and only intelligent species and in terms of mathematical probability, it is nothing short of an accident that humans have gone off on a different tangent in terms of intelligence and technology.
If it is true, then it can only be a one-in-a-billion chance that any alien species out there is equally or more intelligent and technologically more advanced than us. So, it is highly unlikely that E.T. would call, ever.
Sorry, Mr. Clarke.
