There are multiple reasons why alien life forms may have had to leave their home planet e.g. an asteroid hit, a major planetary disaster, a dying star etc. Interstellar travel (as far as we know) requires raw materials, hence the potential for invasion and control of our resources. I tend to agree with Mr Hawking here, steer clear of the bastards. I would say that Humans could most certainly build a large spaceship capable of travelling very large distances with large numbers of passengers and renewable resources. A couple of decades worth of funding (one of the major pitfalls to space travel) and the insight of the most intelligent people on the planet would most certainly allow us do this. The problem with the human race is politics and economy. If we bashed our heads together and just got it done without all the red tape, humans are capable of nearly anything.
That's not a very good comparison. Why bring God into it? Why not use Unicorns, or Leprechauns or some other mythical creature? We are aware for certain that we are a single planet among billions of billions of planets, we know for certain that most of the elements on this planet are abundant elsewhere in the Universe, we are unaware if these raw materials have coalesced to form life but we are speculating that they probable have - that is not the same as speculating that something we've never seen any proof of exists just because a book of contradicting stories from semi-literate people in the Middle East 2,000 years ago says it does.
On this planet alone there are more than six billion people and my wife whinges she ended up with me Yes, I think there must be something else out there.
But what resources has Earth got, coal and plants? If you've mastered inter-stellar travel then obviously you have a very decent source of energy to power your light speed craft. So most elements are abundant in the Universe, you've got plenty of power - what to hell do we have to offer a species who would probably die the second they took a breath in our atmosphere?
I watched an interesting documentary recently which confirmed that the exact same 92 elements exist in stars/planets millions of light years away Although, there is the possibility that the ****s have crazy ass **** like terminator 2.
The aliens, having already achieved space travel and most likely discovered more advanced nuclear type energy, would probably find a way to live indefinately by slowing or cancelling out the ageing process. Thus the population would continue to grow in huge quantities. Leaving their planet on huge ships would require a huge amount of resources, and while the population continues to grow, more materials such as fuel and metals for larger ships will be a problem after their planet has virtually run out of such resources, and the demand is increasing. If the population is so large that they have to leave their solar system in search of more resources, they might they stumble upon us, why would they not hesitate to take our resources since we are a "weaker" and "primitive" in comparison. In such a way such as Columbus and the Native Americans, we would be the "savages". IMO there is no such thing as unlimited resources and eventually you will run out.
What resources do we have though? Why not just take the abundant Iron floating around in Asteroids or on other planets in our Solar System, you can get a **** load of water off Jupiter's moon Europa which is completely covered in Ice if that's what you are after. There is nothing we have that they can't just pluck from everywhere else around them.
I see what ya mean Mick but I think what I'm getting at is that its the like the bully at school scenario. He takes because he can. Moving away from the 'resources' debate, do you think if they discovered us they would; 1. Avoid us 2. Befriend us 3. Attack us or 2 then 3 eventually?
You're thinking of resources we need though. Maybe if aliens came to Earth they could be looking for salt water to power their space ships
I have been visited on numerous occasions and they come in peace I can assure you. They want to learn about us and one of them even ****ed me off whilst listening to Big Fun on the wireless.
