Problem with Ancient Astronauts' motive

[CuriousCat]

Many people cite the theoretical visitors' lack of motive for visiting, helping, etc. as a major issue. In my opinion it is difficult to deny claims or evidence of past visitation due to the lack of motive. As long as whatever that's visiting is not human or under human control, why use motive as a counter-argument? As humans, we have a broad spectrum of reasoning (Here on Earth there are vast cultural differences between the same species), but it is all we have to think with. If an alien, etc. did visit in the past, or visits now, why would they think the same way as us, or have the same priorities?

I get frustrated when I hear someone bring up motive during a discussion on this topic or one related, and then no one argues it could be an "alien" motive, one we have not thought of, or one we are not familiar with.

If extra terrestrial visitation is real, the beings obviously do have a motive, but it could easily be beyond our understanding.

I've never discussed this, so there could be a huge hole in my reasoning, so that's what you all are for.

Thanks,

CC

 

[Double Nought Spy]

Well put, CC. We make all sorts of assumptions when dealing with these subjects, and to some extent we have little choice, but the assumptions about possible motives are among the most useless in my opinion. Too often our prejudices in this area cause us to write off as absurd something that we should be paying attention to. Everybody is biased. The danger in that is pretending we are not.

 

[DanielBrenton]

I've heard a lot of arguments about extraterrestrial's motives that are essentially anthropomorphizing them. "They think about us the same way we think about cattle," etc. Worse, we really don't understand the nature of this phenomenon, and the attribution of motive is usually built on the contention that the phenomenon can be attributed to extraterrestrial visitation.

This is conjecture built on conjecture. Fun sometimes, but ultimately pointless.

 

[Frank Stalter]

In my opinion it is difficult to deny claims or evidence of past visitation due to the lack of motive. As long as whatever that's visiting is not human or under human control, why use motive as a counter-argument? As humans, we have a broad spectrum of reasoning (Here on Earth there are vast cultural differences between the same species), but it is all we have to think with. If an alien, etc. did visit in the past, or visits now, why would they think the same way as us, or have the same priorities?

Intellectual curiosity is the reason. That's not just a human strait, it's a living thing trait. Life checks things out.

 

[CuriousCat]

Once again though, that's assuming that life here is the same as elsewhere. Earth, so far, is our only frame of reference for life and should be treated as such. I think it's difficult to rationalize the meaning behind a lot of related phenomena, not to say there isn't virtue in trying, but it might be a reason not to claim, "I know why... " or "because of x, it must be y"

 

[thefoundryman]

Once again though, that's assuming that life here is the same as elsewhere. Earth, so far, is our only frame of reference for life and should be treated as such. I think it's difficult to rationalize the meaning behind a lot of related phenomena, not to say there isn't virtue in trying, but it might be a reason not to claim, "I know why... " or "because of x, it must be y"

Agreed, CuriousCat, and the sheer diversity of life in reports of differentiating types, shapes, kinds, varieties and associated phenomenon, seem to be beyond categorization. Infinitely diversifying the possible motives, and associative interests that the particular, types of beings may have with our planet/race, etc.
Simply put , They all don't have the same agenda either.

 

[Tommy Allison]

I think we anthropomorphize too much when we think about aliens.

I've become the biggest skeptic in the last year of any and all alien related stuff. UFO's, Aliens, Ghosts, Bigfoot, Nessie, all of it should be looked at with incredible scrutiny.

The only interest aliens would have in humans, is whether or not they taste good, or fun to watch in their intergalactic zoo.

 

[Shea]

I'm going to throw out some ideas and see where it leads. Everything in this universe, as far as that which has been observed by humans at least, is geared toward one thing and that one thing only. This one thing is existence. It starts at the most basic of particles to form atoms, elements. Elements are geared toward constantly trying to find the most stable form of existence possible. This activity of elements results in the formation of compounds and this goes on and on until at some point, somehow, it goes to the next level. This is where it is not good enough to simply exist at the most stable form and the ability to manipulate of the environment arises. Now the process continues until organisms that can manipulate surroundings as good as humans arise. Human actions are 50% instinctual meaning that 50% of what we do stems solely from activities that are meant to preserve our existence in the most stable for and the existence of our species at the most stable form. It's hard to say if the trend will continue until our motives do not need to be based on such primitive mechanisms or if this is even possible, but the universe is a vast and almost infinite experiment allowing the greatest number of variables possible so somewhere there may be a population of organisms that have succeeded in existing for long enough to develop motives that can't be understood by us. In my opinion it's unlikely because all living organisms that are made of the same elements as we are will have the same history or at least reasons of existence and development.

 

[Red]

Perhaps we had developed intergalactic technologies before some planetwide catastrophe knocked us back down to the stone age roughly 10,000 - 14,000 years ago. If some of the visitors are actually our descendants, then that would give them a reason to come and study us.

 

[Xylo]

I'm just going to throw this out there and then duck away...

What if, and it's a big "if," ancient "astronauts" (for lack of a better term) simply just crashed, or were sent on a one way mission? What if they then assimilated as much as possible into the indigenous population-spreading as much technology as they could-but do to their over technoligization (if that's such a word) they couldn't do much technological development.

To wit, most of us would face some severe problems if we found ourselves stranded in the woods-hundreds of miles from civilization. Not all of us, but some more than others. We might be able to piece together a crude shelter, possibly figure out a way to make a fire, figure out how to forage...eventually.

The most efficient way of learning these survival skills would be to integrate into the local population. Perhaps as they learned the language and were able to communicate with the local population these "immigrants" told their stories. And in telling their stories they told of their hopes that their people would return one day to rescue them.

So perhaps their motivations were the same motivations that any of us would have, were we alone in a strange land; survival and ultimately rescue.

 

[Shea]

I feel like an intelligent species with intergalactic travel abilities would possess a strong scientific element to it's culture. I can't help but think from a biologist's standpoint how exciting it would be to find a "missing link" or at least a representation of one of my own species still living so it could be observed. For an extremely advanced species to find one that is significantly less advanced but on its way up would be a chance for the advanced civilization to see a living example of it's own distant history. It's a unique opportunity for a civilization perhaps new to intergalactic transportation that hasn't yet found a species like humans.