An Advanced Civilization has been discovered?

[Jewrean]

The Question?
If Aliens came down and visited us what are some of the things you would think a species more advanced than us would be capable of?

Another way of asking this is what are some awesome things that haven't been invented yet but plausibly with enough time could be?

Now obviously there are flying cars, extremely tall buildings (ala the Fifth element), space-travel, time-travel and so on to consider. But I'm looking for answers beyond the obvious. Maybe a true unified field theory? You know? That thing Einstein was working on for 30 years that can explain everything in the universe Mathematically?

Why am I asking you this?
The makings of a good book have been musing around in my head for many years. There is an advanced civilization in it and I wanted them to really appear advanced in so many ways, not just technologically. I was also researching String theory and was thinking if it truly was the real answer and if we would ever know.

 

[Jewrean]

A thread titled 'What are you wearing' gets 9 pages of responses and this gets a grand total of 0 responses? Are you serious? Not a single intelligent thought? I guess I'll go make a new thread entitled 'What tastes better, lighter fluid or Turpentine?'.

 

[iblis666]

id hope to see energy to matter replicators that can construct anything i want

id also love a auto doc that could repair anything that could happen to a person and revert them to a younger age

 

[Miles000]

Well for starters they would probably bring a secular governing body, as I cant see a race advancing to the point of interstellar travel without it.

Or maybe some unified religious belief.

But yes I think they would have to have some kind of advanced understanding of the universes true functioning that would benefit us more greatly than any one technological advancement.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

A thread titled 'What are you wearing' gets 9 pages of responses and this gets a grand total of 0 responses? Are you serious? Not a single intelligent thought? I guess I'll go make a new thread entitled 'What tastes better, lighter fluid or Turpentine?'.

LOL, nicely done.

I would imagine that if aliens are as smart as everyone imagines them, then they already know of our existence and everything we do and have ever done... They would have deciphered our language, laws etc.

We would just be an addition to they're Wikipedia...

And if I were a super intelligent alien and saw a "advanced" civilization like earth fight each other and constantly be in war. I would think of them as primitive and not understanding the benefits of peace yet.

That's probably why they haven't bothered to make contact with us, because we are just a bunch of un-evolved primitives who think we're smart...

And it takes a truly smart man to know there is always more to learn. We, us, the world... are not that man...

 

[Jewrean]

Yay! Responses! My existence feels validated!... jking.

And it takes a truly smart man to know there is always more to learn. We, us, the world... are not that man...

Indeed. As they say:
The wisest man is the first to admit he knows nothing.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, presumably interstellar travel. And some way of knowing in advance where to set off for, otherwise when the generation ship landed on Proxima Centauri and they built big radio recievers, they'd be cursing their ancestors for not aiming one star over.

Patience, too, I guess.

They'd be likely to have gotten rid of their petty superstitions and wilful misconceptions about things...possibly they've invented exciting new ones, though.

 

[WolfThomas]

Read "A roadside picnic" (I think). It's the book that inspired the Russian film Stalker, which then inspired the game. The idea is that the zone where aliens visited is like the aftermath of a picnic and we the humans are like ants. The food, rubbish, motor oil etc would seem incredible.

 

[Zyst]

Probably (obviously) capability to make wormholes at will to make faster-than-light travel faster.

Obviously, immortality, although they probably have a "limit" age they set to themselves (What would be considered 900 years of our race, perhaps) to avoid overpopulation across the many worlds they've Terra-formed.

Complete unity enforced by a single government, no such thing as individual countries.

A "Vaccine" administered at birth that enhances their natural defenses, to make them immune to diseases. Would be interesting if the vaccine also carried nano-bots with a singular print, thus if a member of the race commits a heinous crime the nano-bots inside the being can be activated to murder it.

I can probably think of more, but I'd rather sleep.

 

[Roxor]

I think an advanced civilisation would have completely and utterly done away with all forms of superstition, including religion.

We don't qualify yet, and I don't think we will any time this century.

 

[Jessta]

So while I heard time travel has been completely stricken out, how about machines that can show what WOULD happen if something else happened by calculating all of the different possibilities for it.
Machines that could fuse peoples DNA together would be eerie and probably forbidden. (like a machine that could say alter my DNA to be a combination of my father mothers plus some other persons... a nice plot twist would be someone that goes around collecting peoples DNA and implanting it in say a child to create the ultimate person with all the best traits of humanity or chimeras or the such.)

 

[dvd_72]

Possibally an entanglement radio? You know, for instantaneous communication between two places lightyears away.

Also they would have probably figured out quantum computers, and with the increased computing power some kind of synthesised inteligence.

That's all I got for the moment. I'll keep musing and see if I can't get back to you with some more

 

[steevee]

What I always wonder is why people think an interstellar, advanced race of Aliens would be peaceful? I mean, sure they could be a peaceful hard working race that has brought about those advances through mutual cooperation. But equally could they not have brought them about by conquest? Some of the greatest advances in technology are made during times of conflict, and a huge amount of tech is handed down from the defence industry.

 

[Efrate]

I know pretty much nothing of string theory, but for a work of fiction, even realistic ala say Mishner or some such, taking all the varying dimensions, or at least some of them, and classifying them and how they act on their own and in relation to several others in a way that seems plausible. Also, exploring the limits of said dimensions, again from a purely fictional standpoint, and maybe taking one and focusing on it, mayhaps a religion or unifying political theory (would could be the source of underlying deep seated racial tension, even though the point of understanding and acceptance has been reached) based on a dimension or so would be appropriate.

Pretty much all good tales have some sort of conflict, so having an understated one to thematically fit (aka the "American" aliens are followers of the grand religion of time, whilst the "Chinese" aliens are politically motivated by depth or some such), because an all knowing unconflicted totally unified race is not only beyond the scope of most people (I would imagine) to relate to, but also fairly boring.

Also, assuming there are higher lifeforms out there, why would they make contact with this planet and its sorry state unless they needed a resource of some sort, its not like we are going to culturly advance them or anything, at best we'd be a sort of National Geographic Wild, Space Edition that they can observe us and our habits from a safe distance without us knowing much if at all about our observers. They're probably watching right now. In fact, I know they are. Everytime firefox freezes its my little slice of reality being observed, so appently I'm interesting...?

 

[Thaluikhain]

So while I heard time travel has been completely stricken out, how about machines that can show what WOULD happen if something else happened by calculating all of the different possibilities for it.

You mean like this? [http://www.subterraneanpress.com/index.php/magazine/winter2007/fiction-missives-from-possible-futures-1-alternate-history-search-results-by-john-scalzi/]

 

[Miles000]

I think an advanced civilisation would have completely and utterly done away with all forms of superstition, including religion.

We don't qualify yet, and I don't think we will any time this century.

This man gets it.

Until we separate religion from logical decision making, we will never get anywhere as a 'technological advanced' race. I'm in no way saying that religion is bad or that it is destroying the race. However our progress is being slowed down by it's involvement.

[sub]If that didn't make sense it's because I am having trouble verbalating tonight.[/sub]

 

[ColeusRattus]

Hmm, I think the thread is intersting.
I'd best start it off with Carke's third law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Thus I wouldn't even bother with advancements based on state of the art science, as it has some disadvantages: firstly, it's quite a lot to research if you want to be accurate. Secondly, no matter how much you research it, you have to expand upon it in a fantastical way, which is hard to pull off without getting rediculous.
So rather than scientifically back it up, chose things they are capable of and don't ever try to explain them. Just look at what Lucas did with the Force. With one sentence he degraded a mystical power to a benevolent infection. Let your space travelling be godlike, unfathomable in powers, and define them rather by morality than by technology. Given the advantage they have, how would they cope with the problems of earth? Would the intervene, or observe? etc.
Also, explore the impact on humankind, economics and religion.

And as a small sidenote on flying cars and timetravel: While the first one is one of the tropes of futurism, I don't think we will ever see flight as a indivudial way of travel for the masses. Most people can barely cope with the two dimensions of ground level traffic, so better not add a third one. Also, as flight takes much more energy than driving, it won't happen as long as we haven't found a more efficient way to generate and store it than via oil.
And I don't think that unlimited time travel is possible for one reason: we would've met time travellers or at least found artifacts of them. Because even if time travel was limited to a small elite, it still would cause myriads of time travellers over time being able to travel to the past, and, even if they are guided by a common directive of stealth, somebody is ought botch it up sometime (murphy's law), thus we'd have some sort of proof of time travellers.
The only way I think time travel would be possible would be like in a corridor: So if a time machine was invented, time travel would be possible from the point where it was turned on until the point it was turned off.

 

[Jewrean]

Obviously, immortality, although they probably have a "limit" age they set to themselves (What would be considered 900 years of our race, perhaps) to avoid overpopulation across the many worlds they've Terra-formed.

Complete unity enforced by a single government, no such thing as individual countries.

Those two points are huge in my book.

What I always wonder is why people think an interstellar, advanced race of Aliens would be peaceful? I mean, sure they could be a peaceful hard working race that has brought about those advances through mutual cooperation. But equally could they not have brought them about by conquest?

It's interesting because the alien species in the story I'm writing conquers and assimilates the culture, technology, resources, and people of the Earth.

I know pretty much nothing of string theory, but for a work of fiction, even realistic ala say Mishner or some such, taking all the varying dimensions, or at least some of them, and classifying them and how they act on their own and in relation to several others in a way that seems plausible. Also, exploring the limits of said dimensions, again from a purely fictional standpoint, and maybe taking one and focusing on it, mayhaps a religion or unifying political theory (would could be the source of underlying deep seated racial tension, even though the point of understanding and acceptance has been reached) based on a dimension or so would be appropriate.

Pretty much all good tales have some sort of conflict, so having an understated one to thematically fit (aka the "American" aliens are followers of the grand religion of time, whilst the "Chinese" aliens are politically motivated by depth or some such), because an all knowing unconflicted totally unified race is not only beyond the scope of most people (I would imagine) to relate to, but also fairly boring.

Also, assuming there are higher lifeforms out there, why would they make contact with this planet and its sorry state unless they needed a resource of some sort, its not like we are going to culturly advance them or anything, at best we'd be a sort of National Geographic Wild, Space Edition that they can observe us and our habits from a safe distance without us knowing much if at all about our observers. They're probably watching right now. In fact, I know they are. Everytime firefox freezes its my little slice of reality being observed, so appently I'm interesting...?

1) String theory often speaks of multiple dimensions so well done.

2) Holy shit why is everyone reading my mind? That's another main story arc where an alternative dimension is the cause of the unified religion and insatiable urge to assimilate others for a higher purpose.

3) You hit the nail on the head with the third point. The story is about this species assimilating us. The story is told from the perspective of one of them, and by the end, humanity isn't freed. Although the species appears all-knowing, they share many attributes with us including selfishness and greed leading to extremely cruel slavery.

4) As for your last point, I can't give away the whole story but this species is dependent on finding other similar species and assimilating them to bolster and empower their culture. Stealing their resources is the last thing they conquer for. It is the people they need.