[paigetheoracle]

Why is that in cases of alleged contact with alien worlds, they nearly always describe their planet or show it to be arid wasteland, lacking much wildlife, vegetation or a sizeable population? Could it be that it's like the Amazon Basin or what is happening on this planet in general, that the advanced humanoid civilization of any world is suicidal in that locust like, it uses up all the resources available and is then forced into outer space to seek life elsewhere to survive on? (Advanced forms of warfare (nuclear etc) could also create this situation, of course).

Just a (logical) thought....

[Boerseun]

Mostly because they are dead!

All planets in our Solar System have now been visited, thanks to Pluto being scratched as a planet, and no life was found.

If you're talking about Mars, what we describe and depict as 'arid wastelands' is because that is what the landers have seen and photographed. Venus is a bioling hellhole, Mercury is either boiling or deep-frozen, depending whether you're on the day side or night side. And the rest of the planets and moons are frozen stiff. There are exceptions, what with Io spewing sulphuric 'lava', and Europa being covered with a global ice-cap which is cracked, possibly pointing to a liquid ocean underneath. But an 'Amazon-basin' type scenario is out of the question in our Solar System, at least - except for Earth, of course.

Depicting an 'Amazon'-type landscape on newly-found planets in other solar systems would be presumptious, because no evidence for it exists. The only thing we can infer of the conditions on those planets are what we know of conditions around our own neighbourhood of planets, and for that, an Amazon scenario is out of the question - mostly because the planets we have found so far is way too massive and way too close to their respective stars to allow 'Amazon'-type life as we know it. This is, however, not to say that they are dead and lifeless - all we need to do is develop our detection techniques, and we might even find planets with the right mass/distance/spectral qualities to indicate possible life as we know it, and then you'll have your ET Amazon!

[rockpython]

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Why is that in cases of alleged contact with alien worlds, they nearly always describe their planet or show it to be arid wasteland, lacking much wildlife, vegetation or a sizeable population?

could be a couple of reasons. (one) as a warning to mankind that technological advancement might also bring ruin. (two) too hard to make up all the detail. not many tolkiens out there.

[DarkColoredLight]

Who knows, humans might be the real aliens on this planet.


Maybe "adam and eve" arived here by ship. Space ship that is.

[Moontanman]

paigetheoracle said:

Why is that in cases of alleged contact with alien worlds, they nearly always describe their planet or show it to be arid wasteland, lacking much wildlife, vegetation or a sizeable population? Could it be that it's like the Amazon Basin or what is happening on this planet in general, that the advanced humanoid civilization of any world is suicidal in that locust like, it uses up all the resources available and is then forced into outer space to seek life elsewhere to survive on? (Advanced forms of warfare (nuclear etc) could also create this situation, of course).

Just a (logical) thought....

Could it be because when we imagine aliens we hold up a mirror and imagine our own worst fears?

Michael