Why do people assume Alien lifeforms are smarter than us?

I've never seem to grasp the idea that alien life forms are smarter than humans. How can we say they are when we don't have any conclusive evidence that they do exist? And maybe the UFO's and USO's (unidentified submergable objects) are capable at going places and reaching speeds we have not yet been able to achieve. But it's very possible that we can do thing they can't.

When we're not positive of something in question, A conclusion is often just assumed based off of what sounds closeset to the truth.


People claim that they have seen 'ufo's' And since no Government officials have come out to public about some top secret air craft they're working on, they assume they must belong to a(n) intellectually-technologically advanced being(s). yes?

"But it's very possible that we can do thing they can't."
-Of course we can. Who ever said they are or would be better than us in every way?

the idea that aliens are smarter and more advanced than us is simply a figure of mankinds fears and insecureties.with the media gently pushing those fears and insecureties along with movies and T.V. shows of the world being taken over by aliens.

Until we can develop technology sufficient enough to travel to enough planets (and excluding theories about Mars, etc.); the only intelligent life we'll come across is them communicating with us; be this their intent or them sending messages back to us. So, now at least, that life will be at least as inteligent as the more intelligent human beings on this planet.

This question can be answered in one word.

Hollywood

i agree with heyjme1

Maybe because we assume they can travel in spacecraft capable of crossing the incredibly vast void of outer space from a planet in a galaxy light years away, when we cannot even travel to another planet as yet. Therefore, we suppose that they are technologically advanced. Wouldn't it be interesting if such beings were actually less advanced than we are, and their abilities to travel and other technological capabilities were actually the result of "natural" phenomena they discovered accidentally without ant knowledge of thier inner workings? Just a thought.

We're almost completely ignorant, possessing a miniscule fraction of a percentage (like .0000000001%) of the universe's knowledge. This isn't something that will get relatively better, since we spend our resources and efforts fighting one another instead of progressing.

It's unlikely that we're the dumbest race in the universe, but I'm betting that we're in the bottom 10%.

If this is just a question of intelligence, then I say there is no way to know. An alien species could in fact be far less intelligent then us but in fact have been developing for say an extra 10 million years, so even though their technology is more advanced we could be more intelligent. Insofar as that we could solve problems better and faster, the same problems could take them far longer.

i think Azhrei has summed it up the best, to reach us in our current situation must of course be the result of their using more advanced technology to reach us. though of course that does only prove that they are more advanced not more intelligent. for example i wouldn't want to go head to head against einstein in an iq test or other intelligence based competition, but i know id be far more useful that him if my computer was playing up. cos he never saw a modern computer, chances are given some training he would be miles better than me with it in the end, but i have the advantage of a few years knowledge of computers.

Wizards logic also gave us an interesting prospect, the finding of a natural phenomenon that allowed them to travel around. imagine say a group of aliens in their equivalent of the roman era stumbling across and subsequently through a natural stargate and onto our world, they would be the reason we met but, with no actual knowledge of how, they would even be less technically developed than us.

another example could be the organic ships you see in some of the Sci-Fi films and tv programs. huge creatures capable of carrying other organisms safely through the vast planes of space once again without any technological knowhow just biological ability.

Right just of flight of fantasy. Looking for life within our own solar system is generally seeking for evidents of previous cultural existence or seeking the evolutionary beginnings of life, cells. Such has been a mission parameters for the space program.

ive always thought of it in the way Calvin and Hobbes depicted.

in one of the cartoons, calvin is standing next to a tree stump with an axe in it, freshly cut down. he says something along the lines of "i understand people think there could be a lot of intelligent life out there, but i dont undestand why people think theyd ever want to meet us"

first post!

Simple, if an alien race has been able to create a way to communicate with us, through that kind of distance then, they are more advanced. Im going to say, that to get that kind of technology, they would be so friggen smart, the point that, they simply are above killing one another probubly. IN other words they arnt comming to earth to blow it to pieces because they can. Sure if they can open a whorm whole, or have teleportation, or can warp time to get to us. THen they will first, study us, by simply using a probe. Nasa first sends a probe anywere, then it gathers data, then tries to send a man. But I agree with others, that if aliens who had infinate knowledge took a look at the Human race they would be disgusted with us, that our genious has gone towards hurting others.

People assume that if an alien can reach us, it is probably more intelligent than us, and that is a rational assumption. There is ample evidence that aliens who reach us before we reach them are probably more intelligent than us. "...such beings were actually less advanced than we are, and their abilities to travel and other technological capabilities were actually the result of "natural" phenomena they discovered accidentally without ant knowledge of thier inner workings?"
is an irrational assumption. That would be like me assuming that all aliens look exactly like "Jabba The Hutt" from "Star Wars". It is highly unlikely and is based on little evidence. What would you believe, that air is gas, or that air is a formation of magical mushroom men that cannot be detected by any modern technology?

In our society we have technology.

In our society we have groups of technologists.

In our society we have people who understand the technology; people who are informed of the technology; people who use the technology; people outside these.

In our society we have resources.

We have inner mental resources and outer material resources.

If a society has a high amount of decent resources. First mental. Second material, it can create purposeful technology.

But it depends on the culture or the creature as to where it is decided purposeful. Intelligence is merely a tool. It is where this is used and with what resources that matters in this instance.

So it is not suffice to say a just argument that if aliens were smart enough they would want to contact us. But if they were to contact us it would be evidence that at least some members of the group occupied intelligence; though the measure of this would only be known in reference to our knowing of their resources.

There are many possibilities. The one I'm interested in is if aliens communicate to me in something I understand. I'm smarter than a gnat but I'm not smart enough for it to understand me and me it. Else, I'll find the aliens first. If, that is, they exist.