[JoJo Gunn]

"The motivations of an ET will not be all that far removed from our own...."

You are still humanizing something utterly alien. They might know nothing of altruism or morality. For all you know, they might be Borg, totally dedicated to finding foodstuffs from other worlds. Or maybe they'll be irresistably drawn to our sewage.

All we can do is guess.

[Chris Talk]

If the Borg land, be sure to let us know. You can be the Borg warner.

[Frank_Discussion]

"You are still humanizing something utterly alien."

Not really, JoJo. I'm referring to physical limitations of the universe and fighting over resources being common themes. You're are absolutely right, there is the possibility ET's would display total indifference to our existence - but that is not an uncommon trait in human history, either.

The fight for resources and quest for some understanding of the universe is constrained by how the cosmos works. Yes, there will be some incredibly different characteristics with ET's, but this notion that we'll be completely unable to relate is a flawed idea.

I think that a lot of this attitude comes from a refusal to believe even the required travel technology is humanly achievable. Something like:

"Why, to get from star to star in such a short time the ET's MUST be more enlightened or possesses some mental faculty we'll never understand!"

Hogwash, says I.

[Quix]

No borgs yet though many contend that Grey's are bioengineered bodies--some say containing demons.

Anyway--with 9 rather common ET races running around loose and reportedly more than 70 by one count and more than 100 by another count DIFFERENT ET races observing or dinking with earth . . .

it's a pretty reasonable thing to construe some human features to them. They are all roughly of our body shape.

And, rational . . . to some degree . . . discourse is evidently possible with all of them.