Why we would NOT seem like insects to a very advanced alien race - because insects can't speak or read or develop a civilization like ours
A copy of Robert Walker's answer to Would a very advanced alien race see humans as we see insects?
First, it depends what you mean by “advanced”. Technologically advanced may not mean more intelligent. We are technologically advanced but we have the same brains as humans of 200,000 years ago. Perhaps its better to understand it as “more civilized”.
If a very advanced alien race is more civilized than us, it likely also means more understanding and more respect for rights of other aliens and animal rights. We are moving in the direction of greater respect for human rights, and more understanding on a centuries timescale, even on decades.
They would be able to communicate with us, unlike ants. They might not be interested in us. But whether they are interested in us or not, there's a reasonable chance we could detect them, unlike ants which are incapable of realizing what humans are. And if they have lost compassion and wisdom even if they have developed abilities to think very quickly with complex lines of reasoning they would have a lot to learn from us even though they might not realize that.
This analogy with ants - it's interesting but shouldn't be taken too far.
Ants aren't intelligent, can't reason and think about consequences. If there were ETs doing mega-engineering and traveling in spaceships through our solar system it’s likely we'd notice them even if they weren't bothered about us.
If ET’s live in the universe in a very sustainable way and protecting the galaxy we might not see them. If they want to be hidden from us they probably can be too, at least so far. For instance our Oort cloud could be filled with ET’s and if they live in quiet sustainable ways with minimal energy we might not see them yet.
Technologically advanced beings need not be more intelligent than us. They might even become less intelligent and forget how to make machines, as in many sci fi. stories - especially if the tech gets 100% reliable, and very advanced.
Also intelligent doesn't have to correlate with responsible, sympathetic, compassionate, loving etc. If they have lost those capabilities they might have a lot to learn from us in those ways - from those of us who are like that.
So, either they are compassionate and loving and wise - if so they'd want to help us from compassion and love but within the limits of what is possible from their understanding and wisdom of how to help.
Or else - if they aren't like that - then they can learn from those of us who are, or people like that from our past also.
There is a great tendency to be attracted to the things that make us feel scared, pessimistic, down hearted. There are lots of good things going on, people are basically good. The Dalai Lama put it like this:
"love and compassion predominate in the world. And this is why unpleasant events are news, compassionate activities are so much part of daily life that they are taken for granted and, therefore, largely ignored.. " . Compassion and the Individual | The 14th Dalai Lama
There is lots of love and compassion going on in all our lives but we pay little attention to it and focus on the unpleasant things.
I'm not saying that they need our religions or or philosophy. But just as thinking aware beings they'd have a lot that they could share with us and talk to us about.
And having technology that's millions of years ahead of us wouldn't change that.
Nor would intelligence.
If they turn out to be able to think far faster than us, and solve immensely complex equations in mathematics in a fraction of a second - we might seem like children to them in some ways.
However someone with a “brain the size of a planet” could still be depressed, paranoid, confused like Marvin the “paranoid android” in HitchHiker’s Guide to the Universe.
See
For more about this see my
which goes into why I think that a computer program can’t understand truth but also talks about issues a super intelligent creature may have.
High IQ doesn't guarantee to solve your life’s problems, or make you more compassionate or aware, or enjoy life more, or make you wiser as we see here on the Earth.
We might seem like children to them - still children can have astonishing insights also sometimes. They might well have things to learn from us.
They might be an old slow moving civilization for instance with no fresh ideas for thousands of years. Perhaps they solved all their physics and science and life problems, and have nothing to do except polish the details of ancient proofs of results everyone knows, add a few decimal points of precision to millions of years old measurements and discuss intricate details of philosophy, or maths, and tiny tweaks of their civilization.
Yet, they might have lost their grounding in essential values that are obvious to most of us, as a young race with many issues.
Perhaps they feel they don't need wisdom or compassion any more because everything is done for them by their machines for instance. They can just enjoy life, long lives in paradises maintained for them by their technology. Perhaps hardly anyone ever suffers physically in their society - with lifetimes of millions of years.
Perhaps life is so easy for them, that they don't know what to do when someone does run into problems.
Maybe their main issue is boredom.
Well if they were like any of that, an anology might be the way that weaker economies in our world want to be like the developed West with all its technology. It may seem almost like a paradise on Earth to them. When they do get the technology they find it does help with material things, with health and well being but it doesn't bring lasting happiness.
So, maybe it’s the same for us and ETs.
We might be an injection of new life and interest to them.
And if they see us as uninteresting and of no relevance to them - that suggests they have plenty to learn from us about compassion, love and wisdom.
See also my