I am watching this TV mini-series by Spielberg called 'Taken'. It traces the history and future of three families intertwined with alien abductions and sightings...very interesting indeed and thought provoking!
So are there any aliens? or should we - earthlings - be smug in our belief that we are the only ones in the universe. I remember as a child, thanks to StarTrek and a vivid imagination, i was prone to imagining that we are not alone and there are living beings out there in distant parts of this universe.
Childhood fantasies aside, i do believe that there must be some form of life in this vast universe. It would be foolish and arrogant to think otherwise. Just imagine, the universe comprises of millions of Galaxies, imagine the probability of existence of life form in some little corner of this vastness. If i may say so, we humans - the most intelligent and evolved living being on this planet (or are we??) - are nothing but a tiny speck of sand in this vast beach that is the universe.
I remember i read this story from my school curriculum (unfortunately i do not remember the name of the story or the author), which talked about existence of life forms other than that on earth. What struck me most about this story was that the author drew my attention to the apparent lack of originality in our imagination concerning aliens.
Time and again we have been subjected to aliens with two hands, two legs, face, eyes, ears (basically rehash of the same concept). Why does an alien living form have to resemble us? It can be anything! anything at all....totally different form our concepts and ideas of living form. The form, volume, mass, look of this alien being could be radically different from what we can ever imagine! Maybe they exist in the form of energy - who knows!!
And why do they need to exist in what WE percieve as environment that supports life? May be they survive in environments that are poisonous to living forms on this planet - again who knows? What i find irritating is that we assume and imagine things relative to our existence on this planet - shouldn't we resort to a little more imagination and open-mindedness?
As i said earlier due to a vivid imagination as a child, i have many a times tried to imagine non-existence of the universe itself! Imagine how would that be!! No universe - just space - in fact it can't even be called space - because one needs objects to create the feeling of space - it would basically be NOTHING - or as we indians say SHUNYA.
Another thought process that arises from this train of thoughts is the concept of GOD. I am not an athiest - i like to believe in the existence of god and like many selfish individuals i do pray and remember god when i am in trouble! BUT there is this part of me which questions incessantly our belief systems, hypocrisy (that i am myself prone to) notwithstanding!
So if we for a second think about the existence aliens, where does that leave our god? Did god create this universe? if so - then do the aliens share our god (in its varied forms - hindu god, muslim god, christian god etc etc...) And if by some miracle they do - in what form do they see god? the same way as us? or is the concept of god unique to human beings - because we like to think we are blessed and protected? To be honest i prefer the feeling of being protected any day.
And if they also have the concept of god - do they also fight like us over my god - your god?!! or is that also uniquely human?!! Did i just say that we are the most intelligent and evolved form on this planet...
I can blame it all on Speilberg. Take a look at the germ of the incoherence expressed above: http://www.scifi.com/taken/index_main.html
So are there any aliens? or should we - earthlings - be smug in our belief that we are the only ones in the universe. I remember as a child, thanks to StarTrek and a vivid imagination, i was prone to imagining that we are not alone and there are living beings out there in distant parts of this universe.
Childhood fantasies aside, i do believe that there must be some form of life in this vast universe. It would be foolish and arrogant to think otherwise. Just imagine, the universe comprises of millions of Galaxies, imagine the probability of existence of life form in some little corner of this vastness. If i may say so, we humans - the most intelligent and evolved living being on this planet (or are we??) - are nothing but a tiny speck of sand in this vast beach that is the universe.
I remember i read this story from my school curriculum (unfortunately i do not remember the name of the story or the author), which talked about existence of life forms other than that on earth. What struck me most about this story was that the author drew my attention to the apparent lack of originality in our imagination concerning aliens.
Time and again we have been subjected to aliens with two hands, two legs, face, eyes, ears (basically rehash of the same concept). Why does an alien living form have to resemble us? It can be anything! anything at all....totally different form our concepts and ideas of living form. The form, volume, mass, look of this alien being could be radically different from what we can ever imagine! Maybe they exist in the form of energy - who knows!!
And why do they need to exist in what WE percieve as environment that supports life? May be they survive in environments that are poisonous to living forms on this planet - again who knows? What i find irritating is that we assume and imagine things relative to our existence on this planet - shouldn't we resort to a little more imagination and open-mindedness?
As i said earlier due to a vivid imagination as a child, i have many a times tried to imagine non-existence of the universe itself! Imagine how would that be!! No universe - just space - in fact it can't even be called space - because one needs objects to create the feeling of space - it would basically be NOTHING - or as we indians say SHUNYA.
Another thought process that arises from this train of thoughts is the concept of GOD. I am not an athiest - i like to believe in the existence of god and like many selfish individuals i do pray and remember god when i am in trouble! BUT there is this part of me which questions incessantly our belief systems, hypocrisy (that i am myself prone to) notwithstanding!
So if we for a second think about the existence aliens, where does that leave our god? Did god create this universe? if so - then do the aliens share our god (in its varied forms - hindu god, muslim god, christian god etc etc...) And if by some miracle they do - in what form do they see god? the same way as us? or is the concept of god unique to human beings - because we like to think we are blessed and protected? To be honest i prefer the feeling of being protected any day.
And if they also have the concept of god - do they also fight like us over my god - your god?!! or is that also uniquely human?!! Did i just say that we are the most intelligent and evolved form on this planet...
I can blame it all on Speilberg. Take a look at the germ of the incoherence expressed above: http://www.scifi.com/taken/index_main.html
