What if polite species avoid fact-to-face contact as a rule?

[mike]

But would you leave something like that to chance? What if you get there and you can't make an interface due to some unforeseen circumstance? .

well to me being as flexible as possible ie using local dna for building your interface robots seems to offer a greater chance of sucess than trying to prepare your interface in advance with no idea of what you are interfacing with.

No, this is not the same process. We are not waiting to build our tools after arriving on site. We bring all our tools with us, and leave as little to chance as possible.

naturally i took it as a given that the difference would be obvious, our probes collect data on a tiny scale, and are not designed to interface with intelligent life.

i call it the "sea monkey" principle, it would be easier to send ,an off the shelf packet of sea monkeys to the nearest star and reconstitute them when you get there, than it would to mix em up first and send them off with a packed lunch or two or three......

the craft may carry DNA samples of known useful properties, mix them up into primary bio bots, who in turn act as "waldoes" for the craft in gathering more samples from the target planet.

 

[fitzbew88]

naturally i took it as a given that the difference would be obvious, our probes collect data on a tiny scale, and are not designed to interface with intelligent life.

I think I see what you are saying here: they build their tools on site because they have to. Our probes don't need to.

I think this section below is your quote, but the tags got hosed on the last post. If it's not yours...sorry...I didn't see it anywhere else.

well to me being as flexible as possible ie using local dna for building your interface robots seems to offer a greater chance of sucess than trying to prepare your interface in advance with no idea of what you are interfacing with.

I understand. It's a tradeoff between being flexible as possible while keeping your dependence on random factors down to a minimum.

i call it the "sea monkey" principle, it would be easier to send ,an off the shelf packet of sea monkeys to the nearest star and reconstitute them when you get there, than it would to mix em up first and send them off with a packed lunch or two or three......

Ok.

the craft may carry DNA samples of known useful properties, mix them up into primary bio bots, who in turn act as "waldoes" for the craft in gathering more samples from the target planet.

I don't fully understand this part, but I think I have a handle on the gist of your theory.

 

[mike]

fixed, thanks

some of the Panspermia data is also suggesting that the basic building blocks of life may be floating around the galaxy. there is always the chance that "life" is of this origin, and if so, if the basic building blocks are common constants, then this idea becomes even more plausible.

if life "forms" are simply local mutations of a common base unit, then a process based around that would offer great flexibility at the "business end"

as for waldoes, imagine a non organic intellect using a sophisticated version of this or similar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_auditory_effect

to literally animate and control/pre program a Bio form of its own manufacture.

see also

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-computer_interface

an inorganic intellect using organic peripherals so to speak