Wondering the Science of Extraterrestrial Species

[Hyperspace2]

I have wondering that if there exist the extraterrestial intelligent species, they might have science foundation different than us. In our science , we have force , distance, matter, kinetics , kinematics etc and unit like metre, kg, seconds etc. Is there possibility these species might have different foundation of science rather than this? or there is any logical obligation that it must be same.
Other examples , our electronics is based on digital system, is there any possibility that those species might have different branch of electronics that we can't comprehend...?

Any answers to satisfy my curiosity are welcomed...!

 

[JaredJames]

They'd have the same things, just with different names.

That is assuming of course, they are at our level of knowledge.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

It's the same universe, if they adopt the scientific method (which is fairly objective in theory) they will study the same principles. There might be differences between where they draw subject divisions, for instance we divide science into physics, chemistry and biology with cross overs, sub-divisions and interdisciplinary topics. If they do it differently they may come up with different approaches to some things.

This is all assuming that they are anthropic aliens.

 

[Nikitin]

Hmm this is interesting, how could their science be radically different? I also think that they'd have the same constants and measured data as and use the same concepts as us, but just with different units (though some, like the unit, would be mutual) and names.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Hmm this is interesting, how could their science be radically different? I also think that they'd have the same constants and measured data as and use the same concepts as us, but just with different units (though some, like the unit, would be mutual) and names.

I guess their science may not be any different (apart from what they specifically know that we don't yet and vise versa) but their technology could simply through different needs/wants.

 

[pallidin]

Just my 2-cents:

So many variable factors here, but, if all is equal to ourselves with the exception of them being around on their own planet for, say, many thousands of years before us on our own, I would expect their understanding and utilization of science and technology to be much higher than we have.
Consider our own advances, and surprises, in even the last 100 years.

Even still, just my thoughts...

 

[daveb]

I'm not a number theorist so can't say which base system is most efficient, but I imagine that any measured constants would be the same, just in a different base.

 

[ideasrule]

Even if they've discovered exactly the same physical laws, they could use completely different mathematics to express it. Consider that on Earth, modern mathematics has been mostly developed by one culture in a linear way. Yet we have Newtonian mechanics, Lagrangian mechanics, and Hamiltonian mechanics, all expressing the same physics. In QM, we have Schrodinger's wave mechanics, Heisenberg's matrix mechanics, and Feynman's path integral formulation--essentially all identical, despite looking very different from each other.

An alien race's mathematics may even be completely different. Do they use complex numbers, matrices, etc? We use them because they're extremely useful constructs, but we don't know whether some other construct will be even more useful because Earth's mathematics happened not to take that route.