Posted on 02/02/2016 1:30:21 AM PST by LibWhacker
IF SETI is sooooo IMPORTANT, put it out on Kickstarter and let the general public fund it voluntarily.
I’m sure all those rich Hollywood Scientologists, with their inquiring minds, would like to “call home” and will cough up loads of cash!
Whether there is life in another place in the 3-dimensional universe, only God knows.......C.S. Lewis in his space Trilogy surmised that there could be.
BUT, it is certain that there is life in another dimension - the spiritual one......the one in which God lives and who calls Himself “the God of the living....” Jesus told the woman at the well that “God is spirit.....”, not flesh and blood.
His Son, Jesus Christ, had been in that dimension for all eternity - BUT about 2000 years ago entered this dimension and took on flesh and blood, and forever now retains His physical body.
SciFi nuts love the thought of other dimensions, and indeed, there may be 5 or more.
But the 4th dimension - the spiritual one - was clearly spoken of and revealed by the Lord Jesus Christ, and written about much by the apostles John and Paul...........” . . . we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corin. 4:18. or 2 Corin. 4:18 - whichever one prefers. ;-)
We could not live on a planet with truly alien life forms. Better off finding a sterile rock in a good solar location and cultivating our own acceptable life forms.
What’s wrong with you people? You don’t have embedded quantum entanglement communicators? Sheesh!
It is this vastness you mention that causes me to believe that realistic space travel will be nearly impossible. Because realistic space travel is nearly impossible, I think the chance of us finding life elsewhere is practically zero. The technology hurdle is simply too great.
Physical laws around relativity, time and the speeds required to reach other planets, let alone those planets that are judged to be better suited at supporting life, greatly limit what's possible to explore. I'm a firm believer that the speed of light is the universal speed limit. Unless some new property of physics and nature is discovered, I don't know how one, we can get out and explore; or two, establish or act upon any sort of communications with another life form.
You pose some interesting questions, but there are some mighty big "ifs" as well. So many things would have to come together--evolved, intelligent life, the capability of space travel, and this life form's civilization overlapping ours in terms of their technology.
The ability to replicate intelligence is an interesting one, but I don't have the mental capacity to grasp how one would employ such a thing.
Oh, I agree with that. Nothing in the premise supports the conclusion.
I still believe that with the size of the Universe and the number of Star systems involved, that it is illogical to conclude that life exists on only one tiny, tiny, unnoticeable planet in the outer bands of a tiny galaxy.
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Well, see--when a man really likes a woman, they....
nevermind
It is illogical to conclude that life exists elsewhere, without evidence.
...Our radio transmissions might appear to aliens as some indian smoke signals would appear to an F-16 pilot passing overhead...
..but what if the F-16 pilot was looking for smoke signals?
Primitive yes, but still recognizable.
An alien culture looking for intelligent life would not necessarily be looking for MORE intelligent life but any life, intelligent or otherwise, and would look through all the signals available.
And who’s to say that we are not the most intelligent life in the galaxy/universe (scary thought I know) which brings up another question.
Where are our outposts and colonies?
Why, evolution and killing babies are the exact same religion.
No one can offer any real opposition to that opinion.
However, what are the odds that the life that must exist elsewhere would ever cross paths with life here on earth.
It is not sufficient that the two lives cross paths in physical location they must also cross paths at the same point in time.
In consideration of the vastness of empty space what are the odds that different forms of life cross paths in both space and time. Life that is one billion years ahead or behind another life or separated by billions of light years in distance may not recognize each other.
My understanding is that living out here in the exurbs of our solar system is one of the reasons we had sufficient time on earth to develop intelligent life.
“My understanding is that living out here in the exurbs of our solar system is one of the reasons we had sufficient time on earth to develop intelligent life.”
This ‘understanding’ was granted to you by whom? And how would they know - unless they’ve been to the center?
Besides it makes sense.
Even being out here in the hinterlands, Earth has experienced some spectacularly life changing events. The best guess is that the moon was created when the Earth was hit by a large planet. Several massive extinction events are most likely the result of meteor/asteroid collisions. We are told that a gamma ray burst would strip the Earth of its atmosphere. We are told there are rogue planets soaring through the galaxy that were ejected from their solar systems, etc.
These events would be experienced more often in parts of the solar system more densely populated with stars. It's just a matter of probability.
That may apply if all life must be 1) human-like 2) carbon based 3) if the ‘science authority’ had inside knowledge or was just making it up to gain grant money.
There is absolutely no evidence that the moon has anything to do with an Earth origin - wrong chemical/mineral composition to begin with. More ‘science authority’ speculation for grant money. Explain why the density of the moon’s crust is hardest nearest the surface and consists of rare elements not found on Earth. Explain why one side of the moon appears ‘melted’ while the other is completely pockmarked with craters exhibiting no ‘melting.’
Again on extinctions there is no evidence to back one theory over the other; and Occam’s Razor only works if one knows all the possibilities which no one knows. It just as likely that the solar system passed through a high energy dust cloud and life changed. There is no explanation for The Cambrian Explosion where whole phyla appeared almost literally overnight.
Again “we are told” that the Earth is warming and man is the cause ... believe that stuff if you choose. No one has ever found a ‘rouge’ planet - pure speculation.
Always be skeptical in science especially with pronouncements by some ‘science authority.’ There is no reason why some form of life, intelligent life, based on energy, for instance, could not arise in the ultra high energy center. You need to delve deeply into high energy physics and particle interactions to understand that there is no limit given 13 billion years to become whatever life chooses.
In closing: “The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.†- J. B. S. Haldane
of course, there’s another thought to process.
ever since man wanted to transport things... he has forever tried to improve that process, thereby making life easier. so when the guys dragging things around on sticks ran into the first guy using a wheel and axle... we’ve been looking to improve transport ever since. as long as the usage, and possibly replication, of the transport system is within the capabilities of the people to use it... it would continue to be used long after the village (or world) that created it, died off.
realizing that, and combining it with the current theory of stable worm holes bouncing around physics... we come to an interesting prospect.
you see, any society advanced enough to develop a stable worm hole would also be advanced enough to create a rudimentary AI. as such, it would be possible they would send out robotic drones (doesn’t have to be a full blown AI) to place worm hole receivers. this would quickly evolve into the drones building these portals, or gates, using materials found at the remote site. they would also most likely program the drone to replicate itself first, then the gate, dialing back to the home world to announce the location and conditions of the new gate, then speeding off in opposite directions to repeat the process.
forever ... into deep space.
if such a thing were possible in the universe... EVEN ONCE... then it MUST exist at this point in time -somewhere- out there. robots flying between star systems, scouting for suitable planets, replicating themselves and a gate, then flying on. spreading this interstellar network of roads across the heavens ... long after originating society dies out.
such a system would be so infinitely useful ... it would have to continue to exist, once created.
such a system could easily spread life throughout the universe.
the question is... is there such a gate nearby and have we already found it?
Here's a thought that relates to Mathematical Induction. Let's accept that mankind is near to having the ability to terraform another planet, and make it suitable for human colonization. And that in time, civilization will develop in such terraformed entities, and some will themselves develop the abilities to terraform and colonize. It takes so long they will have no cultural memory of their beginnings, perhaps some ancient lore or mysterious aritifacts.
Let's go back one step instead of forward. Isn't there a very high probability that we are the result of terraforming and colonization?
Bingo. Nicely put. One does not really confer scientific credibility through the judicious use of arithmetical operators on non-arithmetical terms. The Drake equation is nothing more than an attempt to set down some of the factors. It does not pretend (or shouldn't) to be exhaustive.
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