• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

alien life possibility is pathetic

kitakaze said:
96 years is a very long time to live. Many could only hope to live that long. Hopefully her life was full.

Now on to the subject of the thread, hopefully with your return you will be more amenable to the wisdom of those far wiser and more educated than you this time around. Hopefully you won't use the forum as a chat board but this may be too much to ask.
Click to expand...

I always had a bad feeling about SETI. Would anyone consider them a cult? Im not trying to pick a fight, but i have always wondered about seti, they seemed a little weird
 
makaya325 said:
I always had a bad feeling about SETI. Would anyone consider them a cult? Im not trying to pick a fight, but i have always wondered about seti, they seemed a little weird
Click to expand...

:boggled: Whaaaaaaat?

Any definition of "cult" that could possibly encompass SETI would be a definition useless to describing anything unique or special. SETI is no more a cult than, say, the people who made the LHC are a "cult". Or biologists are a "cult". Hell, me having people over my house to play videogames would make us a "cult".

They're a group of scientists working together to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Maybe you're a pessimist and view their search as unlikely to the point of impossible of learning anything. Some are optimists and state that there's still a very real possibility, and some are in-between and say "We won't know if we don't listen". But cult? You claim that you're not trying to start a fight, but what call is there for such charged language?

Why would anyone consider them a "cult"? Anyone that said as much to me, wouldn't see me listening to them after such a statement.
 
Last edited:
Lonewulf said:
:boggled: Whaaaaaaat?

Any definition of "cult" that could possibly encompass SETI would be a definition useless to describing anything unique or special. SETI is no more a cult than, say, the people who made the LHC are a "cult". Or biologists are a "cult". Hell, me having people over my house to play videogames would make us a "cult".

They're a group of scientists working together to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Maybe you're a pessimist and view their search as unlikely to the point of impossible of learning anything. Some are optimists and state that there's still a very real possibility, and some are in-between and say "We won't know if we don't listen". But cult? You claim that you're not trying to start a fight, but what call is there for such charged language?

Why would anyone consider them a "cult"? Anyone that said as much to me, wouldn't see me listening to them after such a statement.
Click to expand...

They are considered a cult in the mind of Stanton Friedman. Is he viewed as a woo in the scientific community?
 
makaya325 said:
They are considered a cult in the mind of Stanton Friedman. Is he viewed as a woo in the scientific community?
Click to expand...

This is the guy that thinks SETI is a cult, but is convinced that there really was an alien spaceship that crashlanded at Roswell?
 
makaya325 said:
They are considered a cult in the mind of Stanton Friedman. Is he viewed as a woo in the scientific community?
Click to expand...
That's a false dichotomy. He might be considered a fine member of the scientific community AND his views on SETI as a cult can be viewed as completely whacko at the same time.

I don't know how he's viewed in the scientific community, but it's absurd to consider SETI a cult.
 
makaya325 said:
They are considered a cult in the mind of Stanton Friedman. Is he viewed as a woo in the scientific community?
Click to expand...

A "professional ufologist"?

From Wikipedia:

Friedman has stated strong views against SETI research, largely on the basis of rejection of the basic assumptions underpinning the research. Perhaps the most fundamental of these is the implicit assumption that there has been no extratterestrial visitation of the planet. He also argues that SETI is seeking only signals; not extraterrestrial intelligence or beings. He maintains that the prominence and widespread public claims of those involved with SETI, including ridicule, has tended to prevent serious research, including by journalists (Friedman, 2008, p. 129)
Click to expand...

His objections were that SETI wasn't immediately believing all the claims of UFO sightings.

And besides, I don't care what Friedman believes. I don't care if he was a Nobel prize winning astrophysicist -- experts are perfectly capable of holding silly viewpoints.
 
And then there is this:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891132.stm

Galaxy has 'billions of Earths'

The number of stars points to there being many rocky planets

There could be one hundred billion Earth-like planets in our galaxy, a US conference has heard.

Dr Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution of Science said many of these worlds could be inhabited by simple lifeforms.

He was speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago.
Click to expand...
 
makaya325 said:
Does anyone have a feeling seti has the wrong preconception about what aliens would use to communicate with earth? What if they are like those aliens on "Alien Planet", intelligent, but not technologically wielding civilizations?
Click to expand...

I don't think SETI actually holds radio astronomy as a preconception, rather our best chance to actually detect alien life. Can you think of a better method to detect life many light years away given current technology?
 
makaya325 said:
I always had a bad feeling about SETI. Would anyone consider them a cult? Im not trying to pick a fight, but i have always wondered about seti, they seemed a little weird
Click to expand...

It's so nice to see you using the quote function that I won't even make an ssue of you quoting me for no apparent reason whatsoever. I would like it if you explained why to you SETI seemed like a cult. I'm curious how such a marvelously stupid statement came about.
 
makaya325 said:
Yep. Many of your responses have impacted my views about life out there. So far, in mans timeline, we have been looking out there, or at the very least, waiting for a sign. We have found nothing. Does anyone have a feeling seti has the wrong preconception about what aliens would use to communicate with earth? What if they are like those aliens on "Alien Planet", intelligent, but not technologically wielding civilizations?
Click to expand...

What an amazing step forward for you. There very well may be lifeforms in the universe that are intelligent such as dolphins are but do not make use of technology. Thank you for prying your mind open enough to consider the possibility. SETI has not found proof of alien civilization. How long and how extensively they have looked is what I would like you to pry your mind open further to.
 
makaya325 said:
So far, in mans timeline, we have been looking out there, or at the very least, waiting for a sign. We have found nothing.
Click to expand...
Well, the universe is very, very very big, and we've searched only the most miniscule fraction of it. It's like looking for a 33-gauge needle in a haystack ten miles high.
 
arthwollipot said:
Well, the universe is very, very very big, and we've searched only the most miniscule fraction of it. It's like looking for a 33-gauge needle in a haystack ten miles high.
Click to expand...

SETI appears rabid against The idea that some UFO'S might be aliens. Its not like any of them ever followed up on reports or documents
 
makaya325 said:
SETI appears rabid against The idea that some UFO'S might be aliens. Its not like any of them ever followed up on reports or documents
Click to expand...

Are you pulling another mega-waffle? Before you were arguing against evidence for UFO ET visitation. Now you putting up Friedman and being critical of SETI for distancing themselves from woo? You've lost your last marble.
 
kitakaze said:
Are you pulling another mega-waffle? Before you were arguing against evidence for UFO ET visitation. Now you putting up Friedman and being critical of SETI for distancing themselves from woo? You've lost your last marble.
Click to expand...

I never said UFO'S are aliens.

Both Ufology and Seti fail. Why dont we try to revive project orion?
 
makaya325 said:
SETI appears rabid against The idea that some UFO'S might be aliens. Its not like any of them ever followed up on reports or documents
Click to expand...
Since just about everyone on the forums can agree that your typical UFO report is either
a. obviously explainable (lightning, venus, the moon, flares, etc.)
b. so vague as to be useless
why the hell would a SETI, a radio astronomy project, bother with them? SETI doesn't investigate car accidents either. Are they rabidly set against the idea that some crashes may be caused by drunk driving? It's not like any of them ever followed up in SETI reports or documents.

makaya325 said:
I never said UFO'S are aliens.

Both Ufology and Seti fail. Why dont we try to revive project orion?
Click to expand...
SETI hasn't found any obviously intentionally broadcast radio signals yet. It's not like the project yields no results, though. Correct me if I'm wrong better informed people, but weren't pulsars discovered by the SETI project?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom