Unalienable
Critical Thinker
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2005
- Messages
- 292

We are here!
We are here!
We are here!
We are here!
Perhaps I should have added; colonised by a superior civilization. A more advanced one. That's evolution, survival of the strongest or fittest. That's the way it worksI thought America had been already colonised by the Indians when Christopher showed up.
That's evolution, survival of the strongest or fittest. That's the way it works
I thought America had been already colonised by the Indians when Christopher showed up.
Settled but not colonized. There was nobobdy living here when the first wave of American Indians showed up.
The definite existence of ETL would answer one of the basic questions that I've had since childhood. I believe it would make a HUGE difference in many peoples outlook on life and our place in the universe.
I'm not saying anything against Soapy Sam, I just don't understand his mindset..
I can't wait to hear how SETI has done this./QUOTE]
For one, they pioneered the practical application of distributed computing over the Internet by donated CPU cycles. Those same techniques are now being used in research with more "down-to-earth" benefits.
Strange that someone who claims to love factual accuracy should consider it a virtue to blatantly misrepresent a group of people that way.
BTW
Denying existence of something doesn't prove it doesn't exist. Absence of proof doesn't constitute proof of absence. That's a basic given. To smugly assert otherwise is unscientific- a mind-set which is supposedly anathema to atheists.
What post are you responding to?
Quite. But that is as you say, belief. Belief has a far greater impact on some lives than knowledge.
If SETI had a contact, it would be a scientific fact- which would be of little interest to those who believe in angels.
The existence of elk as a species was not in question - the existence of elk in the hunting area was.a) we know elk exist, it isn't an extraordinary claim
Appeals to tradition and nature constitute logical fallacies. I subscribe to a Scandinavian-wide history magazine, and this issue featured a quote from a physician who said it was perfectly natural that half of the country's children died before the age of eight, and that it was pointless to worry about this since it was the way nature worked.Perhaps I should have added; colonised by a superior civilization. A more advanced one. That's evolution, survival of the strongest or fittest. That's the way it works
Christianity costs billions of dollars, doesn't it? Have you proven the existence of God yet?b) elk hunting doesn't cost millions of dollars
No, because SETI doesn't really believe in aliens. SETI says there might be aliens out there, technically, and that we should investigate the possibility. This is a far cry from believing in a specific god. Look at it this way: if SETI suddenly sat down and wrote a book describing what the aliens looked like, where they lived, how their mindsets worked, how they evolved and what wars and other struggles and triumphs they went through, what they wanted of us, and how their civilization would end - all without having seen a single alien or even finding proof they existed in the first place - then it would be a decent comparison to Christendom. As it stands, though, the SETI stance is more reminiscent of agnosticism.c) one can use your analogy to argue that we should continue believing in gods, and just about every other topic
How far can our stronger radio signals travel, anyhow? I heard in a documentary (Life Without People, or whatever it was called) that they dissipate into background noise after only a light year or two?We say ''hello how are you'', their response ''not bad'' will take 100 years to get here. Very hard to hold a conversation. At best, future generations may know that we are not alone in this infinate universe. If only for that purpose, then it's worth it.
I don't really care too much, to be honest. I'd be overwhelmed enough to realize there was intelligent life out there to get to the communication bitEven if some life form is ever found, how do we communicate if it's 100 light years away.
The existence of elk as a species was not in question - the existence of elk in the hunting area was.
Appeals to tradition and nature constitute logical fallacies. I subscribe to a Scandinavian-wide history magazine, and this issue featured a quote from a physician who said it was perfectly natural that half of the country's children died before the age of eight, and that it was pointless to worry about this since it was the way nature worked.
Christianity costs billions of dollars, doesn't it? Have you proven the existence of God yet?
No, because SETI doesn't really believe in aliens. SETI says there might be aliens out there, technically, and that we should investigate the possibility. This is a far cry from believing in a specific god. Look at it this way: if SETI suddenly sat down and wrote a book describing what the aliens looked like, where they lived, how their mindsets worked, how they evolved and what wars and other struggles and triumphs they went through, what they wanted of us, and how their civilization would end - all without having seen a single alien or even finding proof they existed in the first place - then it would be a decent comparison to Christendom. As it stands, though, the SETI stance is more reminiscent of agnosticism.
I'm not to sure about radio signals, but light travels for billions of years without dissipating.How far can our stronger radio signals travel, anyhow? I heard in a documentary (Life Without People, or whatever it was called) that they dissipate into background noise after only a light year or two?
....
No, because SETI doesn't really believe in aliens. SETI says there might be aliens out there, technically, and that we should investigate the possibility. This is a far cry from believing in a specific god.
Look at it this way: if SETI suddenly sat down and wrote a book describing what the aliens looked like, where they lived, how their mindsets worked, how they evolved and what wars and other struggles and triumphs they went through, what they wanted of us, and how their civilization would end - all without having seen a single alien or even finding proof they existed in the first place - then it would be a decent comparison to Christendom.
As it stands, though, the SETI stance is more reminiscent of agnosticism.
....
Because of the almost infinite number of galaxies out there there is bound to be, somewhere a life producing planet orbiting a sun similar to our own.
But if our earth is any example animal life, let alone intelligent animal life, would be almost impossible. Seti will not ever find another earth. Sure there may be billions of planets with simple life like bacteria in existence. The chance of another earth forming and intelligent beings evolving is probably a trillion to one chance.
But Animal life is an entirely different matter and needs billions of years to evolve with a steady state sun like ours which according to a few astronomers are rare in our galaxy.
I thought suns like ours are quite rare. Yellow suns are very common, but their mostly giants and short lived unlike our sun which will probably live in the vicinity of 10 billion years. Even if your right, it;s complement of planets have to be something like our solar system. With gas giants like Jupiter and rocky planets like earth at just the right distance from it's sun to have any chance of life evolving.That's still pretty good odds.
Yellow stars like our sun are among the most common in the universe.
Hi, why bother with setti, when we know the gov. works with ET. The moon rockets saw saucer's sitting on the edge of a crator watching them. So many people have had contact, can't all be stupid. Our spirit guides say they are real. The Gov. next act may be a false ET. invasion, time will tell. Cheers Old Bob
That's still pretty good odds.
This is total speculation, and laugh if you must..but...
What if looking for radio signals is the wrong way to go...perhaps radio transmission is just the first step in communication?
For instance, lets say the LHC validates the Higgs field hypothesis...couldn't it hypothetically be concievable that the field itself could transmit data or communications with a suffciently advanced technology...or perhaps something utilizing entanglement of electrons?
I was just thinking about this after watching some Borg episodes...don't mind me...
Right now the only two kinds of signals that might be used from what I know would be electro-magnetic and neutrino beams. I've never heard of anybody actually proposing a neutrino beam but it seems at least conceivable since there have been at least proposed experiments to see if neutrinos could be produced in one place, transmitted through the earth and detected at another location.....snip....
With all due respect to Mr Drake, I believe he is wrong. If that number was correct we would by now be telling our visitors to go away, there would be literally thousands of them knocking on our doors. Anyway, I think he mentions that number for the whole universe, not our galaxy alone which has an estimated 3 billion stars.Thanks for the information. It really put's into perspective the difficulty and improbability of the task before them.
I am still hopefull, and I will still be running my seti @home just in case.
To bring up another idea...the drake equation...how respectable is it? I have read that there could potentially be as many as 30 billion earth like planets in our galaxy, and it just makes me wonder...
With all due respect to Mr Drake, I believe he is wrong. If that number was correct we would by now be telling our visitors to go away, there would be literally thousands of them knocking on our doors. Anyway, I think he mentions that number for the whole universe, not our galaxy alone which has an estimated 3 billion stars.
Still, based on my understanding 30 billion earth like planets sounds like way too many. The likely habitable location range for an earth like planet in our solar system is just a little beyond the earth and a little closer to the sun than the earth. So even if earth like planets occur occasionally they have to have an orbit radius that is pretty close to earth's to be habitable for advanced life similar to us. (I guess the range is somewhat larger if we're only talking bacteria or maybe creatures that are vastly different than us).