Do you believe extraterrestrial life is possible?

[yoda313]

Hello,

yoda313 wrote:

Oh, you mean like the Q continuum from Star Trek???


not a Trek fan, you lost me.

Well simply put the Q contiuum is a race of omnipotent beings. They can do pretty much anything they want {and almost never take physical form}. The character known as Q (John DeLancie) played with the crew of the Enterprise D [and DS9 and Voyager as cameos]. He tormented them until by the end of the series he had a better appreciation for humans.

Kevin

[stiltman]

my budy and i use to light up a joint and lay out and stare at the stars and talk about this same stuff.

When the buzz wore off, it wasn't as much fun

[Alan69]

" exactly my point - there needs to be a certain level of overlap between species trying to communicate. if they are to us as we are to bacteria, there's not going to be enough common ground to even recognize a communication attempt, if one was even made."

"I think this example could fit very well with life that is much more intelligent and advanced than our own. I think that the possibility of there being intelligent life equivalent to our own or there being other intelligent life that we could have the ability to communicate with is very small. "


Guys I think you're a bit off here. Intelligence is non-linear. Anything above a certain point is clearly intelligent to any other even if one is vastly superior to the other. Whle it may take a bit to learn specifics to communicate, it will happen.

Even if they are a thousand times ahead of us, we have mathematics and they have mathematics, and science, and engineering etc etc. Even if their idea of mathematics is quite alien to our own, the overall concept of having a mathematics is in common, and several orders of magnitude more than they'll have in common with say an ape, or a dolphin. While even some animals use simple tools, any creature that can build second and third order tools like a sewing machine is clearly far more intelligent. Much less building a space shuttle.

We have no problem differentiating a dog from a worm. If they're smarter than us, why would you expect them to not be able to clearly differentiate us from an ape or a dolphin? Lower intelligences simply don't have libraries and math and engineering that come with passing a certain point of the intelligence scale.

We have the physical universe in common. Even if how we use and describe it seems quite alien to them, the fact that we perceive it will be in common. A dog or ape may understand 'round', but they do not even perceive the concept of PI. They may have a sense of big or small, but they don't measure them with abstract units like feet or miles. We will have millions of concepts in common with them that a lesser or non intelligent creature won't.

If an amoeba built a typewriter we'd instantly recognize it as a f*cking intelligent amoeba, and far different than other animals. Heck once studied we saw the collective intelligence of many insects, even though it's quite different to our own and still very primitive. Intelligence is an easy thing to spot, and once it rises to a certain point the capabilities expand at a very high rate. Anything that's gotten to this point or beyond is very easy to recognize as intelligent.

Alan

[vitualis]

Although this idea is pretty abstract, hard to fathom, and impossible for us to prove. I believe our solar systems and galaxies are the building blocks for a whole different level of existence. Aside from an enormous amount of size how much of a difference is there between these and the atoms that make up our own existence.

Well, a lot of difference... Whatever happened to science education in the US?

If our solar system was shrunk down to a size similar to an atom would the sun look like a small positive charged center?

No. There is no "polarity" to gravity. All matter attracts itself.

Also, taking the simplest atom (hydrogen), the proton is humonguous compared to the electron but they both have the same magnitude of charge, but of different polarity. It would be like the Earth having the same gravitational force to the Sun.

And let us not forget neutrons which have NO charge...

Aren't the mass ratios of suns to planets and nucleus of atoms to electrons very similar?

No, they are not. Apart from the fact that one is very much better than the other (which gets down to the fact that our human brains aren't very good at fathoming physical reality at a magnitude much bigger or smaller than ourselves).

Regards.

[tweedledee]

Do you believe extraterrestrial life is possible?

No, impossible, never.......Maybe on other planets...not here.

[vitualis]

"extraterrestrial" = "extra" + "terrestrial" = outside of/beyond Earth...

Regards.

[Capmaster]

LMAO

[Alan69]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040820/NUMBERS20/TPScience/

You guys might find this interesting..

Alan

[Capmaster]

That wouldn't be the case here. Post whores always know their post counts

Interesting though. I thought counting was ingrained in us. I guess it's a learned thing.

[flaninacupboard]

Sounded most odd until

The tribe, which lives on a tributary river to the Amazon, has been in contact with other Brazilians for 200 years and regularly sells nuts to, and shares their women with, Brazilian traders who stop by.

Ahhhhhh, so they're just -pretending- to not understand numbers!

I actually saw a study earlier this year about numeracy. humans can count up to five with out any number of language skills. get a friend to select between one and five coins and drop them on the table in front of you. without counting you will know how many coins are in front of you. children who can't speak get it too, offer them two sweets in one hand and five in another. guess which they'll pick.

A variety of animals were tested for the same skills. it was found most animals can recognise up to three, but without language more than three is just "lots".

To be honest i don't think i'd learn much in a maths lesson if i'd had less than two hours sleep

[Doramius]

What if my flatulence was the gas that an alien being needed to survive? Much like our air. I want to go find this alien being and fart in his face.

[Capmaster]

What if my flatulence was the gas that an alien being needed to survive? Much like our air. I want to go find this alien being and fart in his face.

And Doramius adds yet another disturbing facet to the thread

[NamPla]

What about aliens not beyond the Planet Earth, but beyond the Universe? Do you believe there's life outside of space & time?

I do! :P

[Capmaster]

What about aliens not beyond the Planet Earth, but beyond the Universe? Do you believe there's life outside of space & time?

I do! :P

Doramius lives there .... J/K

[Doramius]

Sure I've been there. I've passed gas, kidney stones, gall stones, and a few coins (one's I swallowed as a kid) there. :P

[Capmaster]

Sure I've been there. I've passed gas, kidney stones, gall stones, and a few coins (one's I swallowed as a kid) there. :P

Pick 1 from that list:

1) Gas
2) Kidney stones
3) Gall stones
4) Coins

I pick 1)
My question - how much money did you pass and did you spend it?

[Doramius]

Sure I've been there. I've passed gas, kidney stones, gall stones, and a few coins (one's I swallowed as a kid) there. :P

Pick 1 from that list:

1) Gas
2) Kidney stones
3) Gall stones
4) Coins

I pick 1)
My question - how much money did you pass and did you spend it?

Getting personal aren't we?

It was just a couple of pennies or dimes. They got flushed. The pennies weren't to bad to pass, but a dimes has the rough edges. Felt Like I was s**ting dry hay. I must have been about 6 years old at the time.

[NamPla]

C'mon guys keep to the topic shall we?

Look at Mars, Venus & Titan (Jupiter's big moon). They all have oxygen, so where did the oxygen come from? Bacteria, like Planet Earth?

HMMMMMMmmmmm......



Besidfes, I still belief in life outside this Looniverse!!! We are a Petri Dish experiment...ha...

[Doramius]

If we are a petri dish, lets hope we aren't the control.

[tygrus2000]

What makes anyone think human life is advanced? In relation to what? Maybe you haven't noticed the insane stuff we have done as a species over the past few thousand years. I am pretty sure we will obliterte ourselves off the planet before we meet anyone.

[Capmaster]

What makes anyone think human life is advanced? In relation to what? Maybe you haven't noticed the insane stuff we have done as a species over the past few thousand years. I am pretty sure we will obliterte ourselves off the planet before we meet anyone.

Yeah, but insane to who? You? You're a little biased being an earthling.

I'm sure our cro-magnon, pre-mesozoic and neanderthal forebears did some insane-seeming things in their evolutionary path.

[yoda313]

What makes anyone think human life is advanced? In relation to what? Maybe you haven't noticed the insane stuff we have done as a species over the past few thousand years. I am pretty sure we will obliterte ourselves off the planet before we meet anyone.

Yeah, but insane to who? You? You're a little biased being an earthling.

I'm sure our cro-magnon, pre-mesozoic and neanderthal forebears did some insane-seeming things in their evolutionary path.

Hello,
Ditto Cap! Just because where not SAINTS doesn't mean we're the Devil either!!!

Kevin

[smearbrick1]

We're here. So why not? "I think it would be an awful waste of space if there was no other intelligent life elsewhere." - Carl Sagan

As far as life existing within a parallel universe: That gives me a headache just thinking about it. Ever read any books by John Keel? He has some interesting theories as to why people claim to see things like aliens, bigfoot, mothmen, and Elvis. Most of it seems to be just some sort of self-imposed hypnotic suggestion. But others sightings, he claims, are in areas where the wall between realities is thinner, and that sometimes this wall is so thin it becomes transparent, thus allowing those things that are common in another reality sort of slip across for short "visits" to our reality. I'm not sure if I believe in that, but to each his own. Same thing with evolution as opposed to creation, I don't buy that the universe was created in 6 days, but I'm not going to try and force that on someone else. I do, however, believe that there is something that ties us all together. A common thread within every living (and non-living thing). Whether it's the ground we tread upon, or the toilet you sit upon; it's all bound together by some unknown force. To me, that's amazing.

Edit: I added the reference to Carl Sagan only after I realized that I was directly quoting him. Please do not assume that I was, in any way, trying discredit Mr. Sagan for that most insightful quote.

[Capmaster]

I think it would be an awful waste of space if there was no other intelligent life elsewhere.

Contact. Scene with David Morse speaking to Jodie foster's character (as a child)

[hech54]

Anyone who has seen the Pyramids in Egypt in person and stood next to them should tell you:

THERE IS NO FVCKING WAY WE BUILT THOSE !!

[Capmaster]

Anyone who has seen the Pyramids in Egypt in person and stood next to them should tell you:

THERE IS NO FVCKING WAY WE BUILT THOSE !!

I was there last winter ...for the first time. After repeated attempts to hoist my jaw back up so I could close my mouth, I wandered around muttering "fuuuuuuuck meeeeeeeee!!!" over and over.

Khufu's pyramid (largest pyramid). That's me in the red cap:

[yoda313]

Hello,

smearbrick1 wrote:
I think it would be an awful waste of space if there was no other intelligent life elsewhere.

Contact. Scene with David Morse speaking to Jodie foster's character (as a child)

Uh, Cap, Carl Sagan said that long before he wrote the book (pretty sure). Yes it's in the movie version but that was kind of a personal slogan from his comos series days.

Kevin

--Just saying there's more than movies out there to find a quote!----

[Jumbo_Holden]

The universe is infinate, and people think theres NO one elese out there ... Please

[Capmaster]

Hello,

smearbrick1 wrote:
I think it would be an awful waste of space if there was no other intelligent life elsewhere.

Contact. Scene with David Morse speaking to Jodie foster's character (as a child)

Uh, Cap, Carl Sagan said that long before he wrote the book (pretty sure). Yes it's in the movie version but that was kind of a personal slogan from his comos series days.

Kevin

--Just saying there's more than movies out there to find a quote!----

I wasn't assigning credit - just observing where I had heard it last. But you got another post out of it

[yoda313]

Hello,

Kinda what I thought, just wanted to point out there are other places for famous quotes to come from! Not that I read Contact, just saw some of the cosmos series.

--By the way, the Cosmos DVD set is like $140 or so!! Man expensive for a PBS series--

Kevin