Its Life or not...

[Slartibartfast 153]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15635612

 

Seriously the White House states that there are no Aliens outside of Planet Earth... what about some of the people down here on Earth!

[JediMaster 451]

Yes...because Roswell wasn't aliens, they were humans from the future!!!

[Creaghorn 10]

does that mean that star wars is only fictional???

[+Jug 99]

Been to Roswell..nothing there. Never was. Somebody just making money off of flights of fantasy.

[Jeremiah Weed 0]

Hmm, I didn't know of this website. They will really address any petition that gains 5,000 sigs? There is room for abuse or backfire there, there has to be some criteria, I mean you can find 5K people to sign anything. There are conspiracies so absurd the government shouldn't even publicly acknowledge, like Presidents and government officials actually being lizard people etc.

[+Stary 2,427]

those are interdimensional entities!

[+hgbn 91]

I thinks it is pretty arrogant to rule out life in other parts of the universe. Think about the billions of galaxies containing billions of stars each. No way Jose. There is life somewhere else. The question must be how common in the Universe it is instead?

[+Stary 2,427]

I wouldn't be that suprised if there is some form of bacterial life or in more complex forms in our solar system, in example on Europa or Io

[+hgbn 91]

I agree.. anywhere where water exist in liquid form. The chances increase to find life in some form.

[Derk 265]

I agree.. anywhere where water exist in liquid form. The chances increase to find life in some form.

 

 

If there is water maybe there is even beer , means a lot more life.....

[+Stary 2,427]

LOL Derk!

 

also we shouldn't pay that much attention to the habitable zone idea -Europa, again, far beyond the liquid water area concept but still with global ocean under the crust- when typing possible life-sustainable planets

[FastCargo 412]

Folks, what they said was there was no evidence of life outside of our planet, not that there was no life outside our planet. Small, but very significant difference.

 

Also, assuming there is life elsewhere, if we have no evidence of such, does it make a difference?

 

Once you can conclusively prove life is elsewhere, then things get interesting.

 

FC

[JediMaster 451]

There's also that line between life and intelligent life. Frankly, if they find moss and algae and amoebas or whatever, who cares? It will be interesting from a scientific standpoint, but it will have no bearing on anything else.

 

That would only matter if it was in our own solar system. Outside that, all we want to find is someone we could communicate with, and they're saying right now don't hold your breath.

[+Stary 2,427]

JM, I think that would be quite a big finding in the history, wouldn't it be? Even the algae forms.

Also living organism from the space could be so different from our definition of life we might have problem noticing it by our probes. (Heck, even crystals bare some characteristics of our definition of living organism)

 

And no, I don't expect us to meet intelligent life in my lifespan, distances are simply... astronomical. We listen deep space for some 30, 40 years now, nothig so far. But I really more and more believe in simple living organisms on very microbiological level in our solar system or comets passing by (panspermia theory)

 

@FC: If you think about the repercussions of such statement (ie. "we are not alone") you start to wonder if it wouldn't be smart to hide the information from general public to avoid unnecessary unrest in the population. That in case of intelligent beings, the microbes, public could deal with it I guess.

 

 

 

oh, you claim there is intelligent life on planet Earth?

 

[+Stary 2,427]

BTW, nice short story by Terry Bison:

They're Made out of Meat

"They're made out of meat."

 

"Meat?"

 

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

 

"Meat?"

 

"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

 

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

 

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

 

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

 

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

 

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

 

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they're made out of meat."

 

"Maybe they're like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

 

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take long. Do you have any idea what's the life span of meat?"

 

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

 

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

 

"No brain?"

 

"Oh, there's a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat! That's what I've been trying to tell you."

 

"So ... what does the thinking?"

 

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

 

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

 

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

 

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

 

"Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

 

"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"

 

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

 

"We're supposed to talk to meat."

 

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.' That sort of thing."

 

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

 

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

 

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

 

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

 

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

 

"Officially or unofficially?"

 

"Both."

 

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

 

"I was hoping you would say that."

 

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

 

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say? 'Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

 

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

 

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the Universe."

 

"That's it."

 

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

 

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

 

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

 

"And we marked the entire sector unoccupied."

 

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

 

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."

 

"They always come around."

 

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone ..."

 

the end

 

 

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

You know its true when its officially denied.

[FastCargo 412]

BTW, nice short story by Terry Bison...

 

Love it!

 

FC

[SayethWhaaaa 245]

Folks, what they said was there was no evidence of life outside of our planet, not that there was no life outside our planet. Small, but very significant difference.

 

Very significant. Thanks FC.

[JediMaster 451]

It would be a big finding, but what real impact would it have? Ask anyone you know "if they found plants on a planet in orbit around another star, how would that change your life?" I'll bet after some period where people think "oh wow" the majority would go on living their lives as before. It wouldn't change gov't or business or anything, although some fundamentalists might argue the scientists made it up.

[+Stary 2,427]

JM, as I find your comment valid it bares that negative (dark perhaps?) force in it. So, why space race (what happened to it anyway? We should have bases on Moon by now, as the documentary SF movies teach us ), why men on the Moon? That changed zero in my life, yet it was a human evolution progress

[JediMaster 451]

You're crossing a particular discovery with the development of the technology that enabled the discovery.

 

What we got from BEING on the Moon was of interest to geologists/planetologists/cosmologists/etc. What we got from GETTING there was massive advances in technology in more areas than I can recall. In that case, it was literally the journey that counted more than the destination. All the destination achieved was a global appeal to the feelings of exploration and discovery, which unfortunately were squandered when we quit going.