On September 13 2011 09:19 hotbreakfest wrote: Currently we can see up to 42 billion light years into space. We are an insignificant speck dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. I think that says just about enough.
to call earth an insignificant speck of dust when you consider what has happened on earth since it was formed compared to other actual insignificant dust planets is highly highly highly ignorant. No matter who said it.
Anyways earth is pretty sweet, we evolved here so its better than that dumb fat poser earth planet
On September 13 2011 09:19 hotbreakfest wrote: Currently we can see up to 42 billion light years into space. We are an insignificant speck dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. I think that says just about enough.
to call earth an insignificant speck of dust when you consider what has happened on earth since it was formed compared to other actual insignificant dust planets is highly highly highly ignorant. No matter who said it.
Anyways earth is pretty sweet, we evolved here so its better than that dumb fat poser earth planet
On September 13 2011 09:19 hotbreakfest wrote: Currently we can see up to 42 billion light years into space. We are an insignificant speck dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a speck of dust on a grain of sand in the Sahara Desert. I think that says just about enough.
to call earth an insignificant speck of dust when you consider what has happened on earth since it was formed compared to other actual insignificant dust planets is highly highly highly ignorant. No matter who said it.
Anyways earth is pretty sweet, we evolved here so its better than that dumb fat poser earth planet
You're right, Carl Sagan is an ignorant bitch.
When you consider what happen on earth probably also happen on millions of other planet, you're not that ignorant! Sure, we don't know though.
Life is quite a miracle, we must not forget that life, no matter it's abundance, is precious. Yet the universe remains vast and unexplored. We could be an very stupid, inefficient life form compared to others. Who knows?
Cherish what you got and look forward to our amazing future is what I think
On September 13 2011 05:39 zimz wrote: i always knew there were thousand if not millions of planets like earth out there like over 10 years ago. i thought it was quite close minded for many people to assume earth is exceptionally rare and maybe the only one etc.
It is equally close minded to assume that there are "thousands if not millions" of planets similar to earth before actually having any real data to prove it.
it was my educated guess, because the size and vastness of the universe. i don't think i was close minded to predict there's a high probability there is many earth like planets. most astronomers and physicist had the same prediction as me at that time. so IT IS open-mindedness. and IT IS closed-mildness to assume we are probably the only one.
Based on what? You have two unknowns (how hard is it to probabilistically leap from non-life to life in a random environment vs. size of universe that provides the number of trials) and try to characterize one perspective as closed-minded and the other as open-minded?
These planets "possibly" have water. You take that statement and go, 'I knew it! The universe is big, so there must be plenty of Earth-like planets out there, can't believe people would be so close-minded and think Earth is unique!'
You do realize that all these telescopes can do are radiation scans that predict elemental composition, and can't get anywhere close to identifying life? This is not to discredit the efforts of the scientists and the amazing technology, but it is uncalled for to characterize those who think our planet is unique as "closed-minded"
I love how amazing our universe continues to become every day every time I hear news like this it just makes me smile, I'm so glad to be living in a time when we (as a civilization) are discovering so much more about the universe we live in
On September 13 2011 05:44 Tschis wrote: I find it all amazing and awesome, the universe and it's size. But discoveries like this are just a matter of time, in my opinion, given the probability. And they don't really mean anything unless we start investing and working on space traveling technologies. 35 light years sounds so little when we compare it to all the several thousand light years distance to other places, but it is actually impossible for us (today) to travel at this speed. And I don't even think we'll have the technology needed to travel to a planet like this before we end up our resources or kill ourselves, unhappily...
My expectations are that we'll be able, at some point, to master some technology (maybe nuclear fusion power?) that can be virtually ilimited, and that it would allow us to travel during many thousand years to finally reach a place like that. Either this or some kind of worm-hole =P
Fuck generation ships. I want FTL travel and FTL communications. XD
On September 13 2011 06:12 Canucklehead wrote: I've always wondered how come every time they search for planets that can support life, they go by the conditions which support life as we know it? Isn't it possible that aliens could live in conditions that humans couldn't? They always look for water, but what if a certain type of alien species don't drink water to live and drank something toxic to humans to live?
It's because carbon is one of the few elements known to naturally produce complex molecules which are required for life and all carbon based life needs water to survive. Silicon is another chemical element that can create molecules large enough to carry biological information, but it doesn't have the ability to form chemical bonds with diverse types of atoms, which permits the chemical versatility necessary for metabolism.
On September 13 2011 06:36 JesusOurSaviour wrote: Well humans are to be rulers of His creation
I sure hope we've grown smart enough to completely discard such silly notions before meeting any intelligent alien races.
Probability of aliens = probability of anything which you can't prove. Tell me how you can prove existence of aliens without reproducible observations / interactions. You can't. So until the moment we find aliens, they don't exist. Same argument is used against any kind of afterlife - just because you don't know what happens after you die, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It does and there will be judgement.
On September 13 2011 06:12 Canucklehead wrote: I've always wondered how come every time they search for planets that can support life, they go by the conditions which support life as we know it? Isn't it possible that aliens could live in conditions that humans couldn't? They always look for water, but what if a certain type of alien species don't drink water to live and drank something toxic to humans to live?
It's because carbon is one of the few elements known to naturally produce complex molecules which are required for life and all carbon based life needs water to survive. Silicon is another chemical element that can create molecules large enough to carry biological information, but it doesn't have the ability to form chemical bonds with diverse types of atoms, which permits the chemical versatility necessary for metabolism.
On September 13 2011 06:36 JesusOurSaviour wrote: Well humans are to be rulers of His creation
I sure hope we've grown smart enough to completely discard such silly notions before meeting any intelligent alien races.
Probability of aliens = probability of anything which you can't prove. Tell me how you can prove existence of aliens without reproducible observations / interactions. You can't. So until the moment we find aliens, they don't exist. Same argument is used against any kind of afterlife - just because you don't know what happens after you die, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It does and there will be judgement.
What? No proof of aliens = aliens don't exist. No proof of afterlife = there is afterlife, and there will be judgment. (?)
Dude, you are contradicting yourself here.
Don't antagonize me yet, I'm DO believe there is a Creator, but why is it so hard to believe that the Creator also created other life forms? It doesn't diminish our status as sentient creatures. HE loves us just the same.
On September 13 2011 06:12 Canucklehead wrote: I've always wondered how come every time they search for planets that can support life, they go by the conditions which support life as we know it? Isn't it possible that aliens could live in conditions that humans couldn't? They always look for water, but what if a certain type of alien species don't drink water to live and drank something toxic to humans to live?
It's because carbon is one of the few elements known to naturally produce complex molecules which are required for life and all carbon based life needs water to survive. Silicon is another chemical element that can create molecules large enough to carry biological information, but it doesn't have the ability to form chemical bonds with diverse types of atoms, which permits the chemical versatility necessary for metabolism.
On September 13 2011 06:36 JesusOurSaviour wrote: Well humans are to be rulers of His creation
I sure hope we've grown smart enough to completely discard such silly notions before meeting any intelligent alien races.
Probability of aliens = probability of anything which you can't prove. Tell me how you can prove existence of aliens without reproducible observations / interactions. You can't. So until the moment we find aliens, they don't exist. Same argument is used against any kind of afterlife - just because you don't know what happens after you die, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It does and there will be judgement.
What? No proof of aliens = aliens don't exist. No proof of afterlife = there is afterlife, and there will be judgment. (?)
Dude, you are contradicting yourself here.
Don't antagonize me yet, I'm DO believe there is a Creator, but why is it so hard to believe that the Creator also created other life forms? It doesn't diminish our status as sentient creatures. HE loves us just the same.
Interesting that you believe in a creator, rare among Tl-ers. But yea I see my logical fallacy. Apologies it was an outburst at the apparent faith which so many godless people exhibit towards unsubstantiated, unexperienced things.
Btw - can someone explain to me how the big bang works, the probability of it happening and how amino acids became polymers and became cells, which somehow became DNA that is irreducibly complex.