Alien Life

[disabled]

You have to realize, humanity still had limited information on mars beyond observation.

I gathered earth was expendable from the usage of nukes. Also, pay attention to the chapter with the empty house.

[Lord_Shleepy]

Odds are that an encounter with an alien race would be effectively "hostile". Between miscommunication, culture clash, human/alien paranoia, economic pressures, matters of racial supremacy, etc. things would probably end up quite nasty even if the original intentions of both sides were good. Not that such an encounter is particularly likely...

[Lemmy]

Originally posted by Lord_Shleepy:
Odds are that an encounter with an alien race would be effectively "hostile". Between miscommunication, culture clash, human/alien paranoia, economic pressures, matters of racial supremacy, etc. things would probably end up quite nasty even if the original intentions of both sides were good. Not that such an encounter is particularly likely...

that Last bit reminds me of an Outer Limits episode, where an alien race wants to peacefully live in our ocean, and lands there, but we can't understand their msg, so we think they are invading us, and lauch all the nukes we have at them, they don't even get hurt and start attacking all the big cities.

[DirectorTsaarx]

The August 2002 issue of Scientific American has a short article on the Drake Equation (the Skeptic column, page 33). The main point of the article is calculating the variable "L", which (in the Drake equation) is the lifetime of a communicating civilization. The article also mentions that, out of the 7 variables in the equation, we only have significant data on 1 variable: the rate of formation of "suitable stars". Of course, the entire equation is based on the idea that Earth-like planets are the only ones capable of sustaining intelligent life. Depending on your definition of intelligent life, that may be accurate, i.e. if "intelligent" is defined as "able to effectively communicate with humans". If "intelligent" is defined in a more philosophical context, there may be many intelligent races in the universe, but we'll never know because we (and they) can't communicate well enough to make that determination.

Just my 2 cents...

[geoschmo]

Unless you are of the belief that life is unique to Earth, the sheer numbers of stars makes it almost a mathematical certainty that there is life elsewhere in the galaxy, let alone the universe as a whole. It really doesn't matter what number you plug into the other variables in the Drake equation, as long as they aren't zero the result is going to be a fairly large number.

The real question is assuming there is life and intelligent life, is there any possible way we could make contact with them considering the vast distances involved.

EDIT:I should say "meaningful contact". We could beam radio message back and forth, but a 50+ year message lag would be a real pain. It's bad enough in the game waiting two turns for a response.

[ August 15, 2002, 16:29: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[disabled]

that outer limits episdoe, wasn't the aliens talking in english, but since the lived in an aquatic enviroment the message was nearly unreadable until they adjusted for the water content.

Of course, it was too late by then...

[Atrocities]

Face it, we are the only life in the universe. If we happen to come acrossed other life, well then, its food.