Life in Space | Forum profile

Quote: Originally Posted by Gomar Nope, that's just what any intelligent ET would do. Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. Think about it. Let's pretend ET flies around the galaxy looking for life. ET lands on Earth 50,000 years ago. They see semi-intelligent primates walking around, using tools, etc. Why 50,000 years ago? Earth has been around for billions of years; life on Earth has been around for billions of years. Why 50,000 years ago...

Quote: Originally Posted by cjhameshuff You simply have no basis for limiting alien actions to those choices. And thus, we return to my "supposition as fact" criticism.

Quote: Originally Posted by SolusLupus ...I don't think that it's possible to go faster than the speed of light. So when you look at the enormous distances involved, the fact that we haven't been contacted is more likely because we haven't been seen than because we have been seen but are being given the silent treatment. That seems reasonable to me.

Quote: Originally Posted by Gomar Yes, because without special equipment you simply cannot do any of those things. What I meant was naturally. Can you fly south for the Winter like geese without an airplane? Can you swim like a dolphin? can dolphins manipulate tools without robotic arms and electrodes strapped to there brains? no, because there bodies specialized for flow and made there limbs a disturbance. can geese dig into holes in the...

Quote: Originally Posted by rommel543 If I sent a high power digital signal to the Earth back in the 30's, would the people even be able to recognize the signal let alone decode it. Good question. Would they? If so, how about another century back in time? With 19th-century technology, would you notice ANY of today's broadcasting signals?

Quote: And what exactly is it that makes Earth so special? I have the book Rare Earth. I think I paid about a dollar for it second hand. I keenly feel the loss of that dollar. But to sum up, what Peter Ward and the other author think makes the earth special is pretty much anything at all that could possibly make the earth special, regardless of whether or not there is evidence that a particular feature makes the earth special or is even...

Hi trauser: That requires massive advances of many kinds, but we should never say never. A perfect vacuum can't suck the atmosphere of Venus even one mile vertically against the 0.9g gravity of Venus, but there are other ways to move some of the carbon dioxide to Mars. We can separate the carbon and ship mostly oxygen to Mars, but Venus has far more of all three than would be useful on Mars, unless we bring lots of hydrogen to Mars to...

Quote: Originally Posted by centsworth_II I'm going on the basis that there is no reason to expect that there will ever be faster than light travel. On that I do (strongly) disagree, but if you take that as an assumption I see where you are coming from.

Quote: Originally Posted by IsaacKuo Even with common genetic ancestry, it's not clear that eyesight would evolve. Look at the plant kingdom. They almost universally have light sensitive sensors and many of them use these light sensitive sensors to move their leaves throughout the day for optimal growth. And yet none of them have developed eyes. If you look at creeper vine growth in time lapse, you see that they blindly reach outward in...

It all boils down to time and distance, how far away are they if they exist, and do they exist in the universe at roughly the same time as us? Then to join these 2 problems together, do they have or have they had enough time to discover us or contact us yet if they wish to do so? A couple of hundred light years either way and we/or they would quite easily miss the opportunity for the time being.