Well, know-it-all nadin is looking for subjects where she can lecture the DUmbasses without getting them all riled up over her arrogance and condescension. She needs a subject as far removed from canned milk, seppuku, trends, and revolution as possible. How about space aliens? Great idea, if she can keep it out of the dungeon. So far, so good.
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 09:48 PM
Original message
On alien life, and whether it is possible
every time we have a story... we have the same thing... no it could not, yes it could... yada...yada... yada.
So let me propose a scenario... NOT BASED ON ACTUAL SCIENCE beyond the Drake Equation... as well as actual, honest to goodness... human history.
Let's assume for a second that ET actually comes and lands in front of insert home of head of government here... you know the famous take me to your leader scenario.
So far so good.
Here are a few things implied by this... a few philosophical and a few technical.
1.- We are NOT alone... perhaps not even the center of the universe This will lead to a small crisis of faith for at leaset three major world religions... I mean Genesis one is a bitch and genesis two is not that well known... (even if that should be the actual explanation even for them)
2.- yes, our lovely aliens were able to cross space time... and we have NO FRAKING idea how they did that.
See this leads to this little problem... not only are we not alone, but if these aliens are NOT friendly, regardless of Independence day and good product placement... who doesn't love that Apple used to insert a virus? ACHOOO! We really are that behind the power curve. It will be indeed like oh ... the Aztecs, still stone based civilization, trying to face the Spaniards, who used lead ball, steel and gun powder. This is why some nobodies like Hawking, have actually said that contact with aliens is not that bright of an idea.
Now if ET happens to be friendly perhaps they can use their so far more advanced technology to help us solve some of our problems, such as global warming. If they are not that friendly, perhaps we wil not have to ponder number one.
Oh and why would they come?
Well intellectual curiosity comes to mind. I mean why send anthropologists to the Amazon to make contact with cultures in the depth of the Amazon? WHo knows Gliesse 589 might have a similar class...
Resources, why did Cortez go to Tenochtitlan? to cure that disease of his that could only be cured with Gold... (Ok greed cannot be cured, but you get the point)
It's there... why else did we have people climb Everest?
The reasons for aliens to cross that ocean (assuming for a second that it is possible... and lord knows I am aware of the problems) are many. Some, i suspect, we cannot even imagine since they are not part of our nature.
This is what? Oh yes, so far the fodder of the science fiction writer... in space operas our aliens tend to be violent, greedy and good fodder for fiction... but on a more realistic matter, ET at this point will likely be of the less advanced, with perhaps two to five actual civilizations at a time that could make contact. Given that species on earth have an average 300,000 lifespan... the time we have to make contact is rather limited in a geological time frame...
On a philosophical POV tough even accepting that there is a possibility that there is life OUT THERE, means we are not that unique.. .and that life is not that unique. To some this is a threat, a philosophical threat.
Of course on the more humorous answers to this from the 1950s, that book is a cook book!
Oh and it goes with out saying, if this scenario ever came reality...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1375155God, you know, every time I read one of her impossibly self-adoring crapfests, I can't help but feel more sympathy for poor Mr. know-it-all.
RKP5637 (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 09:57 PM
Response to Original message
3. Hawking makes some good points IMO. Also, many can't even accept gay marriage, imagine
some trying to wrap their heads around an alien visit! And any advanced civilization trying to wrap their heads? around us.
Well, I sort of see RKPnumbers' point. Martians and queers are both kinda freaky.
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:00 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. I know... it is quite hard of a concept actually
and it implies humans are not that central to life in the universe.
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:11 PM
Response to Reply #6
9. True, in some ways, but I am not that hard on people
things have gotten really weird over the last five hundred years.
The earth is not flat (nor was it flat for navigators of the era, but)
It is not the center of the solar system... I mean poor Galileo paid for that one.
It is not at the center of our stellar arm... or the galaxy (we'd be in deep shit, black hole and all)
The galaxy is not at the center of it's group... and so it goes.
Now we learn that we might be part of many universes...
We are really becoming more and more insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
I mean Sol is one of 300,000 suns in the galaxy... okay it is a nice slow burning star, but you get the idea.
And how big the universe is... well it is really since Hubble, so we need to give people time to adjust to the idea... we are really that small of a speck in the grand scheme of things.
Speaking for the people of earth, we really apprercite it that nutcase nadin isn't going all ghetto on us.
RKP5637 (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:25 PM
Response to Reply #9
12. Yep, like a speck of sand on an extremely huge beach.
Wow! What a profound, unique thought! Way to go, DUmmy RKPnumbers. No one ever thought of that analogy before.
It's so profound and unique, I wonder if nutcase nadin is using it in her brilliant iPod-produced fiction?
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:37 PM
Response to Reply #12
16. Worst, more like an atom, perhaps a quark
and yes, I am playing with the concept in fiction.
If it quarks like a DUAC...
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:14 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. Why I mentioned the Drake Equation. I agree with you
we are far from alone...
But every time we mention this we get the but, but, space and light speed... well if anybody is capable of travelling those distances ... even in robot form... we are talking of that much more of an "advanced" civilization.
Of course if anybody out there has Voyager crash land in their back yard... not likely in the expected survival of humanity btw
Always, it's the Drake equation. Someone has been on the google again!
nadinbrzezinski (1000+ posts) Mon Jun-27-11 10:29 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. I went for the most radical
in reality even sending robotic probes that can go at even half the speed of light implies a huge society investment, and a technological leap... though not as high as FTL travel with actual aliens on board. And don't get me started on the one way ticket nature of the trip under current knowledge.
Number one is still valid... we are not alone... a hell of a proposition for many on planet earth. It will still lead to a crisis of faith for many.
Now for a second let's entertain the start of your post... visiting the trailer parks would make sense if you wanted to hide your presence from the elites... but still have actual contact with the locals... I mean who will believe Aunt Bertha?
And I should add that to my file folder of humorous shorts. my mom met an alien, or something like that. The take me to your leader was done to death in the 50s... but i was going into both the technical matter and the philosophical matter, I suspect there is resistance to the mere concept, for philosophical reasons, just as a few people (what is it 45%) resist evolution on religious reasons.
Oh, no! The problem is, in Horse with no Brain's dusty, crappy Texas trailer park, half the guys there look like ET. Which one is the Martian?
