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Old 21 October 2016, 12:58 PM
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David Lock
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I note that HMG have been making a major contribution to the European Space Agency’s mission to investigate Mars primarily to see if life might exist there and to plan for a more sophisticated trip in a few years.This “look for life outside earth” mission seems to have got a lot of scientists excited and even Prof. Hawkins was thumping his chair in anticipation. I do concede that Hawkins has the drop on me when it comes to numbers of O Levels so perhaps he is right to be excited.
Personally I think mankind is unique and life elsewhere doesn’t exist but logically it may be reasonable to surmise that with trillions of stars/planets in a never ending universe other life forms abound.
So what if they do? I think investigating is a dangerous step. Say we judged things on an IQ level and said humans had an IQ of 100. So perhaps there are life forms with an IQ of 10. They won’t be anything like humans and they could be aggressive. Once we have conquered space travel we go and arrive on a planet devoid of anything other than say a plant like life form of no value to us whatsoever – like arriving in a world of Japanese Knotweed that communicated in squawks.
But then there might be advanced life forms with an IQ equivalent of 1000 who won’t be like us but could readily understand our crude technology and language. But what use would we be to them? A good chance they would wipe us out; they may even have an intimate knowledge of earth, had a look and seen us beheading fellow citizens and destroying earth itself and felt that was not for them.
So HMG spend my money elsewhere I say and don’t stick our noses in where danger lies. David

Last edited by David Lock; 21 October 2016 at 01:02 PM.
Old 21 October 2016, 01:07 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
Personally I think mankind is unique and life elsewhere doesn’t exist but logically it may be reasonable to surmise that with trillions of stars/planets in a never ending universe other life forms abound.
David
I think you are wrong

I think (and hope) we do find life or strong evidence of it within the lifetime of my children
Old 21 October 2016, 01:22 PM
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Pull up the drawbridge!!!

We cant stay hete forever....
Old 21 October 2016, 01:22 PM
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Originally Posted by hodgy0_2
I think you are wrong

I think (and hope) we do find life or strong evidence of it within the lifetime of my children

I fully acknowledge that I might be wrong.


What sort of life would you hope to find?


David
Old 21 October 2016, 01:43 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
I fully acknowledge that I might be wrong.


What sort of life would you hope to find?


David

Let's hope we find them before they find us.
Old 21 October 2016, 01:52 PM
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Do you think one them ran off with our probe ?
Old 21 October 2016, 01:55 PM
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Originally Posted by dpb
Do you think one them ran off with our probe ?

Yep, they probably think it's a rather nice biscuit barrel.
Old 21 October 2016, 02:01 PM
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Originally Posted by Paben
Yep, they probably think it's a rather nice biscuit barrel.

They plan to fill it with Methane as a nice surprise for the first earthling to arrive


dl
Old 21 October 2016, 04:38 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
I fully acknowledge that I might be wrong.


What sort of life would you hope to find?


David
well I doubt it will be anything approaching intelligent or even complex - but like you I am guessing

I would suspect more like single cell organisms / bacteria etc

life is quite tenacious - it has been found on the outside of the ISS space station I believe


if you do listen to leading scientist in the field - they seem quietly confident
Old 21 October 2016, 04:56 PM
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Apart from us, in our solar system the finding of anything approaching an intelligent lifeform is highly improbably, but elsewhere in the universe surely it's a certainty?
Old 21 October 2016, 04:59 PM
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Originally Posted by Paben
Apart from us, in our solar system the finding of anything approaching an intelligent lifeform is highly improbably, but elsewhere in the universe surely it's a certainty?
Fermi Paradox.
Old 21 October 2016, 05:20 PM
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Originally Posted by JTaylor
Fermi Paradox.

If light really is the interstellar speed limit then even the most local of star systems would be over 4 travel years away, while within our own galaxy the majority of stars are thousands of light years away. Little wonder we haven't bumped into any space travellers yet.
Old 21 October 2016, 05:26 PM
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Originally Posted by JTaylor
Fermi Paradox.
alternatively known as "where is everybody" paradox

I think things have moved on from that tbh
Old 22 October 2016, 04:33 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
I note that HMG have been making a major contribution to the European Space Agency’s mission to investigate Mars primarily to see if life might exist there and to plan for a more sophisticated trip in a few years.This “look for life outside earth” mission seems to have got a lot of scientists excited and even Prof. Hawkins was thumping his chair in anticipation. I do concede that Hawkins has the drop on me when it comes to numbers of O Levels so perhaps he is right to be excited.
Personally I think mankind is unique and life elsewhere doesn’t exist but logically it may be reasonable to surmise that with trillions of stars/planets in a never ending universe other life forms abound.
So what if they do? I think investigating is a dangerous step. Say we judged things on an IQ level and said humans had an IQ of 100. So perhaps there are life forms with an IQ of 10. They won’t be anything like humans and they could be aggressive. Once we have conquered space travel we go and arrive on a planet devoid of anything other than say a plant like life form of no value to us whatsoever – like arriving in a world of Japanese Knotweed that communicated in squawks.
But then there might be advanced life forms with an IQ equivalent of 1000 who won’t be like us but could readily understand our crude technology and language. But what use would we be to them? A good chance they would wipe us out; they may even have an intimate knowledge of earth, had a look and seen us beheading fellow citizens and destroying earth itself and felt that was not for them.
So HMG spend my money elsewhere I say and don’t stick our noses in where danger lies. David
You been drinking....?
Old 22 October 2016, 04:34 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
I fully acknowledge that I might be wrong.


What sort of life would you hope to find?


David
Maybe a planet full of female Vestel Virgins...
Old 22 October 2016, 11:45 PM
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I thought that any man-made radiation from Earth has yet to reach anywhere that we deem of interest in the universe.
Old 23 October 2016, 12:32 AM
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Originally Posted by njkmrs
You been drinking....?
No I don't drink at 4.30 in the afternoon


Mind you if they find some aliens that made the perfect malt......


David
Old 23 October 2016, 10:55 AM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
No I don't drink at 4.30 in the afternoon


Mind you if they find some aliens that made the perfect malt......


David

If you think the Welsh qualify as aliens then try a Penderyn malt
Old 23 October 2016, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by Paben
If you think the Welsh qualify as aliens then try a Penderyn malt
Mmm, spicy with a lovely ginger finish. Potent, too.
Old 23 October 2016, 04:26 PM
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Originally Posted by JTaylor
Mmm, spicy with a lovely ginger finish. Potent, too.

Steady on now, it's not November yet! But when it is......
Old 25 October 2016, 09:46 AM
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Originally Posted by Paben
Apart from us, in our solar system the finding of anything approaching an intelligent lifeform is highly improbably, but elsewhere in the universe surely it's a certainty?

There has to be. If you think about it. In our Galaxy, we are pretty much on the edge of it. Even at the speed of light, we'd never reach the other side. For Brian *** to say that if there was life out there, it'd have died off by now.

I hate all this pure guess work. How would he know that? He doesn't. It's a pure guess based on no facts.

Personally, given there are Billion of Galaxies in the Universe, and trillions of stars inside each Galaxy, with say an average of 4 planets around each star, that's a hell of a lot of planets that could not only hold life, but far more intelligent life than ours.

The fact that the nearest Galaxy from ours (Andromeda) is a not too shabby 2.5 million light years away, means that even if intelligent life is out there, it's just too far away to ever reach us, or even know of each other. Unless they can create a wormhole in outer space, who is going to travel for 2.5 million years just to say hello? Having said that, they may have set off 20 years ago. We've just got to wait another 2, 4999,980 years for them to get here

Even if they were on the other side of our Galaxy, the distance is just far to great.
Old 25 October 2016, 09:54 AM
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Personally I think its very naive to think we're the only lifeform.
Unless as suggested elsewhere, we're merely a simulation
Old 25 October 2016, 11:30 AM
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Originally Posted by stilover
. For Brian *** to say that if there was life out there, it'd have died off by now.

I hate all this pure guess work. How would he know that? He doesn't. It's a pure guess based on no facts.
Eh?! Based on no facts? If anyone is going to have a reasonable grasp on "the facts" I'd imagine it'd be one of the UKs foremost physicists. The fact he's speculating is academic but fundamentall, he know's what he's talking about.
Old 25 October 2016, 12:13 PM
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The limiting travel factor is the speed of light. If this truly is the galactic speed limit then whether life exists or not beyond our own solar system is purely academic.
Old 25 October 2016, 12:33 PM
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Remember human thought is restricted by only understanding Mass, Length and Time. Whilst we can't comprehend other dimensions perhaps time is not a factor to other life forms so the human grasp of time to travel is irrelevant and billions of light years could be covered in an instant.


To us the concept is unfathomable - say a bit like an ape given a phone and understanding how his grunts might be heard by his girlfriend holding a phone 100 miles away. Or even a human in the 15th century looking at a TV screen.


David
Old 25 October 2016, 12:49 PM
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Originally Posted by David Lock
Remember human thought is restricted by only understanding Mass, Length and Time. Whilst we can't comprehend other dimensions perhaps time is not a factor to other life forms so the human grasp of time to travel is irrelevant and billions of light years could be covered in an instant.


To us the concept is unfathomable - say a bit like an ape given a phone and understanding how his grunts might be heard by his girlfriend holding a phone 100 miles away. Or even a human in the 15th century looking at a TV screen.


David

If billions of light years could be covered in an instant then a few interstellar tourists should have arrived here by now. But perhaps they have, and are keeping a watchful eye on the aggressive and warlike planet Earth. They might even have a finger (or something) on the destruct button, pushing it if we look ready to head for the stars. I guess an intergalactic EU probably wouldn't want us as members!
Old 25 October 2016, 01:02 PM
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Think Spock
Old 25 October 2016, 01:45 PM
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Originally Posted by neil-h
Eh?! Based on no facts? If anyone is going to have a reasonable grasp on "the facts" I'd imagine it'd be one of the UKs foremost physicists. The fact he's speculating is academic but fundamentall, he know's what he's talking about.
He knows about space, yes. But to say all other life forms in the universe are already extinct, isn't even a guess. It's stupid to say, as just because we haven't seen anything, or heard anything from another planet, doesn't mean they're all dead?

Same as the big bang theory. We will never know how or why they universe is there, or how it started, or if anything is beyond it. So for them to say it all started with a big bang from nothing, is again foolish. Something would have to be there to create the big bang.

It would be far better for these experts to say just that. "We haven't a f**king clue", and stop spending Billions on something we'll never find out.

Life on another planet? It's a guess, but given the size of it, I'd say yes. But even if there is a real life star wars going on just on the other side of our Galaxy, we'd never ever find out

The image shows just how far our radio waves have traveled in the last 100 years. It's the Blue dot. So for an intelligent alien life form was on the orther side of our galaxy, it would never ever here us. Oh, and our radio signal has traveled 200 light years



Extent of human radio broadcasts

Humans have been broadcasting radio waves into deep space for about a hundred years now, since the days of Marconi. That, of course, means there is an ever-expanding bubble announcing Humanity's presence to anyone listening in the Milky Way. This bubble is astronomically large (literally), and currently spans approximately 200 light years. But how big is this, really, compared to the size of the Galaxy in which we live (which is, itself, just one of countless billions of galaxies in the observable universe)? To answer that question, Adam Grossman put together this diagram. It's not the black square; it's the little blue dot at the center of that zoomed-in square.
Old 25 October 2016, 01:52 PM
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Originally Posted by Paben
If billions of light years could be covered in an instant then a few interstellar tourists should have arrived here by now. But perhaps they have, and are keeping a watchful eye on the aggressive and warlike planet Earth. They might even have a finger (or something) on the destruct button, pushing it if we look ready to head for the stars. I guess an intergalactic EU probably wouldn't want us as members!

But how would they know we are here?

The Universe is vast. For them to know that the 175,645 Galaxy to the right has intelligent life on it (Us) is again a needle in a very very very big haystack.

Nice to think they have found us, just as long as they don't come for a fight, otherwise we're screwed.
Old 25 October 2016, 01:58 PM
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Originally Posted by stilover
But how would they know we are here?

The Universe is vast. For them to know that the 175,645 Galaxy to the right has intelligent life on it (Us) is again a needle in a very very very big haystack.

Nice to think they have found us, just as long as they don't come for a fight, otherwise we're screwed.

"The lost child cries out in the forest, calling down the wolves". That could be us with our radio emanations, then they'd find us, ooer



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