Aliens

Gisteron wrote: Just pointing out as an aside and in response to a few remarks on this:

In biology there are currently seven criteria by which we tell living and non-living things apart. They are both the minimal and the maximal requirement to qualify as a life form. Being based on carbon or being visible are both not among those criteria. So we would not discard a life form just because it is not either of these two.

Yet, sometimes it is questionable even if all seven criteria are evidently present ...

... especially if they talk.

Considering how mind-blowingly immense the universe is, life out there simply seems logical to me. What would be the point of it all if we're the only ones to see/experience it? Besides. we can't even see it all! It just goes on and on and on....

As for whether or not they're here now, I would love to think that they are (it would just make life on this planet a lot more interesting), but they're certainly making it difficult to be sure that they are.

I'm a fan of Ancient Aliens myself, but mostly because they talk about a lot of fascinating and mysterious topics, but I tend to come to different conclusions than "aliens did it".

Alexandre Orion wrote: Yet, sometimes it is questionable even if all seven criteria are evidently present ...

... especially if they talk.

Talking or the content thereof is likewise not part of the criteria. And no, things that are evidently alive equally evidently fulfill those criteria, because being alive and fulfilling the criteria is literally the same.

Gisteron wrote:

Alexandre Orion wrote: Yet, sometimes it is questionable even if all seven criteria are evidently present ...

... especially if they talk.

Talking or the content thereof is likewise not part of the criteria. And no, things that are evidently alive equally evidently fulfill those criteria, because being alive and fulfilling the criteria is literally the same.

Hence the " "

Anton, you are about as much fun sometimes as a sauna full of Vulcans ... :S

I'm absolutely a believer, my grandfather was in the Air Force during the Roswell incident and he never said anything other than he believed the men. I am a Ham Radio operator, I've talked to the space shuttles, I'm also a member of SETI have been for over 15 years. Carl Sagan influenced me greatly as a child and I loved the book and then the movie Contact.

Although loved Babylon 5 too! Go G'Kar! I was always loved the Minbari and the a Rangers......ok back on task.

Yes, with all my heart. If not it's an awful waste of space.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sRPUO6gGSh8

well we better not invent any invisible life forms then because we sure dont want to be bothered with discovering some new criteria lol

I totally believe that aliens are out there. I could be convinced that they have been (or currently are) on earth, but it would take quite a bit of evidence.

As for Ancient Aliens, I enjoyed it for it's comedic value more than anything else. The few times I caught it I found it to be sharing the same theories as Stargate but was less believable and way less fun.

Ancient aliens:



Except they are "experts"...

Akkarin wrote: Ancient aliens:

Except they are "experts"...

i agree with this

but i think its important to say that theres a flip side to it, its a sword that cuts both ways -

the fundamental difference between the hairbrained conspiracy theorist and the textbook academic snob is that the theorist at least opens the door to new possibilities while the textbooker thinks he understands the limits of whats reasonable - none which he established (a general condition of the "academic" is that they make good reference guides to the limits that were redefined by the theorists who originally set the criteria which they (rather smugly) defend)

the theorist at least is exciting - sometimes - while the snob is really just a boring pain in the ads in general

but they both operate from an equally of high sense of the certainty of their own views

i like to belive that the universe is still mysterious

that we dont really know as much as we think we know

that we're still really pretty small, and pretty simple, in a world that is vast and diverse

---

im not really conviced of the ancient aliens theories, but i enjoy them
especially i think they are good mental exercises

i dont know the psychological term for this process, but, the experience of developing emotional certainty in ones world view, then having that certainty shattered, redeveloped, shattered again, and redeveloped again

is am inherently strengthening process

and the results are not only a more functional worldview but also a more flexible one

such flexibility is a key to adaptation and adaptation to survival

so its imo not really imortant who is right or wrong - its not being proven really either way - its more about who has the mental flexibility to adapt to differkng contexts, which "ancient aliens" provide a pretty decent exercize if you look at it from that perspective

WHAT IF

and

AND YET

are both powerful and functional ideas to apply to any world view

I think this textbook snob is something made up... lol. I've never met anybody who has the attitude you're describing, Obi.

Academics ARE full of wonder and desire for the unknown. (At least, the good ones). But, their job is to write what we KNOW.

My astrobiology textbook constantly asks questions. But, it also gives me the information that IS available, and how we expect to find life.

I think any academic worth his salt understands that it takes walking out on a limb or being hit on the head with an apple (quite literally) to discover something new. We have to be willing to experiment. We don't have to approach that with reasonless abandon.