Astronomers about to discover a first alien civilization?

A credible scientific journal, The Atlantic, reported in an article dated from the 13 October 2015, that a group of astronomers might have observed, over an extended period of time, which could be multiples signs of alien intelligent life. Everyone should read this: The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy .

Personally I expect a discover like this for over decades.

Are we going to meet them one day?

Will we become, with them, the first intelligent civilizations to form the Galactic Republic of the Milky Way?

Who knows?

MTFBWY

That link is not working for me. It may be a temporary thing. There's more about it here https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3op0c6/a_new_astronomical_mystery_the_most_mysterious/ .

Sorry the link did not work for you, I just test it, and it works for me ...

Thank you for the other link.

MTFBWY

I think it's a bit premature to assume it's alien life, though it is interesting.

I agree with you Edan, since it is only a presumption in the article .... and even in my enthusiasm

And despite the demonstrated enthusiasm, I think I have remained fairly faithful to the theory discussed by the scientists.

Then, as every philosopher would do, I speculated by my questions about the subject.

MTFBWY

This can definitely be confirmed once China completes their radio telescope
http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/43590/20151013/china-fast-five-hundred-meter-aperture-spherical-telescope-skyeye-1-china-space-program-qiannan-guizhou-province-nan-rendong-arecibo-observatory-space-superpower.htm

Admittedly I have a hard time not jumping on the alien bandwagon. Too much Science Fiction as a child I guess. :laugh:

No matter what it really is it's pretty exciting. It's something that we've never seen before and that's always great for science.

The Atlantic (which I do like to read, admittedly) is a literature/culture magazine, not a scientific journal. And the actual paper published by the scientists suggests that the most likely explanation is "the passage of a family of exocomet fragments, all of which are associated with a single previous breakup event."

Phil Plait's excellent article does explain why this is worth looking into and is exciting, but it's not exactly putting us on the verge of discovering extraterrestrial life.

Agreed, it's probably not the work of alien intelligence.

But cool that it's something so dimly understood that the possibility of an extra-planetary alien civilisation is being discussed by those who produced the paper, even if it turns out to be something else new or otherwise curious.

How often do you get to realistically suggest aliens as a possible scenario for something observed that far away?

_{...although what we'd have to offer a race that far along in terms of an alliance, idk...}

To Adi Vas and tzb: In all things and at all times, I keep an open mind to the possibilities ... until proven otherwise.

And it is exactly in this spirit that I report the news but added, very distinctly, my expectations and hopes.

MTFBWY

jesus who are we gonna get to build THIS fence???

(usa immigration joke; may not make sense to the rest of the world - which is typical for usa too lol)

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/15/world/extraterrestrial-intelligence-anomaly/

CNN picked up the story yesterday. They also report that it is possible the phenomena is a cloud. But it's pretty cool to notice something the sky like that

Yeah, I tend not to get excited about this sort of thing anymore. There's been a lot "discoveries" over the past 20 years or so that would suggest alien life, but turn out to be natural phenomena.

It would be amazing, of course, if they found life, but I'll believe it when I see it.

Keep an open mind because one day we will eventually discover many of our fellow humanoids elsewhere in the universe, or even in our own galaxy.

It is repugnant to reason that mankind, like living species, intelligent and with a consciousness of self is present only on Earth only ...

And I would say it is mathematically impossible to be so.

MTFBWY

Pèlerin wrote: In all things and at all times, I keep an open mind to the possibilities ... until proven otherwise.

Well, I like my brains to remain inside my head, so my mind shall open only until the point they start spilling out and no further. I could just as easily say that there is no life in the vicinity of KIC-8462852 and "until proven otherwise" you would be obliged to believe that there both is and isn't simultaneously.
It is for this reason, that the time to believe things comes when evidence in their favour is presented, not for all time before evidence against them is. As Adi already pointed out, the Atlantic is not a scientific journal by any means and it does consciously and actively misrepresent the paper it conveniently links to. This is what to me makes it untrustworthy: It is decent enough to cite sources, but bold enough to misrepresent them, too, so I know not what to expect of them.
Oh, and before I forget it, just as we ought not label things true before we have a way of demonstrating that they are, we do not get to call things possible before we can demonstrate the possibility either. Do we yet have evidence that positively indicates alien life or indeed even the possibility thereof? No? Well, then keep looking.

FYI:
If you cast a random rational number between zero and one, the probability that you will get 0.35, as an example, is exactly naught. If you cast a random rational number in that interval infinite times, the probability that you will get 0.35 once is 1. That you get it 300 times is also 1. And if you expand your interval to also include real numbers, the probability to hit 0.35 by casting a random number indefinately over and over again drops down to 0 again.
You can still get 0.35 on your first try. Or on your second. Or on your first and your second and another billion tries following those two. A great number of things that are really completely impossible, are still well within the hyperspace of possibilities. And that is the problem with mathematics and probability: Reality doesn't actually bow to it. What is really possible is not a matter of logic in this way.

Gisteron wrote: you would be obliged to believe

With all due respect Gisteron:

Since when the science should be in link to the faith?

The science never asks to "believe" in something, science compels the reason to stand to the truth of the facts, right?

So as long as we have the proof by the affirmative or the negative of the existence of intelligent life alien conscious of itself (which corresponds to the generally accepted definition human being) the reason must remain open to the possibilities of one side or the other.

That is the essence of things of those matters.

MTFBWY

Pèlerin wrote: Keep an open mind because one day we will eventually discover many of our fellow humanoids elsewhere in the universe, or even in our own galaxy.

My mind is open. I believe strongly in the existence of life elsewhere in this galaxy, and I believe we will soon discover it.

But according to the article, it is probable that it could be a natural phenomenon.

I am hopeful to find life, just not in this particular case.

If you can show that both things are actually "possibilities", and only after you have shown this, yes, we would have to acknowledge the possibilities. No sooner though.
But of course the thing you quoted was not a matter of science at all. I was just showing the flaw of your reasoning. If you consistently accept things until they are disproven, you end up accepting mutually exclusive or even directly contradictory things. This, as I said, is the reason why we don't go that route, but instead disbelieve things until positive evidence is presented.
If you want to talk metaphysics and the fundamentals of science, I'll gladly join you: Science neither asks to believe, nor compels reason to anything. Science is the label we put on a particular set of epistemic approaches. It is a method, if you will, a tool. Much like a hammer, it doesn't inform or demand anything. We can choose to use it or not to use it. That's all.
Getting into more detail, science knows no proofs. Proofs in either the affirmative or negative are structures of disciplines that seek truth, such as logic, mathematics in particular and arguably some branches of philosphy in general. Science is not like this.

I am well open to the idea that there might be life out there in the universe. It happened on our planet somehow, so we know it is possible, and chances are it either happened before or will someday happen again. Perhaps somewhere it is happening right now. Or maybe some three billion light years from here there is an alien astronomer looking at our planet, seeing how life is forming on Earth. Or maybe not. Indeed, chances are he would be completely unlike us. Maybe they don't even have telescopes.
But all that is irrelevant. The claim is more specific than that. We are talking about a very particular star: KIC-8462852. Now, if I am to remain perfectly open-minded, I must reserve judgement on either what really is out there or what is possible until such time that either any possibility or any particular explanation is indicated. You, on the other hand, are saying that this or that is possible, and instead of appealing to some actual evidence of the possibilities you so readily say there are, you appeal to an ever so vague "open-mindedness" in the hopes that those of us who are actually open and willing to wait for the evidence would quit responding.
No, sir, reason does not need to remain open. Reason must remain reasonable. It must not pass judgement on what is or isn't possible until such time when any such judgement is warranted.

Dif-tor heh smusma!

But when a serious and credible media report the information, perhaps we have a little more credibility than estimated at the beginning...

See for yourself:

" Space anomaly gets extraterrestrial intelligence experts' attention "

And yes, I keep an open mind to the possibilities, whatever skepticism expressed from your side... :ohmy:

I love science. We as people only explain what nature does. I love it!

We explain what the Force does.


I vote we send a Jedi with the Dali Lama to say hi... lol maybe Jestor! Haaa that would be a great "human" relations moment! Jk Jestor! But at least I know we wouldn't be headed for interstellar war.