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Where Are They? Why I hope the search for extraterrestrial life finds nothing.
Technology Review ^ | May/June 2008 | Nick Bostrom

Posted on 04/29/2008 1:25:02 PM PDT by null and void

People got very excited in 2004 when NASA's rover Opportunity discovered evidence that Mars had once been wet. Where there is water, there may be life. After more than 40 years of human exploration, culminating in the ongoing Mars Exploration Rover mission, scientists are planning still more missions to study the planet. The ­Phoenix, an interagency scientific probe led by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, is scheduled to land in late May on Mars's frigid northern arctic, where it will search for soils and ice that might be suitable for microbial life. The next decade might see a Mars Sample Return mission, which would use robotic systems to collect samples of Martian rocks, soils, and atmosphere and return them to Earth. We could then analyze the samples to see if they contain any traces of life, whether extinct or still active.

Such a discovery would be of tremendous scientific significance. What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos.

But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit.

Conversely, if we discovered traces of some simple, extinct life-form it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something more advanced, perhaps something that looked like the remnants of a trilobite or even the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be very bad news. The more complex the life-form we found, the more depressing the news would be. I would find it interesting, certainly--but a bad omen for the future of the human race.

(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: et; ufo
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Interesting premise.

Long read.

1 posted on 04/29/2008 1:25:02 PM PDT by null and void
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To: null and void

I hope Pot is legal, and the girls are cute!


2 posted on 04/29/2008 1:27:09 PM PDT by devane617 (My Kharma Ran Over Your Dogma)
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To: null and void
As best we have been able to determine, the night sky is empty and silent.

I don't know what cosmologists the author has been listening to but the night sky is far from empty and far from silent.

It may be devoid of signs of extra-terrestrial intelligence but that does not make it empty and silent. Not hardly.

3 posted on 04/29/2008 1:30:38 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (The secret of Life is letting go. The secret of Love is letting it show.)
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To: null and void

But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing

The writer is likely to be disappointed. Conditions on Mars or the moons are good for the development of some form of life. I look forward to the discovery.


4 posted on 04/29/2008 1:30:56 PM PDT by saganite
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To: saganite
Conditions on Mars or the moons are good for the development of some form of life. I look forward to the discovery.

You've got a lot of faith in the idea of extraterrestrial life. I commend you for that.

However, like most good scientists, I'll believe that life can exist on other planets when I see the empirical evidence.
5 posted on 04/29/2008 1:34:12 PM PDT by Antoninus (Just a typical white guy.)
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To: devane617

Saurian Brandy and Hot Alien Chicks, Oh My!

6 posted on 04/29/2008 1:34:36 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: null and void

Dick accretion theory for planet formation is wrong. Thermonuclear fusion for sun formation is wrong. Evidence against these two wrong theories is suppressed by the orthodox science mafia. At www.thunderbolts.info, evidence for plasma-electric phenomena as the foundation for a new cosmology is being constructed and tested.


7 posted on 04/29/2008 1:37:20 PM PDT by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: Yollopoliuhqui
Dick accretion theory for planet formation is wrong.

"Would ye care to...rephrase that laddie?"

8 posted on 04/29/2008 1:41:47 PM PDT by Bloody Sam Roberts (The secret of Life is letting go. The secret of Love is letting it show.)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui

WTF???!!!


9 posted on 04/29/2008 1:43:23 PM PDT by Alas Babylon!
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To: saganite

desolate and devoid of intellegent life...

..sounds like where the mainframe for DU is located


10 posted on 04/29/2008 1:44:16 PM PDT by woollyone (entropy extirpates evolution and conservation confirms the Creator blessed forever.)
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To: Yollopoliuhqui

Evidence against these two wrong theories is suppressed by the orthodox science mafia.
_______

I’m confused. You want the scientific mafia NOT to suppress evidence for the wrong theories? Or you want the scientific mafia to recognize the evidence FOR these wrong theories. Or do you want the scientific mafia to recognize the evidence FOR the theories.


11 posted on 04/29/2008 1:44:52 PM PDT by dmz
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To: Antoninus

It’s not faith, just an evaluation based on the recent discoveries that conditions are good for some form of life to develop in our solar system. I can only hope to live long enough to witness that if it does occur. I think the biggest obstacle to discovering life is our commitment to seek it out, not the improbability that it could exist elsewhere.


12 posted on 04/29/2008 1:53:18 PM PDT by saganite
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To: null and void

Where are they? They’re here. Go to disclosureproject.com.


13 posted on 04/29/2008 1:58:23 PM PDT by kjo
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To: null and void

I’m fairly convinced we aren’t alone in the universe. I’m also fairly convinced that interstellar wormhole traveling space monsters have never visited earth in their shiny little ships.


14 posted on 04/29/2008 2:01:19 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: woollyone

Hey!!
I resemble that remark!

Most mainframers are geezers.
Most geezers are conservatives.

The punks who run DU are probably eunuchs freaks.


15 posted on 04/29/2008 2:02:47 PM PDT by djf
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To: mysterio
The Pyramids are landing pads for alien starships ... and back in the '40s, archaeologists found a big wormhole generator under one of the Tombs of the Pharoahs ... when activated it lets you travel over a whole network similar wormhole generators all over the galaxy.

Trust me ... It's 'way deeper than you think ... the government is keeping real tight security on the whole thing, but it's real. It's a big Air Force program compartmented under the codename JACKO KNEEL.

16 posted on 04/29/2008 2:07:51 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: ArrogantBustard
Please don't tell the history channel any of that. They'll play fake space monster documentaries for weeks and there won't be a thing for me to watch. I hate it when they go on one of their imaginary alien kicks. "LOOK, IT'S AN IMPLANT, AN ALIEN IMPLANT!!!!"

Oh, wait, whoops, it was a piece of iron oxide, never mind.
17 posted on 04/29/2008 2:10:55 PM PDT by mysterio
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To: null and void

Widespread colonization has to overcome a significant “filter” not mentioned in the article - the sheer size of interstellar space.


18 posted on 04/29/2008 2:11:05 PM PDT by Interesting Times (Swiftboating, you say? Check out ToSetTheRecordStraight.com)
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To: mysterio

There was a HUGE documentary about the whole thing ...I watched some of it back when I had DirecTV.


19 posted on 04/29/2008 2:13:28 PM PDT by ArrogantBustard (Western Civilization is Aborting, Buggering, and Contracepting itself out of existence.)
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To: djf

as the shop steward for local 491 of the eunuchs freaks, I demand you apologize..:-)


20 posted on 04/29/2008 2:15:37 PM PDT by GeorgiaDawg32 (www.liberallunacy.bravehost.com..I'm a Patriot Guard Rider. www.patriotguard.org for info.)
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