Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: green team 1999
I figure most UFO sightings are just airplanes. Yet there are enough reports around from people who can tell the difference, that one has to really wonder.

Even Phil Klass thinks Earth has probably been visited by at least an alien probe, or so I have read.
3 posted on 04/19/2003 11:18:34 AM PDT by Sam Cree (liberals are the axis of evil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Sam Cree
"Even Phil Klass thinks Earth has probably been visited by at least an alien probe, or so I have read."

I am unaware of this. Seems dubious.

There is an argument--along the lines of the Fermi Paradox. It goes like this:

The Sun is a 3rd-generation star. If there are lots of intelligent ETs, they've been around for thousands or millions of years, and their technology would appear godlike to us. Even at 5% of the speed of light, there has been ample time for every star to be visited.

One strategy would be to build 'von Neumann' robots. Programmed to select a star at random, gather all data, and build a copy of themselves from local materials. Dump the entire database into the copy; then both vehicles randomly go to two more stars. You get an exponential explosion of probes, each knowing everything its ancestors did. The payoff: every once in a while, one of the probes wanders home and dumps its data. A huge payoff for a modest investment.

The problem is that there ought to be a traffic jam of probes right here, right now. We do not observe them. Hence either there are no intelligent ETs or the difficulty of achieving even 5% of "c" are insurmountable.

=======================

Incidentally, the book "Rare Earth" makes distressingly-persuasive arguments which lead to the conclusion that we are the only intelligent species in the Universe--or maybe only the Milky Way Galaxy. Recommended reading.

--Boris

4 posted on 04/23/2003 6:27:05 PM PDT by boris (Education is always painful; pain is always educational)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

To: Sam Cree
Just look at James Carville and you will say 'yep'.
10 posted on 04/24/2003 3:49:12 AM PDT by gulfcoast6 (Laziness and poverty are cousins.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson