Posted on 02/07/2006 1:59:24 PM PST by tricky_k_1972
Ever see the Outer Limits episode "Cry of Silence"? The alien was so different, contact was impossible.
Scariest Outer Limits ever IMHO.
With all the special effects that are put into sci fi these days, it's amazing how scary the old Outer Limits were. I still think about those shows to this day. Still give me the creeps. Ha ha
How about the one where the guy was changed into an alien? Or the alien that could make a force field by pushing a button in his hand? Or the one where the scientist's assistant evolves into the genius with 6 fingers? What great writing. The sets probably cost $40, but what entertainment.
The problem is not just whether life can in fact live in hostile conditions; the problem is where are they?
If you look at the age of life existence on our planet and the time it took for that life to develop into intelligent life it is very small compared to the age of the universe or even other solar systems.
If life on Earth is not an aberration, and I don't think that it is, then let suppose a similar developmental process for life and it's eventual "evolution" into intelligence.
John von Neumann was a scientist and most notably a theorist who presupposed an intelligent race that created machines that could recreate themselves, probably not too far advanced from where we are today, he went onto propose that these machines even without the benefit of faster than light travel could eventually travel the entire galaxy in relatively (compared to the age of the Universe) short period of time and leave their mark.
The question is, if life can be and is numerous, and if life will eventually evolve into intelligence (given eneough time), where are they?
I loved them. Have all of them on DVD. :-)
When younger I had the fortune to work at a research company (in a lowly technician position), and also to meet an academic physicist who had an improvemnt for optical telescopes.
At the company an idea or discovery was greeted with "so-and-so will want this, it'll put 'em two years ahead of the competition". Basic research arose out of the need for the clients to keep ahead in the market.
The academic, however, spent years getting his idea funded because of poitics- basically because funding would go to another department.
Intelligence- that's a different matter. Are there intelligent life forms out there? You've got me. BUT, you can't tell me that somewhere, on some planet out in the middle of nowhere, there isn't some "stuff on a rock." An ocean planet with a rock sticking out of the waves, with crud on it. Gloopy self-replicating crud. ha
Fermi's paradox: If intelligent life is common in the galaxy, where is it?
Many, many explanations of this.
My personal thoughts: We are a spontaneous, inevitable product of carbon chemistry in a infinite, evolving universe. The problem is that this evolution is taking place all across the universe at essentially the same time. The other civilizations are all rising contemporaneously.
qUITE A HALF-LIFE!
Speaking of lenses- off topic :) A few years ago, I remember reading about a scientist who had made a few atoms of transparent gold in the lab. Ive used "gold" lenses from time to time (lenses with a thin layer a few atoms thick of gold) and they have great optical properties. But for the life of me, I can find nothing regarding his research on the web. Familiar with that?
Looks like a pinger!
What odds?
Until the powers that be can figure out a way to retain control over people out there, we're not getting off.
America was a big lesson in what happens when pissed off indivdualists get away from the elite.
I got out just in time: '95 Navy Dept.
Kinda like a C vs E thread?? ;^)
The scientific theories of life- as we know it- depend on as miraculous gestation of intelligent species as religious ones. There are so many requirements and pitfalls.
Consider such postulates as Neumann's and Ferni's for humanity though. Once nuclear power is as under our control as electicity is now- something we can at least reasonably assume will happen- there will be few limits to our growth. We'll be everywhere- or dead.
Ah, but life is about competition, even among single species.
Competition will eventually bring about specialization and specialization will bring about instinct.
Instinct will eventually bring you to the top of the food chain and from there tool development.
Tool development will bring about modification of your environment to a point where basic survival is no longer a concern leading to social competition.
Social competition will lead "eventually" to intelligence.
Ok now everybody, that was a high school (maybe a little more) evolutionary progress sheet. I know it might be wrong in it's development, but it is essentially what is proposed by evolutionists.
My former post was not suppose to be about evolution, but it does concern it strictly scientifically speaking. I DO NOT WANT TO ARGUE EVOLUTION VS. CREATIONISM
(Just as a guess) putting "plasma deposition" gold lenses transparent in Google got results that may be on what you're thinking of.
NO, no, no, no, NO!
E VS.C has been argued, reargued, hashed and rehashed to death around here.
We don't need it and I don't want it.
I am a preachers son, so I have had these arguments myself, and believe it or not, with myself.
I am simply looking for ideas on arguments within the realm of "science" on this topic
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