Posted on 04/14/2008 11:17:37 AM PDT by LibWhacker
Intelligent life is a true miracle, however the biggest threat to intelligent life on this planet is big government liberalism.
The probability of intelligent life in the universe is 1. We know it has occurred at least once.
Given the incomprehensible vastness of time and the cosmos, it seems rather odd to make arguments against rather than for intelligent life.
Hey, maybe our idea of intelligence is really so primitive that we cannot understand a higher process that occurs more regularly among the stars.
Just sayin’
We don’t know if there is life on Mars, which is much closer than the rest of the universe, about which we know even less. Go ahead and guess, nobody is keeping count and nobody will remember one way or the other, just like predicting Presidential elections.
Winning an series of evolutionary lotteries might indeed be rare.
Getting a leg up on it by judicious seeding (intelligent design) might be a better way.
I found this quote rather telling:
By contrast, however, it is now believed that we evolved late in the habitable period; this suggests that our evolution is a comparatively unlikely occurrence.
How do we know how long a period is if we don't know when it began or when it will end?
Scientists are not allowed to count human beings as sentient forms of life. Something to do with Descartes.
And, from this dubious position, we are asked to consider extraterrestrial life?
The “late in the habitable period” line threw me off as well. Sorry, but there are lots of chunks of rock left over from the formation of a solar system. Any of which could pretty much wipe out life on a planet. Just ask the Dinosaurs. And that was 4.44 Billion years after the Earth 1st coalesced.
Seems to be a lot left out of the equation here.
It would be interesting to know how and why human intelligence is far beyond what it needs to be for survival.
Art, music, literature, sports, seem to be more than is necessary for survival and to reproduce the species.
Why?
What you’re saying is true... I think they want to understand how likely it is other intelligent forms will arise. Among other things, knowing that probability will tell us whether we can stop wasting our time and money looking for them.
That Higher Process is usually called...GOD!. And you are right. Man cannot hope to understand GOD. He can only live by His laws. (Ref. Adam & Eve and also the 10 commandments)
Life had to start somewhere FIRST and this planet was/is the first place for 4th generational life in this universe..
ALL available (SCIENTIFIC) evidence supports this view..
The Judeo christian BIBLE implies that that life might SPREAD at some point..
I just don't get it. I think my brain is wired improperly for considering this kind of question.
Stars get warmer as they age. Although the Sun isn’t going to nova for another five billion years or so, life here doesn’t have that long. In another billion years, the Sun’s is going to boil away our oceans and that’ll be the end of life on Earth.
The way that chemistry and the elements work, higher lifeforms must be carbon based - none of the other elements have the right properties.
The idea of silicon based lifeforms is a kind of cool scifi concept, but really untenable at a chemical level.
If you want some details on this, the book “Privileged Planet” goes into it with sufficient depth for those with a moderate chemistry understanding.
It’s looking like that more and more to me, too.
Great pic!
There is a lot left out of the equation.
For our biosphere to have “evolved” to what it is today involved a lot of “happy accidents”.
The moon (which is a rarity for its size, etc) is essential for various “essentials” like the spinning molten iron core of the earth which generates the protective magnetic field - well, it took a mars sized body colliding at the proper angle, at the proper time in the earth’s forming, in order for it to be where it is at this time.
Enough comets had to collide with the earth to provide water, but then had to cease. Species had to be wiped out and created at the right times, etc.
Even given GENEROUS (1/10th) probabilities to all the factors that lead to a habitible planet suitable for intelligent, technological life,
the numbers show that there should be .01 “earths” in our whole galaxy.
Bad odds, even for Vegas.
(ref: Drake Equation)
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