[meteorite-list] Alien Contact Predicted

From: Darren Garrison <cynapse_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:11:50 -0500
Message-ID: <pca69555fn2gj2s570elnv0gfupbhmgan6_at_4ax.com>

On Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:42:34 -0700, you wrote:

>Who here believes that sometime in the near future we will discover, or
>be discovered by another life form?

Utterly unknowable.

Let's rephrase the question in a more Earthbound way. What are the chances
that, in the near future, you and I will run into each other on the street? To
make a reasonable prediction about that, you would have to know how far I live
from you, know how often I travel and to where, know what I look like, etc. You
know none of those things, so you have no way whatsoever to make any sort of
meaningful prediction-even within orders of magnitude-- of the chances of you
and I running into each other. We know nothing about where other intelligent
species might be. We have no idea how or how fast they travel, if they are
around and do travel. And we don't even know what communications from an alien
would look like if we saw it-maybe aliens ARE beaming interstellar messages, but
we either lack the technology to sense them or the knowledge to recognize them.

It is an angels dancing on the head of a pin question.



>Do you believe that extraterrestrial life will be intelligent or non
>sentient microbial lifeform?

Life on Earth for most of its history has been microscopic. I would bet finding
germs is more likely than finding Germans (or space Sweeds, your choice.)

>
>Carbon based or some other unknown form of life?

Carbon molecules are the most versatile and stable at temperatures in which Life
As We Know It lives. Silicon based life would be much less likely (but possibly
more likely at low temperatures.) Check out Peter Douglas Ward's book "Life As
We Do Not Know It."
Received on Mon 24 Aug 2009 08:11:50 PM PDT