[meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any Exobiology Stuff

From: Dori Fry <dorifry_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:32:04 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <1282401366.140878.1363386724283.JavaMail.root_at_md12.embarq.synacor.com>

Metaphysics, Philosophy?

Phil Whitmer


----- Original Message -----
From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
To: Dori Fry <dorifry at embarqmail.com>
Cc: JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>, meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:26:48 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any Exobiology Stuff

Phil, List,

> ...our planet is incredibly special, it's the
> most perfect goldylocksy place ever!

I knew what you were talking about wasn't
science. Now, I know what it is.

WillyWonkaism


Sterling K. Webb
-------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dori Fry" <dorifry at embarqmail.com>
To: "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
Cc: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>;
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 5:05 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any Exobiology
Stuff


> Sterling,
>
> Nobody knows what life is, plain and simple. The wisest, most wizened
> theologians and the brightest scientists in the latest techno-labs
> don't have a clue. Nobody knows what the ghost in the machine is. Or
> how it arose from matter.
>
> What I said was life seems to arisen by chance on our planet, and
> therefore it could possibly happen again elsewhere.
>
> You said: "Is our planet special?" Yes, our planet is incredibly
> special, it's the most perfect goldylocksy place ever!
>
>
> Yes, 2500 yrs ago all they had were atoms. Nowadays we have quantum
> particles and a stringy, vibrating web of particle waves that can be
> two places at once. Matter may not be solid after all. An entirely new
> parallel universe may be created ever time we make a decision. There
> may be near infinite copies of each and every one of us. Physics is
> turning into metaphysics. Materialism as we know it may be fading
> away. There might be massless forces lacking a Boson that we know
> nothing about. (The Force.) Particles may have a simple consciousness.
> For all we know meteorites may be intentionally aiming for the
> Sahara's soft sands. (Comic relief and steering the thread back the
> physical world of meteorites.)
>
>
> Phil Whitmer
> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sterling K. Webb <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
> To: JoshuaTreeMuseum <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>,
> meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Sent: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:27:38 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any
> Exobiology Stuff
>
> Phil, List
>
> You said:
>> Science cannot define life using current materialist, reductionism,
>> physicalist methods. They think life, along with consciousness and
>> intelligence are just chance random byproducts of chance random
>> arrangements of organic molecules.
>
> That is EXACTLY how science defines life.
> All science is materialist, reductionism, and
> physicalist. If you believe something else,
> then whatever that thing is, it is NOT science.
>
> Yet:
>> I'm not ruling out life elsewhere in the Universe, because according
>> to the laws of probability...
>
> So, life can't arise by chance on OUR planet but
> it CAN on some other planet. Would you explain
> the logic of that to me? Or is our planet special?
>
> 2500 years of having the structure (and eventually
> the workings) of matter explained by Leucippus,
> Democritus, Epicurus, through Galileo, to Dalton,
> Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, and hundreds of others,
> and you still don't get it.
>
> I'll give you a 2500-year-old quote that you can
> repeat quietly to yourself until you DO get it:
> "There are atoms and the void and nothing else."
>
>
> Sterling K. Webb
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <joshuatreemuseum at embarqmail.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 1:50 PM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any Exobiology
> Stuff
>
>
>> Mark,
>>
>> I agree. It's becoming painfully obvious Mars has always been
>> lifeless. If it didn't happen there, where conditions were similar to
>> Earth, with all the right ingredients and parameters, then I wouldn't
>> hold my breath while looking for life in the rest of the Solar
>> System.
>> Abiogenisis is an extremely rare thing, maybe even a singularity.
>>
>> Science cannot define life using current materialist, reductionist,
>> physicalist methods. They think life, along with consciousness and
>> intelligence are just chance random byproducts of chance random
>> arrangements of organic molecules.
>>
>> Trying to understand life by studying the physical properties of the
>> building blocks, where they came from, whether or not the early Earth
>> had a reducing atmosphere, etc., etc, is like trying to explain a Van
>> Gogh by microprobing his paints.
>>
>> I'm not ruling out life elsewhere in the Universe, because according
>> to the laws of probablility, if something happened once, no matter
>> how
>> weird, bizarre and unexplainable it was, there's a chance it will
>> happen again.
>>
>>
>> We'll know more in a million years.
>>
>> Phil Whitmer
>> Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
>>
>>
>>>>>Look deep underground (tough to do from Earth)> - That's fine if
>>>>>your looking for Earth style microbes, but until we even formally
>>>>>define life (and not just some grey area about self reproducing
>>>>>molecules) would we know 'it' if we saw it?
>>
>>
>>
>> Seems to me if you chart the historical progress of the hunt for life
>> on Mars it's getting a bit thin and desperate, in 100 years we have
>> gone from theories of there being colonies of Martians with canals or
>> forests to a small chance there may still be a few microbes hanging
>> on
>> deep underground near the equator, Nothing wrong with looking and we
>> should, but at some point in the near future we should probably give
>> up and start face to reality, and think about sending some resources
>> elsewhere - where frankly the chances are a looking little bit
>> higher,
>> e.g Europa.
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com
>> [mailto:meteorite-list-bounces at meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of
>> Michael Mulgrew
>> Sent: 14 March 2013 19:04
>> To: Sterling K. Webb; Meteorite List
>> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Find Stuff
>>
>> Sterling,
>>
>> Look deep underground (tough to do from Earth), any life remaining on
>> Mars will likely be found there.
>>
>> Michael in so. Cal.
>> ______________________________________________
>>
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Received on Fri 15 Mar 2013 06:32:04 PM PDT