News just in...

[NotLettingItGo]

It's not politics, it goes a little like this:

Everything man knows and believes is due to indoctrination, for example:

Spoiler: Show

There are no units of measurement, they were just made up by scientists. So an inch could actually be an unbelievably long way.

Spoiler: Show

There are no shapes, we just gave names to describe what we saw, assuming that the electromagnetic image we get is an accurate representation of what the object actually looks like, so a circle could really be rectangular

Spoiler: Show

There are no colours, see the second statement, we again just gave convenient names to the colours we perceived without any real way of measuring if what we perceived is accurate

Ergo it's entirely likely we're all two foot tall green blobs, who have deluded ourselves into this grand perception of how we (and everything else) look(s).

[manker]

Thank fuck for that... at last a thread where we're not going to talk about women and what a misognistic cunt I am.

That is probably due to the fact that manker has only recently returned after a long absence, and so has missed on many of your more truly misogynistic rants of the past. He can either review your post history at his leisure and draw his own conclusions or wait for your next outpouring.

Dewd, I've seen most of them. I got linked to a couple and my interest was piqued.
I found them literally incredible.

He's just a bucket of love. A gigantic drizzly-marzipan-monkey.

[Biggles]

It's not politics, it goes a little like this:

Everything man knows and believes is due to indoctrination, for example:

Spoiler: Show

There are no units of measurement, they were just made up by scientists. So an inch could actually be an unbelievably long way.

Spoiler: Show

There are no shapes, we just gave names to describe what we saw, assuming that the electromagnetic image we get is an accurate representation of what the object actually looks like, so a circle could really be rectangular

Spoiler: Show

There are no colours, see the second statement, we again just gave convenient names to the colours we perceived without any real way of measuring if what we perceived is accurate

Ergo it's entirely likely we're all two foot tall green blobs, who have deluded ourselves into this grand perception of how we (and everything else) look(s).

I could actually go for solipsism but if it were to be the case then I feel I should have done rather better for myself.

[NotLettingItGo]

I could actually go for solipsism but if it were to be the case then I feel I should have done rather better for myself.

Except that would mean my own mind could create chavis and so many others... Nah! I can't believe that.

[Barbarossa]

This 'habitable' zone always makes me curl my upper lip in an unimpressed manner.

It's mainly the implication that anywhere else is uninhabitable.
I guess it's for simplicity but, even though I don't have one to suggest, I'd prefer a more correct adjective to describe the zone which the scienticians are concentrating their studies.

I can't think of one either, that isn't too cumbersome. It looks like we're stuck with habitable zone for now until Snee gets here, I'm sure he'll come up with something...

Going back to the original news, just because a planet occupies the "habitable" zone, it doesn't necessarily mean that it contains life. There are many more factors that came into play to create life here, not just location.

Also there are unique characteristics of Earth that we take for granted that are absolutely vital to our existence, for example the 23 degree tilt of earth's axis which gives us seasons, and the moon which gives the ocean tides.

I would never rule out "life" anywhere, but intelligent life, that's so ridiculously unlikely it must be absurdly rare I should think.

[manker]

Asimov taught me that it's not only that we have a moon, it's its sheer size which makes it so important.
No other planet in the solar system has such a relatively large moon.
Except Pluto's Charon, which doesn't count because it's not a proper planet
Our planet would be similar to Mars without our proportionately gigantic satellite due to things like axis tilt regulation and probably other stuff that I don't recall.

[Barbarossa]

[bookworld] Have you read any Stephen Baxter? His "Manifold" series of books explores all those sorts of issues, starting with the basic premise of "there's something wrong with the universe".

All fiction of course, but fiction based on scientific fact, much like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century*

[/bookworld]

* not really like Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

[manker]

I haven't dewd, but I will. The title of the series sounds interesting in and of itself.

I've spoiled myself by reading all of Asimov and Vonnegut first so I definitely need some sci-fi authors that don't suck.

[megabyteme]

I'm not so certain intelligent life would be so entirely improbable. While humans are the only ones to build complex* "stuff", dogs, pigs, horses**, dolphins, whales, various primates, and I'm sure others, all demonstrate moderate levels of intelligence. Certainly, if evolution is to have any kind of credibility, those creatures that can adapt, and work together, will have a far greater likelihood of survival. Given a few hundred million years more time to evolve (without being raised in captivity), are we certain at least a couple of the creatures I've mentioned wouldn't have closer-to-human capabilities?


*Even large insect colonies display order, and construction skills.
**The perfect egg-crushing devices, right?

[manker]

I believe that intelligent life is entirely probable. With that probability tending to certainty, given the immense numbers of stars in galaxies in even the known universe.
What's improbable is intelligent life devising a method of interstellar travel which wouldn't take brazillions of years.

It's out there, but it's irrelevant