US Congress has close encounter over extraterrestrial life
47 replies, posted
[URL]http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/04/us-congress-committee-extraterrestrial-life[/URL]
[IMG]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/8/24/1282642481262/1982-E.T.-THE-EXTRA-TERRE-006.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE]A House committee convened on Wednesday to take up an abiding mystery of the universe: are we Earthlings alone? After about 90 minutes of testimony, committee chair Lamar Smith of Texas gaveled the hearing to an inconclusive close.
It was not, however, a fruitless outing. [B]In impassioned testimony, witnesses from Nasa, MIT and the Library of Congress described a crossroads in the search for life out there and suggested scientists may be on the verge of a breakthrough.[/B]
"This is the first time in human history we have the technological reach to cross the threshold," said Dr Sara Seager, an MIT professor and 2013 MacArthur "genius grant" recipient. Her work focuses on the detection of "biosignature" gases on distant planets, large volumes of which might indicate life, whether intelligent life or single-cell bacteria.
Seager testified that the James Webb space telescope, scheduled for launch in 2018, and other advances are changing the search for alien life forms. "If life really is everywhere, we actually have a shot at it," she said.
[...]
"The chance is very high" of life elsewhere in the universe, Seager said. [B]"The question is: is there life near here, in our neighborhood of stars? We think the chances are good."[/B][/QUOTE]
Lol, Lamar Smith.
rate me dumb pls
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In other news, the NSA births the MIB division
"[I]suggested[/I] that [I]maybe[/I]" on a breakthrough.
There's no news here. You either found it or you didn't; you don't near a breakthrough, you either have it or you don't.
Sounds like a good step forward, although I'm betting we're more likely find bacterial colonies rather than things that'd make the works of H.R Giger look like something Hasbro knocked together to appeal to little girls and neckbeards.
And as I said before, even if we do locate alien intellects, they'll either be primitive cavemen or dazzling seraphs; very unlikely that we'd find civilisations more or less near our tech level, and even if we found them they're probably centuries away even at lightspeed, and we're likely centuries away from getting close to practical warp drives.
I don't consider some small bacteria or whatever on some moon or other planet "alien life". All these threads that say, oh we discovered alien life, oh it exists etc... are all just some fucking bacteria and microscopic shit.
Come back when you are on the verge of breaktrough of finding intelling life. Hell even some sort of a plant would do, or anything that can be seen with naked eye
[QUOTE=Adarrek;43072681]I don't consider some small bacteria or whatever on some moon or other planet "alien life". All these threads that say, oh we discovered alien life, oh it exists etc... are all just some fucking bacteria and microscopic shit.
Come back when you are on the verge of breaktrough of finding intelling life. Hell even some sort of a plant would do[/QUOTE]
Any form of extraterrestrial life would be the greatest discovery in the history of our species.
Why can't they just leave illegal immigrants alone, they're not hurting anyone
[QUOTE=Adarrek;43072681]I don't consider some small bacteria or whatever on some moon or other planet "alien life". All these threads that say, oh we discovered alien life, oh it exists etc... are all just some fucking bacteria and microscopic shit.
Come back when you are on the verge of breaktrough of finding intelling life. Hell even some sort of a plant would do, or anything that can be seen with naked eye[/QUOTE]
To be honest, even if it was bacteria it would perfectly fit the description of 'alien life'. Just because it's not as spectacular as in popular media doesn't mean it's any less interesting.
[QUOTE=Adarrek;43072681]I don't consider some small bacteria or whatever on some moon or other planet "alien life". All these threads that say, oh we discovered alien life, oh it exists etc... are all just some fucking bacteria and microscopic shit.
Come back when you are on the verge of breaktrough of finding intelling life. Hell even some sort of a plant would do, or anything that can be seen with naked eye[/QUOTE]
It proves life can happen in other planetary systems. And if we can find it relatively close to us, that is good evidence that it is not rare either.
[QUOTE=IKTM;43072726]Any form of extraterrestrial life would be the greatest discovery in the history of our species.[/QUOTE]
I don't know about ANY form, I can honestly say that the discovery of mathematics, gravity, physics, electricity, radio, the universe, and even more are of greater importance than finding some bacteria would be. I'm not so sure where I would stand on finding alien animals, but I am certain that yes, finding intelligent aliens would be the most important thing ever.
If we find bacteria it means we are not alone. Even if there is only bacteria near us, it means that life probably exists throughout the galaxy.
Also any life (or at least life similar to our own) has the potential to adapt and evolve, considering the vastness of time if we find life out there (even bacteria), there is a pretty good chance of other life forms on a macro level somewhere out there.
[QUOTE=imptastick;43073468]If we find bacteria it means we are not alone. Even if there is only bacteria near us, it means that life probably exists throughout the galaxy.
Also any life (or at least life similar to our own) has the potential to adapt and evolve, considering the vastness of time if we find life out there (even bacteria), there is a pretty good chance of other life forms on a macro level somewhere out there.[/QUOTE]
The real question then becomes, do we really want to meet it? We're hardly all sunshine and roses on Earth, and we're only just now (in the past 50 years or so) been able to get large objects off the planet with some level of consistency. I know it's been said to death, but something tells me if there's anything out there capable of making contact with us we'd better leave it the fuck alone.
I'll be the closed minded one here and say that we will never contact with anything living outside our solar system that we intended. We are far too small and our galaxy is 26,000ly across. Now look in the sky and count how many more galaxies there are and then realize the massive space between our [I]galaxy[/I] and theirs.
If anything came to us it would be by great chance. We are nothing but a molecule of water in the pacific ocean... thats expanding. I would be deeply afraid if anything found us. They'd be technology more advanced than we can even fathom. (By that I mean that they've figured out a way space around them faster than the speed of light plus life support, plus energy)
[QUOTE=areolop;43073910]I'll be the closed minded one here and say that we will never contact with anything living outside our solar system that we intended. We are far too small and our galaxy is 26,000ly across. Now look in the sky and count how many more galaxies there are and then realize the massive space between our [I]galaxy[/I] and theirs.
If anything came to us it would be by great chance. We are nothing but a molecule of water in the pacific ocean... thats expanding. I would be deeply afraid if anything found us. They'd be technology more advanced than we can even fathom. (By that I mean that they've figured out a way space around them faster than the speed of light plus life support, plus energy)[/QUOTE]
People seem to underestimate the size of space. It's fucking massive. I do believe there is life somewhere out there, but either they'd be long dead if/when we find them or we'd be long dead if/when they find us.
[QUOTE=areolop;43073910]I'll be the closed minded one here and say that we will never contact with anything living outside our solar system that we intended. We are far too small and our galaxy is 26,000ly across. Now look in the sky and count how many more galaxies there are and then realize the massive space between our [I]galaxy[/I] and theirs.
If anything came to us it would be by great chance. We are nothing but a molecule of water in the pacific ocean... thats expanding. I would be deeply afraid if anything found us. They'd be technology more advanced than we can even fathom. (By that I mean that they've figured out a way space around them faster than the speed of light plus life support, plus energy)[/QUOTE]
Honestly though if something did find us I have a feeling they wouldn't blow us up for fun. They'd probably be fascinated by humanity and want to study it.
[QUOTE=Falubii;43075023]Honestly though if something did find us I have a feeling they wouldn't blow us up for fun. They'd probably be fascinated by humanity and want to study it.[/QUOTE]
Then they'd fry us with a giant space-magnifying glass like a bunch of ants.
[QUOTE=IKTM;43072726]Any form of extraterrestrial life would be the greatest discovery in the history of our species.[/QUOTE]
Even so, our species is not ready to know that life exists on other planets. A person may be ready, but people as a whole wont be ready for a long time.
Any race that has the tech and the resources to travel to Earth would literally have no reason to invade Earth.
Nevermind the logistics of carrying out an interstellar war. If aliens ever reach Earth then they would likely be a research party of some sort or even more likely a probe.
[QUOTE=kenshin6;43075210]Even so, our species is not ready to know that life exists on other planets. A person may be ready, but people as a whole wont be ready for a long time.[/QUOTE]
Why?
[QUOTE=kenshin6;43075210]Even so, our species is not ready to know that life exists on other planets. A person may be ready, but people as a whole wont be ready for a long time.[/QUOTE]
I hope we discover aliens, because we are ready. You sound so pretentious when you say stuff like that. We are definitely ready, and it would unify us as a species.
I just want to fucking see what aliens look like in my life time
And then I'll fucking die a happy man
[QUOTE=frozensoda;43075420]I hope we discover aliens, because we are ready. You sound so pretentious when you say stuff like that. We are definitely ready, and it would unify us as a species.[/QUOTE]
The main worry is the intentions of the aliens, would they be aggressive for example. I agree with Prof. Hawking on the idea that it could very well end up like what happened when the Spanish and Portuguese found the America's and proceeded to loot everything.
[QUOTE=shian;43075442]I just want to fucking see what aliens look like in my life time
And then I'll fucking die a happy man[/QUOTE]Yeah, the thing I'm interested in most about aliens (especially intelligent ones that are like us) is what their appearance is like, how do they communicate, move, etc.
The thing I hate about modern sci-fi is that the aliens somehow are magically capable of producing human speech.
[QUOTE=Kyle902;43075628]The thing I hate about modern sci-fi is that the aliens somehow are magically capable of producing human speech.[/QUOTE]That's another issue with aliens visiting us, how would we speak to one another?
He's acting like he's got something up his ass.
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