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HoHoHo
8,323 posts
119 months
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Astronut said: It has been decided (and this is absolutely true) that, in the event of contact being made with another civilisation, the word 'alien' MUST NOT be used as it is offensive, implying that they are being categorised as a life-form that is living in the wrong environment. They must be referred to as EBE's - Exo-Biological Entities...
Brussels can even wind its red feckin' tape around the necks of people from other stellar systems! So what exactly is going to happen when the EBE's land and call us aliens? Whilst the chap from Brussels is explaining we are human soft tissue nice kind people who care about other EBE's feelings he's going to be zapped with a million and seventy three and a half of exo-EBE fast killing spud ray and the EBE is going to smile and move onto the next prat, saying I really don't give a s  t take me to your leader  Bring it on I say 
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BarnatosGhost
6,388 posts
122 months
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Mr Gear said: BarnatosGhost said: Once anything has been proven to exist, as life has, the chances of it only existing once, in one place, are very low indeed. But... It has evolved here only once in the planet's entire history. We all have one common ancestor. Life has only sprouted once. That is what I am led to believe. Now, although that makes it very special, it doesn't of course make it impossible for it to start from scratch again somewhere else in the universe. But life on earth is around 2 bn years old. The planet itself is around 5 bn years old. So once conditions allowed, life 'occurred'. As it will almost certainly have done on millions of other planets elsewhere as and when conditions allow. The idea of abiogenesis happening in one tiny living organism under the sea, which doubled and doubled and doubled, is not correct. The conditions for abiogenesis existed in lots of places on earth and many 'colonies' could have spontaneously initiated independently.
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Astronut
102 posts
48 months
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HoHoHo said: Astronut said: It has been decided (and this is absolutely true) that, in the event of contact being made with another civilisation, the word 'alien' MUST NOT be used as it is offensive, implying that they are being categorised as a life-form that is living in the wrong environment. They must be referred to as EBE's - Exo-Biological Entities...
Brussels can even wind its red feckin' tape around the necks of people from other stellar systems! So what exactly is going to happen when the EBE's land and call us aliens? Whilst the chap from Brussels is explaining we are human soft tissue nice kind people who care about other EBE's feelings he's going to be zapped with a million and seventy three and a half of exo-EBE fast killing spud ray and the EBE is going to smile and move onto the next prat, saying I really don't give a s t take me to your leader Bring it on I say Ooooh! So much anger!
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HoHoHo
8,323 posts
119 months
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Astronut said: HoHoHo said: Astronut said: It has been decided (and this is absolutely true) that, in the event of contact being made with another civilisation, the word 'alien' MUST NOT be used as it is offensive, implying that they are being categorised as a life-form that is living in the wrong environment. They must be referred to as EBE's - Exo-Biological Entities...
Brussels can even wind its red feckin' tape around the necks of people from other stellar systems! So what exactly is going to happen when the EBE's land and call us aliens? Whilst the chap from Brussels is explaining we are human soft tissue nice kind people who care about other EBE's feelings he's going to be zapped with a million and seventy three and a half of exo-EBE fast killing spud ray and the EBE is going to smile and move onto the next prat, saying I really don't give a s t take me to your leader Bring it on I say Ooooh! So much anger! Long week at work 
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Astronut
102 posts
48 months
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BarnatosGhost said: Mr Gear said: BarnatosGhost said: Once anything has been proven to exist, as life has, the chances of it only existing once, in one place, are very low indeed. But... It has evolved here only once in the planet's entire history. We all have one common ancestor. Life has only sprouted once. That is what I am led to believe. Now, although that makes it very special, it doesn't of course make it impossible for it to start from scratch again somewhere else in the universe. But life on earth is around 2 bn years old. The planet itself is around 5 bn years old. So once conditions allowed, life 'occurred'. As it will almost certainly have done on millions of other planets elsewhere as and when conditions allow. The idea of abiogenesis happening in one tiny living organism under the sea, which doubled and doubled and doubled, is not correct. The conditions for abiogenesis existed in lots of places on earth and many 'colonies' could have spontaneously initiated independently. I rather like the Hoyle/Chandraseka idea of 'panspermia' where amino acids are formed in UV driven chemical reactions in the supernatant material around the protostars in nursery nebulae. As the star 'fires up', the x-ray blast encourages the amino acids to combine into proteins and nucleotide chains. This organic 'soot' liberally coats all objects around the star and becomes part of any planet that forms. If that planet is in the 'Goldilocks Zone' and has liquid water, then pools of 'life soup' will form and the biogenesis process kicks off. Evidence for this mechanism is apparent in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan...
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Astronut
102 posts
48 months
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HoHoHo said: Astronut said: HoHoHo said: Astronut said: It has been decided (and this is absolutely true) that, in the event of contact being made with another civilisation, the word 'alien' MUST NOT be used as it is offensive, implying that they are being categorised as a life-form that is living in the wrong environment. They must be referred to as EBE's - Exo-Biological Entities...
Brussels can even wind its red feckin' tape around the necks of people from other stellar systems! So what exactly is going to happen when the EBE's land and call us aliens? Whilst the chap from Brussels is explaining we are human soft tissue nice kind people who care about other EBE's feelings he's going to be zapped with a million and seventy three and a half of exo-EBE fast killing spud ray and the EBE is going to smile and move onto the next prat, saying I really don't give a s t take me to your leader Bring it on I say Ooooh! So much anger! Long week at work Then treat yourself to a weekend of naughty pleasures - find some quiet tarmac and go burn some panic-bought gasoline! Bless you my son... 
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HoHoHo
8,323 posts
119 months
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Astronut said: HoHoHo said: Astronut said: HoHoHo said: Astronut said: It has been decided (and this is absolutely true) that, in the event of contact being made with another civilisation, the word 'alien' MUST NOT be used as it is offensive, implying that they are being categorised as a life-form that is living in the wrong environment. They must be referred to as EBE's - Exo-Biological Entities...
Brussels can even wind its red feckin' tape around the necks of people from other stellar systems! So what exactly is going to happen when the EBE's land and call us aliens? Whilst the chap from Brussels is explaining we are human soft tissue nice kind people who care about other EBE's feelings he's going to be zapped with a million and seventy three and a half of exo-EBE fast killing spud ray and the EBE is going to smile and move onto the next prat, saying I really don't give a s t take me to your leader Bring it on I say Ooooh! So much anger! Long week at work Then treat yourself to a weekend of naughty pleasures - find some quiet tarmac and go burn some panic-bought gasoline! Bless you my son... I am. Goodwood at 7:30am, noise test at 8am and then a full tank used in 6, 5 lap sessions.......... And then relax......tomorrow night
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annodomini2
4,768 posts
120 months
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BarnatosGhost said: But life on earth is around 2 bn years old. The planet itself is around 5 bn years old. So once conditions allowed, life 'occurred'. Hard evidence of life (Fossils) to 3.5 Billion years old, but speculative evidence of up to 4 billion years old.
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annodomini2
4,768 posts
120 months
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Life will exist in other environments other than those that exist from the typical human's perspective.
It does here on Earth.
3 of my favorites:
1. High Radiation environment, most life search proposals list this as a non-life condition, we have bacteria that live inside nuclear reactors.
2. Certain chemicals required, most life search proposals specify a list of chemicals as life conditions, there are a wide variety of species on earth that don't use the entirety of these typical lists.
3. Water, currently thought to be critical in the formation of amino acids into proteins, but there is life on earth that does not require water, whether or not this is an evolutionary thing, who knows?
I personally believe that life will be much more varied and weird than we can currently imagine. It will exist and take hold where it's possible and probably where we currently think it's entirely impossible.
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BarnatosGhost
6,388 posts
122 months
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annodomini2 said: BarnatosGhost said: But life on earth is around 2 bn years old. The planet itself is around 5 bn years old. So once conditions allowed, life 'occurred'. Hard evidence of life (Fossils) to 3.5 Billion years old, but speculative evidence of up to 4 billion years old. I stand corrected.
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Eric Mc
67,253 posts
134 months
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And the age of the earth is 4.5 billion years, not 5 billion years.
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Justin Cyder
6,105 posts
18 months
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annodomini2 said: Life will exist in other environments other than those that exist from the typical human's perspective.
It does here on Earth.
3 of my favorites:
1. High Radiation environment, most life search proposals list this as a non-life condition, we have bacteria that live inside nuclear reactors.
2. Certain chemicals required, most life search proposals specify a list of chemicals as life conditions, there are a wide variety of species on earth that don't use the entirety of these typical lists.
3. Water, currently thought to be critical in the formation of amino acids into proteins, but there is life on earth that does not require water, whether or not this is an evolutionary thing, who knows?
I personally believe that life will be much more varied and weird than we can currently imagine. It will exist and take hold where it's possible and probably where we currently think it's entirely impossible. But...and I bow to superior knowledge, these conditions suggest to the best of our knowledge, severe limitations to the development of life I.e. overwhelming factor e.g radiation, anhydrous environment limit progression?
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BarnatosGhost
6,388 posts
122 months
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Eric Mc said: And the age of the earth is 4.5 billion years, not 5 billion years. Gosh, well I stand corrected by you too.
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Simpo Two
54,215 posts
134 months
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Justin Cyder said: annodomini2 said: Life will exist in other environments other than those that exist from the typical human's perspective.
It does here on Earth.
3 of my favorites:
1. High Radiation environment, most life search proposals list this as a non-life condition, we have bacteria that live inside nuclear reactors.
2. Certain chemicals required, most life search proposals specify a list of chemicals as life conditions, there are a wide variety of species on earth that don't use the entirety of these typical lists.
3. Water, currently thought to be critical in the formation of amino acids into proteins, but there is life on earth that does not require water, whether or not this is an evolutionary thing, who knows?
I personally believe that life will be much more varied and weird than we can currently imagine. It will exist and take hold where it's possible and probably where we currently think it's entirely impossible. But...and I bow to superior knowledge, these conditions suggest to the best of our knowledge, severe limitations to the development of life I.e. overwhelming factor e.g radiation, anhydrous environment limit progression? I think the key phrase is 'life as we know it'. A truly alien system - ie beyond our current comprehension - could use radiation as an energy source and ammonia as a solvent instead of water. As Patrick Moore might say 'We simply don't know'. We like to think of aliens as based on carbon (like us) and standing on two legs (like us) for the same reason that religious people like to think their god is in human form. It's comfortable.
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MartG
2,705 posts
73 months
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Claiming there is no other life in the universe is like scooping up some water, looking at the cup and claiming there are no whales in the ocean - Neil Tyson
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PD9
1,580 posts
54 months
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MartG said: Claiming there is no other life in the universe is like scooping up some water, looking at the cup and claiming there are no whales in the ocean - Neil Tyson Exellent quote. Really brings forward the vast perspective of the local galaxies, deep space and the prospect of life in the universe. It's out there, but 'we'll' never find it. Not in the next 1000 years anyway. I suspect we are lamb to the slaughter if contact with a superior species is ever made.
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Blackpuddin
4,785 posts
74 months
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PD9 said: MartG said: Claiming there is no other life in the universe is like scooping up some water, looking at the cup and claiming there are no whales in the ocean - Neil Tyson Exellent quote. Really brings forward the vast perspective of the local galaxies, deep space and the prospect of life in the universe. It's out there, but 'we'll' never find it. Not in the next 1000 years anyway. I suspect we are lamb to the slaughter if contact with a superior species is ever made. Depends whether their version of life includes empathy, aggression etc, all the human emotions we always (oddly) expect to find in alien life. Another of these is curiosity. If we are the only species with curiosity built into our makeup, which is entirely possible, then that would immediately kill off the ludicrous 'if they're that clever, why aren't they here yet?' argument. It's possible that they're not here because they're not interested, 'interest' being yet another human attribute of course. It's the combinations of attributes which determine reality. You may have all the technology to go where the hell you want, but if there's no desire to go anywhere, it won't happen. We've got all the desire to travel, and none of the technology. (I'm not counting moving within the solar system as serious space travel). Until we start allowing for true 'alienness', we're never going to have a properly open view on the possibilities of life types - which are (surely?) literally endless.
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jmorgan
17,011 posts
153 months
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PD9 said:
Exellent quote. Really brings forward the vast perspective of the local galaxies, deep space and the prospect of life in the universe. It's out there, but 'we'll' never find it. Not in the next 1000 years anyway. I suspect we are lamb to the slaughter if contact with a superior species is ever made.
Many scenarios. I prefer that we will find evidence in my life time, maybe in the next 10. Does not have to be contact made.
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Derek Smith
Original Poster
16,034 posts
117 months
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Bedazzled
4,042 posts
90 months
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Blackpuddin said: If we are the only species with curiosity built into our makeup, which is entirely possible... Just about every species on Earth displays curiosity, not just humans. Put a foreign object in a fish tank and see how long it takes before they investigate.
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