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ha ha dibs,
At least if aliens land in Park Slope they’ll be able to get a good cup of coffee and advice on the best baby strollers.
arkady,
My first thought was also that the sceintist must be visualizing some old earth bacteria, but he assures everyone that his technique was sterile and that the samples observed were inside the old meteroite.
lechacal,
The problem of exceeding light speed is a formidable one, but for an interdimensional intelligence it might just be a matter of slipping through a dimensional membrane.
(wait, why do space discussions always sound like a letter to Penthouse?)
Our best guess is that life has existed on planet Earth for, what, a couple billion years ago? And hue-mons for a tiny little blip of that? And hue-mons capable of sending ordered electromagnetic radiation into deep space for…. 100 years give or take?
And while some species last a long time, all species die out eventually.
So in all likelihood we’re in the middle of some tiny little blip of time when hue-mons are capable of sending and receiving ordered signals.
Assume that on other planets capable of supporting intelligent life there is similarly some species that exists for a blink of time that can send and receive.
The likelihood that we exist contemporaneously with this other species and can communicate with them is pretty damn small. In all likelihood our message either gets to them when the planet is covered with dumb animals and slime molds and plants and whatnot – either that or after intelligent life evolved and then died out.
It’s like a fruit fly in England that exists for one day trying to communicate with a fruit fly in America that exists for one day. Problem is they are both born at some random point in a 100 year time span. In all likelihood, when one of them sends out a message and listens for the other one, the other one either doesn’t exist or is already dead.
“but it’s unlikely it will ever reach a life form that can read it or even recognize it as meaningful, and even if it does you’ll never know, so what’s the point? ”
Some of us are curious. If “what’s the point?” is the sum total of why you seek something, we may as well give it up. Because exploring the universe takes us out of our insular little mentality and the idea that we are gods of all we survey. Science doesn’t go forward if attaining new knowledge is always a matter of “why bother?”
ha ha dibs,
At least if aliens land in Park Slope they’ll be able to get a good cup of coffee and advice on the best baby strollers.
arkady,
My first thought was also that the sceintist must be visualizing some old earth bacteria, but he assures everyone that his technique was sterile and that the samples observed were inside the old meteroite.
lechacal,
The problem of exceeding light speed is a formidable one, but for an interdimensional intelligence it might just be a matter of slipping through a dimensional membrane.
(wait, why do space discussions always sound like a letter to Penthouse?)
JB, are you sure your dad didnt turn it off by accident?
Our best guess is that life has existed on planet Earth for, what, a couple billion years ago? And hue-mons for a tiny little blip of that? And hue-mons capable of sending ordered electromagnetic radiation into deep space for…. 100 years give or take?
And while some species last a long time, all species die out eventually.
So in all likelihood we’re in the middle of some tiny little blip of time when hue-mons are capable of sending and receiving ordered signals.
Assume that on other planets capable of supporting intelligent life there is similarly some species that exists for a blink of time that can send and receive.
The likelihood that we exist contemporaneously with this other species and can communicate with them is pretty damn small. In all likelihood our message either gets to them when the planet is covered with dumb animals and slime molds and plants and whatnot – either that or after intelligent life evolved and then died out.
It’s like a fruit fly in England that exists for one day trying to communicate with a fruit fly in America that exists for one day. Problem is they are both born at some random point in a 100 year time span. In all likelihood, when one of them sends out a message and listens for the other one, the other one either doesn’t exist or is already dead.
Besides, lech, the space program gave us teflon.
“but it’s unlikely it will ever reach a life form that can read it or even recognize it as meaningful, and even if it does you’ll never know, so what’s the point? ”
Some of us are curious. If “what’s the point?” is the sum total of why you seek something, we may as well give it up. Because exploring the universe takes us out of our insular little mentality and the idea that we are gods of all we survey. Science doesn’t go forward if attaining new knowledge is always a matter of “why bother?”
I’m still wondering about the astronomists.
“terrestrial contamination.”
Park Slope residents?
Legion – those microbes were terrestrial contamination.
My brain is full of dirty thoughts and is in awe of Charlie Sheen