Originally Posted by
ddbtoth
To think there is no other life in the galaxy is absurd. Crossing the galaxy is the issue.
Even with heavy modifications to the Drake equation, I still think life happens every place it can be supported and even with our new understanding of all the many, many, many requirements for that (Rare Earth by Ward and Brownlee) mathematically that should still be a LOT of places even with the understanding that planets that can support life can't do it in the beginning and won't be capable of doing it past a middle age point. But we are still talking about a LOT of places it should and probably does happen.
Intelligent life is a completely different discussion. First it's not a biological determination. If the dinosaurs were never wiped out, it probably would have never happened here as mammals seem to be one of the few species with all the factors to develop any form of sentience. But if it can happen here, we have to allow for the possibility that it can happen elsewhere even if the environmental / evolutionary factors are completely different. We haven't seen life on another planet so it's all just human based assumption and we won't even have a realistic starting point for understanding until we actually see it.
That's the first big problem with the idea that aliens have come here, aliens have made contact with our government, there is an alien conspiracy and we reverse engineer their technology. The second big problem is in terms of life on the earth...WE just got here. If there was a representative species for the earth, it was the dinosaurs. They were here for 165 million years so if any travelers checked on the earth, then came back a few million years later, then checked again 50 million years later...they were seeing dinosaurs.
The idea that our atomic / nuclear weapon tests somehow pinged the radar of planets in the nearest solar system and / or presented some kind of galactic threat is so scientifically absurd I honestly can't have that discussion. Anything capable of getting from there to here has long since passed nuclear technology on their capability list it's like suggesting kids throwing rocks in Australia present a viable concern for those who live in the US. But honestly kids throwing rocks in Australia would be a more credible threat to people living in the US than the nuclear capacity of earth does risk wise to anyone in the local group. But it's a very, very human centric idea and that is why so many idiots subscribe to it.
But aliens are pretty much religion. They are sci fi jesus and help people accept their existence because there is "something bigger" out there. And the idea that "something bigger" would take the time, trouble and effort to come here and study us is pretty much the sci fi version of jesus dying for our sins, I mean if that doesn't prove how "special" we are...nothing does.
It's hard to be a ACLU hating, philosophically Libertarian, socially liberal, fiscally conservative, scientifically grounded, agnostic, porn admiring gun owner who believes in self determination.
Chuck, we miss ya man.
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