Spaced out! Are we it?
Saturday, 7. June 2008, 09:01:24
This is the answer I sent to a friend of mine who had mentioned his love of studying cosmolgy in an Email. I thought I'd pass it on.....
OK. So Theory M makes the math work, but does that really prove anything?
Newton's math worked too, until they found that one of Jupiter's moons appeared from behind the planet 4 seconds too late. And then there was that troublesome stuff that Pierre and Marie Currie were working on. Hmmm ....
Actually, I hope it is wrong. That is because long distance space travel would be an exercise in futility. What would be the point of freezing yourself, whizzing off at just below the speed of light for a trip a mere 500 light years away, then doing the same in the return to Earth, only to find that the planet is 2 million years older than you are (twins paradox) and nobody has a clue who you are, your ship is a laughable relic from the dim dark past, and you end up in a circus side show as an example of "What we used to be before we mutated into a superior species!" Oops!
So, to use Star Trek terminology, we would have to find out how to "warp" both space and time! And maybe the other 7 dimensions too (if any!) Maybe the Vulcans will help us!
I think they're nuts to send these deep-space probes far far away. We have no idea what's out there! They announce that the probes are searching for microbes in puddles in some far off planet or moon. But what if the probe is found by the Borg, or some species that's so advanced they regard us as microbes? Can they guarantee us that it won't be, or that there an no Borg like folks, etc, out there? That to me is the ultimate stupidity created by a species who truly believes that IT is the only intelligent life form in the whole fucking universe! What a colossal vanity! And there's some question as to whether we really are intelligent! We don't normally act it. (Not speaking of individuals here.)
One day I made a few assumptions based on the fact that there are billions of stars per galaxy, and billions of galaxies. I assumed 4 billion stars/galaxy and 3 billion galaxies. Now, if we assume that the chance of any one planet circling any old sun has a 1 in a quadrillion chance of having intelligent life, there would be 12 million planets with intelligent life! If that's anywhere near accurate, what would be the probability that this species is the most advanced? One in 12 million! Dem's heavy odds! And even if there is a God who created everything, why wouldn't such a God want lots of folks right across the Universe to worship Him? Why just a bunch of losers like us? (speaking of our Glorious Leaders!)
OK. So Theory M makes the math work, but does that really prove anything?
Newton's math worked too, until they found that one of Jupiter's moons appeared from behind the planet 4 seconds too late. And then there was that troublesome stuff that Pierre and Marie Currie were working on. Hmmm ....
Actually, I hope it is wrong. That is because long distance space travel would be an exercise in futility. What would be the point of freezing yourself, whizzing off at just below the speed of light for a trip a mere 500 light years away, then doing the same in the return to Earth, only to find that the planet is 2 million years older than you are (twins paradox) and nobody has a clue who you are, your ship is a laughable relic from the dim dark past, and you end up in a circus side show as an example of "What we used to be before we mutated into a superior species!" Oops!
So, to use Star Trek terminology, we would have to find out how to "warp" both space and time! And maybe the other 7 dimensions too (if any!) Maybe the Vulcans will help us!
I think they're nuts to send these deep-space probes far far away. We have no idea what's out there! They announce that the probes are searching for microbes in puddles in some far off planet or moon. But what if the probe is found by the Borg, or some species that's so advanced they regard us as microbes? Can they guarantee us that it won't be, or that there an no Borg like folks, etc, out there? That to me is the ultimate stupidity created by a species who truly believes that IT is the only intelligent life form in the whole fucking universe! What a colossal vanity! And there's some question as to whether we really are intelligent! We don't normally act it. (Not speaking of individuals here.)
One day I made a few assumptions based on the fact that there are billions of stars per galaxy, and billions of galaxies. I assumed 4 billion stars/galaxy and 3 billion galaxies. Now, if we assume that the chance of any one planet circling any old sun has a 1 in a quadrillion chance of having intelligent life, there would be 12 million planets with intelligent life! If that's anywhere near accurate, what would be the probability that this species is the most advanced? One in 12 million! Dem's heavy odds! And even if there is a God who created everything, why wouldn't such a God want lots of folks right across the Universe to worship Him? Why just a bunch of losers like us? (speaking of our Glorious Leaders!)
