Subject:
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Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.space
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Jan 2003 23:00:44 GMT
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Viewed:
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924 times
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In lugnet.space, Frank Filz writes:
> Ahh, but that assumes you have the technology. His theory is that you
> will get blasted to oblivion before you get the technology. There's also
> the time factor. You don't have all that blasted much time to react to
> something approaching at relativistic speeds (remember, if it's
> approaching at 90% the speed of light, you only have 10% of the time it
> takes for the object to reach you). Another part of his idea was that
> perhaps SETI isn't such a good idea: "Hey fellas, we're a nascent
> technological civilization, come blast us to oblivion before we learn
> anything dangerous."
True. I always find it unsettling that when I see a documentary on SETI and
there is invariably an interview with some scientist who says something
like, "Surely if there are advanced alien societies, then they will want to
communicate with us or offer us technology," or maybe something like,
"Contact with aliens will lead to great advances in science, medicine, and
food and energy sources."
My reaction to this is: Hello?!? Aren't you guys supposed to be scientists?!
I thought science was based on a logical method of collecting facts to prove
theories. Currently there are no facts on alien societies. Yes, you can
mathematically calculate the likelihood of what-we-consider-life developing
elsewhere in this vast universe. However, with the current evidence
available to us, we have no way of knowing what that alien life might be
like. What the scientific community *should* say is, "Alien societies
*might* provide us with a helping hand, but they *might* also need a helping
hand from us. They *might* be more advanced, or they *might* not be. If
they are, they *might* be friendly, or they *might* treat Earthlings the way
the Europeans treated the Native Americans, or they *might* just want to eat
us. We don't know."
-H.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| (...) I'm strangely reminded of Pierce Brosnan's character in Mars Attacks. (...) Not being that familiar with scientists in general, I can only guess that even the godless need something to believe in. Besides, the warmongers surely have enough (...) (21 years ago, 17-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Some great Space info and dicussion
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| (...) Ahh, but that assumes you have the technology. His theory is that you will get blasted to oblivion before you get the technology. There's also the time factor. You don't have all that blasted much time to react to something approaching at (...) (21 years ago, 16-Jan-03, to lugnet.space)
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