Are we alone?

[Rick336]

From CNN news:

"This is a historical mission. It's not just a science mission," NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler said during a prelaunch news conference.

"It really attacks some very basic human questions that have been part of our genetic code since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked the question: Are we alone?"

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/space/0...rss_topstories


Rick

[Daniel]

But how is anyone out there going to get here? Or us there? Make no sense to me. Vast distances to deal with.....and even at light speed....

[Rick336]

Originally Posted by Daniel

But how is anyone out there going to get here? Or us there? Make no sense to me.

Me neither. But, we're in the early 21st century after all. Who knows what the future will bring?

If somebody during George Washington's day said that someday we'd be able to communicate to anyone anywhere in the United States through a little device we carry around in our pockets....they'd probably say....."How would we do that? It makes no sense."

Rick

[BruceChris]

Stars out there, give or take a factor of 100. This Kepler project will probably show that most of them have planets. Of course, the speed of light will probably prevent us from bumping into any aliens that may be out there.

If all of recorded history is say 14,000 years, and the universe is 14,000,000,000 years old, then our history is about one one-millionth of the age of the universe. So alien life may have evolved to god-like inteligence, or it may be pond scum, depending on whether they're ahead of or behind us.

It ain't gonna be like Star Trek, where they're neck in neck with us.

."How would we do that? It makes no sense."

Warp Drive?

BC

[Zerbie]

Originally Posted by Daniel

But how is anyone out there going to get here? Or us there? Make no sense to me. Vast distances to deal with.....and even at light speed....

Originally Posted by Rick336

Me neither. But, we're in the early 21st century after all. Who knows what the future will bring?

If somebody during George Washington's day said that someday we'd be able to communicate to anyone anywhere in the United States through a little device we carry around in our pockets....they'd probably say....."How would we do that? It makes no sense."

Rick

What about worm holes?

[Rick336]

Originally Posted by Zerbie

What about worm holes?

That's one way we could do it, if we only knew how. Also, with a worm hole, in the future people may be able to travel through time. If somebody in the future invents a worm hold device, they could travel back to 2009 and tell us how they did it.

But have they done that yet? Nooooooo.....of course not! I guess they're just sooooo busy flying around in their space cars and having hot sex with their robots to give us people back here in 2009 a second thought.

Future people are so self-absorbed. Screw 'em.

Rick

[BruceChris]

Future people are so self-absorbed.

Kinda like Sponge Bob?

[u-dog]

Originally Posted by Rick336

That's one way we could do it, if we only knew how. Also, with a worm hole, in the future people may be able to travel through time. If somebody in the future invents a worm hold device, they could travel back to 2009 and tell us how they did it.

But have they done that yet? Nooooooo.....of course not! I guess they're just sooooo busy flying around in their space cars and having hot sex with their robots to give us people back here in 2009 a second thought.

Future people are so self-absorbed. Screw 'em.

Rick

It's the Temporal Prime directive. If they told us... they'd have to kill us ... then if we were their grandfather ... they'd be screwed.

[Daniel]

Originally Posted by Zerbie

What about worm holes?

Thing is, they are a theory at present. And the only ones that are posited to exist are inside neutron stars. You know.....the kind that suck light and matter into them.

Love the thought of it though.

[BrianB]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Thing is, they are a theory at present. And the only ones that are posited to exist are inside neutron stars. You know.....the kind that suck light and matter into them.

Love the thought of it though.

Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne have a wager going about the existence of worm holes. They were both on a NOVA episode about science fiction becoming science fact. Professor Hawking doesn't believe stable wormholes are possible. Dr. Thorne believes that they may exist. I think the stakes of the wager is loser buys the winner dinner.