What would the discovery of extraterrestial life mean to you?

ordinaryguy · #1 Jul 20, 2008, 09:39 AM

Personally, I'd be delighted. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner we get over thinking we're so damn special, the better. What do you think?

Search for Alien Life Gains New Impetus

Quote:

When Paul Butler began hunting for planets beyond our solar system, few people took him seriously, and some, he says, questioned his credentials as a scientist.

That was a decade ago, before Butler helped find some of the first extra-solar planets, and before he and his team identified about half of the 300 discovered since.

Biogeologist Lisa M. Pratt of Indiana University had a similar experience with her early research on "extremophiles," bizarre microbes found in very harsh Earth environments. She and colleagues explored the depths of South African gold mines and, to their great surprise, found bacteria sustained only by the radioactive decay of nearby rocks.

"Until several years ago, absolutely nobody thought this kind of life was possible -- it hadn't even made it into science fiction," she said. "Now it's quite possible to imagine a microbe like that living deep beneath the surface of Mars."

The experiences of these two researchers reflect the scientific explosion taking place in astrobiology, the multi-disciplined search for extreme forms of life on Earth and for possibly similar, or more advanced, life elsewhere in the solar system and in distant galaxies.

The confidence that alien life will ultimately be found is strong enough to have kindled formal discussions among scientists, philosophers, theologians and others about the implications that such a find would have for humanity's view of itself, and how to prepare the public for the news, should it come.

N0help4u · Jul 20, 2008, 11:09 AM

I believe there is something to the UFO stuff.
Some people claim it is demonic vs angelic beings
Others believe it is us evolved to them in the future and they are coming back to save us from destroying ourselves so we can evolve into them one day.
I think the Louis Farrakan and Shirley McClaine stuff is way overboard though.

WVHiflyer · Jul 25, 2008, 12:15 AM

ordinaryguy - I agree about the human hubris. I also find it impossible to believe we're alone, tho I have no illusions that other intel life will look anything like us.

There's a new Seti project I saw on last night's NovaNOW. They're setting up hundreds of radio telescopes that will eventually have the equiv of one > couple hundred of feet across (or was it miles?). (I didn't read the whole Post article, so sorry if this is old news).

In case you didn't know, you can help. Seti@Home uses volunteer computers to help them crunch the data. Check it out (I'm gonna sign up as soon as I get a better 'puter):

SETI@home



At Ask Me Help Desk you can ask questions in any topic and have them answered for free by our experts. To ask questions or participate in answering them you must register for a free account. By registering you will be able to: Get free answers from experts in any of our 300+ topics. Accept money for answers that you provide. Communicate privately with other members (PM). See fewer ads. Sign Up!