Astrobiology finding impacts search ET

[The Magic Pudding]

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/no ... ology.html

MEDIA ADVISORY : M10-167
 
NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery; Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2
 
WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

The news conference will be held at the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E St. SW, in Washington. It will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website at http://www.nasa.gov.

I don't know what this means, but I'm getting my foil hat ready, can't be too careful.

[Will]

We're not ready to meet extraterrestrial civilizations yet. We're barely out of our infancy. We still war, rape, steal, and kill. We're overpopulating and significantly damaging our home. I'd rather wait to meet E.T. when we've got our planetary shit together.  

[Inevitable Droid]

I'd rather wait to meet E.T. when we've got our planetary shit together.  :cool:

[karadan]

Wow, thursday could turn out to be a very good day!. We'll possibly find out that ET exists and the UK will find out if we get to host the 2018 World Cup.

Colour me excited!

[Recusant]

Somehow, I doubt that this is related to Mr. Snyder's "ice meteorite," which has been trumpeted in certain news outlets in the past few days.  But hey, I've been wrong before.

[Will]

But maybe E.T. would help us to do that.  Maybe help from E.T. is the only way we ever would.

If they gave us the answers without us earning them, could we learn to respect those advances, though? I worry that if ET shows up and cures all disease and gives us highly advanced technology, the process of adapting to such rapid development would be painful and possibly dangerous. In other words, we wouldn't have earned the advances ourselves.

Is it better to win the lottery or earn millions of dollars by working hard?

[Inevitable Droid]

I worry that if ET shows up and cures all disease and gives us highly advanced technology, the process of adapting to such rapid development would be painful and possibly dangerous.

Oh!  That's a different topic.  I was responding to this statement of yours: "We still war, rape, steal, and kill. We're overpopulating and significantly damaging our home."

Technology won't solve those problems.  But historical lessons learned from a culture that made it past the danger period, might.

Is it better to win the lottery or earn millions of dollars by working hard?

I personally would rather win the lottery.

[DJAkuma]

We're also not ready to protect ourselves against a potentially hostile alien species, and not just from any technology they could possess that could make our modern military forces useless or blast us from orbit there's disease to take into consideration.

I think we have a very long way to go before we're ready to meet extraterrestrial intelligent life, and they'd most likely not want to meet us anyway. Wouldn't it be just a bit ironic if they did come and told us they weren't here to meet us but wanted to talk to the dolphins since they found them to be the most intelligent species here?

[Inevitable Droid]

I think we have a very long way to go before we're ready to meet extraterrestrial intelligent life -

At what point would you consider us ready?  What are your criteria?  Whatever they are, hopefully humanity is working toward fulfilling them.

- and they'd most likely not want to meet us anyway.

Maybe.  But I bet they'd at least send their robots to interact with us, if not out of curiosity, then out of aggression, or perhaps altruism.  I really do suspect the first extra-terrestrial we encounter will be a robot.  

Wouldn't it be just a bit ironic if they did come and told us they weren't here to meet us but wanted to talk to the dolphins since they found them to be the most intelligent species here?

It certainly would be.  But I don't think dolphins are smarter than us.  Smart in a different way, yes.  But our EQ - encephalization quotient, the ratio of brain to body mass - is higher than that of any other animal.  Here's a graph:



Some people think whales (more so than dolphins) might be smarter than us because of brain mass alone, divorced from the ratio to body mass.  By that logic, elephants likewise would be smarter than us.  In the case of whales, there's always the chance they're exhibiting amazing behaviors underwater where we can't see them.  But the same can't be said for elephants.  Our pachyderm friends can be observed in detail out in the wild via binoculars, patience, and a comfortable chair.  They never do anything that confuses us as to motivation.  If they're smarter than us, they should.

None of that should be taken to imply that I don't admire elephants, whales, or dolphins.  I certainly do.  It is simply the case that we, of beasts, are king.  In our pride of place we would do well to take pride in our performance, or be ashamed of it.  When our dominion evolves into disciplined stewardship, with its goal the good of all life, out of the common sense realization that what is good for all life is good for us, and also out of aesthetic appreciation for the wonders we are fortunate to witness if we deign to do so - on that day, perhaps the starships will descend, and a greeting from across the galaxy will be broadcast on our every radio and television.

[The Magic Pudding]

perhaps the starships will descend, and a greeting from across the galaxy will be broadcast on our every radio and television.

If we became apparent to a million year old civilisation, who know of millions of planets comparable to ours, we may not be very interesting.  But they may be interested, people on earth seem quite obsessive about cataloguing new species.  

So far, there have been observations of 5,000 dragonfly species, 2,000 praying mantis, 20,000 grasshopper, 170,000 butterfly and moth, 120,000 fly, 82,000 true bug, 360,000 beetle, and 110,000 bee, wasp and ant species.

It is possible civilisations are rare enough to be a novelty to the most advanced species.

[SSY]

They never do anything that confuses us as to motivation.  If they're smarter than us, they should.

Maybe that's what they want us to think.

[DJAkuma]

At what point would you consider us ready?  What are your criteria?  Whatever they are, hopefully humanity is working toward fulfilling them.

I'm not sure what specific criteria we'd have to meet to be ready but I think getting rid of war, religion, and poverty are good steps in the right direction. There's a lot of people working toward those goals but it doesn't seem like it's the majority of the population world that have those goals in mind.

Maybe.  But I bet they'd at least send their robots to interact with us, if not out of curiosity, then out of aggression, or perhaps altruism.  I really do suspect the first extra-terrestrial we encounter will be a robot.  

That I don't doubt that in the slightest as we'd most certainly do the same.

It certainly would be.  But I don't think dolphins are smarter than us.  Smart in a different way, yes.  But our EQ - encephalization quotient, the ratio of brain to body mass - is higher than that of any other animal.  Here's a graph:

My apologies, it was kinda meant as a joke.

Some people think whales (more so than dolphins) might be smarter than us because of brain mass alone, divorced from the ratio to body mass.  By that logic, elephants likewise would be smarter than us.  In the case of whales, there's always the chance they're exhibiting amazing behaviors underwater where we can't see them.  But the same can't be said for elephants.  Our pachyderm friends can be observed in detail out in the wild via binoculars, patience, and a comfortable chair.  They never do anything that confuses us as to motivation.  If they're smarter than us, they should.

It's hard to say what an alien species would consider to be intelligent, they could very well decide to study ants more closely because of their ability to work together that surpasses most of the animal kingdom but pass on humans after seeing that while we may appear intelligent on the outside there are those of our species that enjoy watching "Jersey Shore".

None of that should be taken to imply that I don't admire elephants, whales, or dolphins.  I certainly do.  It is simply the case that we, of beasts, are king.  In our pride of place we would do well to take pride in our performance, or be ashamed of it.  When our dominion evolves into disciplined stewardship, with its goal the good of all life, out of the common sense realization that what is good for all life is good for us, and also out of aesthetic appreciation for the wonders we are fortunate to witness if we deign to do so - on that day, perhaps the starships will descend, and a greeting from across the galaxy will be broadcast on our every radio and television.

I agree with everything you said there

What would be really interesting is if advanced aliens decided to wipe us out because we don't worship their version of jesus.