SETI Predicts Alien Life Should Be Discovered In 20 Years

[Gluzzbung]

LOLOLOLOL Fermi's Paradox -_- "solve it"?? Really???? You can't. That's why it's a paradox. Even if we knew where extra terrestrial life was we wouldn't be able to visit it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't able to visit us.

Who's to say that we're not the most advanced lifeforms in the universe? Who's to say that every other sentient species has gotten to a point where they destroy themselves or just naturally die out? Who's to say that it's even possible to visit other planets in a different solar system? Who's to say that we aren't actually the only sentient life in the universe and that we are, in actual fact, unaccountably and irrevocably, alone?

 

[Cowabungaa]

I wonder how this is news, is there any particular reason or new insight that made him say this? Or is it just a random opinion from one scientist? Because that doesn't mean all that much.

The sheer improbability of successful abiogenesis leading to successful reproduction leading to evolutionarily sustaining mutation vastly outweighs the number of opportunities there are.

That too is an assumption, a rather unfounded one considering the sheer vastness of the universe. Whether it'll arise close enough for us to see is another matter, of course.

But it almost nearly looks like you're looking at this from a chance-perspective, which I doubt is correct. Simply because life is chemical, and chemistry isn't as much guided by chance as it is guided by natural laws. If you instigate two chemical reactions with under exactly the same circumstances you get the same result.

As for the actual proces of abiogenesis, we simply haven't cracked that yet and no one's covering that up. But that fact does make speculating about life originating on other planets more difficult, making this scientist's statement rather unfounded. He's not even a bio-chemist or anything.

 

[Pyrian]

I'll be a lot more confident about the prediction that methane signals life if they find some life on Titan.

 

[lacktheknack]

As for the actual proces of abiogenesis, we simply haven't cracked that yet and no one's covering that up. But that fact does make speculating about life originating on other planets more difficult, making this scientist's statement rather unfounded. He's not even a bio-chemist or anything.

"No one's covering that up"

Some people are on this site.

Hell, one of my favorite WTF posts was a guy telling me that, because we exist, the process of abiogenesis didn't matter. If that's not the ultimate grab at straws, I don't know what is.

As for chemical reactions in the same circumstances: "The same circumstances" is key here.

 

[Cowabungaa]

As for the actual proces of abiogenesis, we simply haven't cracked that yet and no one's covering that up. But that fact does make speculating about life originating on other planets more difficult, making this scientist's statement rather unfounded. He's not even a bio-chemist or anything.

"No one's covering that up"

Some people are on this site.

Hell, one of my favorite WTF posts was a guy telling me that, because we exist, the process of abiogenesis didn't matter. If that's not the ultimate grab at straws, I don't know what is.

I don't think they really count for all that much in scientific circles.

As for chemical reactions in the same circumstances: "The same circumstances" is key here.

Assuming they are uncommon. And that's just for Earth-analogous life. The same circumstances produce the same results, but that doesn't mean that different circumstances can't give rise to something else. You can't look at this sort of thing top down, like how certain anti-evolutionists argue that it's oh-so unlikely that we humans have arisen. Same goes for the rise of life itself, that shit ain't pre-ordained or anything.

But even in those short few decades we've been hunting for planets we've already found quite a few Earth-like planets, not to mention what we're learning about Mars' history. That shit is going remarkably fast. Shit's exciting yo.

 

[FalloutJack]

LOLOLOLOL Fermi's Paradox -_- "solve it"?? Really???? You can't. That's why it's a paradox. Even if we knew where extra terrestrial life was we wouldn't be able to visit it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't able to visit us.

Who's to say that we're not the most advanced lifeforms in the universe? Who's to say that every other sentient species has gotten to a point where they destroy themselves or just naturally die out? Who's to say that it's even possible to visit other planets in a different solar system? Who's to say that we aren't actually the only sentient life in the universe and that we are, in actual fact, unaccountably and irrevocably, alone?

With respect, people who don't try to solve things won't solve things. People who do try may eventually, even if it takes a hundred or a thousand years. You say insoluable because the height of human understanding in regards to everything around us is too limited. Unless everybody in the human race simultaneously stops learning (which would kill us as a species, BTW), the knowledge we have will continue to grow. You can't say can't because you don't actually know, but I can say can because I know that everything we thought was impossible even as little as 20 years ago has changed. I believe your statement is incorrect specifically because we do not understand enough of the universe. The more we learn, the less impossible it seems and even the paradoxes become less so because someone goes "Oh, why didn't I ever see that before?" and solves it.

 

[Fanghawk]

Oh. Sorry, mate. I should've realised this was the case; heck, I didn't even look for the Shostak quote in the original article.

That was rude of me. Mea culpa.

No worries! At least it drew my attention to the real problem.