gwydion56: I, for one, prefer to believe that the beautiful blue-skinned cat women are lusting for me.

I prefer to think that every alien planet is like a Frank Frazetta painting.

Cantilevered naked chicks riding polar bears? Sure!

"Blue rabbits f--king, WOO, WOO..."

It's just mind blowing we can even have this conversation.

FTFA: But there are major bottlenecks between bacteria and interesting, complex life like fungus, plants and science journalists.

He's not shy this one, is he?

Do they have Jesus?

error 303: It's just mind blowing we can even have this conversation.

We are the most recent form of hydrogen that has learned to name itself.

Assuming there is intelligent life on other planets, it's not unreasonable to assume that some of them want to fark us just as badly as some of us want to fark them.

BalugaJoe: Do they have Jesus?

BalugaJoe: Do they have Jesus?

No, he's a different sort of alien.

BalugaJoe: Do they have Jesus?

Stupid scientists! They ruin everything with their "facts".

Jackpot777: FTFA: But there are major bottlenecks between bacteria and interesting, complex life like fungus, plants and science journalists.

He's not shy this one, is he?

Notice he didn't say intelligent life.

"The eukaryotic cell only evolved once because the union of two prokaryotes, in which one gains entry to the other, is truly a rare event, a genuinely fateful encounter." Lane even goes so far as to say that it was so unlikely that it may not have happened anywhere else in the universe

{looks at the vastness of the universe}

You...you mean we could be all alone here in the cold and dark?

{shivers}

Hold me!

Few movies had gone so far out of their way as to make the audience want to cheer for the "bad guys".

Well, there go my plans for the weekend.

stevetherobot: Stupid scientists editors! They ruin everything with their "facts" "opinion columns".

FTFY

stevetherobot: {looks at the vastness of the universe}

You...you mean we could be all alone here in the cold and dark?

I don't buy it. The first rule: being unusual is, by definition, unusual. So you probably aren't. Given our extremely small set of data points (three planets within the predicted habitable zone of a single star), I'm incredulous that we can even begin to suggest that terrestrial life is in any way unique.

oh well - back to the humane society

Let's just assume that anything that squats, crawls or slithers on Kepler-22b wants to kill us and eat our eyes for Jujubees. We are Earthbound mammals with immune systems designed to repel invaders from Earthbound organisms. Either we'll spread our contaminating filth to other worlds or they'll send theirs to us. Either way, we lose.

th0th: Let's just assume that anything that squats, crawls or slithers on Kepler-22b wants to kill us and eat our eyes for Jujubees. We are Earthbound mammals with immune systems designed to repel invaders from Earthbound organisms. Either we'll spread our contaminating filth to other worlds or they'll send theirs to us. Either way, we lose.

except that the reverse is true as well. They have no defense against our earthbound agents. We might wipe them out visiting them or accidently off any visitors here.

Um, they did confirm bacteria on Mars right? So there are at least two planets, within a single solar system, that have had life at some point in time.

Suggests to me odds are pretty good for life somewhere else (though granted, maybe not on Kepler22b).

/can't wait to see what happens to fundies when the first contact missions start

Peki: Um, they did confirm bacteria on Mars right? So there are at least two planets, within a single solar system, that have had life at some point in time.

Suggests to me odds are pretty good for life somewhere else (though granted, maybe not on Kepler22b).

/can't wait to see what happens to fundies when the first contact missions start

No, that's incorrect. Those bacteria were from Earth.

Peki: Um, they did confirm bacteria on Mars right?

No. They've confirmed liquid water, though, and the possibility of bacteria. They've also found strong evidence that terrestrial bacteria will survive there (our probes may have already destroyed Martian life with invasive species).

th0th: Let's just assume that anything that squats, crawls or slithers on Kepler-22b wants to kill us and eat our eyes for Jujubees... Either we'll spread our contaminating filth to other worlds or they'll send theirs to us. Either way, we lose.

Not to worry. If we sent the fastest space vehicle we've ever managed to build over to Kepler-22b, it would take over 10 million years to get there, if my math is right.

Who needs aliens.
I'd be happy enough if I could find some one here that wanted to have sex with me.

Peki: /can't wait to see what happens to fundies when the first contact missions start

Its a certainty that life exists elsewhere among the stars, and a pretty good chance that it might exist in multiple places within our own galaxy.
Whether its advanced life or close enough by that humanity will ever know of it, that's another matter.

At any rate, everyone is so sure of it that even the Pope has hedged his bets in its favor.

So if they do find life, probably nothing much will change with religion.
If its advanced and we can talk to it, there may even be an interesting exchange of theological views (because its a safe bet that they will have their own views on life, the universe, and everything).

/They are ready to accept E.T.
/They just wont accept him if he's gay.

way south: Who needs aliens.
I'd be happy enough if I could find some one here that wanted to have sex with me.

Peki: /can't wait to see what happens to fundies when the first contact missions start

Its a certainty that life exists elsewhere among the stars, and a pretty good chance that it might exist in multiple places within our own galaxy.
Whether its advanced life or close enough by that humanity will ever know of it, that's another matter.

At any rate, everyone is so sure of it that even the Pope has hedged his bets in its favor.

So if they do find life, probably nothing much will change with religion.
If its advanced and we can talk to it, there may even be an interesting exchange of theological views (because its a safe bet that they will have their own views on life, the universe, and everything).

/They are ready to accept E.T.
/They just wont accept him if he's gay.

Considering that the sun isn't going to die anytime soon, and I don't think humanity is going to destroy itself ultimately (though we may get damn close), I'm willing to bet eventually we'll hook up with aliens, but hopefully we'll be a bit beyond all the silly exclusivity by then. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that's what all the 2012 crap is about, and the Pope just got word from governments that it's coming so he can ease the masses into it without having widespread panic that "Omg! We aren't the only sentient beings God created in the universe! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!"

In the meantime, I'll be standing by with popcorn if anyone wants to join me.

What?

WHAT?

It amazes me still that to this day and age where it should be common knowledge that everything and anything can happen in a Universe with multiple possibilities, (which defy and challenge the most basic rules and fundamentals behind human knowledge and understanding), that scientists still claim "this could have only happened once, and it had to happen this way or it isn't possible."

I'm sure if a fish could, it would look outwards from the water it lives in and assume that life couldn't have possibly developed in any other way that doesn't resemble its own form, but the truth is that the concept of reality doesn't stop at the waters edge, except to the fish.

Ignorance is bliss.

Peki: The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that's what all the 2012 crap is about, and the Pope just got word from governments that it's coming so he can ease the masses into it without having widespread panic that "Omg! We aren't the only sentient beings God created in the universe! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!"

>> 2012 crap

>> the Pope

.. you think the Pope is a Mayan, Nazi, time-traveling secret agent, leading a conspiracy to sell out mankind to the aliens? I mean I'd buy tickets to the matinee showing, but really?

evilmrsock: Peki: The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that's what all the 2012 crap is about, and the Pope just got word from governments that it's coming so he can ease the masses into it without having widespread panic that "Omg! We aren't the only sentient beings God created in the universe! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!"

>> 2012 crap

>> the Pope

.. you think the Pope is a Mayan, Nazi, time-traveling secret agent, leading a conspiracy to sell out mankind to the aliens? I mean I'd buy tickets to the matinee showing, but really?

No.

I think it's possible that aliens visited ancient cultures in the past, let them know they were coming back, governments and scientists have figured this out, but are keeping it under wraps (War of the World scared the beejeesus out of them), they know something's on its way and brought the Pope in to prevent mass panic and hysteria. Would YOU want to deal with millions of fundamentalist members of the Abrahamic religions suddenly realizing their entire universe-view is farked? Would not be pretty.

Much more plausible than what you outlined, but far less entertaining.

FA Title: Kepler 22b: probably not home to interesting aliens

Notice in the article the author didn't say a damn thing about Kepler-22b.

Peki: evilmrsock: Peki: The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that's what all the 2012 crap is about, and the Pope just got word from governments that it's coming so he can ease the masses into it without having widespread panic that "Omg! We aren't the only sentient beings God created in the universe! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!"

>> 2012 crap

>> the Pope

.. you think the Pope is a Mayan, Nazi, time-traveling secret agent, leading a conspiracy to sell out mankind to the aliens? I mean I'd buy tickets to the matinee showing, but really?

No.

I think it's possible that aliens visited ancient cultures in the past, let them know they were coming back, governments and scientists have figured this out, but are keeping it under wraps (War of the World scared the beejeesus out of them), they know something's on its way and brought the Pope in to prevent mass panic and hysteria. Would YOU want to deal with millions of fundamentalist members of the Abrahamic religions suddenly realizing their entire universe-view is farked? Would not be pretty.

Much more plausible than what you outlined, but far less entertaining.


If we're imagining things, I'm just going with Men in Black being a documentary.

Wow this reminds me of a friend of mine. We had a discussion and my point was why can't there be say silicone based lifeforms? He went all over about carbon and how it was impossible. Oh nothing is to say that the rules that apply here don't apply somewhere else. But who is to say that they do? I think its assinine to be closed minded and think that therories are the truth. Right now we think we know what we know and that it is the truth. But time and again we have added something to the knowledge that questions how things work.

/ Looking forward to our new alien overlords.

attention span of a retarded fruit fly: why can't there be say silicone based lifeforms?

They not only exist, but they subsist on 1 dollar bills.

Peki: evilmrsock: Peki: The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if that's what all the 2012 crap is about, and the Pope just got word from governments that it's coming so he can ease the masses into it without having widespread panic that "Omg! We aren't the only sentient beings God created in the universe! WHAT DOES IT MEAN???!!"

>> 2012 crap

>> the Pope

.. you think the Pope is a Mayan, Nazi, time-traveling secret agent, leading a conspiracy to sell out mankind to the aliens? I mean I'd buy tickets to the matinee showing, but really?

No.

I think it's possible that aliens visited ancient cultures in the past, let them know they were coming back, governments and scientists have figured this out, but are keeping it under wraps (War of the World scared the beejeesus out of them), they know something's on its way and brought the Pope in to prevent mass panic and hysteria. Would YOU want to deal with millions of fundamentalist members of the Abrahamic religions suddenly realizing their entire universe-view is farked? Would not be pretty.

Much more plausible than what you outlined, but far less entertaining.

Hahaha. So aliens visited the Mayans and influenced their religion so that when they came back, members of another religion - which the aliens could also have influenced, but didn't bother visiting - would have a leader that would, you know, let them down gentle. Too bad for the Mayans that the aliens didn't give them a heads-up about the Spanish.

Make up some more stuff, it's funny.

DarnoKonrad: attention span of a retarded fruit fly: why can't there be say silicone based lifeforms?

They not only exist, but they subsist on 1 dollar bills.

I don't usually jump on people for spelling mistakes and typos, but if you're going to do it, that's the way.

+1, would chuckle again.

Peki: I think it's possible that aliens visited ancient cultures in the past

It's possible, but completely improbable. Further, it is completely unsubstantiated. There's no evidence that it happened, there's no reason to think it happened, there's no reason to act as it if might have happened. It's a silly story, but hardly credible.

attention span of a retarded fruit fly: . Oh nothing is to say that the rules that apply here don't apply somewhere else

Actually, it's generally held as true that the laws of physics are the same everywhere. Since stars billions of light years away (in time and space) behave just like stars nearby, we have a pretty good idea that this is almost certainly true. So no- the rules that apply here apply everywhere else.

The fact that silicon's binding energies make it unsuitable for long chain molecules is not because of the rules that apply here- but the rules that apply everywhere. Now, whether long chain molecules are a prerequisite for life is up for debate. But even if that were true, what we find wouldn't be "silicon based life" in the same sense that we're "carbon based life", even if silicon played a vital role in their life-cycle.

IrateShadow: Assuming there is intelligent life on other planets, it's not unreasonable to assume that some of them want to fark us just as badly as some of us want to fark them.

Indeed. The central question should not be, "Is life on other planets intelligent?" Rather, it should be, "Is life on other planets horny?" Remember why we're out there, people.

Wouldn't it be so awesome to see pictures of this.

styckx: What good is any of this if we still crawl around space like a snail.. Shouldn't we be dumping money in how to actually move faster in space before finding cool shiat to visit?

I conjecture we're never going to leave this planet, and our species will go extinct on Earth. But all's not lost. We're probably less than 100 years away from the technological singularity. At which point we can skip the chemical rockets and frail bodies and just beam our consciousness at the speed of light wherever we want to go.

I bet it's that Mormon heaven planet and it's full of tasty, easily domesticated and farmed Mormons.

DarnoKonrad: I conjecture we're never going to leave this planet, and our species will go extinct on Earth. But all's not lost. We're probably less than 100 years away from the technological singularity. At which point we can skip the chemical rockets and frail bodies and just beam our consciousness at the speed of light wherever we want to go

"I conjecture we're never leaving, except for this perfectly feasible method of leaving that I outline."

Mind you, I don't buy the technological singularity, but you did contradict yourself.

Makes me happy and a little sad that my girlfriend and I have an agreement that if we ever do encounter life of any kind external to Earth, I get to have sex with it if that is in any way, shape or form possible. No restrictions.

/But I'm hoping for Tali'Zorah please