I saw some ted talk with some astronomer guy or whatever he was talking about how they could get a spectrometer(not sure if that is correct term) reading on light passing through a planets atmosphere and tell what gasses make it up, they could also tell if there was man made stuff in the atmosphere, pretty neat...

"London: Alien life beyond our solar system could be discovered within the next 40 years, a top astronomer from the United Kingdom has said."

"Also from London: Alien life beyond our solar system probably won't be discovered within the next 40 years, another top astronomer from the United Kingdom has giggled."

My prolepsis indicates that the Great Intervention will occur in a little over a year.

Fark Rye For Many Whores: [www.alicia-logic.com image 300x345]

Have you ever been mistaken by a man?.

I ain't no alien, man! I was born in East L.A.

So, if evidence of life is found on Mars by the Curiosity rover in the next few months, would that count?

"Alien life beyond our solar system could be discovered within the next 40 years"

Also, this just in from the Douchebag Insurance Holding Co. : "You could save up to 15% or more on car insurance."

These two statements are essentially identical. They both postulate the possibility of a thing, then instantly back off to such vague generalities that you couldn't even use it as a map that leads to this universe.

But at least the second source has funny commercials.

I will my firearm hidden in my rectum for safe keeping

Is that where the aliens land and rip our faces off?

Impossible. The Bible would have mentioned if God created other planets and populated them with other dirt-men and rib-women.

Could be a lot less than 40 years if the stars are right!
/ Ia Dagon! Ia Cthulhu!

Somacandra: [upload.wikimedia.org image 216x264]

Does NOT Approve

Came for this, leaving VERY happy

dready zim: Is that where the aliens land and rip our faces off?





What a 'face-eating alien' may look like. 

<sub>or not

"Face-eating, Jack? Is that a delicacy"?</sub>

Oh jeez. I had to slam my laptop shut. My chimpanzee was reading over my shoulder. If he'd seen that crack about how he can't understand quantum physics, that's all I would have heard for the next six months.

Just now getting past the whole "can't grasp the nature of an ethereal soul" thing.

*shudder*

Well I use Mac/Linux...: Impossible. The Bible would have mentioned if God created other planets and populated them with other dirt-men and rib-women.

There always has to be one in every thread.

KangTheMad: Cool, so we can visit the Ringworld with our Alcubierre ships?

And dine on 3D printed snacks on the way! We should also stop off at Elon Musk's Mars condo.

Hope it's sooner. I'd like to be around for that.

Kibbler: Oh jeez. I had to slam my laptop shut. My chimpanzee was reading over my shoulder. If he'd seen that crack about how he can't understand quantum physics, that's all I would have heard for the next six months.

Just now getting past the whole "can't grasp the nature of an ethereal soul" thing.

*shudder*

Dude ... how did you just type that with your laptop shut?

jayhawk88: Something I was thinking about the other day: The discovery of alien life is going to be the greatest discovery the world has ever witnessed...followed by a whole lot of nothing.

Assuming we find intelligent life not of this solar system (i.e. microbes on Mars or under the Europan ice), it's probably going to be from radio waves. Those radio waves will probably originate from at least 10-20 light years from Earth, possibly a lot, lot further. We could not have another civilization within 100 light years of us and still have the best parts of the Drake Equation hold up for our galaxy.

So any signal we get will be years old, and we'll have to wait an equal number of years x 2 to send and receive a message. Functionally, how is this going to work? You have to figure out how to communicate first, we'll be sending a lot of math and information about elements to gain a common language of some kind. But while each side is sending all this info the other side isn't getting it for 100 years, then they have to evaluate the info they received and send back acknowledgements...but then they're also getting all this other info the other side has been sending for the past 100 years. It might take two or three send/receives to get to the point where we can say even the most basic of messages to each other, and by that point you're talking like half a millennium of time. Is the other side even still alive? Have we reached a point where space travel has rendered our initial messages meaningless? Is each planet "breathlessly" awaiting the next response from the other planet in 100 year intervals? 

Or say we get a signal from even further away: 1000, or even 10,000 light years? Do we even bother to respond to such a signal?

I guess one thing that would happen would be that we'd start paying a lot more attention to everything within 25 light years or so. Might be a bit meh if we observe those in detail for a few years and don't find anything though.

What if they have an evangelical religion of their own?

CygnusDarius: Fark Rye For Many Whores: [www.alicia-logic.com image 300x345]

Have you ever been mistaken by a man?.

No, have you?

jayhawk88: Something I was thinking about the other day: The discovery of alien life is going to be the greatest discovery the world has ever witnessed...followed by a whole lot of nothing.

Assuming we find intelligent life not of this solar system (i.e. microbes on Mars or under the Europan ice), it's probably going to be from radio waves. Those radio waves will probably originate from at least 10-20 light years from Earth, possibly a lot, lot further. We could not have another civilization within 100 light years of us and still have the best parts of the Drake Equation hold up for our galaxy.

So any signal we get will be years old, and we'll have to wait an equal number of years x 2 to send and receive a message. Functionally, how is this going to work? You have to figure out how to communicate first, we'll be sending a lot of math and information about elements to gain a common language of some kind. But while each side is sending all this info the other side isn't getting it for 100 years, then they have to evaluate the info they received and send back acknowledgements...but then they're also getting all this other info the other side has been sending for the past 100 years. It might take two or three send/receives to get to the point where we can say even the most basic of messages to each other, and by that point you're talking like half a millennium of time. Is the other side even still alive? Have we reached a point where space travel has rendered our initial messages meaningless? Is each planet "breathlessly" awaiting the next response from the other planet in 100 year intervals? 

Or say we get a signal from even further away: 1000, or even 10,000 light years? Do we even bother to respond to such a signal?

This has what always depressed me about SETI. It would be a wonderful discovery. But does it really change anything? Not at all. You still have the vastness of space that makes it nearly impossible in many lifetimes to bridge the gap. And even if you did, it's entirely possible that the life we discover, no longer exists. Lots can happen in hundreds of years.

IN the end, even if we aren't alone, we really still are.

Headso

I saw some ted talk with some astronomer guy or whatever he was talking about how they could get a spectrometer(not sure if that is correct term) reading on light passing through a planets atmosphere and tell what gasses make it up, they could also tell if there was man made stuff in the atmosphere, pretty neat...

Maybe you meant "artificial stuff in the atmosphere."

Yes, spectrometer is the correct word, and if you know what the light source (the parent star) looks like before it passes through the atmosphere, then you could compare it to what it looks like after it passes through the atmosphere, and determine what wavelengths were missing (i.e., absorbed by the atmosphere). Then, if you already know what gasses absorb those particular wavelengths, you have a pretty good idea what's in the atmosphere. I don't know how hard that is for an extrasolar planet, since it seems like the planet's absorption is going to be wiped out by the parent star's emissions.

I'm not a chemist, so give me a little room here for speculation. I would imagine that knowing something about geology on Earth and the planets in our solar system, we could formulate a rough idea of what should be present in an atmosphere with life (our kind of life anyway), vs. no life. For instance, free oxygen is fairly reactive, and would combine with most elements in rocks and soil, so wouldn't be expected to be running around loose in large quantities in an atmosphere (on Mars, it's mostly combined with the iron in the soil). The fact that Earth has so much is an oddity. But since we know about photosynthesis and its O2 producing capability, we can explain the large presence on Earth by plant life. Then, if we find a lot of it in some planet's atmosphere, it could indicate the presence of photosynthetic activity. Or it could indicate that there's some other non-organic process that we just haven't discovered or thought of. By the same token, if you found compounds in that atmosphere that we think only come from industrial activity, then we might infer intelligent activity (or that there's some chemical process going on that we just haven't discovered or thought of yet).

Fun stuff. I'm not sure about the 40-years business, but if it's out there, we'll find it eventually. If we live long enough.

Jayhawk, consider quantum teleportation and communication becomes a bit more feasible.

Close2TheEdge: jayhawk88: Something I was thinking about the other day: The discovery of alien life is going to be the greatest discovery the world has ever witnessed...followed by a whole lot of nothing.

Assuming we find intelligent life not of this solar system (i.e. microbes on Mars or under the Europan ice), it's probably going to be from radio waves. Those radio waves will probably originate from at least 10-20 light years from Earth, possibly a lot, lot further. We could not have another civilization within 100 light years of us and still have the best parts of the Drake Equation hold up for our galaxy.

So any signal we get will be years old, and we'll have to wait an equal number of years x 2 to send and receive a message. Functionally, how is this going to work? You have to figure out how to communicate first, we'll be sending a lot of math and information about elements to gain a common language of some kind. But while each side is sending all this info the other side isn't getting it for 100 years, then they have to evaluate the info they received and send back acknowledgements...but then they're also getting all this other info the other side has been sending for the past 100 years. It might take two or three send/receives to get to the point where we can say even the most basic of messages to each other, and by that point you're talking like half a millennium of time. Is the other side even still alive? Have we reached a point where space travel has rendered our initial messages meaningless? Is each planet "breathlessly" awaiting the next response from the other planet in 100 year intervals? 

Or say we get a signal from even further away: 1000, or even 10,000 light years? Do we even bother to respond to such a signal?

This has what always depressed me about SETI. It would be a wonderful discovery. But does it really change anything? Not at all. You still have the vastness of space that makes it nearly impossible in many lifetimes to bridge the gap. And even if ...

Yes and no. It would be profound from a philosophical perspective, at the very least - and if we were able to communicate with a round-trip time of less than a human lifetime, we might be able to hold some semblance of a conversation and learn about our friends.

So yeah, we'll never meet a biological alien species in the flesh - but even knowing that they're out there would at least let us know that we aren't alone. It would alter philosophy, religion, biology, linguistics. It would be amazing.

Close2TheEdge: This has what always depressed me about SETI. It would be a wonderful discovery. But does it really change anything? Not at all. You still have the vastness of space that makes it nearly impossible in many lifetimes to bridge the gap. And even if you did, it's entirely possible that the life we discover, no longer exists. Lots can happen in hundreds of years.

IN the end, even if we aren't alone, we really still are.

Good point... let's hope after the initial "hello" they tell us how to build one of these:



But even if they don't, the discovery would give us a long-term goal of meeting them that may last centuries, a goal that will pull all of humanity together as one people to complete it. So I keep looking.

Pinner: Hope it's sooner. I'd like to be around for that.

The universe is huge. Like, enormous. Our lifespan is like a gnat's.

timujin: Prepared:

[www.blogcdn.com image 530x350]

Came here for this and leaving satisfied.

KangTheMad: Cool, so we can visit the Ringworld with our Alcubierre ships?

Can antimatter can disintegrate a Alcubierre ship hull entirely?

/It is not widely advertised

This series of books gives the perspective of "The Grays"

If only someone would unlock the ninth chevron.

priapic_abandon: What if they have an evangelical religion of their own?

[www.globalspeculations.com image 303x400]

ciberido: KangTheMad: Cool, so we can visit the Ringworld with our Alcubierre ships?

Can antimatter can disintegrate a Alcubierre ship hull entirely?

/It is not widely advertised

Does it void my warranty?

srhp29: I will my firearm hidden in my rectum for safe keeping

You'll do fine in Amsterdam.

basemetal: [4.bp.blogspot.com image 621x435]

What is with that guy's eyes? Am I the only one who thinks he looks stoned in every picture of him?

/or maybe a muppet
//or an alien

MrKevvy: Close2TheEdge: This has what always depressed me about SETI. It would be a wonderful discovery. But does it really change anything? Not at all. You still have the vastness of space that makes it nearly impossible in many lifetimes to bridge the gap. And even if you did, it's entirely possible that the life we discover, no longer exists. Lots can happen in hundreds of years.

IN the end, even if we aren't alone, we really still are.

Good point... let's hope after the initial "hello" they tell us how to build one of these:

[upload.wikimedia.org image 300x164]

But even if they don't, the discovery would give us a long-term goal of meeting them that may last centuries, a goal that will pull all of humanity together as one people to complete it. So I keep looking.

You're quite the prophet- and a wonderful optimist. No one hopes more than I that you're correct. But, somewhat like our canine friends, the human beings have a tendency to immediately stick their noses up the butt of the Alpha Dog. Such a discovery may only mean the end of human history.

ZMugg: dready zim: Is that where the aliens land and rip our faces off?



[moviemusereviews.com image 450x338]

What a 'face-eating alien' may look like. 

or not

"Face-eating, Jack? Is that a delicacy"?

which movie was that?

"The Brookings Report," dealt with alien encounter. But it contained a stern warning. "Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior."

So we're screwed either way if we make contact.

Deep Contact: "The Brookings Report," dealt with alien encounter. But it contained a stern warning. "Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior."

So we're screwed either way if we make contact.

Or those we make contact with are the ones screwed. It just depends on who is more technologically advanced and has the bigger weapons. My question is, outside from the sheer awesomeness of knowing we are not alone in the universe, what do we hope to accomplish by making contact with an alien species? I think the ultimate hope is that we encounter this technologically advanced species that is able to share with us knowledge to elevate our species and make progress towards being "godlike". What happens if we ever actually GET there. What if we become almost immortal. We no longer age, have infinite energy, and cannot die from disease or injury? What if we no longer need to work? What happens to a godlike society that procreates and cannot die and does whatever they want, whenever they want?

the money is in the banana stand: Deep Contact: "The Brookings Report," dealt with alien encounter. But it contained a stern warning. "Anthropological files contain many examples of societies, sure of their place in the universe, which have disintegrated when they had to associate with previously unfamiliar societies espousing different ideas and different life ways; others that survived such an experience usually did so by paying the price of changes in values and attitudes and behavior."

So we're screwed either way if we make contact.

Or those we make contact with are the ones screwed. It just depends on who is more technologically advanced and has the bigger weapons. My question is, outside from the sheer awesomeness of knowing we are not alone in the universe, what do we hope to accomplish by making contact with an alien species? I think the ultimate hope is that we encounter this technologically advanced species that is able to share with us knowledge to elevate our species and make progress towards being "godlike". What happens if we ever actually GET there. What if we become almost immortal. We no longer age, have infinite energy, and cannot die from disease or injury? What if we no longer need to work? What happens to a godlike society that procreates and cannot die and does whatever they want, whenever they want?

Party like it's 2099?

Well I use Mac/Linux...: Impossible. The Bible would have mentioned if God created other planets and populated them with other dirt-men and rib-women.

"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you."
-- Jesus of Nazareth. (John 14:2)

Granted, most of his followers probably thought the aliens he was referring to here were Greeks, but hey, you never know...

eraser8: Headso: I saw some ted talk with some astronomer guy or whatever he was talking about how they could get a spectrometer(not sure if that is correct term) reading on light passing through a planets atmosphere and tell what gasses make it up, they could also tell if there was man made stuff in the atmosphere, pretty neat...

If it's on an alien planet, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess it's not "man" made.

Just because theyre not human doesn't mean they're not people.

jayhawk88: Something I was thinking about the other day: The discovery of alien life is going to be the greatest discovery the world has ever witnessed...followed by a whole lot of nothing.

Assuming we find intelligent life not of this solar system (i.e. microbes on Mars or under the Europan ice), it's probably going to be from radio waves. Those radio waves will probably originate from at least 10-20 light years from Earth, possibly a lot, lot further. We could not have another civilization within 100 light years of us and still have the best parts of the Drake Equation hold up for our galaxy.

So any signal we get will be years old, and we'll have to wait an equal number of years x 2 to send and receive a message. Functionally, how is this going to work? You have to figure out how to communicate first, we'll be sending a lot of math and information about elements to gain a common language of some kind. But while each side is sending all this info the other side isn't getting it for 100 years, then they have to evaluate the info they received and send back acknowledgements...but then they're also getting all this other info the other side has been sending for the past 100 years. It might take two or three send/receives to get to the point where we can say even the most basic of messages to each other, and by that point you're talking like half a millennium of time. Is the other side even still alive? Have we reached a point where space travel has rendered our initial messages meaningless? Is each planet "breathlessly" awaiting the next response from the other planet in 100 year intervals? 

Or say we get a signal from even further away: 1000, or even 10,000 light years? Do we even bother to respond to such a signal?

That's the part that always amused/depressed me also. Tomorrow: we have been contacted by alien life. We know for sure it's out there and we have established contact.. Um, so other than a few riots and some interesting news stories...I still have to goto work and nothing really changes for me at all. Interesting, but meh..... It's amazing how quickly you become jaded as your get older. Just like a subconscious clock... ticking.

priapic_abandon: What if they have an evangelical religion of their own?

[www.globalspeculations.com image 303x400]

srhp29: I will my firearm hidden in my rectum for safe keeping

I will it there too.

What would you do if scientists discover that for every time somebody masturbates on earth, an inter-dimensional viewing portal opens and your masturbatory session is transmitted to every corner of the universe for the alien's viewing pleasure? What if you also found out that you're universally known as the worst masturbator ever?

Personally, I'm much more interested in humans getting out there. My guess is we'll pretty much become machines in a century or two and space travel and colonization will be a snap. Even if we can't do FTL (and I'm betting we can), immortal cyborgs won't care much about traveling for a few centuries or even millenia.

As far as extraterrestrial life? If there is any as intelligent as us we'll have a pretty small window between our level of technology and tech that will be godlike to us. I'm assuming it will be pretty unlikely we'll run into another species anywhere near our level of technology.

"There may be some questions that our brains will never understand, in the same way that chimpanzees couldn't understand quantum theory, that are just beyond human brains," Rees added."

Considering how so much of society seems to fill in the blanks with religion rather than science, that is a very true statement.

priapic_abandon: What if they have an evangelical religion of their own?

[www.globalspeculations.com image 303x400]

The crusades, except with a death star instead of swords. I wish I was just trolling on this one, but search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Alien life to be found within 40 years. "Prepare for face off"

Funny, that's probably exactly what's going to happen.

Quantum Apostrophe: Pinner: Hope it's sooner. I'd like to be around for that.

The universe is huge. Like, enormous. Our lifespan is like a gnat's.

That's true for now. But by the end of this century we should have a pretty good handle on the genetic engineering needed to create extremely long-lived humans.

That's what's funny about science fiction shows set in the future, like Star Trek. They usually feature faster-than-light spaceships, time travel, travel to alternate timelines, etc. But the people are essentially like us--aging pretty much like we do, susceptible to illness, ordinary mental abilities. Which is understandable, since the audience has to be able to identify with them as characters.


But in reality, the human race will probably be practically confined to our solar system for the next few centuries. Travel to exotic alien worlds, time travel, and the like are very unlikely. But humans who don't age and have greatly increased physical and mental abilities is almost a given.

GreenSun

What would you do if scientists discover that for every time somebody masturbates on earth, an inter-dimensional viewing portal opens and your masturbatory session is transmitted to every corner of the universe for the alien's viewing pleasure? What if you also found out that you're universally known as the worst masturbator ever?

So what's going on at your place?

I understand they're trying to get intelligent life to respond.

I hate to burst everyones optimism bubble... but we won't be communicating with aliens via radio waves ever, and they won't ever be able to view our television signals etc. Once you travel beyond our solar system, those signals are A) too weak to ever get anywhere and B) Will be washed out by background radiation from the universe.

Just like the earth creates a big magnetic field which protects us, our sun actually creates a giant field around the whole solar system too. Once you leave our safety bubble, the stray radiation goes way up and farks us, basically.

Alonjar: I hate to burst everyones optimism bubble... but we won't be communicating with aliens via radio waves ever, and they won't ever be able to view our television signals etc. Once you travel beyond our solar system, those signals are A) too weak to ever get anywhere and B) Will be washed out by background radiation from the universe.

Just like the earth creates a big magnetic field which protects us, our sun actually creates a giant field around the whole solar system too. Once you leave our safety bubble, the stray radiation goes way up and farks us, basically.

Thats just a solar system legend.

Mr. Coffee Nerves: They're watching our TV signals, seeing "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" and preparing their preemptive assault fleets accordingly.

Excellent, they'll think they're assaulting a planet full of tards.

They'll only be half right.

Kit Fister: ZMugg: dready zim: Is that where the aliens land and rip our faces off?



[moviemusereviews.com image 450x338]

What a 'face-eating alien' may look like. 

or not

"Face-eating, Jack? Is that a delicacy"?

which movie was that?

Cocoon.

Sorry for the lateness of the reply (had band practice).

I'm surprised nobody else answered you.

Cocoon isn't exactly obscure around here.

<sub>title of movie in url, as well

right-click, and all</sub>

lol

this is why we fail at life.

they have never left this planet.

and yet...people still believe obama and romney.

-enjoy the last days of the age of oil and greed.

it will hi-larious, after disclosure publicly happens...due to all of the nay sayers claiming "i knew they were here...all the time!"

i will not be laughing with them.

TastyEloi: Quantum Apostrophe: Pinner: Hope it's sooner. I'd like to be around for that.

The universe is huge. Like, enormous. Our lifespan is like a gnat's.

That's true for now. But by the end of this century we should have a pretty good handle on the genetic engineering needed to create extremely long-lived humans.

That's what's funny about science fiction shows set in the future, like Star Trek. They usually feature faster-than-light spaceships, time travel, travel to alternate timelines, etc. But the people are essentially like us--aging pretty much like we do, susceptible to illness, ordinary mental abilities. Which is understandable, since the audience has to be able to identify with them as characters.


But in reality, the human race will probably be practically confined to our solar system for the next few centuries. Travel to exotic alien worlds, time travel, and the like are very unlikely. But humans who don't age and have greatly increased physical and mental abilities is almost a given.

That pretty much sums up how I think. I'm fascinated by people who think physics is just a suggestion, but that human life span is a rock solid constant that will never change.

You like life? I like life too. We should hang out.