Skip to content
Do you have adblock enabled?
 
If you can read this, either the style sheet didn't load or you have an older browser that doesn't support style sheets. Try clearing your browser cache and refreshing the page.

(Big Think)   Someday soon, we might finally have an answer to the question of "Are we alone?" NASA's Habitable Worlds Observatory should get us there   (bigthink.com) divider line
    More: Cool, Solar System, Exoplanet, Red dwarf, Sun, Science, Optics, Milky Way, Planet  
•       •       •

447 clicks; posted to STEM » on 07 Feb 2023 at 9:48 AM (6 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



41 Comments     (+0 »)
View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest
 
2023-02-07 9:02:06 AM  
I'll get the popcorn for the religious right riots in the streets.
 
2023-02-07 9:30:14 AM  
Oooooh great, another big stink pop-sci wankfest
 
2023-02-07 10:19:13 AM  
As for the Bronze Age fundies' reactions to extraterrestrial life, I think it will depend on whether it's either intelligent life or simple microbes/tiny or primitive plants etc. Fundies don't understand microbes etc anyway so why would they even recognize that alien microbes would even be life. Hell, most still think an invisible sky wizard tells them not to touch their private parts. It would be more fake news to those unable to discern reality versus indoctrination.

Alien intelligent life though? All bets are off, though I think their reaction would be a mass death cult reaction.
 
2023-02-07 10:19:36 AM  
2040 jeez man
 
2023-02-07 10:21:38 AM  
I subscribe to the idea that the unimaginable vastness of the universe almost guarantees some form of extraterrestrial life out there, somewhere.

If our existence was a one-in-a-billion fluke, well, there's likely many more places where that could have happened.
 
2023-02-07 10:25:15 AM  

Metaluna Mutant: Alien intelligent life though? All bets are off, though I think their reaction would be a mass death cult reaction.


Or like dinosaurs being on Noah's ark, they'll find something in the Bible that fits in with them. It'll be hard though, since earth is the center of the universe according to them.

There not being some kind of life elsewhere is about as close to impossible as you can get given how big our own galaxy, let alone the whole universe is. I'm not saying Star Trek aliens, who are human with ridges on their head, although even that's not improbable.
 
2023-02-07 10:26:58 AM  
After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?
 
2023-02-07 10:31:49 AM  

Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?


I'm not sure revolution is the right word. Discovery maybe.
 
2023-02-07 10:44:41 AM  

Stephen_Falken: Oooooh great, another big stink pop-sci wankfest


[X] Voting early
[O] Voting oftem
 
2023-02-07 11:00:09 AM  

Rev.K: I subscribe to the idea that the unimaginable vastness of the universe almost guarantees some form of extraterrestrial life out there, somewhere.

If our existence was a one-in-a-billion fluke, well, there's likely many more places where that could have happened.


I am with you but my reasoning is a little different.

Every time humans have believed we were special in the universe, our status has decreased as our understanding increased.  THere was a time when we believed the earth was the center of the universe.  We learned more and later believed that the Sun was the center of the universe.  We later understood that the sun was really part of a galaxy and human's status was diminished further.  We later learned that the milky way was really just one average galaxy in a universe of hundreds of billions of galaxies.

Just as Earth is not special, intelligent life is not special.
 
2023-02-07 11:00:24 AM  

Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?


It would do nothing. Who gives a flying fark if we suddenly confirm life in another galaxy, because thats like someone with no legs seeing a wheelchair on the top of a cliff. Sure it exists, but its farking useless if there is no way to get to it


Plus, all the smart people already know we are not alone in the universe, because thats a statistical impossibility. Finding it or not has no importance in any way
 
2023-02-07 11:14:47 AM  

Concrete Donkey: Plus, all the smart people already know we are not alone in the universe, because thats a statistical impossibility. Finding it or not has no importance in any way


Finding another civilization would be tremendously important for at least two reasons:
1) It implies that cooperation or communication may be possible and thus an exchange of knowledge and information

2) It would plainly demonstrate that space colonization is a worthwhile use of our resources.
 
2023-02-07 11:45:55 AM  
Unfortunately, we'll never "KNOW" this, until we confirm a positive signal. We'll never be able to prove we're alone.
 
2023-02-07 11:58:39 AM  
"We've been there lotsa times, but we gotta be in stealth-mode.
Earth is still quarantined. "

i.imgur.comView Full Size
 
2023-02-07 12:00:03 PM  

Rev.K: I subscribe to the idea that the unimaginable vastness of the universe almost guarantees some form of extraterrestrial life out there, somewhere.

If our existence was a one-in-a-billion fluke, well, there's likely many more places where that could have happened.


https://esawebb.org/images/potm2301a/

Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-02-07 12:03:04 PM  

BlakCat: Rev.K: I subscribe to the idea that the unimaginable vastness of the universe almost guarantees some form of extraterrestrial life out there, somewhere.

If our existence was a one-in-a-billion fluke, well, there's likely many more places where that could have happened.

https://esawebb.org/images/potm2301a/

[Fark user image 850x573]


Really bakes your noodle if you wonder how many orgasms are happening in this picture.
 
2023-02-07 12:11:49 PM  
Hopefully habitable planet folks, will be weaker than us, and their women eminently hittable.
 
2023-02-07 12:12:21 PM  
Could We Decode Alien Physics?
Youtube rQnNghhPw6o
 
2023-02-07 12:20:16 PM  

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: Concrete Donkey: Plus, all the smart people already know we are not alone in the universe, because thats a statistical impossibility. Finding it or not has no importance in any way

Finding another civilization would be tremendously important for at least two reasons:
1) It implies that cooperation or communication may be possible and thus an exchange of knowledge and information

2) It would plainly demonstrate that space colonization is a worthwhile use of our resources.


Communication with a 100 year + delay for each message. Pretty much useless.
 
2023-02-07 12:25:52 PM  

MindStalker: MusicMakeMyHeadPound: Concrete Donkey: Plus, all the smart people already know we are not alone in the universe, because thats a statistical impossibility. Finding it or not has no importance in any way

Finding another civilization would be tremendously important for at least two reasons:
1) It implies that cooperation or communication may be possible and thus an exchange of knowledge and information

2) It would plainly demonstrate that space colonization is a worthwhile use of our resources.

Communication with a 100 year + delay for each message. Pretty much useless.


Useless to you, yes. Not to humanity.

You guys are so despairing. It's amazing how often "useless" things are used to leverage enormous discoveries and advances.

It really would be a huge discovery.
 
2023-02-07 2:22:46 PM  
I don't think we're the only intelligent life on our planet. We seem to tautologically define "intelligence" as "thinks like humans", which is a narrow view of things. The idea that we'll find life? Inevitable. We're not special. The idea that we'll find life like us? Implausible. Again, we're not special- but with the arrow pointing in a different direction. There's no reason to think that the many contingencies of evolution would result in anything looking like us. We're the product of a random process and a selection function called "evolutionary fitness". Even language is contingent on evolutionary fitness. We could (and should) expect to meet life that is intelligent but without language. You don't need language to build a spaceship- humans need language to build a spaceship because we evolved to use language.
 
2023-02-07 2:31:55 PM  

t3knomanser: We're not special.


Aw. :(
 
2023-02-07 2:35:27 PM  
A cruel irony is if there was a civilization a couple hundred light years away from us that emitted radio signals that are just now reaching us. That civilization is almost assuredly long dead or so significantly different by now that we probably couldn't communicate with their current form. It'd take something like 37M years for that signal to arrive and their scientists at the time might have aimed their signal at Earth based on atmospheric conditions indicating possible life or might have randomly spewed it out in all directions.

Either way, space is huge, and communication with other civilizations is pretty unlikely at our current stage of existence. We'd have to use something like lasers to beam messages, because it's light and would be the fastest medium. If both sides aren't using light to transmit messages, it's going to take thousands of years or longer to communicate, it might already take hundreds of years.
 
2023-02-07 2:39:14 PM  
I keep reading news every day that has me simulteneously excited and horrified to be alive. This is also.
 
2023-02-07 2:49:47 PM  

ohokyeah: A cruel irony is if there was a civilization a couple hundred light years away from us that emitted radio signals that are just now reaching us. That civilization is almost assuredly long dead or so significantly different by now that we probably couldn't communicate with their current form. It'd take something like 37M years for that signal to arrive and their scientists at the time might have aimed their signal at Earth based on atmospheric conditions indicating possible life or might have randomly spewed it out in all directions.

Either way, space is huge, and communication with other civilizations is pretty unlikely at our current stage of existence. We'd have to use something like lasers to beam messages, because it's light and would be the fastest medium. If both sides aren't using light to transmit messages, it's going to take thousands of years or longer to communicate, it might already take hundreds of years.


Uh. Radio waves are light (in that both are electromagnetic radiation) and thus they travel at the speed of light. Don't know if you knew that.
 
2023-02-07 3:04:55 PM  

Concrete Donkey: Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?

It would do nothing. Who gives a flying fark if we suddenly confirm life in another galaxy, because thats like someone with no legs seeing a wheelchair on the top of a cliff. Sure it exists, but its farking useless if there is no way to get to it


Plus, all the smart people already know we are not alone in the universe, because thats a statistical impossibility. Finding it or not has no importance in any way


Please show your math.  I've never heard of the Concrete Donkey Equation.
 
2023-02-07 3:43:54 PM  
Fark deleted a comment about talking alien squirrels?

You used to be cool.
_____________________________

             I. The Burial of the Dead

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
                     Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?

'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
-Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Oed' und leer das Meer.

Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
There I saw one I knew, and stopped him, crying: 'Stetson!
'You who were with me in the ships at Mylae!
'That corpse you planted last year in your garden,
'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?
'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?
'Oh keep the Dog far hence, that's friend to men,
'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again!
'You! hypocrite lecteur!-mon semblable,-mon frère!"
 
2023-02-07 4:53:39 PM  

MusicMakeMyHeadPound: ohokyeah: A cruel irony is if there was a civilization a couple hundred light years away from us that emitted radio signals that are just now reaching us. That civilization is almost assuredly long dead or so significantly different by now that we probably couldn't communicate with their current form. It'd take something like 37M years for that signal to arrive and their scientists at the time might have aimed their signal at Earth based on atmospheric conditions indicating possible life or might have randomly spewed it out in all directions.

Either way, space is huge, and communication with other civilizations is pretty unlikely at our current stage of existence. We'd have to use something like lasers to beam messages, because it's light and would be the fastest medium. If both sides aren't using light to transmit messages, it's going to take thousands of years or longer to communicate, it might already take hundreds of years.

Uh. Radio waves are light (in that both are electromagnetic radiation) and thus they travel at the speed of light. Don't know if you knew that.


Damn it. Confusing it with sound waves. Still would take more than a human lifetime with anything that's a couple hundred light years out.
 
2023-02-07 5:10:18 PM  

ohokyeah: Still would take more than a human lifetime with anything that's a couple hundred light years out.


Quite a bit of this thread has disappeared, but I made mention earlier of how it would be a brand new challenge in communication, but that there's at least some precedent in our history for tackling similar challenges. Talking squirrels were involved for some reason, but I didn't bring that up.

I also mentioned that it's also a problem that remains at least partially undefined until we make the crucial discovery of other intelligent life out there.

It's sad that we'll never see the fruits of this labor in our lifetimes but it doesn't mean it's not worth doing.
 
2023-02-07 5:36:09 PM  

Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?


Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone, although we've kicked off a huge extinction event to make ourselves more lonely.

Xenos would just be making us less alone than people who don't understand statistics would have thought.
 
2023-02-07 5:38:32 PM  

leeksfromchichis: Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?

Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone, although we've kicked off a huge extinction event to make ourselves more lonely.

Xenos would just be making us less alone than people who don't understand statistics would have thought.


Where are they then?
 
2023-02-07 5:40:16 PM  
I have long since given up on pondering this. I'm sure the universe can support other life, but even if we figured out how to make contact, not to mention long term space travel, it won't happen anywhere near my lifetime, unless they come to us. We wouldn't even know what to do or how to act. And then they'd probably just blow us up instead. They should probably just blow us up.
 
2023-02-07 5:46:59 PM  

mcreadyblue: leeksfromchichis: Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?

Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone, although we've kicked off a huge extinction event to make ourselves more lonely.

Xenos would just be making us less alone than people who don't understand statistics would have thought.

Where are they then?


Start on your face. there's an ecosystem of mites right in your eyelashes. Now open your eyes and look around. Should be life in every direction.

As for xenos, there's almost 100% certainty there's other planets like ours, no matter how rare the conditions, because there's simply so many rolls of the dice. But you have to stop thinking like it's a long way to chemist's...
 
2023-02-07 6:23:25 PM  

mcreadyblue: leeksfromchichis: Jack Sabbath: After all, finding out we're not alone in the Universe would quite possibly be the biggest revolution in all of science history.

Possibly?

Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone, although we've kicked off a huge extinction event to make ourselves more lonely.

Xenos would just be making us less alone than people who don't understand statistics would have thought.

Where are they then?


We've only been emitting radio waves for a few decades, we've existed as a species for some 200k years. Our tech in Voyager probes have only barely escaped our solar system.(Only one so far, if I remember right). We've literally been looking less than a cosmic eyeblink. Patience and persistence may pay off there, or maybe we'll spot evidence of a dead civilization or maybe we're the first. Who knows?

Here on Earth we've already potentially  had a hand in the extinction of sentient humanoid species. Where is the intelligent life? We might have already killed some of it off.

If or when we have first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization, assuming we don't blow ourselves up by then, I'd be curious if they have convergent evolution with similar traits with humans and if they have sister species like we once did. They may well be entirely alien.
 
2023-02-07 6:28:16 PM  
ohokyeah:

upload.wikimedia.orgView Full Size


*crosses fingers*
 
2023-02-07 6:45:46 PM  
because thats a statistical impossibility
Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone
Now open your eyes and look around. Should be life in every direction

This thread is jam-packed with the most copium-filled incredulity-equals-fact horseshiat this site's seen since the Guinness bar towels never arrived.
 
2023-02-07 7:07:23 PM  

AdrienVeidt: because thats a statistical impossibility
Pretty sure we already know we aren't alone
Now open your eyes and look around. Should be life in every direction

This thread is jam-packed with the most copium-filled incredulity-equals-fact horseshiat this site's seen since the Guinness bar towels never arrived.


That particular poster is a bent shiat can in every thread I've seen them in.
 
2023-02-07 10:27:12 PM  
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
2023-02-07 10:27:19 PM  
We better hope we never find evidence of an alien civilization.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjtOGPJ0URM
 
2023-02-08 2:45:50 AM  

Marcos P: 2040 jeez man


I'm very much looking forward to the 2055 launch
 
2023-02-08 5:26:58 AM  

leeksfromchichis: ohokyeah:

[upload.wikimedia.org image 220x165]

*crosses fingers*


i.imgflip.comView Full Size
 
Displayed 41 of 41 comments

View Voting Results: Smartest and Funniest

This thread is closed to new comments.

Continue Farking




On Twitter


  1. Links are submitted by members of the Fark community.

  2. When community members submit a link, they also write a custom headline for the story.

  3. Other Farkers comment on the links. This is the number of comments. Click here to read them.

  4. Click here to submit a link.