Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life

Post by XJOKOLAT » Sat, Feb 27, 2016, 7:45 PM UTC

13thLetter wrote: post #19

stcredzero wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But most likely, economic forces will start to dominate our actions in space, as they have always done on Earth. Perhaps most advanced intelligence comes in the form of distributed hive minds, and something like a "civilization" is regarded by most sentients as something akin to a pack of wolves or an uncontrolled mob? Maybe we're the ultimate ethical dilemma: All of the bad qualities of a cancer, but you can't eth…

How could aliens have the ability to destroy us if they didn't have their own technological civilization? Manufacturing spacecraft capable of traveling between the stars in any reasonable amount of time, if possible at all, would be an immense industrial undertaking, the pinnacle of not just scientific knowledge but societal complexity in order to coordinate the resources involved. Any alien race capable of doing the…

Post by 13thLetter » Sat, Feb 27, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

XJOKOLAT wrote: post #21

13thLetter wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How could aliens have the ability to destroy us if they didn't have their own technological civilization? Manufacturing spacecraft capable of traveling between the stars in any reasonable amount of time, if possible at all, would be an immense industrial undertaking, the pinnacle of not just scientific knowledge but societal complexity in order to coordinate the resources involved. Any alien race capable of doing the…

Not necessarily.

Post by maaku » Sat, Feb 27, 2016, 8:08 PM UTC

arthurcolle wrote: post #10

stcredzero wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I recall, she keeps on going on about the beauty of the empty landscape, and the possibility of martian life is mentioned less often.

Kim Stanley Robinson is a male author.

Post by EGreg » Sat, Feb 27, 2016, 8:48 PM UTC

semi-extrinsic wrote: post #4

stcredzero wrote: post #2

Sci-fi scenario: We find evidence of microbial life from billions of years ago, when Mars was briefly a warm, wet place. Decades hence, a researcher realizes that Mars still has microbial life, but that it has evolved as its environment has, so it's as arid and rarefied as its present atmosphere, wispy and almost not there. Sadly, she realizes that human activity has already doomed it to extinction.

A variant on this features prominently (through one of the main characters/factions) in Kim Stanley Robinson's excellent Red Mars trilogy.

Post by tentonbricks » Sat, Feb 27, 2016, 8:59 PM UTC

nsajko wrote: post #22

For those without intuition on Fahrenheit degrees; (-13,113)°F = (-25,45)°C.