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.
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Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
41–50 of 84 posts
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#42For those without intuition on Fahrenheit degrees; (-13,113)°F = (-25,45)°C.
The lack of a space after the commas is throwing a lot of people off here. It's a range, not a decimal point.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#43Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#44Sci-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.
Alternative dystopian scenario: we eventually find evidence of (sometimes extinct) life on all planets and moons that had encountered specific chemical conditions for a long enough period of time. We realize en masse (more than we realize now) that life isn't a unique snowflake, but simply a geological process, not that far removed from rocks and volcanoes. The realization causes a broad spiritual/existential crisis…
Well I've mostly reached that conclusion already. Although more from a hedonistic perspective.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#45> “micro-digitate silica protrusions”
Or in Thing Explainer-speak, "little rock fingers that stick out."
Its interesting that it was Spirit that detected this- big new discoveries are still coming up after driving the same robot around on the planet for years! Humanity has just barely scratched the surface (as it were) of understanding Mars.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is a digital numeric approximation of a real number called "floating comma" in those countries? Or "floating full stop" in the UK?
No, it's called a "floating period", like in the US.
I'm in the US and I've never heard that term before. Google seems equally confused.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#47Sci-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.
Alternative dystopian scenario: we eventually find evidence of (sometimes extinct) life on all planets and moons that had encountered specific chemical conditions for a long enough period of time. We realize en masse (more than we realize now) that life isn't a unique snowflake, but simply a geological process, not that far removed from rocks and volcanoes. The realization causes a broad spiritual/existential crisis…
The possibility of panspermia means simply finding that life won't, by itself, mean life is inevitable. It will simply mean it happened at least once in the solar system and might spread easily.
Finding microbial life through the solar system won't really make us any less special. Even if we find evidence suggesting microbial life is common throughout the universe, it does not imply that complex animal life is common or inevitable. I suspect the goalposts will just be shifted. :)
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
You might want to use a dot for those non-Germans over here.
Is a digital numeric approximation of a real number called "floating comma" in those countries? Or "floating full stop" in the UK?
"Floating point numbers" are called "Fließkommazahlen" in German, which is a word-for-word translation of "Floating comma numbers".
So at least for German I would say yes.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#49Sci-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.
Alternative dystopian scenario: we eventually find evidence of (sometimes extinct) life on all planets and moons that had encountered specific chemical conditions for a long enough period of time. We realize en masse (more than we realize now) that life isn't a unique snowflake, but simply a geological process, not that far removed from rocks and volcanoes. The realization causes a broad spiritual/existential crisis…
> spiritual/existential crisis
Only for abrahamic religions. Hinduism/Buddhism and other oriental/ddharmic religions repeatedly downplay our centrality.
Re: Mysterious Martian “Cauliflower” May Be the Latest Hint of Alien Life
#50Sci-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.
Alternative dystopian scenario: we eventually find evidence of (sometimes extinct) life on all planets and moons that had encountered specific chemical conditions for a long enough period of time. We realize en masse (more than we realize now) that life isn't a unique snowflake, but simply a geological process, not that far removed from rocks and volcanoes. The realization causes a broad spiritual/existential crisis…
It's all selection, I think. Systems tend to seek energy minima (at least locally). Physics, chemistry, biology, information, etc. It's turtles, all the way down. And up, too.