An extrasolar world covered in water?

Post by bumby » Thu, Sep 01, 2022, 5:50 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #57

hypertele-Xii wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know you're awake because reality has continuity and makes sense. Conversely, dreams are fragmented and implausible. You can train yourself to check this to lucid dream (become aware that you are dreaming).

Yes you can sometimes do that (I've lucid dreamed quite a few times before and it's pretty wild), but it's nowhere near 100% reliable. you can get pretty good with practice, but even then it's not a scientific test. It's more of a process of reasoning and gut checking. The human mind can fill in an incredible amount of detail when needed. In one lucid dream I was playing a song on the guitar that I had (as far as I k…

Post by xwdv » Thu, Sep 01, 2022, 5:58 PM UTC

anthropodie wrote: post #70

hey_bear wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"merely a planet", it's sad that the thing that gives everything life and beauty and wonder can be so easily dismissed nowadays...

Only planet with Life. I sometimes wish people ponder on that for some time. Maybe they will have a new found respect for this planet like I did. Took me a while but when I fully grasped the concept of Life few years back and read and saw all the life less rocks in our solar system it changed the way I look at things. Still amazes me when I think about it.

Post by bil7 » Thu, Sep 01, 2022, 6:11 PM UTC

bumby wrote: post #72

freedomben wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you can sometimes do that (I've lucid dreamed quite a few times before and it's pretty wild), but it's nowhere near 100% reliable. you can get pretty good with practice, but even then it's not a scientific test. It's more of a process of reasoning and gut checking. The human mind can fill in an incredible amount of detail when needed. In one lucid dream I was playing a song on the guitar that I had (as far as I k…

> it's not a scientific test. Isn't every subjective experience, almost by definition, unable to be tested scientifically? We can objectively measure someone's brain activity during sleep, but we can't really measure their subjective experience. Implying that everything made up of subjective experience (like consciousness) can't be measured. Which also implies it can't be proven by scientific means. So in response to…

Post by pleb_nz » Thu, Sep 01, 2022, 6:19 PM UTC

Post by jra_samba » Thu, Sep 01, 2022, 6:35 PM UTC

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #71

scohesc wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be so interesting - could be many a sci-fi stories created on that premise. Some mechanical robot/starship storing frozen embryos for 100 years to be released on a far-away exoplanet, the starship taking care of them while they grow up and learn how to live on this new world - the beginnings of a new civilization - a technological adam and eve of sorts.

I feel like the reverse situation kinda writes itself as a sci-fi horror short story: You've got people living their every day lives, when a probe from space lands and starts producing aliens. At first it's treated as a strange curiosity, but with time the aliens begin to make inroads conquering the planet. Ending twist: the aliens are humans, and the "people" were aliens!