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Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

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Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#101

Post by crusso »

Fargren wrote: post #92
kzrdude wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember what happened when the europeans travelled around the world? 90% of populations died from new illnesses. They basically saw nothing ill in settling and displacing the remaining population.

Well, alien illness probably won't kill us. Without a common ancestry, it's highly unlikely that anything that uses an alien as a host can live in our bodies.

We don't know that. There are plenty of examples on Earth of cross-species infections. No telling how microbial/fungal agents could directly attack or indirectly impact the delicate balance here on Earth.

Further, any microbe hitching a ride aboard an alien may well find Earth's general environment to be easy to thrive in. Think Kudzu, but at the microbial level. Eventually, the alien microbe and/or the natural Earth microbes will mutate in order to out-survive the other.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#102

Post by robertskmiles »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #82

As a reminder, if a human explorer had seen this, we'd already know much, much more about it. They'd naturally take a few steps over for a closer look as soon as they saw it. Robots are a poor substitute for humans when it comes to planetary exploration.

A human explorer probably wouldn't have seen it though; it's really tiny. The reason this was seen at all is that the high resolution images are being looked over by a large number of people on Earth. NASA themselves didn't even spot it.

(High resolution imagery + many many human eyes) > Human eyes

Never mind that Curiosity has now been operating for 6 months without food, water, or sleep, and is expected to continue doing so for years.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#103

Post by crusso »

gbog wrote: post #40
rsheridan6 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. If aliens exist and are able to travel to our vicinity, we're probably screwed as a species.

What is nice with alien is that we really don't know. So the sentence above tells much more about your pessimism than about aliens.

we really don't know

I think that's the point. When you don't know anything about the motivations of an alien race that can easily wipe out our species, why would you take any chances?

Pretend for a moment that I have a Button. The owner of that Button can push it and eliminate every person on the planet besides the people that owner didn't want to kill (friends, family, city, state, country, whatever)

Would you be an advocate of giving that Button to any random person on Earth?

Any race of aliens capable of interstellar travel probably has that Button. So while (I assume) that you wouldn't be okay with giving that Button to any person on Earth -- you'd be okay with having an alien race that we don't understand even a little bit in possession of such a thing.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#104

Post by crusso »

krapp wrote: post #22
bjoe_lewis wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you just want to see all religions on earth, dead.

Religion will survive. It survived learning the sun didn't revolve around the Earth. It survived learning disease wasn't caused by demons and that Zeus wasn't hurling lightning from Olympus. It survived evolution and the Big Bang. People will say the mysteries of God* were just greater than they realized, and their mythologies will start to seem a bit more like Star Wars. * or what have you

You're correct. Religious belief is an evolved memetic/genetic survival mechanism.

Those parts of the human brain were never about logic and accurate observation of the material world - so they are safe from new facts and logic for now.

Probably at some point (assuming we survie), our own genetic/cybernetic modifications will so increase our intelligence, that religion will fall away completely... but that's beyond the Singularity.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#105

Post by njharman »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #63
rsheridan6 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't. If aliens exist and are able to travel to our vicinity, we're probably screwed as a species.

I love (sarcasm) how a supposedly technologically superior and enlightened species of non-earth intelligent beings would only be out to destroy or punish us, according to science fiction and a lot of people.

> Enlightened

Huge, unfounded assumption.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#106

Post by crusso »

raverbashing wrote: post #84
waterlesscloud wrote: post #82

As a reminder, if a human explorer had seen this, we'd already know much, much more about it. They'd naturally take a few steps over for a closer look as soon as they saw it. Robots are a poor substitute for humans when it comes to planetary exploration.

Well, exactly because humans are not replaceable. Nobody cares that Curiosity is not going back to earth. For an astronaut, that's different Not to mention all the instruments in Curiosity (which not necessarily a manned mission to Mars with the intention of coming back would have)

Well, exactly because humans are not replaceable.

I think we could all agree to send Paris Hilton to Mars.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#107

Post by njharman »

bjoe_lewis wrote: post #12
GuiA wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my dearest wishes is that humanity will find solid evidence for other lifeforms in the universe (whether it is through remains or actual contact). This moment, if/when it happens, will be so mindblowing on so many levels and affect us deeply as a society/species/etc. that I just WANT to see it.

So you just want to see all religions on earth, dead.

Yes, but this (nor anything else) would not do it. Note: religion != belief. Religion is a societal construct used to control, limit, and oppress people.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#108

Post by stcredzero »

crusso wrote: post #98
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love (sarcasm) how a supposedly technologically superior and enlightened species of non-earth intelligent beings would only be out to destroy or punish us, according to science fiction and a lot of people.

enlightened species Name the occurrence in the history of our planet where the much-more advanced/capable species did not displace and diminish the indiginent one. In many cases, the more advanced or aggressive species completely wiped out the existing one. There's a lot more that's extremely unlikely in the Star Trek universe besides just transporter beams and faster-than-light travel. A sufficiently advanced specie…

> Name the occurrence in the history of our planet where the much-more advanced/capable species did not displace and diminish the indiginent one.

Name the occurrences where they did. That word, species, I'm not so sure you know what it means.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#109

Post by pohl »

icelancer wrote: post #72
InclinedPlane wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Devil's advocate: those are of the successful landings, it doesn't include the other Mars "landings" that were unsuccessful or unintentional. Such as Beagle 2, MPL, MCO, Deep Space 2, Mars 2, and Mars 6. Here's a full list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_artificial_objects_on_M... Most of the impact sites of those objects are known except for a few. MCO's impact point is unknown and whether or not Beagle 2 hit…

> Even so, the chances are astronomically low that Curiosity has managed to stumble upon the wreck of another spacecraft. And the most likely alternative is?

If only there were any minerals that were prone to being shiny, we'd have one.

Re: Curiosity images strange metallic-looking object on Mars

#110

Post by svachalek »

stcredzero wrote: post #108
crusso wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

enlightened species Name the occurrence in the history of our planet where the much-more advanced/capable species did not displace and diminish the indiginent one. In many cases, the more advanced or aggressive species completely wiped out the existing one. There's a lot more that's extremely unlikely in the Star Trek universe besides just transporter beams and faster-than-light travel. A sufficiently advanced specie…

> Name the occurrence in the history of our planet where the much-more advanced/capable species did not displace and diminish the indiginent one. Name the occurrences where they did. That word, species, I'm not so sure you know what it means.

You seriously want a list of every species alive today? (Or can I just mention homo neanderthalensis?)
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