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NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

nasa.gov

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Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#61

Post by Kliment »

khafra wrote: post #59
Kliment wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a bullshit argument. If we find life very close to us, it's very likely there is a common origin, and this gives us no information on the Great Filter.

1. If we find life very close to us, that does indeed increase the probability of the panspermia hypothesis. 2. The probability of panspermia will still not be 1, or even approaching 1. That leaves enough room to avoid "bullshit argument" in favor of "questionable argument," which is a caveat Bostrom (and Hanson, in his Great Filter) would happily agree to. 3. Even if single-origin life has seeded multiple planets, i…

I'm not seeing the "widely enough" in this case. Finding life on the one moon in the solar system that could support it, specifically finding life that is organic, would very much suggest single origin. The original Hanson paper sounded almost like it was actively avoiding that possibility. Thus my impulse to state it more strongly than is strictly necessary. Finding life close to us may increase P(panspermic hypothesis), but it increases P(common origin) more, and this ratio diminishes as we find life further and further away.

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#62

Post by noonespecial »

darwinGod wrote: post #54
Vivtek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.

wow, I didnt get how 33 people blindly agree and upvote a one-word answer, offering no perspective at all , to a very valid question on how a successful outcome to SETI would influence an average guy's life!! Surely, this is not a open-and-shut question. Let me dampen some spirits who are gleefully waiting to see breaking news of extra-terrestrial life. Think about the budget and investment into this grand objective.…

There are no doubt higher roi projects currently in the works as well. Perhaps the money devoted to this type of research could be better spent, but then, when I consider how much money human beings waste each year on football, a hearty "yes" seems entirely appropriate. My life will be changed a great deal more by whatever they announce than by who wins the superbowl.

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#63

Post by Vivtek »

darwinGod wrote: post #54
Vivtek wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes.

wow, I didnt get how 33 people blindly agree and upvote a one-word answer, offering no perspective at all , to a very valid question on how a successful outcome to SETI would influence an average guy's life!! Surely, this is not a open-and-shut question. Let me dampen some spirits who are gleefully waiting to see breaking news of extra-terrestrial life. Think about the budget and investment into this grand objective.…

Think of the many other colossal wastes of money. I contemplated more than "yes" but really? "Yes" says enough. The discovery of extraterrestrial life will change my life, and for the better, and who the hell are you to denigrate that? How much money does the world spend on bubble gum? How much money has already been spent tearing Iraq and Afghanistan to smaller pieces this morning? How much money was spent on ad buys on last year's Superbowl?

The world has heaping piles of money. Some minuscule fraction is spent on basic science, and you're all high and mighty about lack of access to drinking water. Give me a break.

You want perspective? It's all around you. If you need it from a one-word answer that succinctly responded to the original question, then I'm afraid you need to look elsewhere.

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#64

Post by darwinGod »

Vivtek wrote: post #63
darwinGod wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow, I didnt get how 33 people blindly agree and upvote a one-word answer, offering no perspective at all , to a very valid question on how a successful outcome to SETI would influence an average guy's life!! Surely, this is not a open-and-shut question. Let me dampen some spirits who are gleefully waiting to see breaking news of extra-terrestrial life. Think about the budget and investment into this grand objective.…

Think of the many other colossal wastes of money. I contemplated more than "yes" but really? "Yes" says enough. The discovery of extraterrestrial life will change my life, and for the better, and who the hell are you to denigrate that? How much money does the world spend on bubble gum? How much money has already been spent tearing Iraq and Afghanistan to smaller pieces this morning? How much money was spent on ad buy…

Hey,I didn't mean to denigrate you, or anything like that. If it sounded that way, I am very sorry.

The examples that you quote citing colossal wastage of expenditure, ring quite true.Exactly my point. But really, wasted expenditure is wasted expenditure,plain and simple- There cant be any justification, more so, citing another wasted expenditure. Analogy- how rational would it sound, if a convicted murder says in trial "But I killed just one guy.Go,look at some war-ravaged place in Africa what people get away with".

Actually,I believe basic science encompasses a lot more than astrobiology-Even the issues I pointed out, would stand to gain a lot,from advances in basic sciences, and perhaps need more investment.

Perhaps you feel that discovery of ET life would changed your life for the good- I would completely agree with you, if it could make us humans healthier,welathier, or otherwise more intelligent. Till then, I would wait and watch :-) and... read the next interesting thread on HN!

Re: NASA to Hold News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

#65

Post by J3L2404 »

PostOnce wrote: post #19
phreeza wrote: post #17

Perhaps a good moment to re-read this: Why I Hope the Search for Extraterrestrial Life Finds Nothing: http://www.nickbostrom.com/extraterrestrial.pdf tl;dr: "Because it means life is not incredibly unlikely (after all, it occurred on two planets in our own solar system); ergo what must instead be incredibly unlikely is the ability for life to progress to the point where it can spread across the galaxy (after all, no…

The other theory being that galaxy-spanning life is incredibly common, it's just that we're too immature/uninteresting to bother coming to visit. How often do you stop and try to communicate with the queen of a particular anthill?

It's even beyond that. Learning to write software it seems that some solutions are too involved to even begin to try to explain, so they might not find us uninteresting, they are just lost in thought.
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