I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s • Hacker News Board

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#81

Post by mindcrime » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:09 AM UTC

dleslie wrote: post #24

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's assume for a moment that we did find something resembling simple organic life on Mars and confirmed that earth isn't the only life bearing planet. What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? I'd argue little to nothing. We'd learn a bit more about organic life, but no fundamental philosophical or existential questions would be resolved. Life has been confirmed to be able to thri…

> What functionally changes for our existential understanding of the universe? The anthropic principal becomes less compelling; to say nothing of the religious implications.

Nah... religious people don't depend on reason, logic, evidence, etc. They can (and will) always absorb any new discovery and incorporate it into their belief systems in such a way that it doesn't invalidate anything they already believe.

Some people think Christians would have a hard time with extra-Terran life because the Bible doesn't mention any life other than the life here, and therefore any such life would arguably be free from the weight of Original Sin, yada yada yada. But I'm pretty sure if life on another planet was discovered (even intelligent life) they would just reinterpret the Biblical references that seem to refer to "Earth" as referring to "The Universe" and make "The Garden of Eden" a metaphor, and the flaming sword would become a supernova, blah, etc., yada, blah, blah, blah. At the end of the day, approximately 0.0% of Christians would say "Hmm... the Bible is obviously incomplete and or inaccurate, so maybe the whole thing is a load of bollocks" or whatever. And I expect it would be about the same for every other faith.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#82

Post by TaylorAlexander » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:11 AM UTC

lovemenot wrote: post #56

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presuming SpaceX pull off their plans, there will be trips to and from Mars. We'd better be pretty sure what microbes we're being exposed to or bringing back to Earth before we do. Or we might get a repeat of when the Spanish brought disease to the Inca and Maya. The mere knowledge of life is viable off-Earth is huge. If we find it on our nearest neighbour, the chances of encountering it elsewhere rise markedly. Hope…

>> Or we might get a repeat of when the Spanish brought disease to the Inca and Maya. Unlikely. There's been no animal hosts on Mars, in which such a micro-organism might have evolved to threaten humans on Earth. Not to say we shouldn't be careful for other reasons though. The bigger risk is the sudden extinction of entirely different branches of life, by more highly-evolved Earth-originating species.

I think the other person is saying that Earth bacteria could potentially wipe out Martian bacteria if the conditions are right. And that would be tragic.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#83

Post by untog » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:12 AM UTC

psaux wrote: post #7

I often wonder why these are always auxiliary conversations. Ever since I was young, like most kids (I have 4), I also had this deep yearning for knowledge on life external to earth. Wonder why this never has gone mainstream.

I think that the desire is mainstream, just look at the TV shows and movies that explore the idea of alien life.

But I think the reason it’s not talked about more is that our knowledge is essentially non existent and hasn’t really changed in, say, the last fifty years?

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#84

Post by BEEdwards » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:16 AM UTC

noetic_techy wrote: post #72

amingilani wrote: post #62

> Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results I'm very surprised by that. Especially since, as the article says, "NASA maintains the search for alien life among its highest priorities". I thought that would obviously translate to sending life-detection instruments to B̶a̶r̶s̶o̶o̶m̶ Mars.

This fact often catches people by surprise when I tell them also. The more conspiratorial theory is that JPL prefers not to include life detection equipment because it would mean the end of robotic missions and more of an emphasis to get humans there to do real biology, which is more the domain of Houston Mission Control. Follow the money...

That would be some seriously short term thinking though.

If humans go to mars we will be proceeded by the robots.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#85

Post by nkrisc » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:20 AM UTC

noetic_techy wrote: post #72

amingilani wrote: post #62

> Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results I'm very surprised by that. Especially since, as the article says, "NASA maintains the search for alien life among its highest priorities". I thought that would obviously translate to sending life-detection instruments to B̶a̶r̶s̶o̶o̶m̶ Mars.

This fact often catches people by surprise when I tell them also. The more conspiratorial theory is that JPL prefers not to include life detection equipment because it would mean the end of robotic missions and more of an emphasis to get humans there to do real biology, which is more the domain of Houston Mission Control. Follow the money...

Which seems kinda silly to this layman because there are no shortage of potential robotic missions.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#86

Post by weberc2 » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:22 AM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #85

noetic_techy wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This fact often catches people by surprise when I tell them also. The more conspiratorial theory is that JPL prefers not to include life detection equipment because it would mean the end of robotic missions and more of an emphasis to get humans there to do real biology, which is more the domain of Houston Mission Control. Follow the money...

Which seems kinda silly to this layman because there are no shortage of potential robotic missions.

I don’t support the conspiracy theory, but the shortage isn’t potential robotic missions, it’s money for missions.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#87

Post by imglorp » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:23 AM UTC

ianai wrote: post #77

alister wrote: post #47

What, no mention of ALH84001? I was mesmerized by the live TV press conference by a large group of NASA scientists back in 1996 of evidence of life on Mars from the analysis of a meteorite: "Scientists headed by David McKay of the JohnsonSpaceCenter in Houston found that the rock, called ALH84001, had a peculiar chemical makeup. It contained a combination of minerals and carbon compounds that on Earth are created by…

I fear that the “it’s never aliens” credo was taken to the pathological case. Nothing can be life so why look for it? Nothing can be life, so any really complicated scenario not involving life must be true, always.

In the "swapping spit" scenario, we the aliens and they are us.

If genetic material did travel in either direction, it would be easily verified.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#88

Post by Waterluvian » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:36 AM UTC

noetic_techy wrote: post #72

amingilani wrote: post #62

> Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results I'm very surprised by that. Especially since, as the article says, "NASA maintains the search for alien life among its highest priorities". I thought that would obviously translate to sending life-detection instruments to B̶a̶r̶s̶o̶o̶m̶ Mars.

This fact often catches people by surprise when I tell them also. The more conspiratorial theory is that JPL prefers not to include life detection equipment because it would mean the end of robotic missions and more of an emphasis to get humans there to do real biology, which is more the domain of Houston Mission Control. Follow the money...

I would guess that all ships would rise and spending, public and private, would go up, if they ever got serious about a need to send humans to Mars

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#89

Post by PopePompus » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:51 AM UTC

noetic_techy wrote: post #72

amingilani wrote: post #62

> Inexplicably, over the 43 years since Viking, none of NASA’s subsequent Mars landers has carried a life detection instrument to follow up on these exciting results I'm very surprised by that. Especially since, as the article says, "NASA maintains the search for alien life among its highest priorities". I thought that would obviously translate to sending life-detection instruments to B̶a̶r̶s̶o̶o̶m̶ Mars.

This fact often catches people by surprise when I tell them also. The more conspiratorial theory is that JPL prefers not to include life detection equipment because it would mean the end of robotic missions and more of an emphasis to get humans there to do real biology, which is more the domain of Houston Mission Control. Follow the money...

This argument can be flipped, though. If life were found on Mars, that might lead to a ban on manned Mars missions, because there's absolutely no chance that a manned mission will not contaminate Mars with microbes from Earth. So to protect a Martian ecosystem, we might have to use only robots to explore Mars.

Re: I’m Convinced We Found Evidence of Life on Mars in the 1970s

#90

Post by kdmccormick » Sat, Oct 12, 2019, 3:53 AM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #69

JasonFruit wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, you're really smart! I'm glad you're here to discuss things with us. That being said, for most people who aren't operating on your level, the fundamental existential questions haven't changed much in a few hundred years. "Are we alone in the universe?" is probably among the newest for us.

I'm assuming you're being sarcastic. If so it's unfortunate that just answering honestly warrants such hostility.

To say what I think JasonFruit is trying to say, but with less condescension:

Your questions are valid and really interesting, but that doesn't make the questions of "Do other planets have life?" and "Where did life on Earth originate?" invalid or uninteresting. Personally I'm interested in all of them.