The joke made me titter, but your reply me laugh out loud!
You'd be forgiven for not knowing that Spock (or was it McCoy) once said, "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it", because, like the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty", this was never actually said in any episode of Star Trek. ;-)
On the other hand, do you know how many times McCoy said some variation of "He's dead, Jim"?
A bit like Schrodinger's Cat, I wonder if the entire universe can both be alive and dead (exist and not exist) at the same time? The more we find out the deeper the questions become.
It's remarkable that such a region exists in infinite space. "It's full of stars" indeed. Well, this bit at least. Just to know that much is something. To look closer and see that some stars have worlds orbiting them and some few may even show signs of life! That strangest of all things, but which we know so well. But to then look even closer and see that one little world harbours a little chap who looks exactly like me ...
1. We have been contacted, we just don't know. Maybe the governments know.
2. The whole we "should" have found evidence yet is so limited. There's absolutely no possible reason to back up why we should have found evidence of ET on another planet. Hell, we have only been able to detect planets for a very short time.
1. We have been contacted, we just don't know. Maybe the governments know.
2. The whole we "should" have found evidence yet is so limited. There's absolutely no possible reason to back up why we should have found evidence of ET on another planet. Hell, we have only been able to detect planets for a very short time.
We need more time...
.. and money, but who will set the priorities as population expands and demands on resources grow?
Won't be long before we will hear the echoes of a long gone Civilisation....... our own.
What do you mean by "the same time"? Totally meaningless phrase.
How about this then. Time in the human mind is an illusion. The past, present and future can possibly exist simultaneously, sometimes referred to as "eternalism".
How about this then. Time in the human mind is an illusion. The past, present and future can possibly exist simultaneously, sometimes referred to as "eternalism".
I think it's maybe just semantics. When you say "all of time can exist simultaneously" do you have some other independent timeframe within which this word simultaneous has a meaning? It's possibly true to say that our perception of a flow of time from one instant to the next is an illusion, but in describing it you have to avoid using any form of temporal language, or you end up going round in circles.
And now, back on topic, the results of the Philae lander on Comet 67P are of relevance to this discussion:
One of the most important experiments, Ptolemy (after the ancient astronomer who also pioneered ideas about optics), may have to wait until batteries are almost dead, because it requires Philae to use its drill – which could shift the whole lander from its uncertain position.
Ptolemy is “an evolved gas analyzer”, and could help determine just what’s on comets and whether they could have seeded the Earth with organic compounds often called the “building blocks of life”.
Comments
The stars will all be rubble by then, you'll be lucky to find a photon.
Physics disagrees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat
Not in quantum mechanics.
If anything is meaningless, it's the phrase "the universe may be alive".
It clearly isn't alive.
In the sense that the universe is constantly evolving, it could be said to be alive, depending on your definition of alive.
1. We have been contacted, we just don't know. Maybe the governments know.
2. The whole we "should" have found evidence yet is so limited. There's absolutely no possible reason to back up why we should have found evidence of ET on another planet. Hell, we have only been able to detect planets for a very short time.
We need more time...
Observational collapse of wavefunction (or your preferred alternative QM interpretation) applies at a single location.
.. and money, but who will set the priorities as population expands and demands on resources grow?
Won't be long before we will hear the echoes of a long gone Civilisation....... our own.
How about this then. Time in the human mind is an illusion. The past, present and future can possibly exist simultaneously, sometimes referred to as "eternalism".
Here is an explanation;
http://youtu.be/vrqmMoI0wks
The man is a ********
Could you give a few examples of what Brian Cox has stated that you don't personally believe.
Interestingly, there are indications that Oort clouds (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oort_cloud) are around other stars too such as Beta Pictoris.