Originally posted by sonhouse I can see it now, Newt Gingtwitch calling to his flock, MY BREATHEREN,
alien life has been discovered around that GILEESEE451 or whatever they call the heathen thing, THEY ARE HEATHENS MY BROTHERS, er, and sisters, WE MUST SEND A CHRISTIAN, well our kind of christian, DELAGATION TO THAT GLLEEEESEE PLACE. I can get a few billion in donations already, lets build that ship and CONVERT THOSE HEATHENS.
PRAISE THE LORD, AND PASS THE HYDROGEN.
That reminds me a little of the science fiction story by Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow - which follows a Jesuit mission to a nearby planet. Very interesting.
Originally posted by Jay Joos I think you watch too much Star Trek !!!
Why do you say that? It is exactly what missionaries did during the "age of discovery". Convert them or kill them - no heathens allowed. Sometimes it was baptize them then kill them.
Originally posted by amannion That reminds me a little of the science fiction story by Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow - which follows a Jesuit mission to a nearby planet. Very interesting.
I read that and the sequel, "Children of God". We exchanged emails, I think she is so frigging brilliant, she must be an alien🙂 She did make a couple of scientific boo-boo's however. The first one I dinged her on was using Arecibo to look at Alpha Centauri. A bit of research showed Arecibo can point up and down only 30 degrees from vertical, so is totally unable to see Alpha Centauri, which is a southern hemisphere sun. She said I was only the second person to point that one out. She had been in correspondence with Sir Arthur C Clarke, and HE didn't figure that one out! The second one was, here time dilation ideas would not work for Alpha Centauri, its too dam close! Suppose you go so close to C that you on board the craft think it takes one day to make the trip to AC. Still only 4 years goes by on earth. Her scenerio had them taking, what was it, 20 years to make the trip and 40 years going by on earth? something like that. If it took 20 years to make the journey, then the average velocity would amount to only 0.2C, not enough to make any kind of time dilation, maybe a few minutes for the whole flight so if it took 20 years on the ship only 20 years would go by on earth. I don't think anyone had pointed that one out. The way out of that dilemma from a sci-fi perspective is to simply use a star that is say 50 LY away. That way you have more room for time dilation to do it's thing. I still loved the books however. I think she knows everything there is to know about humans!
Originally posted by sonhouse She did make a couple of scientific boo-boo's however.
They are hardly boo-boos. Science fiction is just that - fiction. If the Arecibo her story could see Alpha Centauri then well and good. The concept and the scientific concepts are what counts. What is far more improbable in terms of real life is that we will be traveling to the stars within the lifetime of Arecibo or that it will still be our best radio telescope at the time we travel to the stars. If she had Bush involved somewhere then it is even more improbable.
Originally posted by sonhouse I read that and the sequel, "Children of God". We exchanged emails, I think she is so frigging brilliant, she must be an alien🙂 She did make a couple of scientific boo-boo's however. The first one I dinged her on was using Arecibo to look at Alpha Centauri. A bit of research showed Arecibo can point up and down only 30 degrees from vertical, so is totally ...[text shortened]... still loved the books however. I think she knows everything there is to know about humans!
I'm not so sure about her or anyone else knowing everything there is to know about anything, but it's good to here you enjoyed her work. I thought the two books are excellent.
I'm not so fussed with scientific errors in SF works - I know some people treat it as a sort of game or competition: 'how many errors can I spot?'. I prefer to go along with the story and see where it takes me - as long as the errors don't take away from the point of story of course.
It's funny you mention time dilation - I've just been teaching my students about it over the last couple of days.
Originally posted by whodey I wonder, what would be the response if we discovered a sister planet EXACTLY like earth with zero life on it? What would be the reaction?
If there is a planet that is EXACTLY like earth in every sense of the word, including temperature, atmosphere etc, then in my opinion, it is likely we can find lifeforms on it. If life can happen here on earth, then I see no reason why it shouldn't there. But this is just logical reasoning. That planet may well be deviod of any lifeform!
I think it would be more interesting to know what the reaction would be if there is indeed lifeform found there. Perhaps religious people would be shaken; holy books would need to be re-written; scriptures would require amendments on a grand scale!
I think it would be more interesting to know what the reaction would be if there is indeed lifeform found there. Perhaps religious people would be shaken; holy books would need to be re-written; scriptures would require amendments on a grand scale!
Why? Someone mentioned this a while ago (maybe on a different web site). Why would anyone be shaken? Why would holy books need to be rewritten, etc.?
Originally posted by ckoh1965 If there is a planet that is EXACTLY like earth in every sense of the word, including temperature, atmosphere etc, then in my opinion, it is likely we can find lifeforms on it. If life can happen here on earth, then I see no reason why it shouldn't there. But this is just logical reasoning. That planet may well be deviod of any lifeform!
I think it would ...[text shortened]... ; holy books would need to be re-written; scriptures would require amendments on a grand scale!
But your position is based upon your personal bias. IF you were a Christian you would probably find it more entertaining if the sister planet of earth had no life forms. What happened to abiogenesis? Why would it work here but not there? Did abiogenesis take a vacation? If this happened there is no doubt that explantions would abound in the scientific world to help stiffle such a lack of faith in the theory of abiogenesis. Likewise, if your scenerio panned out the religious community would no doubt list countless explanations as to why there was life on a certain planet etc, etc. I think you will find that explanations are derived more from defending ones beliefs than from defending objective reality. The reality, however, is that we seem to be the only life forms in the universe until proven otherwise.
Originally posted by whodey But your position is based upon your personal bias. IF you were a Christian you would probably find it more entertaining if the sister planet of earth had no life forms. What happened to abiogenesis? Why would it work here but not there? Did abiogenesis take a vacation? If this happened there is no doubt that explantions would abound in the scientific wo ...[text shortened]... lity, however, is that we seem to be the only life forms in the universe until proven otherwise.
IF you were a Christian you would probably find it more entertaining if the sister planet of earth had no life forms.
But why? Do we have some sort of exclusive contract with God that says he can only create sentient beings on one planet?
Originally posted by whodey I wonder, what would be the response if we discovered a sister planet EXACTLY like earth with zero life on it? What would be the reaction?
If it didn't have any life on it, then it wouldn't be EXACTLY like earth.
Originally posted by whodey I wonder, what would be the response if we discovered a sister planet EXACTLY like earth with zero life on it? What would be the reaction?
The chances of such a discovery would be akin to me finding an exact replica of me somewhere else on this planet - which is to say, pretty unlikely.
The reality of planet formation - which is a process that we understand only very simply at this point - is similar to that of evolution. That is, things don't happen exactly the same twice.
Your point about one's beliefs influencing how we interpret the world around us is an interesting one and quite valid. We are all guilty of doing this. However, I don't think in the end, the discovery of no life on such a world would change things from the present.
New planet found
26 Apr '07 05:32
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