Ancient Aliens

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by BillJ, Jun 19, 2012.

  1. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Gathering material for the Green Collar Comedy Tour. Coming soon to an ansible near you.
     
  2. Deckerd

    Deckerd Fleet Arse Premium Member

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    I don't think even you believe that. As far as we know Earth is the richest and most diverse life-based resource in the galaxy. Any scientist worth their salt (or whatever equivalent compounds) would realise they'd hit the mother lode.
     
  3. Yminale

    Yminale Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    If you can travel through space and time, you could probably determine every possible chemical combination. Honestly that's the future of pharmacology, hit a receptor or binding site with random chemicals until something "fits".

    Plus you are assuming that scientist are running the show. What if it's drunken frat boys.
     
  4. Edit_XYZ

    Edit_XYZ Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Ymindale

    You may think the ants from the nearby anthill unimportant.
    But there are a LOT of scientists that find them extremely interesting and studied them extensively. The same can be said about every bit of the natural world.
    Plus, it's worth noting that life is the most information rich phenomenon known to man; stars and black holes may have astronomical energies, but informationally, they're simplistic by comparison to a mere rat. Intelligent life and civilization is a further step above that.

    And any species capable of interstellar travel must have a significant rational component (including curiosity/discovery, etc); 'drunken frat boys' - or their equivalent - just don't have the level of competency for such feats.

    PS - We're already able to determine "every possible chemical combination".
    That doesn't do us any good - the combinations are practically unlimited in number and only a vanishingly small number of them actually 'do something'; the rest is useless randomness.
     
    Last edited: Jul 7, 2012
  5. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The point you clearly missed is that even if the universe was teeming with SPACEFARING civilizations, we would be extremely unlikely to know about it even after ten centuries of searching the sky with our telescopes. We've only in the last 20 years even confirmed the existence of extrasolar planets, and most of those only by their gravitational effects on their parent star; even at FTL velocities, something as small a a spacecraft would be WELL below our detection threshhold unless it was relatively close to Earth orbit.

    In other words, they would have to go out of their way to visit us before we ever knew they were there. That in turn implies they would have to have a REASON to visit us, which -- if they don't know about us -- they would not.

    Except for the fact that Von Neuman devices are impractical for interstellar exploration, that would be true.

    Which is true. If FTL flight is impossible, then EVERY solar system could be inhabited by intelligent spacefaring life and we would probably never know about it.
     
  6. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    ^lots of people and physics.
     
  7. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Pretty much the same way they did it 400 years ago:

    SLAVES.
     
  8. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Which construction are you referring to? Not all of it was done through slave labor. The Pyramids were not, for example.
     
  9. Today

    Today Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Um, that's literally what most pharma does right now.. it's called high throughput screening. Throw a library of randomly synthesized junk against your target protein, see what sticks.

    I've pretty much randomly jumped into this thread, so this is totally out of context. But using terms like "receptors" or "binding sites" makes it sound like you're reasonably well versed in structure based drug design, so it seems odd that you'd think high throughput screening is the "future" of pharmacology, rather than a throw back to inefficient R&D. Rational design of novel synthetically accessible ligands is a far better way to go, not to mention novel protein based drugs are quite promising as well.
     
  10. Today

    Today Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

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    Ah, this is a thread about "Ancient Aliens".. didn't notice that:techman:
     
  11. Silvercrest

    Silvercrest Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Don't worry, we all go off on tangents. Mine: The Green Collar Comedy Tour! (see earlier post)


    And you might be an Earthling if.... ?
     
  12. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    ....hang out on a science fiction internet forum but don't think we should explore space.

    Seriously, I've encountered people here with that attitude. I can't fathom it.
     
  13. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    The laws of mathematics and statistics say there must be much alien life out there.

    And the laws of physics say they pretty much can damn well stay out there.

    While the laws of common sense say they'd have no reason to come here when they don't know there's a here to come to...
     
  14. Deckerd

    Deckerd Fleet Arse Premium Member

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    This single inconvenient truth causes more anguish to science fiction fans and alien watchers than anything else.
     
  15. sojourner

    sojourner Admiral In Memoriam

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    I think the real reason we haven't seen any proof of aliens is going to be much more interesting than either of those statements.
     
  16. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Um, I doubt it. Really, I doubt it. Space is just *so* damn big, you see, that that damn lightspeed limit buggers everything up...
     
  17. Lonemagpie

    Lonemagpie Writer Admiral

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    Mind you, I've always said that if we ever do find proof of intelligent aliens, it'll be in the form of signal spam actually just passing by us on the way somewhere else. And possibly actual spam: "I am Emperor GHajhkhsfs of the Kuhiuiuhiuh system. My late father was killed when our sun went nova, and I need your help to unlock the 50 gajillion credits in his Galactibank account..."
     
  18. Reverend

    Reverend Admiral Admiral

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    ^The same way you move anything: Leverage, torque and the appropriate application of force.

    I'm sure if aliens did visit, they would have had better things to do with their time than move rocks around for the crazy bald ape people.
     
  19. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yep.

    Yep. This isn't rocket science, Starbrow, and we know it to have been fully within the capabilities of ancient peoples in many places around the world - which is why the dimwits on TV insisting that it constitutes evidence of high technology reveal themselves to be idiots or charlatans.
     
  20. Alidar Jarok

    Alidar Jarok Everything in moderation but moderation Moderator

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    Are you referring to a specific monument in question?