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Amaris
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Camus was also purported to have once said, "the only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." So, yeah, I am most definitely a fan.
He also said...If nothing had any meaning, you would be right. But there is something that still has a meaning...
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Amaris
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My favorite quote, though, is from Mark Twain: "I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn’t know."
That wasn't actually a lie because He meant that after they ate it death would be a part of their existence. Before that they were immortal.
Why couldn't they have the knowledge they gained and be immortal?
The only real answer I can come up with a lot of these types of questions is that God is a massive prick. Using us for entertainment. He is obviously into murder porn.
What's out there?
Based on the number of stars, potential planets around each star, planets at a sufficient distance away from said star, or binary star systems, etc... capable to support life as we know it within the confines of physics... even silicon-based life being a theoretical possibility...
Probably lots.
If time travel were possible, somebody would have changed causal history by now - at least relevant to their sphere of influence, which is very small or very big if they decided to go back to when the universe begin and whip out a fire extinguisher to put out the alleged fire.
The laws of physics making space travel possible - this fits into Darwin's law. Not because of species adapting to climates to prosper but because a fence isn't always a bunch of sticks half-buried into the ground that people can tunnel under or pole vault over. The distances involved make it difficult for any species to waddle on over to say "Hi, may I eat you for breakfast?" like what they did in that 1983 "V" miniseries.
Which reminds of another reality, not all species get developed or develop at the same rate of time or during the same time. Chances are, if we ever figure out how to travel FTL and end up in Andromeda in x number of months (LOL. good luck to that) so forget that and let's all hang out at Proxima Centauri, assuming we don't need to terraform it due to temperatures (like how we all bought such DIY kits during Black Friday deals 2017), or too elliptical or other nonstandard orbit causing problems with the atmosphere, or other irregularities. Number of moons, rotational spin... equatorial region in relation to the sun... magnetic fields, solar flares...
'Dang law of probability...
Religions just teach people how to be nice to one another via metaphor and parable. Even the non-religious want people to be nice to one another. Yup, that's just a tad oversimplified but that's okay for now... But "Adam and Eve", if taken literally, is arguably more disgusting than taking it as a parable or metaphor. But a parable or metaphor for what? That one's easy, but compared to actual incest what isn't nasty? And how come nobody with STEM science could figure out dozens of centuries ago that inbreeding, promiscuity, etc, were bad juju long before Darwin said it was a no-no, never mind medications that have only delayed the problem and also created "superbugs" in some cases but most of that is due to people not washing their hands at work because the sign said "Employees must wash their hands (thus customers don't need to)"? Or was that Mendel, it's so terribly easy to mix those two up and inheritance isn't just nomenclature for augmenting computer programming functions... Indeed, wasn't Darwin also an ironic example of inbreeding as was recently discovered?
In other words, I think we're all what we got on this sad blue/green/beige/brown/puke planet. That we'll ever get to tangibly know about. Nature has a habit of repeating, recursive themes, so I have zero surprise of alien species on other planets existed. The fact any of them would make it here would be as intriguing as it would be very rare. Even more rare if any of them wanted to date me...
Based on the number of stars, potential planets around each star, planets at a sufficient distance away from said star, or binary star systems, etc... capable to support life as we know it within the confines of physics... even silicon-based life being a theoretical possibility...
Probably lots.
If time travel were possible, somebody would have changed causal history by now - at least relevant to their sphere of influence, which is very small or very big if they decided to go back to when the universe begin and whip out a fire extinguisher to put out the alleged fire.
The laws of physics making space travel possible - this fits into Darwin's law. Not because of species adapting to climates to prosper but because a fence isn't always a bunch of sticks half-buried into the ground that people can tunnel under or pole vault over. The distances involved make it difficult for any species to waddle on over to say "Hi, may I eat you for breakfast?" like what they did in that 1983 "V" miniseries.
Which reminds of another reality, not all species get developed or develop at the same rate of time or during the same time. Chances are, if we ever figure out how to travel FTL and end up in Andromeda in x number of months (LOL. good luck to that) so forget that and let's all hang out at Proxima Centauri, assuming we don't need to terraform it due to temperatures (like how we all bought such DIY kits during Black Friday deals 2017), or too elliptical or other nonstandard orbit causing problems with the atmosphere, or other irregularities. Number of moons, rotational spin... equatorial region in relation to the sun... magnetic fields, solar flares...
'Dang law of probability...
Religions just teach people how to be nice to one another via metaphor and parable. Even the non-religious want people to be nice to one another. Yup, that's just a tad oversimplified but that's okay for now... But "Adam and Eve", if taken literally, is arguably more disgusting than taking it as a parable or metaphor. But a parable or metaphor for what? That one's easy, but compared to actual incest what isn't nasty? And how come nobody with STEM science could figure out dozens of centuries ago that inbreeding, promiscuity, etc, were bad juju long before Darwin said it was a no-no, never mind medications that have only delayed the problem and also created "superbugs" in some cases but most of that is due to people not washing their hands at work because the sign said "Employees must wash their hands (thus customers don't need to)"? Or was that Mendel, it's so terribly easy to mix those two up and inheritance isn't just nomenclature for augmenting computer programming functions... Indeed, wasn't Darwin also an ironic example of inbreeding as was recently discovered?
In other words, I think we're all what we got on this sad blue/green/beige/brown/puke planet. That we'll ever get to tangibly know about. Nature has a habit of repeating, recursive themes, so I have zero surprise of alien species on other planets existed. The fact any of them would make it here would be as intriguing as it would be very rare. Even more rare if any of them wanted to date me...
There's something relatable about that
In a way, they did. It's all metaphor and parable. Most people understandably prefer it being taken as literal, which I had a decade or two ago...
Wonder why they haven't 'found' us yet'? Maybe we are the most advanced (that would suck) and have to find them?
Dude, have you SEEN us? Maybe they did come by, took a look and hightailed it outta here.
Aye, very possible. Anything's technically possible but I would almost wager on a possibility that there is a grand design meant to keep species separated on a planetary scale... imagine that, the biggest fence is comprised and composed of absolutely zero matter or energy (as such)... even sound cannot traverse outer space...
And (oops) I forgot to add about the planes of existence we have no tangible knowledge of. This includes deities, since a spiritual plane isn't the same thing as the rocks and salts we traipse on and trapeeze over.) Faith isn't all metaphor and parable and being kind to one another. Many religions share common themes, and many religions also take different routes. Indirect evidence can even support or refute claims, not all we consciously see or remember at the given time...
ROTFLMAO
Anything's possible, but it'd be more fun if "John" and "Diana" paid a visit. Mmmmm, "Diana"...
ROTFLMAO
Anything's possible, but it'd be more fun if "John" and "Diana" paid a visit. Mmmmm, "Diana"...
Considering your avatar is a rodent I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to meet Diana..
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Amaris
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I want to believe there is other life out there. To quote Carl Sagan, "The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space." There's a part of me who believes it all ties together, that even if there is no grand creator, there is something that unifies all of us, throughout the universe. What it is, I don't know. The romantic in me says "love," but the pragmatist in me says carbon.
I love Twain, and I've adored him my entire life. Just a brilliant, sharp witted man. ♥There's something relatable about that
Space is really big, and while we've been sending out radio signals for 120 years, due to signal degradation most of them are indistinguishable from cosmic background noise after only a few light years distance. We can boost and focus radio signals on a single star like the SETI radio transmitters do in order to send a coherent message deeper into space, but in most cases you wouldn't know for decades or centuries if your message was received and returned, and there are hundreds of billions of stars in the sky to scan. There could be tens of thousands of civilizations of various technological levels capable of sending messages into space or possibly even traveling between stars in generational ships and yet simply because of the vastness of space they may never encounter each other or even know of each other's existence.
I think the kid in all of us, the astronomer in many, and the Trek fan want it to happen in their life time. Though not to bring science fiction into the equation but if time 'travel' is a possibility then who knows, we may be part of the discovery anyway.
The writers humanized God. They imagined a human being on physical and metal "steroids" and thus all the characteristics were amplified. God has an ego? You bet -- he needs billions of people to worship him in order to feel good. Then think of the God personified in the Old Testament versus New Testament. Entirely different characters... makes no sense, for if the 1st work was supposed to be authentic, the personification wouldn't have drastically changed.
It's so myopic and narcissistic to believe that WE are all that there is and that God created all this for us to live for his pleasure. That the Sun and the Stars all revolve around the Earth. Yet, logically considering it, any super being that would have the power of creation would be naturally omnipotent and not have an "ego" needing to be fed by the life forms that he created. And if he was so perfect, he'd create perfect beings. We aren't just imperfect, we're terribly flawed. And it's not because of God, it's because we're still evolving and have had the serendipitous luck of advanced technological progress while society remains in a relatively primitive state (dangerous combination)... thus, the chaos we're presently facing. There wouldn't be these massive shifts of religious dominance in the world. There WOULD be enough signs for us to know God is really here and cares, all the while keeping a distance so as to let us learn from our mistakes. We're not just bumbling into mistakes... people are outright viciously doing harm from the inspiration of relentless and unforgivable greed.
Think of all the time, energy, and lives people have lost over terribly misguided individuals. Think of how much more productive people's lives would be if they didn't wallow in uncertainty. If the religious leaders that they put blind faith trust into didn't deceive them by stealing their money or sexually abusing their children. It's not just one person sinning and needing to repent and learn from it... it's the terrible side effect everyone else experiences from their "sin." No... no perfect God would let such foulness persist. We'd be living in a very different kind of way. But... people who want to believe in God just can't accept that, and will dream up some crazy reasoning to "make it all work". It doesn't. Because of an inherent flaw in the argument that won't be corrected.
We're also so far away from the "thick of it."--the density of solar systems that could produce intelligent life. I imagine we're just so far off the beaten trail, what intelligent life that might be space faring at this time isn't going to be coming our way. Now, there could be probes sent to roam about. Maybe, just maybe some have visited our world. Heck, maybe our planet was intentionally seeded and we're being monitored. But it would all be remote. I absolutely do not believe any "aliens" have visited us. No way, no how, no sense to make it so. The other factor which is hard to relate to is... cosmological time. It takes so many thousands of years for signals to travel across space. So, that window of time when "aliens" could even be aware of our technological progress? It hasn't even opened a tiny crack as yet. They couldn't know... too far away.
Consciousness is a real conundrum; no one really knows what it is; no one knows if it is, in fact, useful or necessary. Consciousness does not necessarily follow from intelligence. There may well be a universe of thinking going on with very rare instances of consciousness. Or, it may be that some kind of consciousness pervades everything. I think the former is more likely than the latter.
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