Billions of Planets just like ours

  On 3/29/2012 at 12:54 PM, RadarJammer said:

  On 3/29/2012 at 12:25 PM, Obel said:

Will that cut it though?

 

One thing that comes to mind would be taking libido out of the equation. Putting the core of man at a permanent baseline but giving the mental surface tons of ups and downs (but a perfect bowl movement every time, and always on schedule). How long can you keep a man alive though? If science could prolong a life by 100's or 1000's of years could a man learn to meditate for months and surf the hypnagogic miracles of the mind? WWSD? (what would spock do)

The goal itself matters too, is it an expedition to a planet or a permanent space colony? If it's the latter than Humans might as well accept the fact that we would change physically and mentally as space travelers. The thought is a bit freaky, the Navigators in Dune come to mind. If the context is say, the fact that Earth is going to die and we need to leave, we're talking about far bigger scope evolution of mankind as a species, not just the dilemmas of long-distance space travel and the perils of boredom and confinement compared to our current life on Earth now, even in a large spaceship colony like a Bernal sphere:

I think Azatoth bringing up the Space Elevator is a good point. Developments like that, or say, terraforming Mars are more realistic goals, especially for the next 100-1000 years. I read Space Odyssey 3001 when I was a teen and found Clarke's vision of life then quite plausible (if we get our shit together as a society). I think, well hope, humanity will establish a decent foothold in the Solar System via moon and planet (Mars) colonies before we trek out into the cosmos. Good stepping-stone.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17539315

A billion stars

  On 3/29/2012 at 4:15 PM, feltcher said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-17539315

A billion stars

Awesome

finding intelligent life and finding viral/bacterial/fungal life is 2 totally different discussions.

i think we'll find some sort of life in many liquid environments. lab tests that show amino acids forming within easily observable timespans makes me think that these shits can form all over as long as there is a medium to allow easy movement (liquid)

titan is a great temperature for liquid methane and as such i think there is a good chance at finding methane-based organisms as opposed to water-based. whether these are "intelligent" or not.... it seems unlikely that another species will have developed in the solar system due to the proximity. our radio waves have been drenching all the planets for almost 100 years, not to mention the visible-from-space ways we've changed the planet

if there is another intelligent species out there, they will find us. however, i think we should work asap to build a permanent space colony/base. the elevator is a great idea.

  On 3/29/2012 at 9:54 PM, theSun said:

finding intelligent life and finding viral/bacterial/fungal life is 2 totally different discussions.

 

i think we'll find some sort of life in many liquid environments. lab tests that show amino acids forming within easily observable timespans makes me think that these shits can form all over as long as there is a medium to allow easy movement (liquid)

 

titan is a great temperature for liquid methane and as such i think there is a good chance at finding methane-based organisms as opposed to water-based. whether these are "intelligent" or not.... it seems unlikely that another species will have developed in the solar system due to the proximity. our radio waves have been drenching all the planets for almost 100 years, not to mention the visible-from-space ways we've changed the planet

 

 

Yeah, I think simple life should be quite common,.

  Quote

if there is another intelligent species out there, they will find us. however, i think we should work asap to build a permanent space colony/base. the elevator is a great idea.

why?

we don't have the tech to quickly navigate thru space

I just think we need to have some redundancy in case we nuke ourselves...

  On 3/29/2012 at 9:54 PM, theSun said:

finding intelligent life and finding viral/bacterial/fungal life is 2 totally different discussions.

thanks for pointing that out

for us to travel to distant worlds, it seems like we need two major technological advances to occur first. we need to have a major breakthrough in terms of massive energy creation and consumption and the necessary medical advances to freeze and unfreeze ourselves for long periods. in tandem, those two would make it possible. it doesn't seem that far fetched

I read in a science magazine targeted at a broad audience that cosmologists think they might soon be able to observe parallel universes (or rather adjacent universes).

They are getting better and better pictures of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and they hope they'll be able to observe something. If it's not that homogenous then they think it will mean adjacent universes exist (they have various scenarii as to what they will observe). I wanted to suggest that for best IDM 2012, but can't be arsed looking for an english source.

This is a serious magazine, it doesn't explain things in details but it allows one to get the big picture concerning certain areas of science, which I think is very difficult when you're not an expert in the concerned field.

  On 3/28/2012 at 2:14 PM, feltcher said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk...onment-17532470

 

Well, not quite "just like ours", but the findings of these new high precision satellites and detectors are starting to show us just exactly how much stuff is out there.

 

I think maintain that life of some form will be found out there somewhere during my lifetime.

I hope we get to hear some of their music

  On 3/30/2012 at 3:32 AM, Babar said:

I read in a science magazine targeted at a broad audience that cosmologists think they might soon be able to observe parallel universes (or rather adjacent universes).

???????????

oh they probably mean they could find evidence for regions of the universe that are not directly observable by looking at the early inflationary period of the universe?

I find it fascinating that humans as a race (and most life) has evolved in a way that has so many dependencies on the exact and myriad parameters/conditions of our plan that sustain us (atmospheric composition, magnetosphere, liquid water, local gravitational field, nutrients, etc.) - a combination of which is so unlikely to be found in any another planet despite the billions and billions out there.

So basically the fanciful idea of us biological beings just picking up and moving to another planet is incredibly farfetched, I think we're more likely to go extinct or succeed in transcending matter and physical existence, at which point it all becomes moot.

this is the real religion thread

  On 3/30/2012 at 3:32 AM, Babar said:

I read in a science magazine targeted at a broad audience that cosmologists think they might soon be able to observe parallel universes (or rather adjacent universes).

They are getting better and better pictures of the cosmic microwave background radiation, and they hope they'll be able to observe something. If it's not that homogenous then they think it will mean adjacent universes exist (they have various scenarii as to what they will observe). I wanted to suggest that for best IDM 2012, but can't be arsed looking for an english source.

This is a serious magazine, it doesn't explain things in details but it allows one to get the big picture concerning certain areas of science, which I think is very difficult when you're not an expert in the concerned field.

It's related to the CMB cold spot, but apparently it was just a data artifact.

looking at the cmb and finding what happened BEFORE the big bang is where it's at.

  On 3/30/2012 at 8:27 PM, theSun said:

looking at the cmb and finding what happened BEFORE the big bang is where it's at.

Indeed, I am looking forward to see what they can figure out from the new images taken by the Planck satellite. I just think that it's tantalizing that some primate on some rock in space is sending out some hunk of metal into orbit to look at echoes from the moment the whole universe came into being.

  On 3/29/2012 at 1:31 AM, RadarJammer said:

  On 3/28/2012 at 11:09 PM, Benedict Cumberbatch said:

would you get on a space shuttle knowing that you're great great great great great great great great (however many lifetimes it would take us to fly there) grandson would one day meet intelligent life on another distant planet? but you would die on route (obviously)

 

As the ship approached its destination an android would raise and train some test tube babies and there would probably be a rapid human growth environment so they could skip those awkward pimply rebellious sex crazed teenage years and get straight to the sacrificial hardy boys extraterrestrial adventures.

Rama!

Arthur C Clarke is a wellspring of good ideas regarding interstellar travel and colonization. the story The Songs of Distant Earth is a good one, about a seedship headed for a distant planet having to make a pit stop at an idyllic world already colonized by Earthlings a few centuries prior. he adapted it into a novel too, but I thought the short story was better.