Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
So far most of the planets discovered outside of our solar system have been huge, around Saturn sized, and having orbits as close in to their respective suns as Venus or Mercury. Based on that information alone I don't think that life is likely to be very common.
So far most of the planets discovered outside of our solar system have been huge, around Saturn sized, and having orbits as close in to their respective suns as Venus or Mercury. Based on that information alone I don't think that life is likely to be very common.
I'm surprised that the poll shows 'relatively rare' as the main choice, yet most posts are optimistic about sentience within our own galaxy. I'd call that better than rare. Maybe well done and lightly seasoned.
And the post about 'It doesn't matter, we'll never meet them' has more meaning than that we, personally will never meet them. What with the speed of light barrier and expanding universe and dark energy and everything else, it's amazing we can reach up and touch our fingers to our noses.
I just read a great book on Cosmology and string theory. I have it right here....The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene. O.k., it's not that great, but it's decent, and actually gets into some of the details, rather than the usual fru fru dross you find in 'popular literature'.
Me, I think we will meet other sentience. I think we will step beyond all the barriers, even lightspeed. And I agree that intelligence, once spawned, does increase the fitness of a species in many hypothetical situations. We are just on the edge (o.k., people in every generation say that about themselves) of that point in which our intelligence adds more and more to our fitness. I don't think we are fully there yet. Look at Pollution, the Cold War, and disease-by-overpopulation. No, we're not quite over the hump.
-Smack
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