Do you believe aliens exist and visit our planet Earth?

[trish]

In his newest book, The Copernicus Complex, Astronomer Caleb Scharf warns that the Copernican Principle, as a scientific thesis, is neither well formulated nor well reasoned. One application of the principle argues that because we can’t be unique, there must be life everywhere in the universe. It is an argument that appeals to physicists more than biologists.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2...ook-at-aliens/

http://praxtime.com/2013/11/25/sagan...ists-about-et/

One problem is scale. Surely Earth may be unique in that it’s the only planet on which Homo sapiens has evolved. But is it the only place in the cosmos in which life has evolved, or sentient life? We have just on data point: abiogenesis occurred apparently once on Earth (when it was a much different place) and four billion odd years later a species of organism has evolved which can asked, “Are we alone?” Can we really rely on the Copernican Principle and our desire for a little cosmic excitement (a date, a movie, a probing abduction...anything) to supply a rational answer?

In 2012 physicists David Spiegel and Edwin Turner published a Bayesian analysis that provides a negative answer to that question. I understand (I have not personally fought through the paper http://arxiv.org/pdf/1107.3835.pdf ) that Spiegel and Turner show the probability of extraterrestrial life depends depends on how one assigns a value to the prior probability, but most assignments lead to pessimistic conclusions. Here is a readable link explaining their result:

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/a...ection=science

People who are truly interested in the truth never childishly stop their ears and loudly sing annoying tunes to keep from hearing dissent. Here is an opposing view:

http://www.livescience.com/15222-universe-analysis.html



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[trish]

Interesting piece in livescience on true believers and the planet Nibiru:

http://www.livescience.com/33380-com...sday-2012.html




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[martin48]

Oh, shit, Trish! I must of missed the end of the Earth and I'd being looking forward to it for so long.

There'll be another one along soon.

Why do they never predict good things, only bad ones?

It's OK, found this - still time for me

Interesting piece in livescience on true believers and the planet Nibiru:

http://www.livescience.com/33380-com...sday-2012.html




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[trish]

Oh, shit, Trish! I must of missed the end of the Earth and I'd being looking forward to it for so long.

There'll be another one along soon.

Why do they never predict good things, only bad ones?

It's OK, found this - still time for me

Good News: Every day is the first day of the end days.
Also in the news: http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=92323


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[martin48]

But you rise to the bait, Trish

(Now make a double entendre of that! Dare you)

Good News: Every day is the first day of the end days.
Also in the news: http://www.hungangels.com/vboard/showthread.php?t=92323


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[broncofan]

But you rise to the bait, Trish

It's only bait if the person has put it there for the sole purpose of provoking, but those posts were written with serious intent, however provocative.

[trish]

But you rise to the bait, Trish

(Now make a double entendre of that! Dare you)

Or sink to the bait. Crawl to the bait. Frequently I kneel to the bait.

[trish]

It's only bait if the person has put it there for the sole purpose of provoking, but those posts were written with serious intent, however provocative.

At one point yesterday, I decided not to contribute to this thread anymore. But today I figured: Hey, it's only the OP who has chosen not to listen to a third of the thread's participants; everybody else is still listening. We can paint the flowers any damn color we wish.

[Laphroaig]

A couple of interesting articles about the possible discovery of life existing in space here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...s-9782153.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...s-9682850.html

Whether the claims are true or not, I'm surprised there hasn't been bigger headlines about them. Must do some more digging...

[trish]

A couple of interesting articles about the possible discovery of life existing in space here:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...s-9782153.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/sc...s-9682850.html

Whether the claims are true or not, I'm surprised there hasn't been bigger headlines about them. Must do some more digging...

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astro...unfounded.html