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I still wish they'd made the ending of Contact (the movie)...the same as the book.
The book ending was FAR superior and poignant.
RIP Carl. -
one of my favorite people and favorite pieces of writing.
'on a mote of dust, suspended in a sun beam'
to believe or assume that we are the only life in the vastness of the universe is ludicrous. we may never find it, it may never find us but somewhere in the dark are others.I moved my sites to Vacares Hosting. I've saved money, my hair is thicker, lost some weight too! Thanks Sly!Comment
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The Pale Blue Dot is a great photograph and the story behind it as well as Carl Sagan's words are very insightful. But it's another whole thing to just assume that there has to be life as we know it somewhere else even with the immense size of the universe. Even if there is life it could just be something as simple as a virus or bacteria or perhaps similar to slime mold. While that would certainly be an incredible discovery, I wouldn't start imagining a Star Trek like universe where remarkably similar to us humanoid beings can speak and reason with one another and with us.Comment
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Stephen Hawking once wrote something about the risk of other intelligent life finding us here on Earth, especially if they are more advanced than us technologically. Think about how humans have treated other human races, cultures and societies and how humans treat animals here on Earth. The most likely outcome of an advanced alien society discovering us here on earth is that they might see us as pests to be exterminated, food to be eaten or slaves to do their dirty work.Comment
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It is unlikely that life anywhere else would evolve to have a similar form as the mammalian life we have here. There would need to be nearly identical atmospheric conditions, gravitational force etc. Complex alien life forms would be far different in shape. They might not have the ability to create machines such as space craft, they might not have the motivation to do so.
Who knows...they could be mindlessly superstition like those for example of the Muslim "faith" who would reject all advances in science and put to death anyone who questions their world view and thus never purse any sort of advanced technology.
They could simply live a stone age existence and never do anything advance ever during their species existence.
Odds are that our species will die out (from any number of potential causes) long before we develop the technology to leave this galaxy.Comment
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Who knows, anything is possible. To me it's human conceit that we on this mote of dust in a vast universe are the only intelligent beings in it because we can't see or hear them and nothing in our current understanding of the cosmos gives us any evidence to assume it exists.
It seems as if the greatest physicists of our day think that String Theory while unable to be proven correct today or maybe ever is the answer. Which means our universe is just one of many. 10,000 years from now maybe humans will somehow travel to or communicate with other universes. It's all mind boggling.
What pisses me off about life isn't so much that we live such short lives, i just want to come back for one day every 100 years to find out what happened. I read one of Sagan's interviews, I believe it was done while he was dying of cancer, he was not afraid of dying, didn't believe in an afterlife but his sadness was in not being able to know how the story ends. That's how I feel.
I do believe that humans are one day going to be immortal in some fashion.I moved my sites to Vacares Hosting. I've saved money, my hair is thicker, lost some weight too! Thanks Sly!Comment
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That's the wrong perspective. Life is quite long enough to get the job done which is to procreate (the meaning of life by the way). Once that is done and the next generation is ready to procreate you can die. I would not want to live forever if my body would continue to age.
As for seeing the "how the story ends" - what story are you talking about? The end of the universe (gotta wait a long time for that one)? To see how humanity destroys itself (would rather not be around for that mess)? Your story ends when it ends.
Humans are flesh and blood. Your personality and intelligence is in your brain. The brain ages and dies along with the rest of the body. If you would want to live forever you (your brain) would need a new host to live.
That would either be some sort of artificial life support system (not much of a life living in a fish bowl) OR a host body...meaning that science would need to perfect brain transplants (and nerves don't regenerate very well).
Then you have the problem of finding a body that no one is using...or a clone...messy messy. Don't see that happening.Comment
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email: zmaster (at) earthlink.net
ICQ: 196678616
ZMASTER
One less god!!!
I contend that we are both an atheist. I just belive in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.Comment
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See the problem is were learning stuff at such an incredible rate, a lot of this stuff is kind of old news and out of date. There's so much more that we've learned after the pale blue dot it's hard to keep track of.Comment
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I would simply say they are suffering from a delusional personality disorder. It is impossible to be a true Muslim and a physicists as there is no need for an sort of inquiry to the inner working of the atom because Mohammad created it and it is not to be questioned.
Now that you have learned something for the day please go fuck yourself.Comment
Pale Blue Dot - by Carl Sagan
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