Hautlle Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I know what the point of the equation is, but think about it like this. If Fi = 0 then there is zero chance for intelligent life to form, thereby humans (intelligent life) should not exist. So Fi≠ 0. I don't believe aliens visit the earth or anything, but to say there is absolutely no other intelligent life in the universe is a supremely pessimistic view, and doesn't really make sense to me. To each his own though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
azatoth Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 The Drake equation is rather meaningless when it's based on guesswork. It's just a nice conversation piece. That said I firmly believe there is other intelligent life out there, perhaps some that is far more advanced than us, but them visiting us I find highly unlikely. If FTL-travel is impossible making these vast interstellar voyages would be very difficult. Perhaps were are the only ones in our corner of the galaxy and we'll never meet any other lifeforms even if we manage interstellar space travel. Maybe our galaxy is teeming with intelligent life but those that have mastered interstellar travel have a no-interference approach to less developed civilizations and only answer when directly spoken to. Who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 We'll just have to make our own intelligent life, and blast it out into the cosmos. THEN we'll have friends! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Adam Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I know what the point of the equation is, but think about it like this. If Fi = 0 then there is zero chance for intelligent life to form, thereby humans (intelligent life) should not exist. So Fi≠ 0. I don't believe aliens visit the earth or anything, but to say there is absolutely no other intelligent life in the universe is a supremely pessimistic view, and doesn't really make sense to me. To each his own though No! I'm not saying that it doesnt exist, it either doesn't exist or hides its existance from us. That seems kind of obvious because a civilization more advanced than us by millions of years would show obvious signs of itself. It would also be possible that its very far and its signs couldn't reach us yet, that would still make the result of Drake's equation 0 because it's not in our galaxy. I don't believe one way or other, it's just a logical conclusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruising for burgers Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 how would you find that specific grain of sand in all the sand in the earth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cichlisuite Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 We'll just have to make our own intelligent life, and blast it out into the cosmos. THEN we'll have friends! You see that's the problem. We really shouldn't make our own intelligent life while we're still so inexperienced as a race. At this point we can't even make a perfect building for example. Almost everyting goes wrong: a carpenter is late, someone misinstalled a door frame, they supplied the wrong type of screw mounts, a concrete solution is made by the lowest bidder and needs rework... whereas, a fly that sits on the worker's sandwich is perfect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Well, I was being facetious, but yes, you're right, we need to get better at building things. We have the robots that build robot parts, so that's a start. There are some really cool fields of science opening fast right now, things like biomathematics and bionanotech, and I think engineers are starting to realize how much better it is to look to nature first, see what methods it has used to solve a problem, and emulate them, instead of building heavy, ineffective scratch-projects like The Live-In Cube with a Rectangle Entrance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rubin Farr Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Curiosity landing site named Bradbury Landing in honor of Ray. nice one NASA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 If there R extraterrestrials... We would B extraterrestrials 4 them too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squee Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 If there R extraterrestrials... We would B extraterrestrials 4 them too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest theSun Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 i always liked carl sagans analogy about different forms of life and "civilizations" communicating. i'm going to use a lot of quotations because i'm horny. think of existence as an ant. they are not aware of our existence on any level (unless we destroy their lives/homes, and even then not fully "aware" of "us"), let alone aware of our existence as a more advanced species. similarly, if we are in the "presence" of a more advanced civilization, likely their methods of communication are so far beyond ours that we cannot comprehend how/if they function. imagine us trying to communicate with radio waves to some tribe in the south pacific. the only thing wrong or misleading about that analogy is it compares earth (as a closed system) with the universe (also obviously closed in this scenario). and the scale of the earth is just about impossible to comprehend, let alone the scale of the universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDRXn96HrtY relevant to theSun's thoughts starting at around 7:30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest theSun Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 pretty well put Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marf Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
data Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 new crazy hires photo. more of the same, but i can't get enough of these. edit: it's so hires it looks totally weird when viewed in the watmm image viewer thingy. right click / view image. another one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lumpenprol Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 look like some tasty alluvial striations in that rock up there, yep yep Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marf Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 the only thing wrong or misleading about that analogy is it compares earth (as a closed system) with the universe (also obviously closed in this scenario). and the scale of the earth is just about impossible to comprehend, let alone the scale of the universe. srry, im a dolt. what do you mean by closed system vs open system in this context? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friendly Foil Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Is this new? http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/681054main_pia16105-full_full.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackdust Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Think so, stunning landscape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcbpete Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Taken from the reverse angle - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gaarg Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Looks untrodden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Oh, hey, so apparently Will.I.Am's new single will be broadcast from the rover and played to the surface of Mars. That's pretty fucking lame right there, but it makes you wonder why they put a speaker on the rover. Surely they wouldn't have put it there just for some marketing exercise. This is Nasa and a state-of-art spacecraft. Were they at least not-closed to the idea that they might actually encounter life? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friendly Foil Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 So they get this thing all the way to Mars, and then make it play shit like Will.I.Am? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Npoess Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Oh, hey, so apparently Will.I.Am's new single will be broadcast from the rover and played to the surface of Mars. That's pretty fucking lame right there, but it makes you wonder why they put a speaker on the rover. Surely they wouldn't have put it there just for some marketing exercise. This is Nasa and a state-of-art spacecraft. Were they at least not-closed to the idea that they might actually encounter life? This is going to be our extermination. 21 December 2012.. The end is nigh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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