While we have the ability to speculate about non-water/carbon based life, we haven't ever observed such a thing. We have no idea what to even start looking for as indicators of such life. Especially difficult at interstellar distances
What do you think of the red rain from Kerala? Why search for aliens when they might come to us?
Don't really feel like looking it up right now... But wasn't that shown to be something like an atmospheric algae bloom?? ... Completely terrestrial and carbon/water based. Nothing at all alien about it.
Don't really feel like looking it up right now... But wasn't that shown to be something like an atmospheric algae bloom?? ... Completely terrestrial and carbon/water based. Nothing at all alien about it.
Well, it was carbon/water, but it could live under conditions that we'd never found things living before.
We should try to engineer our own silicon-based life. How hard could it be?
While we have the ability to speculate about non-water/carbon based life, we haven't ever observed such a thing. We have no idea what to even start looking for as indicators of such life. Especially difficult at interstellar distances
So we look for the things we know how to look for.
While we may not have enough evidence to demonstrate that life as we know it is definitive or inevitable, there is certainly plenty of evidence to show how it is possible withOUT divine intervention.
ID assumes something for which there is NO physical evidence whatsoever. That doesn't mean you aren't welcome to look for some evidence... But no-one's presented any YET.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
We should try to engineer our own silicon-based life. How hard could it be?
King, fair enough... But I wonder if just next door within the gaseous soup of Venus sentient lifeforms are observing us and laughing their asses off at us looking for "life".
On a more serious note, it is true that there is no "smoking gun" for Intelligent Design. But I reckon in a 100 years you could fiddle with DNA bits on a computer and then churn out your own physical invertebrate lifeforms. Kinda like the game Spore but in real life. Assuming this whole line of research isn't banned completely or said organisms fail to be contained and run amuck.
Cheers... Two things I don't like about how water is currently viewed in planetary science and astrobiology:
A.
As mentioned, still no clear explanation how so much darn liquid water formed or came to Earth.
B.
Looking for "intelligent life" solely based on liquid water as a key ingredient of life. What about non-carbon, non-water-based liquid, gaseous or solid entities, etc. that may have formed more complex structures and somehow... sentience?
You can see where the Intelligent Design believers are coming from... They're smart enough to grasp theories of physics and planet formation but there's also not enough data to demonstrate Earth and sentient life as a definitive, logical, random, inevitable occurrence.
It doesn't matter if everything was fully and thoroughly explained with cold, hard evidence. People will come to their beliefs in whatever manner and will try to fit the evidence to get there. One what hope the majority of the population can be taught structured, rational thinking, but I'm not sure it is possible.
But I reckon in a 100 years you could fiddle with DNA bits on a computer and then churn out your own physical invertebrate lifeforms. Kinda like the game Spore but in real life. Assuming this whole line of research isn't banned completely or said organisms fail to be contained and run amuck.
We're going to need genetic manipulation to become a space-faring people. Well, for the people who choose it.
We're going to need genetic manipulation to become a space-faring people. Well, for the people who choose it.
oh!... oh!... pick me! PICK ME!! (hand waving wildly in the air)
In reality, I'm probably too old to be chosen for such things, but even so, there would be no shortage of volunteers for that mission. Some people are still willing to take great risks to help accomplish great things.
Then you'll have to figure out how to keep it there in a liquid state. Mars may not be big enough to hold a thick enough atmosphere to keep it from boiling away.
Wikipedia says Saturn's moon, Titan, has a surface pressure of about 1.45 Earth atmospheric pressure at about 93° K. 98% nitrogen. Cold cold cold. It's atmosphere also appears to be larger. So, yeah it appears a body of such size can support a thick atmosphere.
Problem is, it is extremely cold at the ice caps. A semi-permanent human colony at the north ice cap could give access to water but harvesting that water would be challenging.
The weather at the Martian equator is peachy compared to the poles and compared to earth orbit.
Comments
While we have the ability to speculate about non-water/carbon based life, we haven't ever observed such a thing. We have no idea what to even start looking for as indicators of such life. Especially difficult at interstellar distances
What do you think of the red rain from Kerala? Why search for aliens when they might come to us?
What do you think of the red rain from Kerala?
Don't really feel like looking it up right now... But wasn't that shown to be something like an atmospheric algae bloom?? ... Completely terrestrial and carbon/water based. Nothing at all alien about it.
Don't really feel like looking it up right now... But wasn't that shown to be something like an atmospheric algae bloom?? ... Completely terrestrial and carbon/water based. Nothing at all alien about it.
Well, it was carbon/water, but it could live under conditions that we'd never found things living before.
We should try to engineer our own silicon-based life. How hard could it be?
While we have the ability to speculate about non-water/carbon based life, we haven't ever observed such a thing. We have no idea what to even start looking for as indicators of such life. Especially difficult at interstellar distances
So we look for the things we know how to look for.
While we may not have enough evidence to demonstrate that life as we know it is definitive or inevitable, there is certainly plenty of evidence to show how it is possible withOUT divine intervention.
ID assumes something for which there is NO physical evidence whatsoever. That doesn't mean you aren't welcome to look for some evidence... But no-one's presented any YET.
We should try to engineer our own silicon-based life. How hard could it be?
King, fair enough... But I wonder if just next door within the gaseous soup of Venus sentient lifeforms are observing us and laughing their asses off at us looking for "life".
On a more serious note, it is true that there is no "smoking gun" for Intelligent Design. But I reckon in a 100 years you could fiddle with DNA bits on a computer and then churn out your own physical invertebrate lifeforms. Kinda like the game Spore but in real life. Assuming this whole line of research isn't banned completely or said organisms fail to be contained and run amuck.
Cheers... Two things I don't like about how water is currently viewed in planetary science and astrobiology:
A.
As mentioned, still no clear explanation how so much darn liquid water formed or came to Earth.
B.
Looking for "intelligent life" solely based on liquid water as a key ingredient of life. What about non-carbon, non-water-based liquid, gaseous or solid entities, etc. that may have formed more complex structures and somehow... sentience?
You can see where the Intelligent Design believers are coming from... They're smart enough to grasp theories of physics and planet formation but there's also not enough data to demonstrate Earth and sentient life as a definitive, logical, random, inevitable occurrence.
It doesn't matter if everything was fully and thoroughly explained with cold, hard evidence. People will come to their beliefs in whatever manner and will try to fit the evidence to get there. One what hope the majority of the population can be taught structured, rational thinking, but I'm not sure it is possible.
But I reckon in a 100 years you could fiddle with DNA bits on a computer and then churn out your own physical invertebrate lifeforms. Kinda like the game Spore but in real life. Assuming this whole line of research isn't banned completely or said organisms fail to be contained and run amuck.
We're going to need genetic manipulation to become a space-faring people. Well, for the people who choose it.
We're going to need genetic manipulation to become a space-faring people. Well, for the people who choose it.
oh!... oh!... pick me! PICK ME!! (hand waving wildly in the air)
In reality, I'm probably too old to be chosen for such things, but even so, there would be no shortage of volunteers for that mission. Some people are still willing to take great risks to help accomplish great things.
Then you'll have to figure out how to keep it there in a liquid state. Mars may not be big enough to hold a thick enough atmosphere to keep it from boiling away.
Wikipedia says Saturn's moon, Titan, has a surface pressure of about 1.45 Earth atmospheric pressure at about 93° K. 98% nitrogen. Cold cold cold. It's atmosphere also appears to be larger. So, yeah it appears a body of such size can support a thick atmosphere.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14408928
BTW how much water is at the Martian ice caps?
"If just the top meter of ice deposits around the martian north pole were melted, there would be enough liquid water to fill Lake Michigan."
http://www.spacetoday.org/SolSys/Mar...t/MarsIce.html
Problem is, it is extremely cold at the ice caps. A semi-permanent human colony at the north ice cap could give access to water but harvesting that water would be challenging.
The weather at the Martian equator is peachy compared to the poles and compared to earth orbit.