I may be disagreeing now. I raised this point with author Graham Hancock when I was 15. He thought that the pyramids and Ankor Watt were constructed 10,000 years ago accurately following the alignment of Ursa Major

Are the pyramids of Egypt and Central America or Stonehenge constructed for accurate celestial alignment?

I pointed out that 10,000 years ago the constellations would have looked a bit different, how does this fit with his calculations? He never replied.

It doesn’t look good if you’re outsmarted by a 15 year old

If contact with alien life had already been established, would it be publicized?

Did the Dogon tribes have ancient knowledge of stars invisible to the naked eye?

Are the pyramids of Egypt and Central America or Stonehenge constructed for accurate celestial alignment?

What gives with Area 51?

Is this legit, or is it bonkers?
Is asking questions a way of stating facts, or is it a way of suggesting something without risking nailing yourself down to something specific?

Statistically it is unlikely that there is no life away from Earth. However, there is damn near zero probability of us ever finding it.

Our advanced civilisations have been present on Earth for circa 3,000 years. Our capacity for receiving and sending radio and other transmissions has been around for circa 100 years. Our space travel efforts have been around for 60. If you think about it, and we’ve barely touched our nearest planetoids and planets, it also appears that warp-drives are more fiction than anything else. The likelihood of another advanced civilisation existing at the same time of ours is remote, couple that with the likelihood of them then contacting us, our probability becomes even smaller.

Saying that, in August 1977, we detected a radio signal that matched the profile of one from space. A 72 second bell shaped pulse of radio waves. It’s known as the Wow Signal. However, there have been umpteen efforts of trying to find it again, but these have all failed. The signal came from within the constellation of Sagittarius. But when you think that it is unlikely that the Earth will ever be in the same place as it was on that day, then the lack of replication is not too disheartening. It has been postulated that the signal, if it had been sent from a transmitter in the Sagittarius constellation, then it would have had a power of 2.2giga-watts. To put this in perspective, the largest transmitters we have a 2.5kilo-watts.

It would be good to get confirmation, but I doubt we will see it in our life times.

is it a way of suggesting something without risking nailing yourself down to something specific?

You’ve caught me in the act!!

I find it fascinating, but the reason I’ve posed them all as questions is because I’m on the fence with all these things, though I find it highly likely there is other life out there in the incomprehensible vastness of the universe, over the years I’ve become more skeptical about regular visits by other lifeforms as I’d imagine with the proliferation of cameras littered across the earth these days, tangible footage of UFOs would be forthcoming and go viral pretty quickly.

They’re all legitimate questions though and worth thinking about, even if nothing conclusive can be established either way.

I pointed out that 10,000 years ago the constellations would have looked a bit different, how does this fit with his calculations? He never replied.

In what respect did he not reply?

i.e. was he there in the flesh, or was it that he didn’t answer your correspondence?

They’re all legitimate questions though and worth thinking about, even if nothing conclusive can be established either way.

Define “legitimate”. And “worth thinking about”, while we’re at it.

In what respect did he not reply?

Serious face?

Define “legitimate”

Didn’t you know all the seriously legitimate questions start with ‘What gives?’

I’ve ringed the planets/moons that have harboured the lifeforms that have contacted me. Stay away from the red ones… probers.

* Goes up another gradient on the learning curve. 🙂

PS – re the above I think “probers”=coke and hookers.

If contact with alien life had already been established, would it be publicized?

I’m almost more prepared to believe in god than a hushed-up conspiracy that we’ve been in contact with alien life.

I believe that there is life out there (and it is a belief, I have no proof). I also believe that due to the distances involved the chances of us talking to them are as close to ‘none’ as makes no odds. Which is a damn shame, but there it is.

It’s possible that life is out there but sparsely distributed enough for no-one to be able to male contact in any reasonable time frame. If faster than light travel is not possible then we might never know if ojr nearest neighbours ar living 100,000 ly away.

In an infinite Universe, there are an infinite number of possibilities.

Which means that somewhere, there is a planet where mattresses grow on trees. 8)

If the universe really is infinite, then anything which could possibly happen, must happen.

[quote]In an infinite Universe, there are an infinite number of possibilities.[/quote]
Only if it’s infinite and non repeating.
1/3 written as a decimal is an infinitely repeating string of 3s. It will never contain a 4

Show me the conclusive evidence of the origins of life… or is it just conjecture?

Well creating ‘cells’ is fairly straightforward, and most of the basic building blocks and chemicals do occur naturally without life (amino acids, ammonia etc). So these ‘cells’ can do chemical reactions, and be fairly self sustaining. The leap from that to RNA and replication? That’s the difficult bit! Once it’s there it’s self sustaining and evolution takes care of the rest, but the shear mindbogling complexity and shear luck of a molecule of RNA spontaneously forming inside a cell? It’ll happen, but IMO that’s the limiting step, everything upto that point and everything after it is inevitable, it’s the transcription/replication that’s important.

Our comprehension of errrr… Everything seems to have evolved so rapidly over the last couple of hundred years, that to my mind it’s completely feasible that our understanding could be turned on it’s head (again) at any given moment..

For this reason I keep an open mind about whether or not what we think we know as a species will continue to have as much relevance in 10, 50, 100, or 1000 years time

Which means that somewhere, there is a planet where mattresses grow on trees.

Squornshellous Zeta.

JIVE I gave you the definition of conspiracy theroy there was no need for you to redefine it yourself using the 4 th definition from the online dictionary whilst ignoroing the one below it

conspiracy (k?n?sp?r?s?)
n, pl -cies
1. a secret plan or agreement to carry out an illegal or harmful act, esp with political motivation; plot
2. the act of making such plans in secret

and the same was done for theory – you ignored the scientific version whish was odd as you were talking about science

the·o·ry (th-r, thîr)
n. pl. the·o·ries
1. A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.
2. The branch of a science or art consisting of its explanatory statements, accepted principles, and methods of analysis, as opposed to practice: a fine musician who had never studied theory.
3. A set of theorems that constitute a systematic view of a branch of mathematics.
4. Abstract reasoning; speculation: a decision based on experience rather than theory.
5. A belief or principle that guides action or assists comprehension or judgment: staked out the house on the theory that criminals usually return to the scene of the crime.
6. An assumption based on limited information or knowledge; a conjecture.

see the testable bit and make predictions bit ….VERY IMPORTANT
You and facts dont ever interesct except when you need to cherry pick some to support your beliefs.

you wont ever find the truth but you will wallow in confirmation bias and the first stage of competence.

Can Junkyard and Jivebunnyjive* just bang already.

*Misread as this initially, and my brain refuses to make the correction.

eep

Thanks for the link to the Fermi Paradox. I didn’t know that was its name so couldn’t find it

To various others

The observable universe is finite. The rest of it who knows, but the whole infinite business is very Newtonian

Still surpised that so many people think that they can make a stab at the chances of life occurring term in the drake equation

I’m pretty sure there’s other life out there, of varying levels of complexity, with any complex, intelligent ones (i.e. ones we could conceivably communicate one) being much rarer than simpler, microbey ones. I don’t think we’ll ever find anything more complex than a microbe though, or communicate with another intelligence.

Good to see the large amount of faith being placed on this issue.

Good to see no one is preaching about it nor expecting anyone else to be forced to study their beliefs nor making others live by their beliefs nor claiming their belief is divine etc

Good to see everyone knows its a GUESS and they can explain the basis for the guess and the limits of this
Most importantly they know its not true nor a fact.

Good to see the large amount of faith being placed on this issue.

More opinion than faith I’d say. I don’t see anyone saying it’s anything more than that, or going on to base anything else they do on it- just making an observation really.

Plenty of evidence that the nearest planet to us is populated with robots.

Evidence driven sciencey types…

Euro – Member

I’m interested in your take on the possibility of life existing on other planets.

I am not a person of science but a person of science will answer in such logic …

1. Whatever we don’t know, we know they don’t exist …

2. Whatever we know, we know they are absolute …

To answer OP’s question the land is flat until they take the courage to inch forward … in the meantime the land is still flat.

🙄

Plenty of evidence that the nearest planet to us is populated with robots.

If you mean rovers on Mars, then Mars isn’t our nearest planet.

Looks like it is at the moment

http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/Solar/action?sys=-Si

I am not a person of science but a person of science will answer in such logic …
1. Whatever we don’t know, we know they don’t exist …
2. Whatever we know, we know they are absolute …

You’re right – you’re not a person of science, because that isn’t how any good science operates at all.

You’re right – you’re not a person of science, because that isn’t how any good science operates at all.

It’s like a Johari window with the blind half drawn.

slowoldman – Member

“There’s the odd unexplained radio signal”

Ooh tell me more.

we’ve had the ‘wow!’ signal, so called as that’s what got written on the paper-printout that it was recorded on.

(the letters/numbers just indicate signal strength, it’s not a ‘code’)

but it only amounted to roughly one short ‘beep’ – and that was 37 years ago.

i don’t know of any more…

GrahamS – Member
You’re right – you’re not a person of science, because that isn’t how any good science operates at all.

So how does good science operate? Quick summary please as I have one eye on Red Dwarf at the moment.

thisisnotaspoon – Member
It’s like a Johari window with the blind half drawn.

Who is like the Johari Window? Science? 😯

but it only amounted to roughly one short ‘beep’ – and that was 37 years ago.

Hmm. There was conjecture that the signal detected by Jocelyn Bell in 1967 was possibly from an “intelligent extraterrestrial civilisation”. It turned out to be a natural phenomenon – a pulsar. One beep does not an advanced culture make. That’s chewkw or jivehoneyjive physics.

slowoldman – Member
That’s chewkw or jivehoneyjive physics.

I just want to know how good science operates. 🙄

Hey everyone knows one beep counts for nothing and you don’t even have to be a scientist to know that … 😯

Well let’s start with what it’s not:
“Whatever we don’t know, we know they don’t exist …”
It’s not this.

Looks like it is at the moment

Touche gwaelod

slowoldman – Member

Well let’s start with what it’s not:
“Whatever we don’t know, we know they don’t exist …”
It’s not this.

I hear you.
To answer my question?

😮

Hypothesis is tested by observation and peer review leading to theory.

slowoldman – Member

Hypothesis is tested by observation and peer review leading to theory.

Where does the hypothesis come from? (seriously)

😯