"Earth-Like" Planet Discovered

[Daradon]

The vast distances of space make it highly unlikely that we'll ever find intelligent life. Even if we do somehow have reason to believe it would be on a certain planet, it would take us forever to get there.

The only way around it would be to bend the rules of time and space, and therefore travel. The only thing then is, if either species could do this, why would the bother to waste time exploring around as a species? They've probably already figured out the secrets of the universe.

If either species, them or us, has evolved intellectually to the point where interstellar travel is possible, without already dooming their species, we've probably evolved to the point where we are more beings of spirit or energy, then flesh and bone. One finding the other would be like us trying to talk to ants.

Even in the remote possiblity we could figure out some manipulable and reliable way around physical travel in the next little while, we'd probably have to send probes and robots, we wouldn't be able to go ourselves.

I love ideas like these, but I like to look at them more metaphysically. I think when we do break the barriers of time and space, it'll be more of a spiritual thing, or a consciousness thing, instead of a physical thing. At that point we probably won't be experiencing the world or the universe, the way we are now anyway.

That's if we can keep from blowing ourselves up until then, or killing our world and regressing as a species.

It would delight me to know end to here that we found a planet and it had life on it, and really get those fundamentalists scratching their heads. But I doubt it will be that easy, or that we'll see it anytime soon.

Instead, hopefully, we'll just continue to work on ourselves as a species, making ourselves better, more humane and caring, more 'god-like'. Not just in power or knowledge, but in responsibility and wisdom.

Then we'll awaken to all the things around us. See all this life an energy that was always around us, we were just to primitive to understand. Truly realize all the prophets words when they said we were all made in 'god's' image and that we are 'all connected'. Be embraced by love and meaning.

We barely see all the life there is on this planet. We're not ready to see it elsewhere yet. And that might have been the plan all along. The reason for these VAST VAST distances, and our fragile little bodies.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Daradon

The vast distances of space make it highly unlikely that we'll ever find intelligent life. Even if we do somehow have reason to believe it would be on a certain planet, it would take us forever to get there.

True. That is why if we ever contact an intelligent civilization it will be through a program like SETI:

http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/seti/

The effort to scientifically address the ancient qustion "are we alone?" is surprisingly recent, dating from the late 1950s. In the five decades of SETI, many projects were launched, utilizing a wide variety of approaches. Some followed the example of the first SETI search, Project Ozma: they pointed highly sensitive radio telescopes at the most promising stars, and listening at 1420 Megahertz – an emission frequency of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe. Others opted for all-sky surveys, searching for promising signals originating from any point of the visible skies. Some abandoned the hydrogen line "magical" frequency, searching on alternative promising frequencies or in as broad a band as possible. Others yet have opted for a radically different approach, Optical SETI, which searches for signal in the visible light range.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Shazam

A war? Any intelligent life smart enough to find us will be so far ahead of us in terms of technology (probably millions of years ahead), there would be absolutely nothing we could do to harm them.

Think about it. What do you think the chances are that two civilizations in the universe would start up even 10,000 years apart? How about 100 years apart?

Meh, there will be so much red tape on the alien planet, their civilization will advance slowly due to corporations stunting the rapid growth of technology with greed. They'll argue over the cheapest contracts, which will take years to develope.

Then, we send our new stealth fighter jets to take them out.

[Eagle Eye]

I don't know if I am making this up or not, but isn't there a theory out there stating that if you can travel faster then the speed of light you would actually go back in time, or if you traveled at the speed of light time would stop?

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by TheyCallMeBruce

Meh, there will be so much red tape on the alien planet, their civilization will advance slowly due to corporations stunting the rapid growth of technology with greed. They'll argue over the cheapest contracts, which will take years to develope.

Then, we send our new stealth fighter jets to take them out.

"The beauracratic mentality is the one constant in the universe."

From Star Trek IV. Did you know that got a huge cheer from movie goers in the former USSR when the movie was played there?

[Patek23]

Originally Posted by Shazam

And of course, humans can live in areas Reptiles can't. Like here in Canada. I'd like to see a cold-blooded Raptor chase a gang of Humans in -40C weather. (And yes, I'm familiar with the whole Dinosaurs-were-warm-blooded theory).
.

There is a high amount of evidence pointing to Raptors being warm-blooded creatures. There is also a major fact that you're over looking Velociraptors or maybe even a better example to get over everybodys claims that my opinion is based off of Jurassic Park, a Utahraptor which is roughly 5-6 meters long and about 1500 pounds, it had a 9 inch claw that unlike the Velociraptors claw was used for slashing as well as stabbing, from studies on the creature through the DNA it was found that they were well nourished during younger days and middle years which would suggest somewhat of a family life, Utahraptors also hunted in packs and were the top predator of the day as they were much quicker than the T-Rex and a hell of a lot smarter. And the MAJOR fact your overlooking is that back then in the days of the Dinosaur we would have been unable to evovle from the monkeys or whatever you wish to believe we came from as we would have been hardly the predator even in our caveman years the worst we had to deal with was a sabretooth tiger who is quite the predator but hunted alone and wasn't nearly as smart as it is believed Raptors were.

[Cube Inmate]

^^^^^

Ross?

[evman150]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

I don't know if I am making this up or not, but isn't there a theory out there stating that if you can travel faster then the speed of light you would actually go back in time, or if you traveled at the speed of light time would stop?

It is impossible to travel faster than the speed of light.

But yes, the closer you travel to the speed of light the slower time goes compared to a fixed observer and the shorter distances become. These effects are known as time dilation and length contraction.

If you take the limit as v->c of the Lorentz Transformation Equations, then you can be pretty much anywhere and everywhere at any moment in time. This is obviously non-sensical, hence the conclusion that not only can we not surpass the speed of light, but we cannot attain it either.

[Shazam]

Originally Posted by Flaming Homer

There is a high amount of evidence pointing to Raptors being warm-blooded creatures.

There is also a high amount of evidence pointing to Dinosaurs being cold-blooded creatures. Fact is, we just don't know.

There is also a major fact that you're over looking Velociraptors or maybe even a better example to get over everybodys claims that my opinion is based off of Jurassic Park, a Utahraptor which is roughly 5-6 meters long and about 1500 pounds, it had a 9 inch claw that unlike the Velociraptors claw was used for slashing as well as stabbing, from studies on the creature through the DNA it was found that they were well nourished during younger days and middle years which would suggest somewhat of a family life, Utahraptors also hunted in packs and were the top predator of the day as they were much quicker than the T-Rex and a hell of a lot smarter.

Humans also hunt in packs.

And stop trying to give Dinosaurs any sort of human intelligence level. They still had tiny, tiny brains. You know, really small brains. Compare the relative size of a Human's body compared to the size of a Human's head. See how damned big our brains are relative to the rest of us? Shouldn't that tell you how important intelligence is to the success of Humans? See the size of that Raptor's brain? Ask yourself that same question.

So these Raptors invented fire? Clovis points? Traps? They know how to extract deadly poisons from other animals, put them onto spear points and shoot them at their prey? Do you realize just how diabolical and damned smart Humans are? Did those Raptors invent gunpowder? Do you think they'd stand a chance against a nuclear weapon? What, did they invent deflector shields or something?

And how do you know how smart they were, or if they were the top predator back in the day? You have proof? I can tell you in full confidence that Humans are the top predator right now and probably have been since they've been around as Homo Sapien Sapien.

And the MAJOR fact your overlooking is that back then in the days of the Dinosaur we would have been unable to evovle from the monkeys or whatever you wish to believe we came from as we would have been hardly the predator even in our caveman years the worst we had to deal with was a sabretooth tiger who is quite the predator but hunted alone and wasn't nearly as smart as it is believed Raptors were.

Let's just hypothesize for a second that modern humans coexisted with Dinosaurs. You do realize the whole argument is a fantasy, seeing as how Dinosaurs in fact did not live at the same time as Humans, right?

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Flaming Homer

There is a high amount of evidence pointing to Raptors being warm-blooded creatures. There is also a major fact that you're over looking Velociraptors or maybe even a better example to get over everybodys claims that my opinion is based off of Jurassic Park, a Utahraptor which is roughly 5-6 meters long and about 1500 pounds, it had a 9 inch claw that unlike the Velociraptors claw was used for slashing as well as stabbing, from studies on the creature through the DNA it was found that they were well nourished during younger days and middle years which would suggest somewhat of a family life, Utahraptors also hunted in packs and were the top predator of the day as they were much quicker than the T-Rex and a hell of a lot smarter. And the MAJOR fact your overlooking is that back then in the days of the Dinosaur we would have been unable to evovle from the monkeys or whatever you wish to believe we came from as we would have been hardly the predator even in our caveman years the worst we had to deal with was a sabretooth tiger who is quite the predator but hunted alone and wasn't nearly as smart as it is believed Raptors were.

Dinosaurs and remotley Human ancestors never lived on Earth at the same time. Millions of years apart.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by troutman

Dinosaurs and remotley Human ancestors never lived on Earth at the same time. Millions of years apart.

(Insert Stockwell Day joke here)

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Originally Posted by Shazam

"The beauracratic mentality is the one constant in the universe."

From Star Trek IV. Did you know that got a huge cheer from movie goers in the former USSR when the movie was played there?

LOL, that's pretty amusing

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Eagle Eye

I don't know if I am making this up or not, but isn't there a theory out there stating that if you can travel faster then the speed of light you would actually go back in time, or if you traveled at the speed of light time would stop?

Think about walking 10 feet, except that every step you take, you only travel half the distance. You'll never reach the other side because you keep cutting it in half over and over again. You'll simply never make it.

Accelerating an object to the speed of light is like that. Every bit faster you go, the more exponential the energy needed is, until basically you need more than all the energy in the universe to get to the speed of light. You can never accelerate a slower than light object to be faster than light in normal physics. That's why light speed travel is impossible.

[ken0042]

All of this "light speed travel" talk has got me thinking; at one point didn't they say that supersonic travel was impossible?

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by Flaming Homer

And the MAJOR fact your overlooking is that back then in the days of the Dinosaur we would have been unable to evovle from the monkeys or whatever you wish to believe we came from as we would have been hardly the predator even in our caveman years the worst we had to deal with was a sabretooth tiger who is quite the predator but hunted alone and wasn't nearly as smart as it is believed Raptors were.

The major fact that you are overlooking is that your logic is convoluted. Hominids evolved from primates and those from smaller mammals who were never predators. Being a predator is not a pre-requisite for survival. Intelligence however, has proven the ultimate guarantor of survival.

You are saying that our ancestors would've been unable to evolve because Raptors would have killed us all...because they obviously didn't. Mammals survived. Raptors didn't.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by ken0042

All of this "light speed travel" talk has got me thinking; at one point didn't they say that supersonic travel was impossible?

That's a myth. It was known that rifle bullets go faster than sound long before an aircraft did.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

The major fact that you are overlooking is that your logic is convoluted. Hominids evolved from primates and those from smaller mammals who were never predators. Being a predator is not a pre-requisite for survival. Intelligence however, has proven the ultimate guarantor of survival.

You are saying that our ancestors would've been unable to evolve because Raptors would have killed us all...because they obviously didn't. Mammals survived. Raptors didn't.

To be fair, the major reason that mamals took over was because the vast majority of the major predators on the planet went extinct at pretty much the same time, there was a void to fill. To say that humans evolved with predators around and to extend that to say we would have even if dinosaurs hand't been wiped out is a little bit of a stretch. Once the dinosaours were gone the pressure was off of mamals and they were able to evolve to fill that void. Without that void, I doubt it wuold have been possible for monkeys to come out of the trees and start hunting mamoths.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

That's a myth. It was known that rifle bullets go faster than sound long before an aircraft did.

Yeah, and even if they did think that it wouldn't have been based on anything, where as now we've got good evidence to support the theory that you can't reach the speed of light. Even the tiniest particles can't be accelerated to the speed of light using particle accelerators and massive ammounts of power.

Is it possible? Perhaps, but we don't know how, and everything we've learned to date has told us that we can't, so it isn't exactly the same as not being able to go faster than the speed of sound.

[evman150]

You know what travels the speed of light?

Light.

Why?

It has no mass.

[ken0042]

But if it has no mass how come the gravity of a black hole is able to pull it in?