End futile search

Christopher wrote:
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:13:18 +0100, "Dr. O" dr.o@xxxxx wrote:


"William Elliot" wrote in message
...
The heck with this futile search for Martians. Let's send some
bacteria or algae that'll survive to become the first Martians.

I'll second that!!!

And when they exterminate the native Martian bacteria? You sound like
someone who thinks it was a good idea to ethnically exterminate the
native American indians.


Wrong question. The right question is "and what if they get some
interesting mutations or chnage genes with the natives and make
the place really inhospitable place for humans?

I don't like the idea of radiodurans crossed with a disease vector.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

"Christopher" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:13:18 +0100, "Dr. O" dr.o@xxxxx wrote:


"William Elliot" wrote in message
...
The heck with this futile search for Martians. Let's send some
bacteria or algae that'll survive to become the first Martians.

I'll second that!!!

And when they exterminate the native Martian bacteria? You sound like
someone who thinks it was a good idea to ethnically exterminate the
native American indians.


Umm, first of all, WHAT NATIVE Martion bacteria?


The greatest strength of the native martian bacteria is that nobody expects
the native martian bacteria!

/me runs away fast

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

William Elliot wrote in message ...
The heck with this futile search for Martians. Let's send some
bacteria or algae that'll survive to become the first Martians.

----

So, how do you know that Martian life did not 'seed' the Earth?
There is possible evidence of such!
So we would be just sending Martian seed back to it's origin!

"G EddieA95" wrote in message
...
I'd like to know what the 'craze' is, meself.

'Craze' implies something new and faddish. The question of life and
intelligence elsewhere goes back centuries.

On a philosophical level.

As opposed to what?

I would call the UFO subculture and SETI a craze, though.

The two don't equate. One stews in its juices and dreams - the
other actively listens.


Daydreams about exotic trade goods and commerce in wildly new
technology are just fantasy.

No one has seriously proposed such, either.

OK, so your interest in this issue is philosophical. That's fine, but not
worth public expense on, and most definitely not worth revealing our
existence
to potential slavemasters.

You have got to be kidding.
The earth has been broadcasting radio and TV into space
for over 60 years. Military radars are almost unbelievably
bright beacons. Our existence has long since been
revealed. Your finger is pointing in the wrong direction.
Besides, in what way would the current SETI project reveal
anything to anyone or in space? It listens.
It doesn't broadcast.

G EddieA95 wrote:
And ven if they are benevolent benefactors, how do you know the end result of
the
technology they offer is good for humans and human society?

I really doubt that any alien ould "offer" us their technology. We have
nothing to offer in exchange. Natural, biological etc., resources of Earth can
be had by the aliens, without our intermediation at all.

They might be in need of beta testers?


A "benevolent benefactor" race would be the end of human society as we know it,
anyway. At the very least, they would separate and disarm human societies and
place us under a "protectorate" that amounted to pethood.

Maybe, though that model doesn't quite fit what I had in mind. But imagine for
example wide availability of DIY cold fusion giving everybody near limitless
energy source. Or 'grey goo'. Or some other totaly unfathomable technology that
just happens to completely transform human society. Look at what amounts of
controversy something as trivial as 'the pill' has managed to create - and
continues to still do in many places on this planet.

Now consider the introduction of something totaly new and alien - something that
humans themselves could not come up with (or at least didn't).


Andcompatible? Its more of a question of how long it would take to even
comprehend
teh beginning of what the other species does or has.

Sex requires a minimum of biological attraction, which does not exist between
species. You don't see humans and dolphins, etc., getting it on, and aliens
are certain to be far more strange to us, and we to them.

Uhh.. not just that. They may not have sex as we humans understand it at all.
just look at the variety of it on this one single planet where there is some
amount of co-parentage in all the animal species. Given a species evolved in a
completely different biosystem, there need not be any commonlity at all. We may
have trouble recognising them as alive and how they function, never mind
reproduction.

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

Cardman wrote:
On 29 Jan 2004 19:38:58 GMT, (G EddieA95) wrote:

And ven if they are benevolent benefactors, how do you know the end result of
the
technology they offer is good for humans and human society?

I really doubt that any alien ould "offer" us their technology. We have
nothing to offer in exchange. Natural, biological etc.,

There is under selling our value again...

It is just a matter of finding out what customer X wants, where
customer X like any other customer could be a sucker for advertising.

"advertising" could be a human concept.


Saying that we have nothing to offer equals that we can provide no
level of intellectual interest for such an alien. All you have to do
in order to make a sale is to understand your customer.


You also need to be able to communicate and have something they want. And
precicely what do you imagine that to be?

resources of Earth can be had by the aliens, without our intermediation
at all.

That sounds like judging them by our values, when for all we know such
hostile theft is not even part of their being.

But "theft" presupposes property (and to an extent, individuality) - the borg
would probably not have such a concept at all.

[snip]


Cardman
http://www.cardman.com
http://www.cardman.co.uk

--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

"Christopher" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 22:13:18 +0100, "Dr. O" dr.o@xxxxx wrote:


"William Elliot" wrote in message
...
The heck with this futile search for Martians. Let's send some
bacteria or algae that'll survive to become the first Martians.

I'll second that!!!

And when they exterminate the native Martian bacteria? You sound like
someone who thinks it was a good idea to ethnically exterminate the
native American indians.

Who gives a rat's ass about Martian bacteria. We shouldn't stop colonizing
Mars just because it contains a few bacteria. We should study them first,
off course, to understand if they're native or came from Earth or life from
Earth originated from Mars. But that doesn't mean we should turn Mars into a
wildlife museum just it contains some single celled creatures.

(G EddieA95) :

we might be like China, which had its chance to explore and to ex-
pand but then suddenly outlawed sea-going vessels and built walls in-
stead. Which is why today we have America while all *they* have is
Canada.


The Chinese have Canada?

No, only BC.

Earl Colby Pottinger
--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
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