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by **Wishmaster** » Aug 3rd, '09, 19:14

daleshrimpton wrote:the one thing that struck me as odd when they abducted me, was their total lack of butts. This, however does make the silver all in one suits hang so much better.

If they don't have butts, how do they p** (rhymes with shoe)? :shock:

by **Infinite** » Aug 3rd, '09, 21:36

Well scientifically speaking light is a constant in a closed universe. Ergo the fastest anything can accelerate TOO is the speed of light within the context of the speed in that reference frame.

Meaning of course that at a quantum level light only ever has 1 hop to get anywhere in the galaxy. Meaning of course that if light takes 400 light years then nothing can get their faster than that because to light 400 light years is exactly one hop away.

That coupled with the fact that time is relative to the observers speed to the related objects of reference (In this case space) it stands to reason that it would be easier to find people in other dimensions than it would be to travel across the universe to say hi to someone.

does life exist? Yes has it visited? No will it ever visit? highly unlikely.

by **daleshrimpton** » Aug 3rd, '09, 21:44

Wishmaster wrote:
daleshrimpton wrote:the one thing that struck me as odd when they abducted me, was their total lack of butts. This, however does make the silver all in one suits hang so much better.

If they don't have butts, how do they p** (rhymes with shoe)?

they dont. Basically they have stopped ingesting any form of solids, in order to remain in suspended animation during transit.
They quickly discovered that there is nothing worse than waking up after a 5 light year trip, knee deep in your own sh*te

by **Mandrake** » Aug 3rd, '09, 22:09

daleshrimpton wrote:there is nothing worse than waking up after a 5 light year trip, knee deep in your own sh*te

Apart from waking up knee deep in someone else's.....

by **Ant** » Aug 4th, '09, 09:58

Infinite wrote:Well scientifically speaking light is a constant in a closed universe. Ergo the fastest anything can accelerate TOO is the speed of light within the context of the speed in that reference frame.

Meaning of course that at a quantum level light only ever has 1 hop to get anywhere in the galaxy. Meaning of course that if light takes 400 light years then nothing can get their faster than that because to light 400 light years is exactly one hop away.

That coupled with the fact that time is relative to the observers speed to the related objects of reference (In this case space) it stands to reason that it would be easier to find people in other dimensions than it would be to travel across the universe to say hi to someone.

does life exist? Yes has it visited? No will it ever visit? highly unlikely.

True, however Nathan Rosen hypothesised that wormhole travel (Rosen-Bridge) was possible within the remit of Einsteins Relativity, therefore travelling at the speed of light would be unnecessary. 30mph could do the job in much less time.

For those of you that do not know, it is basically suggested space time is curved therefore you could travel between the curvature rather than around it. Think travelling through the centre of the Earth opposed to flying around it.

by **nickj** » Aug 4th, '09, 12:11

There are locations within our own solar system which would be habitable by Earth's own extremophiles, it is only whether or not conditions were ever right for life to have begun in the first place that would determine if life exists there.

As for life in the universe, I'd say that the odds are probably in favour since, as far as we can tell, there is nothing particularly special about Earth or the Sun. Concerning intelligent life, considering the number of species which evolved on Earth and the number of them which got to the point of tool use (merely a handful really) I'd be tempted to say that only a fraction of a percent of those planets on which life could evolve would have reached that stage.

Mass extinctions should also be taken into account; if they hadn't occurred on Earth then an intelligent species (not homosapiens of course) could have evolved around 500 million years ago. Just think how advanced they could be now assuming that they didn't nuke themselves. If we make that assumption that general relativity holds and that the energy requirements and other technological hurdles for some of the more interesting geometries can be met then there is no reason why there could not be extremely advanced alien races roaming the galaxy as we speak using Startrek style warp engines or Stargates.

That said, I'm making some pretty huge assumptions there, especially given that we are only just starting to find Earth like extra-solar planets, and since our own planet is the only one on which we have observed life we can't even begin to calculate accurate odds for the existence of life elsewhere.

by **bananafish** » Aug 4th, '09, 12:39

Reverend Tristan wrote:Damn it, should have been another option on poll 'nobody here but us chickens' any mods that can change that?

Yes you should.

I could do it - but it would make the poll null and void really as many people who have voted may have voted for another option already.

For future refernce though - you can do it yorself by editing the first post of the thread.

As for the poll itself, my take is that there is a very high chance that there is or has been or will be other life out there . As to whether they visited earth - probably not - certainly there is no evidence for that (apart from the spiders).

If space is infinite - and if it is not - then what is at the end of space? then that means that there is an infinite chance of other life being out there somewhere. (It also proves the parallel universe theory - but that is a different matter). Of course just because we can't conceive of anything else after space doesn't prove it is infinite, just that we don't understand.

Space is pretty big though. They say it is a small world, but no one ever says it is a small universe. So the chance are that there is other life - but the distances being as they are - the chance are no one will ever travel between the stars. Forget star trek - it just may not be possible.

I like to think of infinte space though and parallellell universes...
I like to think that the future will hold technologies we can't even conceive yet.
I don't like to think of spiders.

by **Mandrake** » Aug 4th, '09, 12:46

bananafish wrote:Space is pretty big though. They say it is a small world, but no one ever says it is a small

The Hitchkiker's Guide to the Galaxy wrote:Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

by **Ant** » Aug 4th, '09, 12:49

Mandrake wrote:
The Hitchkiker's Guide to the Galaxy wrote:Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Douglas Adams is great.

=D

by **nickj** » Aug 4th, '09, 12:58

bananafish wrote:If space is infinite - and if it is not - then what is at the end of space?

Unfortunately, that's a pretty meaningless question! The three spacial dimensions we experience are part and parcel of space/time, meaning that there is no "space" outside the universe; the universe is everything and, even though it isn't quite infinitely large, there is nothing outside it. That's a tough thing to get your brain around when all of our experience is of things which have other things outside them.

by **Wishmaster** » Aug 4th, '09, 13:22

nickj wrote:Unfortunately, that's a pretty meaningless question! The three spacial dimensions we experience are part and parcel of space/time, meaning that there is no "space" outside the universe; the universe is everything and, even though it isn't quite infinitely large, there is nothing outside it. That's a tough thing to get your brain around when all of our experience is of things which have other things outside them.

My head hurts now. If something isn't infinitely large and therefore has an end, there has to be something beyond. I can't compute what you said at all.

So, what do they think the end of the universe is like? If it has an end, is it a brick wall or something else? Another meaningless and flippant question, but it's one my brain is saying there must be an answer to because the alternative makes no sense. It's too strange for me to think about.

by **Ant** » Aug 4th, '09, 13:41

Wishmaster wrote:My head hurts now. If something isn't infinitely large and therefore has an end, there has to be something beyond. I can't compute what you said at all.

So, what do they think the end of the universe is like? If it has an end, is it a brick wall or something else? Another meaningless and flippant question, but it's one my brain is saying there must be an answer to because the alternative makes no sense. It's too strange for me to think about.

That's just the point. Just because the human mind is unable to (or can barely) comprehend something, does not mean it is wrong.

The best example of thinking about dimensional realities I have come across involves two right angled triangles. One with the right angle in the left hand corner and one with it in the right. If you rotate them within a two dimensional space they cannot ever "fit" perfectly on top of each other, however, if you pick one up, moving it out of 2 dimensions and in to the third, you can spin it around in the third dimension and place it back in to the two dimensional environment on top of the triangle. (This is easier to explain with pictures).

If you only understood in two dimensions, this would be barely comprehendable, so think of it like this. Hold your hands up in front of. Basically speaking they are exactly the same shape, just the inverse of each other, no matter how much you move them within a three dimensional space they will never be the "same", ie. thumbs in the same place. If you could pull your hand in to a fourth dimensional space though, flip it around and place it back in the third dimension, both your hands would face the same way.

Similarly with the Universe. To try and comprehend something outside of our experience of reality verges on impossible because the human brain does not have the necessary information to interpret the conditions that may (or may not) exist.

Then again we may all just be balanced on the shell of a giant tortoise!

by **Wishmaster** » Aug 4th, '09, 14:14

A_n_t wrote:That's just the point. Just because the human mind is unable to (or can barely) comprehend something, does not mean it is wrong.

On some level I can accept it as a viable theory and am certainly in no position to question. But, on another level, my mind just runs away with fingers in ears, humming the national anthem. "Nah nah nah, I can't hear you!!!". It's too hard to think about

The example with the triangles makes more sense because I have a frame of reference to work with, but still.

A_n_t wrote:If you only understood in two dimensions, this would be barely comprehendable, so think of it like this. Hold your hands up in front of. Basically speaking they are exactly the same shape, just the inverse of each other, no matter how much you move them within a three dimensional space they will never be the "same", ie. thumbs in the same place. If you could pull your hand in to a fourth dimensional space though, flip it around and place it back in the third dimension, both your hands would face the same way.

Similarly with the Universe. To try and comprehend something outside of our experience of reality verges on impossible because the human brain does not have the necessary information to interpret the conditions that may (or may not) exist.

I sort of understand this idea with the fourth dimension, but it's just soooo difficult to grasp because we only consciously experience things in three dimensions. Thanks for the explanation though. I'm glad someone gets it hehe!

A_n_t wrote:Then again we may all just be balanced on the shell of a giant tortoise!

Can you provide some research to support that please?

by **Replicant** » Aug 4th, '09, 14:39

I suppose we called it "space" for a darn good reason.

by **townleystreet** » Aug 4th, '09, 16:35

I remember watching this a while ago. If you have trouble with 4 dimensions, this should make things a lot clearer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkxieS-6WuA

Also, for a certain definition of life, stars are alive. They are even mechanically reproducing. I guess that's not the alien life you're after though.

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