--- On Fri, 1/22/10, Rick Monteverde <r...@highsurf.com> wrote: > Of course there are a few right here in our own > neighborhood that are decent > candidates for deep bio activity. And aside from that one > where we are to > "attempt no landing...", we wouldn't have to fight off > those annoying blue > people just to have a look.
Besides the latest monolith creations on Europa, and the Na'vi, you have these guys to contend with somewhere beyond Jupiter... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37ybGrKCJFw At least they have those excellent sunshades. On the subject of alien life, I often wonder why these days it is becoming most common to portray nontechnological alien intelligence. N = n* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc x fL, so says Drake and Sagan. No one seems to like fc any more. To play devil's advocate, I could say, "Spaceman General's Warning: fc may be hazardous to your fL." But then, so can asteroids. Alpha Centauri must have at least a few, and what with two other stars quite close, collisions might be frequent. Maybe the tree the Na'vi have is an asteroid defense system left behind by the guys who gave the Fithp (weren't they also from Alpha Centauri?) their 'thuktunthp' (translation, big damn rocks)? If there are not intelligent, technologically advanced communicative civilizations out there, the universe suddenly seems a far more lonely place. Years ago, I watched Sagan's 'COSMOS', and recall in episode 12 when he discussed the Drake equation, and how few there might be out there. The suggestion of N = 10, and his assertion that, if that is the case, there may be no one to talk to, sent a chill up my spine. The stars suddenly seemed very empty. But in many ways now, it seems like people crave this. There's certainly one special interest group that adores the idea of the noble savage from another star, but... that is what it is. Back in the good ol' days, the advancement of a civilization was roughly represented by the Kardashev scale. Apparently we're somewhat close to Type I. The Na'vi would be immeasureably close to Type 0.0, with maybe some allowance for basic energy expendature (fire, animal husbandry, using wind, etc.). Maybe the tree expends energy. By and large, it seems that the primitive, nontechnological aliens are noble savages, and really are Good People, while the technologically advanced starfaring aliens are just bent on blasting the White House and enslaving/killing/eating/etc. humanity for no good reason. They don't think, they don't care, they don't dream. They just kill, because all that steel makes them bad. --Kyle
