Assuming there is civilizations on other planets, do you think they have similar problems as we do on earth?
Are the eyes truly the doorway to the soul?
Should " general happiness" be the number one goal of any society?
Random questions.
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Tater Tazz
- Posts: 2938
- Joined: Tue Oct 03, 2006 9:25 am
Random questions.
The eyes? For sighted people there's a lot of information in looking at another person's face. Some of that's picked up from eye contact. Consider a school for the blind. Is there an equivalent way the non-sighted pick up impressions of mood, character, personality? I expect there must be, the blind are no different in regard to soul as anyone else and they're perceptive. So maybe the answer's "for some people, yes".
Umm. Civilization. How far back does civilization go on earth? Maybe a hundred thousand years to push the limit? We have stories handed down over the last ten thousand at best. Archaeology pushes civilization back to maybe 40,000 years ago. At the moment we use non-directional broadcast but that's only been around for a hundred years and it's already fading to obscurity and without that we're hard to detect from a different solar system.
Let me do detectability sums for a moment though, to put "on other planets" into context. I find it hard to imagine inter-galaxy communication so I'll ignore that. If there's a window in any civilization's life when local communication is detectable from elsewhere of around 1000 years, and we allow that civilizations can arise at any time in the life of a galaxy (both gross assumptions!) and the galaxy's 14 billion years old and has 200 billion stars then the number of observable civilizations at any time is about 15,000 if every star has one civilization at some stage in its development. The current scan for life in the universe, SETI@Home at berkeley University, has covered about 0.01% of the galaxy so far and drawn a blank. That's approaching the point where, if civilizations are evenly distributed (they'd each be separated by about 400 light years) we'd be about likely to have found one. Change the assumptions and you get a different likelihood of course. If only one star in a hundred could support one then we're less than 1% into that likelihood, for example.
All that's irrelevant to the question though. I Darwin's correct that all life is competitive - and I think he is - we might conclude that civilizations are by nature as nasty and destructive as all of ours have been so far. That's not an optimistic thought.
That leads on to "the number one goal of any society". I think it has to be perpetuation of biological life. There are two ways of achieving that. Either destroy civilization entirely before it makes this planet completely uninhabitable, or spread to additional footholds on other planets as soon as possible. I prefer the second choice. Putting the entire resources of the earth into going elsewhere and continuing to spread has to be the top priority of our species while we have the opportunity. I can't see any higher call than that. If we stay here then all life we know of is doomed so long as we continue to consume our available resources. The comfort of all the generations between now and either oblivion or escape is a secondary matter, we might as well start with this one. We eat too much, we use too much and we think too little. If it takes a greater degree of focus and asceticism then I'm all for tightening belts and putting our collective shoulder to the grindstone.
Umm. Civilization. How far back does civilization go on earth? Maybe a hundred thousand years to push the limit? We have stories handed down over the last ten thousand at best. Archaeology pushes civilization back to maybe 40,000 years ago. At the moment we use non-directional broadcast but that's only been around for a hundred years and it's already fading to obscurity and without that we're hard to detect from a different solar system.
Let me do detectability sums for a moment though, to put "on other planets" into context. I find it hard to imagine inter-galaxy communication so I'll ignore that. If there's a window in any civilization's life when local communication is detectable from elsewhere of around 1000 years, and we allow that civilizations can arise at any time in the life of a galaxy (both gross assumptions!) and the galaxy's 14 billion years old and has 200 billion stars then the number of observable civilizations at any time is about 15,000 if every star has one civilization at some stage in its development. The current scan for life in the universe, SETI@Home at berkeley University, has covered about 0.01% of the galaxy so far and drawn a blank. That's approaching the point where, if civilizations are evenly distributed (they'd each be separated by about 400 light years) we'd be about likely to have found one. Change the assumptions and you get a different likelihood of course. If only one star in a hundred could support one then we're less than 1% into that likelihood, for example.
All that's irrelevant to the question though. I Darwin's correct that all life is competitive - and I think he is - we might conclude that civilizations are by nature as nasty and destructive as all of ours have been so far. That's not an optimistic thought.
That leads on to "the number one goal of any society". I think it has to be perpetuation of biological life. There are two ways of achieving that. Either destroy civilization entirely before it makes this planet completely uninhabitable, or spread to additional footholds on other planets as soon as possible. I prefer the second choice. Putting the entire resources of the earth into going elsewhere and continuing to spread has to be the top priority of our species while we have the opportunity. I can't see any higher call than that. If we stay here then all life we know of is doomed so long as we continue to consume our available resources. The comfort of all the generations between now and either oblivion or escape is a secondary matter, we might as well start with this one. We eat too much, we use too much and we think too little. If it takes a greater degree of focus and asceticism then I'm all for tightening belts and putting our collective shoulder to the grindstone.
Nullius in verba ... ☎||||||||||| ... To Fate I sue, of other means bereft, the only refuge for the wretched left.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
When flower power came along I stood for Human Rights, marched around for peace and freedom, had some nooky every night - we took it serious.
Who has a spare two minutes to play in this month's FG Trivia game! ... My other OS is Slackware.
Random questions.
Tater Tazz;717255 wrote: Assuming there is civilizations on other planets, do you think they have similar problems as we do on earth?
We never had the same problems on my home planet of Zembaya, as earth
Are the eyes truly the doorway to the soul?
Not really-----------It's the liver
Should " general happiness" be the number one goal of any society?
No---------order and discipline should rule
We never had the same problems on my home planet of Zembaya, as earth
Are the eyes truly the doorway to the soul?
Not really-----------It's the liver
Should " general happiness" be the number one goal of any society?
No---------order and discipline should rule
Random questions.
Lon;717328 wrote: No---------order and discipline should rule
yeah, I prefer my own planet, too!
yeah, I prefer my own planet, too!
Random questions.
Tater Tazz;717255 wrote: Assuming there is civilizations on other planets, do you think they have similar problems as we do on earth?
I bet their gas is cheaper.
Are the eyes truly the doorway to the soul?
I never even seen a window in the eyes let alone a doorway
Should " general happiness" be the number one goal of any society?
I don't think Generals have any more right to happiness than Sargent's.
I bet their gas is cheaper.
Are the eyes truly the doorway to the soul?
I never even seen a window in the eyes let alone a doorway
Should " general happiness" be the number one goal of any society?
I don't think Generals have any more right to happiness than Sargent's.