UFO's

[krabapple]

Nope. Haven't missed the little sarcasms, and yes, those are the giveaways. I actually knew a couple scientist-types who always spoke in "little sarcasms" to "average Joe's" to make sure they knew they were in the presence of someone "exceptional". I think they may have treated their peers a little better, but then again they didn't really think they had any peers.

My buzz is fine, thank you for asking. The lows from your little sarcasms are more than evened out by the highs from the the contributions of Buckeye Nut and jgarcia, and the wit of gmichael and majorloser.

I did noticed a couple comments where it looked like you didn't take everything too seriously. Maybe there's hope.

Crikey. I go to the trouble of replying point-by-point to you, and you quote the whole thing...and then proceed to focus entirely on just the last few sentences.

So much for hope. Where's that booby thread.

 

[mtrycrafts]

It's interesting that for hundreds of thousands of years, humans ever so slowly evolved, being at best hunters and gatherers. Then rather suddenly (about 12,000 years ago), and without antecedents, humankind advanced virtually over-night and invented metalurgy, complex mathematics, astronomy (and navigation), etc.
.

Well, you think there may be other explanations for this in the crossroads in evolution?
I am far from an historian, dealing with ancient civilizations. That needs special talents and knowledge, a lifetime's worth, and then some.

But, I would bet that the ice age before that time may have had lots to do with the development of man? How about their capacity to communicate, experiment, write, record and that knowledge withstand time and nature to be passed on down instead of reinventing everything every few generations by the time memory is worthless?
And, later, or rather closer to our time, I guess writing was introduced, papyrus was invented and used to store knowledge, but then conquests, thirst for power and domination had the effect of destroying libraries like the one in Constantinople, I believe, and perhaps a number of others? What happens to all that knowledge base? No backup discs. No backup brains either as knowledge to read and write was scarce.
So, it had a tough time in history to take a meaningful hold.

Why is knowledge increases exponentially in the last number of centuries? Alien intervention? Why is it the explanation you hang your hat on instead of simpler explanations?

 

[Tomorrow]

Well, you think there may be other explanations for this in the crossroads in evolution?
I am far from an historian, dealing with ancient civilizations. That needs special talents and knowledge, a lifetime's worth, and then some.

But, I would bet that the ice age before that time may have had lots to do with the development of man? How about their capacity to communicate, experiment, write, record and that knowledge withstand time and nature to be passed on down instead of reinventing everything every few generations by the time memory is worthless?
And, later, or rather closer to our time, I guess writing was introduced, papyrus was invented and used to store knowledge, but then conquests, thirst for power and domination had the effect of destroying libraries like the one in Constantinople, I believe, and perhaps a number of others? What happens to all that knowledge base? No backup discs. No backup brains either as knowledge to read and write was scarce.
So, it had a tough time in history to take a meaningful hold.

Why is knowledge increases exponentially in the last number of centuries? Alien intervention? Why is it the explanation you hang your hat on instead of simpler explanations?

I don't 'hang my hat on it'. I don't know where you could even read that into any of my posts. I posed it as one group's explanation (in response to an earlier post about what aliens might look like). I don't know why the rapid growth of civilization/technology occurred. Certainly there may be other explanations. That's why I started this thread to begin with. I enjoy exploring ideas, not stating firm opinions over matters about which I (or any of us) know little. That's all that post was. In fact I just said that I'm an agnostic when it comes to the matter of the existence of extraterrestrial life.

And just for everyone's consumption, I am an agnostic on these matters. I couldn't vote yea or nay.

I guess I'm doing a poor job of communicating via the typed word...so I'm out of this thread.

EDIT: You did say one thing that resonates with me. Parsimony. It's the one guiding light by which I think all science and investigation needs to navigate by. The simpler explanation...the better.

Adios.

 

[JoeE SP9]

EDIT: You did say one thing that resonates with me. Parsimony. It's the one guiding light by which I think all science and investigation needs to navigate by. The simpler explanation...the better.

Adios.

Crabapple would be certain but I believe the term is Occams Razor. ie: The simplest explanation is usually the best.

While I'm no scientist (just a lowly engineer) I have seen heard and experienced the way the general public has no conception of how science works or any idea of what peer review is. The general public believes the term "theory" means the same thing to scientists it does to priests and shamans. I at one time used the theory of relativity to demonstrate their error. Lately I've been using "The Pythagorean Theory" as a demonstration of the difference. More people understand that than electromagnetic wave theory. Attempting to explain relativity to the everage GED holder is not a walk in the park. They seem to understand triangles a lot better than relativity.

 

[gmichael]

Crabapple would be certain but I believe the term is Occams Razor. ie: The simplest explanation is usually the best.

While I'm no scientist (just a lowly engineer) I have seen heard and experienced the way the general public has no conception of how science works or any idea of what peer review is. The general public believes the term "theory" means the same thing to scientists it does to priests and shamans. I at one time used the theory of relativity to demonstrate their error. Lately I've been using "The Pythagorean Theory" as a demonstration of the difference. More people understand that than electromagnetic wave theory. Attempting to explain relativity to the everage GED holder is not a walk in the park. They seem to understand triangles a lot better than relativity.

Relativity: so, if you and I are traveling at the same relative speed, and I shine a light at you, the light will travel at a speed that is relative to you and I?
Or is it just that I go to family reunions to meet girls?

 

[Resident Loser]

I read...

...Von Danikens first three books...some of the stuff is just plain weird but how do you explain all of those coincidences away...Claims that some of the ancient mezo-american art is just stylized hype...I dunno' one of 'em sure looks like space helmet and there are others that look like a guy is flippin' knobs and peering into a viewer of some sort...and the Nazca Lines?

Was it just shore-leave from the saucers? Did the ancient astronauts beam down to plook the hominid-types? Was it an experiment? Or was it something different?

All the while the lyrics and melody of Frank Zappa's Inca Roads weave their way in and out of my psyche...Am I a star-child or the simple b@st@rd offspring of laser-totin' non-mechanical lizards? I see the stars at night and I am drawn to them like a fish to water...I want to believe, I whisper...I look around and realize the experiment was a failure...but still I want to believe, said now in a louder voice...CTA-102, we're over here receiving you, signals tell us that you're there...we can hear 'em, loud and clear...We just wanna' let you know, that we're ready for to go...out into the universe and we don't care who's been there first...I scream with all of my puny being, I want to believe...take me with you...there is no intelligent life here!!!

jimHJJ(...I'll be leaving now...thank you...)

 

[krabapple]

Crabapple would be certain but I believe the term is Occams Razor. ie: The simplest explanation is usually the best.

You're both right -- that's the principle of parsimony, a.k.a. Occam's Razor.

Although rather than 'best', one might say 'preferred'.

 

[mtrycrafts]

...Von Danikens first three books...some of the stuff is just plain weird but how do you explain all of those coincidences away...Claims that some of the ancient mezo-american art is just stylized hype...I dunno' one of 'em sure looks like space helmet and there are others that look like a guy is flippin' knobs and peering into a viewer of some sort...and the Nazca Lines?

Was it just shore-leave from the saucers? Did the ancient astronauts beam down to plook the hominid-types? Was it an experiment? Or was it something different?

...)

Is this a question in your mind? Or, just put it here for opining on it?

 

[krabapple]

I'm wondering what 'plooking' is. (I've never met any aliens, or I'd have asked before.)

 

[JoeE SP9]

Relativity: so, if you and I are traveling at the same relative speed, and I shine a light at you, the light will travel at a speed that is relative to you and I?
Or is it just that I go to family reunions to meet girls?

Isn't that kind of relativity illegal everywhere but West Virginia?

 

[mtrycrafts]

I'm wondering what 'plooking' is. (I've never met any aliens, or I'd have asked before.)

I'll just save it for the alien. I'll have something to ask and talk about

 

[mulester7]

.....WHAT??????....(refer to the post just above)....Mtry joins Buck and JGarcia on the couch fighting over pizza crusts from a week old box????....stay tuned, Ladies and germs....Clint, don't hack Mtry off, he might rise up all at once and buy some used Mc.....

 

[gmichael]

Saw a show on the Science chanel the other day. They claimed that computers & robots will be as smart as humans by the year 2029. So I put these thoughts out here for debate. What if some of the many stars, that are much older than ours, started life before we did? What if they developed in a way close to the way we did? What if their computers and robots took over long ago? Robots would not mind a long trip the way we do (maybe). What if the UFO's out there are run by robots? What if the UFO's ARE the robots?

 

[mtrycrafts]

Saw a show on the Science chanel the other day. They claimed that computers & robots will be as smart as humans by the year 2029. So I put these thoughts out here for debate. What if some of the many stars, that are much older than ours, started life before we did? What if they developed in a way close to the way we did? What if their computers and robots took over long ago? Robots would not mind a long trip the way we do (maybe). What if the UFO's out there are run by robots? What if the UFO's ARE the robots?

Computers and computer driven robots would need to develop a drive, a need to explore as do humans, as best I can see. Otherwise why would they wonder in the universe? And, unless they have solved the issue a beyond light speed, it will be a long time traveling, millions of years. Why would they do it more so than intelligent life?

 

[gmichael]

Computers and computer driven robots would need to develop a drive, a need to explore as do humans, as best I can see. Otherwise why would they wonder in the universe? And, unless they have solved the issue a beyond light speed, it will be a long time traveling, millions of years. Why would they do it more so than intelligent life?

Drive? True, so far they don't seem to have a drive. But where does drive come from and how do we know they won't get it?

Long time traveling might not mean as much to someone who "lives" longer than we do.

Light speed? Do we know that it's a fact? Do we know that there is no way to beat it? Are we the smartest in the universe? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe others have found a way. Maybe they haven't.

 

[krabapple]

Saw a show on the Science chanel the other day. They claimed that computers & robots will be as smart as humans by the year 2029. So I put these thoughts out here for debate. What if some of the many stars, that are much older than ours, started life before we did? What if they developed in a way close to the way we did? What if their computers and robots took over long ago? Robots would not mind a long trip the way we do (maybe). What if the UFO's out there are run by robots? What if the UFO's ARE the robots?

This idea has been bruited about in UFOlogy for a long time. Another fun one is that the UFOs *themselves* are alive -- they aren't vehicles in the usual sense. They're life forms that live in interstellar space.

Hey, when there's such a complete dearth of reliable 'data', anything is possible.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Hey, when there's such a complete dearth of reliable 'data', anything is possible.

Limited only by man's imagination.

 

[Resident Loser]

Why it's two...

Is this a question in your mind? Or, just put it here for opining on it?

...two...two mints in one!

A little of both maybe...I mean WTF are we here for? Was it all an accident? Are we just the leftovers from Sagan's infamous primordial soup...NO BREAD FOR YOU!!! NO SOUP FOR YOU!!! Is it all in the real estate...location, location, location?

Not tryin' to get a metaphysical and stuff but I'd like to think there is some rhyme or reason to it all...

When all is said and done, I just hope I get to see my wonderful pal, the four-legged woofer and rub his knobby little dome again...

jimHJJ(...d@mmit, I miss that dog...)

P.S. FYI...Plooking: Interstellar intercourse...

 

[krabapple]

P.S. FYI...Plooking: Interstellar intercourse...

As distinct from 'anal probing', I gather.

Kinky little bastards, those aliens.

 

[gmichael]

They'll leave no stone unturned and no orifice un-probed.
At least they are thorough.