The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

[Diego Cueva]

*Paft!*

[RICoder]

Moose, while I can appreciate your stance on the subject of Drake, I think you fail to see the POINT of it.  This isn't a 'bash moose' thing, just an intellectual conversation.<br><br>I too, at one point early in my persuit of scientific knowledge, believed that guessing games and statistics weren't real science.  I used to say that Einstein was right about determinism but foolish to persue 'thought experiments'.  I have since reversed both of those beliefs.<br><br>Drake never fully explained the statistical roots of his equation, and never really employed them either.  This is too bad, since, the real scientific value of his equation IS statistics.  We KNOW how many stars there are, we are beginning to discover the average number of planets per star, and the rest can be intellectually assumed.  In this regard, I think Drake is a valuable tool in the arsenal of SETI.

[Keira]

Why valuable? All people did was try to prove him wrong and they did, kinda and ummmm<br>I STARTED AN INTELLECTUAL CONVERSATION!!!<br>my first one <br>

[Luciano U. Werner]

See? It didn't hurt. Keep it up.

[MooseMaster]

RICoder, I can't argue with that, for once .<br>But I still believe there's just something so wrong about it. It's just so ... homy and common sensy. And I find averages to be quite useless when the number of variables and the size of the variables involves are so large and numerous. It's not going to get right on the nose, and maybe God did make us the only self aware, intelligent life forms in the universe. Until we find atleast ONE other intelligent form of life we cannot use that equation. Until one other intelligent life form is found then it is PURELY a guess.

[Paul]

agreed, its just common sense.

[randall]

Pffft. So exactly how many stars are there in the universe; I seem to have forgotten. I seem to have also lost my notes on how many planets_per_average_solar_system there are.<br><br>I'm starting to think maybe we better start looking for intelligent life on this planet first.

[Moose or Chuck]

Randall, what the hell is wrong with you? Quit being so damn synical all the time. No one ever said we know how many stars are in the universe. That's what we've been saying the entire time, the entire equation is purely a guess. Or are you just so arrogant that you didn't bother reading the thread and thought your lame comments should be heard by all, regardless? Go do some more of your art, atleast you're good at that.

[randall]

ah yes. And we stil have yet to see any discernable talents that Moose may have.<br><br>CYNICAL - Certainly a person with a massive IQ can determine the correct spelling for cynical. Or were you using the less common Eastern Rittendorf spelling?<br><br>

[RICoder]

So, Moose, we agree.  It is purely guesswork, or put another way, statistical in nature.<br><br>Perhaps randall is right...

[randall]

oh god forbid.<br><br>I understand the concept of entertaining the validity of this equation. It can lots of fun - kind of like envisioning a hypercube.

[Keira]

I guess this might go along with topic... I find this really interesting: <br>Anyone who has read the book 'The Sirius Mystery' may know what I mean. According to the book, the Dogon tribe in Africa, (who possessed knowledge of the binary star system Sirius A and B long before European astronomers did), claim to have been visited by dolphin-like aliens, who landed, dug a hole, put water into it, jumped into the whole and communicated the knowledge of Sirius A & B, as well as other detailed astronomical knowledge to the elders of the Dogon tribe. It's also believed that dolphins use 80% of their brain power, as opposed to humans, who use only 10%. This would mean that dolphins are in fact the most evolved species on the earth! <br>Anybody know anything about this maybe?

[Village_Ideot]

Yeah, the fact that humans use 100% of their brain power, just not all at once.<br><br><br>

[Keira]

Okay I'm wrong again but I know I only use 10% of my brain

[Matt Keys]

wow, a good post by village....*dumbfounded*