12 replies to this topic

[TakkunEG]

Happened upon it just now surfing channels. Dan is on a panel of people talking about UFOs. The segment seems to have been spurred by Stephen Hawking's recent statement. It's funny, the other three dudes on the panel don't seem to know how seriously to take some of the things he's saying.

On that note, DAN DON'T GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK LIKE THAT. Suddenly being on my television in a non-prereleased manner like that. Gosh. Warn us next time. *cough*hint*cough*

[Steam McQueen]

I haven't watched it yet ...
YouTube - Larry King Live: Are Aliens a threat? pt 1/3 (30/4/2010)

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[theologica]

The Stephen Hawking thing made me laugh at the time as we all joked that he'd been watching Independence Day or something.

Another renowned British astronomer, Patrick Moore, once said that we would be terribly vain to imagine that we're the only planet with intelligent life, but... I have to admit that I have a hard time believing in UFOs. Throughout history, let's face it, we've had stories of people visited by deities, or caught up in God beams, or taken by fairies, and UFOs seem to be a natural progression of that as we became more aware of our place in the universe. While, sure, there are photos and video footage of these flying saucer things, I do have question if these are what people think they are, or indeed, the abduction tales which seem more of a reflection of societal expectation of what these creatures look like or will do, just as with the previous mentioned fairies and religious experiences. And how much of it is psychological or even possibly the result of neurological factors such as changes in brain chemistry or seizures of certain lobes, etc?

Fun video, but I'll admit to spending much of it with my face firmly embedded in my palm.

[HumanBiped]

Well, I have to say that Hawking did have a great point using the Columbus coming to the New World not working out too well for the Native American's analogy. Not to mention how for the first time ever regarding the issue of life visting our planet, I'm officially freaked out........

And regarding your point theologica regarding all of the other stories we've heard regarding other things for our place in our universe, it made me think of Ray and Winston talking when they are out driving in the Ecto 1, and Winston asks Ray if he believes in God, he simply replies "Never met him." That's pretty much how I feel about that kinda stuff

[theologica]

HB, yeah, I'm starting to get to that point, myself. I... I thought I had faith, and it seems to come and go, and I tried so hard to believe but, ultimately... yeah. "Never met him" is probably an appropriate response for my feelings also. I want to believe there's, you know, something out there, but... *trails off*

As for life visiting our planet, I imagine it'd go something more like, "The Day The Earth Stood Still". We'd get all paranoid and line up our weapons, but any life form would be calm, maybe a bit curious, and lampshade our dependency on energy and weapons. Essentially telling us to straighten up and fly right, lest we destroy ourselves and our local neighbourhood-in-space. Dan's mentioned before, stories of people seeing UFOs landing in front of them and telling them that they need to take better care of the planet. But then again, as I mentioned about, that could just have been the result of cultural conditioning, particularly given the concern for the environment over the last couple of decades.

[Jo_Pierce]

Catch the youtube link Steam gave us before Youtube pulls it... Thanks Steam!

First of all, Dan looks great. Really good!

I love Stephen Hawking, and think he's brilliant. But is he saying anything different? I mean, Carl Sagan was talking about this in the 70s.

I have to agree with Theo for the most part, especially the cultural conditioning part. I especially find it interesting that aliens are often portrayed as humans of the future - as what we would look like if given the chance to evolve billions of years. From an evolutionary perspective, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since each of the billions of steps in the process would be so difficult to replicate. But from a popular culture view of how evolution works (oh, in the future, we will have bigger brains... blah blah blah...), that explains it more than anything else.

Great fun!

[theologica]

*nods to Jo* That's the thing about us humans as well -- we have such a fertile imagination. We can look at something and suggest what it looks like. There's a post in this morning's Gizmodo that illustrates that point: God Gives Us High Five or Reaches for Cosmic Burrito - Psr b1509-58 - Gizmodo

It's just a cloud of dust and gas, but it looks like a hand. Although, admittedly, it took a few minutes for that image to fully assimilate in my mind when I first read the article. When I saw the picture for the first time, I just saw a cloud of pretty colours. Then after staring at the picture upon reading the article, I began to realize that yes, it *does* look like a hand. Conditioning strikes again -- if you think it looks like a hand, it's gonna look like a hand. You follow?

And we've been doing this for centuries, looking at things like clouds and seeing shapes in them, or seeing deities or religious symbols in our toast. We like attaching meanings and significance to things because I suppose it gives our own lives meaning. Similarly with the UFO sightings and abductions -- it could have been anything, but we look at them and we see what others suggest could be there, and from then on, there is some kind of meaning or significance in it, and it gives meaning or significance to our own lives.

(And I think I just derailed my own argument...)

[elizabeth]

There is a theory that the common image that humans have of aliens

^(something like that) comes from our first memory: being born. When we come out of the womb, our first image is of the doctor with his mask on and his big eyes and the light behind him. Common arguments for this theory are that at birth, your eyes don't work very well. The theory for "floating" is that the doctor picks you up and carries you to a table. The "poking and probing" comes from the practice used by the doctors to get the ambiotic fluid out of your lungs.

I learned this in math class. Don't ask why. We always talk about random things in my math class. ^_^

[theologica]

elizabeth said:

There is a theory that the common image that humans have of aliens

^(something like that) comes from our first memory: being born. When we come out of the womb, our first image is of the doctor with his mask on and his big eyes and the light behind him. Common arguments for this theory are that at birth, your eyes don't work very well. The theory for "floating" is that the doctor picks you up and carries you to a table. The "poking and probing" comes from the practice used by the doctors to get the ambiotic fluid out of your lungs.

I learned this in math class. Don't ask why. We always talk about random things in my math class. ^_^

That's a frackin' creepy picture, lol.

But that could be well be. It's a good hypothesis. It's also a similar argument to the Near Death Experience tunnel of light thing, which is supposedly a primitive memory of being born.

Your math classes sound interesting. Wish mine had been that way! (I was hopeless at math *g*)

[Steam McQueen]

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Jo_Pierce said:

Catch the youtube link Steam gave us before Youtube pulls it... Thanks Steam!

Yer welcome! I just posted the link, I didn't upload the vid. I know you know that, Jo, I was just clarifying is all. :D

Did everyone watch all three parts? Part 1 has 8,000 views and part 3 has only 5.000. Dan doing some Beldar ... lol.

I find the extrasolar planets interesting, and it was touched upon briefly. Dude said something like 15 years ago we knew of none, now we know of 500. 500 is a bit high, more like 453. Maybe one day we'll have some pics of an extrasolar planet, complete with dinosaurs! :eek:

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia

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[TakkunEG]

elizabeth said:

There is a theory that the common image that humans have of aliens

^(something like that) comes from our first memory: being born. When we come out of the womb, our first image is of the doctor with his mask on and his big eyes and the light behind him. Common arguments for this theory are that at birth, your eyes don't work very well. The theory for "floating" is that the doctor picks you up and carries you to a table. The "poking and probing" comes from the practice used by the doctors to get the ambiotic fluid out of your lungs.

I learned this in math class. Don't ask why. We always talk about random things in my math class. ^_^

I can buy that theory. As I also have some beliefs/memories about reincarnation and previous memories of birth (not from this time around), I had a thought while reading that that it could be a memory of your spirit catching a glimpse of the fetal body it goes into. Then when you're born and your eyes don't work, that's the only image you have to start out with what living beings look like. I mean, don't grey-man aliens look kinda like overgrown fetuses? (Fetii?)

IDK, just a tangent thought.

[elizabeth]

I think I buy it as well. It makes a lot of sense, but, then again, so do the disputing arguments (eyes not working well, etc.)

And Theo, math is my least favorite class, so randomness is a blessing.

[nacho108]

Danny was the hero of that night