against the tide thinking

[observer7]

If you havn't read Adams I strongly suggest you do. The Hitchhkers Guide to the Galaxy (and the rest of the trilogy) will not only make you laugh, it occasionally makes you think.<br /><br />More quotes to ponder.<br /><br />"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."<br /><br />"All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argumant than others."<br /><br />"The Universe is alot more compliacted than you think -- even if you start from a posistion of thinking that its pretty damn complicated to begin with."<br /><br /><br />--<br /><br />"42" <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em><font size="2">"Time exists so that everything doesn't happen at once" </font></em><font size="2">Albert Einstein</font> </div>

 

[weeman]

I find it almost impossible to believe that we are the only life in the Universe. It is important to take into consideration the overall chances for life to happen. Our galaxy alone contains some 100 billion stars, and our galaxy is one of an estimated 400 billion galaxies. So 100 billion times 400 billion would give us a rough estimate of the total number of stars in our observable universe. This gives us an absurdly high number, about 40 sextillion I believe. If you are not familiar with this number, it goes millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, and finally sextillions. This many chances for life to happen, and it only happens once?? I just don't see this happening. In our galaxy alone we have discovered some 200 planets around other stars, and thats just of what we have discovered. That doesn't include other regions of our own galaxy, and the other 400 billion galaxies beyond that! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>

 

[gsuschrist]

My number of '10,000,000,000,000,000 ' intelligences has nothing to do with an infinite universe but a finite universe of of about a hundred billlion galaxies... a minimal number agreed upon by most astronomers if the universe is finite. <br /><br />10,000,000,000,000,000 is a miniscule number if we ever hope to have any evidence of other intelligences in a finite universe where the number of stars is estimated to be 10 to the 21 power. With only 10,000,000,000,000,000 intelligences it'd be bizarre in extremis for us to randomly find 'them'.

 

[anhourtofall]

I figure we have at least a couple billion years of of life in our solar system beforw the sun explodes. If we don't manage to colonize another solar system by then we don't deserve to live. Hey, btu by that time chmips will probably evolve into smarter creatures than us and they'll probably do it for us.

 

[weeman]

Haha, that is a good way to look at it! My belief is we will either destroy eachother, or Earth will have her way with us long before we ever have to worry about the Sun dying off. <br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000">Techies: We do it in the dark. </font></strong></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>"Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.</strong><strong>" -Albert Einstein </strong></font></p> </div>