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Essorant
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since 2002-08-10
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Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada

0 posted 2006-08-19 02:49 PM


From the Annals of the Future:

2257 AD:  Man discovers fossils of a very ancient and human-like civilization in excavations on the planet Mars.


How would that change/influence your thoughts about the origins and fates of life and humans?



© Copyright 2006 Essorant - All Rights Reserved
iliana
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since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434
USA
1 posted 2006-08-19 10:55 PM


This should be interesting!

Me.....well, I might not be surprised if that (or something similar to it) were to happen before then.  

As an aside, when I was in college, one of the security guards there was a preacher.  He actually had his own church based on his belief and interpretation that Jesus was an extraesterial.  He made a good bit of sense with his interpretation, too. But it's been too many years so don't ask me to expound on his theories.  

I doubt that it would change my religious philosophy very much.

serenity blaze
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since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

2 posted 2006-08-19 11:31 PM


hmmm.

Not sure it would change anything for me.

But then, it's not like I haven't considered the possiblity that we are, and winks to Jo here, star seedlings...

and human-like? I'd want some DNA evidence.

I've seen human-like before...narrowing my eyes suspiciously...

that was not meant for you, Ess.

I'm just ticked at the hubby again.

iliana
Member Patricius
since 2003-12-05
Posts 13434
USA
3 posted 2006-08-19 11:59 PM


Well, that's two for two....where is everybody?
Stephanos
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4 posted 2006-08-20 01:48 AM


Essorant,

you should read "Out of The Silent Planet" by C.S. Lewis.  Great book.  It's about life on Mars.  It's one of three known as "The Space Trilogy".  Probably some of the strangest and most philosophically provocative books I've ever had the pleasure and discomfort of reading.


Stephen.


serenity blaze
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since 2000-02-02
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5 posted 2006-08-20 01:57 AM


I read it.

Great book.

Um, I think.

It was published over twenty five years ago?

If so, that was it.

(don't ask me for logic, dangit)

I have snorted more dust in the past three months just digging through my bookshelves than I have in my entire...well, ALMOST, my entire dust-snorting life.




atchoo

Essorant
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since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
6 posted 2006-08-20 01:44 PM


Interesting thoughts.  Thanks for mentioning that book as well.
It is interesting how man often makes out his technology or something similar to it as the means of intellegent life getting from one planet to another.  But I don't believe man will ever be able to live on a different planet by his own means.  When the energies that make a center of life leave earth, man and every other living creature shall cease to live on earth.  However, just like life and intellegent beings rose again on earth, I believe they shall rise again on Venus too when it is time.



Not A Poet
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since 1999-11-03
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Oklahoma, USA
7 posted 2006-08-20 02:41 PM


Well, I do hope it is a long time. Venus is still one very hostile place.

Essorant
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Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
8 posted 2006-08-21 10:55 AM


Indeed, a long time in human years.  But for the solar-system as a whole it may seem like only yesterday life were on Mars, today it is on Earth, and tomorrow shall be on Venus.  
Ron
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9 posted 2006-08-21 11:25 AM


And then on the sun, Essorant?
Stephanos
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10 posted 2006-08-21 11:36 AM


lol.
Essorant
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Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
11 posted 2006-08-21 11:54 AM


But you are implying that life must always be in the solar system.  I don't believe that is so.  

serenity blaze
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12 posted 2006-08-21 12:49 PM


And this is why all of our family vacations end up in arguments--I wanna go to some other galaxy first!!!

Siriously.

Essorant
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since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
13 posted 2006-08-21 01:33 PM


The difference between man and Nature is that man probably may never do that, but Nature may.    I may believe that life, or the energy of life, could be assimilated into light and flow thro space to another galaxy and solar system.  But to think of men in a manmade space-ship artificially and manually doing that truly is "science fiction"!    


Edward Grim
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since 2005-12-18
Posts 1154
Greenville, South Carolina
14 posted 2006-08-21 04:37 PM


If I heard that there is life on Mars, I'd say, "So that's where my relatives are hiding."

First off, I don't think any of us will live to 2257 (except serenity :b) but I see your point.

Personally, I don't believe in aliens and life out there. And as I say this now, a blue guy named Thorpy on the planet "Space Juice Moon #5" says the same thing.

Anyways, if I did hear that, I don't know how I would react. I'd probably start laughing uncontrollably. That would be the most amazing thing ever. I'd want to meet the non-earthlings and play ping pong with them and take 'em to florida and see if they think the way I do about it.


P.S. I'd also borrow their boots.


[Insert quote of wisdom here]

Ron
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15 posted 2006-08-21 04:58 PM


quote:
But you are implying that life must always be in the solar system.

I implied no such thing, Essorant. You said Venus tomorrow, so I asked you if the sun was next (all I did, after all, was skip Mercury). If you'd like to move outwards instead of inwards, I'm game to play that one, too.

The real question, of course, is whether your observations are mere romantical fancy or if they have any scientific thought behind them? If Venus, why not the sun?



Essorant
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since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
16 posted 2006-08-22 02:50 PM


Because life is basically cornered to living in a layer of temperature coming from the sun that accomodates life and creates some stability on the planet that temperature embraces.  If the accomodating temperature is not there, life and things that are important to life will not be either.  Right now that temperature is in a place that allows it to embrace Earth.  But if Mars previously had substantial life similar to life on earth today that suggests the right temperature for life was further from the sun than Earth so that it embraced Mars, and even may suggest it was once even further than Mars, embracing other planets that are further from the sun.  The Earth used to be hostile too.  Taken back to earliest times, I believe that its hostility perhaps paralled the kind of hostility that is on Venus today.  It is mainly temperature difference that makes the planets differ so much in respect to being able to accomodate life or not: Mars is too cold: no or very little life.  Earth is just right: lots of life.  Venus is too hot: no apparant life .  My belief is that Mars is an evidence of a temperature difference that allows for life, but that is moving inward in the solar system, thereby accomdating life now on Earth, and eventually life on Venus.  I don't see how Earth's fate shall differ much from Mars.  If Mars had life such as on Earth it doesn't just suggest an isolated event for me, but betokens a system in which the other planets may fit into as well.


icebox
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since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383
in the shadows
17 posted 2006-08-22 04:02 PM


Human civilization?  

That reminds me of a reporter asking Mahatma Gandhi what he thought of Western civilization.  

Ghandi answered, "I think it would be a good idea."

Essorant
Member Elite
since 2002-08-10
Posts 4769
Regina, Saskatchewan; Canada
18 posted 2006-08-25 12:47 PM


Did you see this article?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5282440.stm

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