Are We Alone? Discovery Channel special hosted by Gentry Lee

[thebigcat]

JPL scientist and author Gentry Lee hosted a special on the Discovery Channel entitled Are We Alone? which approached the possibility of life "out there" on three fronts. The first was extremophile bacteria and extreme environments here on Earth, and the discovery of life which only a few years ago we would have deemed impossible according to what our science knew, including places which are too hot, too cold, have no light, almost no water, too much cosmic radiation due to extreme altitude, are too saline... The second was other worlds in our solar system, Mars and the Jovain and Saturnine moons which might contain life and how they relate to these extreme Earth environments, our past explorations of these worlds and our projects for further exploration which are currently underway, and what scientists are attempting to achieve with them. The third was the search for exoplanets, a brief history of our very brief history of the discovery of same, and a segment on the Kepler Mission, a space telescope which is being launched specifically to search for nearby planets (relatively nearby...they won't be searching in the Andromeda Galaxy or on the other side of the Coal Sack Nebula) located within the habitibility zones of their stars.

A worthwhile two hours, if you missed it keep an eye on the listings because I'm certain that Discovery Channel will re-air it. If you did see it keep an eye on the listings anyway because I think it's worth watching again. And my reasons for posting this here instead of the in another forum on the board is that the show discussed many of the subjects which have been touched upon in in discussions here in the SETI Forum. Therefore I think this would be a good place for discussion of those themes mentioned by Lee and the people featured and how they relate to what has already been discussed here.

[hvargas]

Somewhere a more advance or even less advance species are asking the same question. Are we alone ? The answer which is a logical one is a NO we are not alone. Some believe that if we are not alone that we are no longer special and that is a false cause as a specie we are one of a kind even if there are others we our physical similarities. The problems with evidence are many, as we being visited by species from other galaxies and world who are refusing to make their existence known publicly worldwide. That is to say, to be presented on national news and interview by the media. This will present a problem and perhaps cause of the implications of governments and their want to have first hand on their technology for the purposes of making weapons which they will in time used against the aliens. I asked myself for all good intents, if I were an alien and observed the behaviour of this world, I will not give humans any knowledge that will further humans destructives ways. Sure, many will say that humans have many good traits but that is not the concerned nor a good reason to allow humans at this stage in its development to acquired a technology allowing for intergalative travel. Humans still believe and still have the mentality of " CONQUERING THROUGH MILITARY FORCE ". Humans believe that were ever they place their foot on, that it is their inheret rights to impose their will. Just imagine another Colombus discovering a less advance species on some remote planet and claiming such a discovery belonging to his country. Such a government will say " we came here first therefore we owned it ". It's a very difficult decision for an advance specie that does not have the conquering mentallity to make itself widely known publically to another species who kills for the fun of it. THE HUMAN SPECIES IS A DESTROYER OF LIFE.

[EscapeLaw]

Of course there is other intelligent life out there...and they show just how intelligent by staying clear of us on Earth. Probably because we are a little scary to them...Look at all the discontent on this world? We are possibly being monitored but until we fix our planetary politics why would they want to make contact?....Maybe I watch Star Trek a bit 2 much but i think they are on to something concerning our own first contact. Not to say that we havent caught an occasional peek at perhaps Alien intervention..But I doubt they are going to be handing us the Keys to their space mobiles quite yet. Though maybe Earth does need an intervention so we dont blow our selves up...Catch 22.

[darkhelmet01]

the best sign there is intelligent life out there is they havent visited; yeah i remember that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. And both posters really missed the point of this thread.

there is most definitely some form of life to be found in the universe besides on earth. intelligent life though is really open to debate. i mean if we had means to travel anywhere we thought life could exist and found a planet inhabited by cats that would be the biggest discovery ever made in the history of mankind.

i think most people forget the fiction part in science fiction.

[thebigcat]

Well, Harlan Ellison prefers the term "speculative fiction".

I am somewhat disappointed that nobody who saw the program has responded. It was quite fascinating. It wasn't just another show on extremophile bacteria. Instead it went into great depth on the the ways in which life make use of energy, including different types of what we call chemosynthesys. For instance, they have found in certain caves bacteria that derives it's energy from chemically releasing the oxygen from iron oxide in the rocks...something like that anyway, it's been two months since it was on...but if a science fiction writer were to include that in a story about life on Mars the readers "nonsense alarm" would probably be going off, and there they find the stuff in a cave here on Earth. Of course, they continued to say that life in caves on Mars could possibly use that strategy to obtain energy for biological processes.

There was another segment where a scientist climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro to demonstrate at that high elevation how cosmic radiation transforms water into hydrogen peroxide. Other interesting segments, mostly linked directly to potential places in our solar system where current knowledge holds that life might exist. I wish they would show it again soon because I would like to watch it again. It was a two hour show and there was a lot to take in in one sitting.

[MeteorWayne]

Sorry, tbc, I didn't see it. Sounds like a good one (rarer and rarer on discovery ) If it was a special it might not have made it into their replay 4 times a month rotation yet.
If you see a replay coming up, please let us know; and I'll keep an eye out for it.

[warpfactor]

The question I keep asking myself is why are we here ?
Does life serve a purpose ? Being alone is depressing and the more I get interested in space the more depressed I become.
Not believing in God it is hard to keep faith so come on you scientists bring on E.T

[hvargas]

We are here cause we are here. We had come a long way since the cavemen/cavewomen had no indications of its own existence. It only acted on instinct for a very long time in its evolutionary developments from which we had come from. All the evidence its there, some ignore it cause it conflicts with their religious beliefs and others just don't accept it cause it takes away what they want to called " SPECIAL ". There are humans that want to see themselves as a Special Creation of the God they believe in. To accept the existence of life elsewhere is to take away that Special place. Ignorance does not allow for such people to realize that life elsewhere is just life and we will still be Special as a Specie. Programs that bring about lower forms of life feed into the beliefs of those who accept only lower forms of life existing elsewhere. Intelligent life that can built spaceships to travel through the cosmos is not what most humans want to be face with. We are a specie still in the evolutionary scale of development but this does not mean that other species outside of our galaxy are not as violent or more violent than we are. We are here to discoverd ourselves and everything that we perceived in our environment and beyond.

[darkhelmet01]

religion is irrational, science should not be. those who operate under the belief intelligent life is out there and it has visited us are really no different than those who believe there is a magical guy in the sky who judges us. there is no proof of either, just faith that there is.

why does there have to be something greater out there? i am an atheist, and from my view you are replacing one god for another that is more comfortable for you.

[thebigcat]

religion is irrational, science should not be. those who operate under the belief intelligent life is out there and it has visited us are really no different than those who believe there is a magical guy in the sky who judges us. there is no proof of either, just faith that there is.

why does there have to be something greater out there? i am an atheist, and from my view you are replacing one god for another that is more comfortable for you.

Dare I say "Amen"

The question of whether we are the only intelligent life in the cosmos, or even in our own galaxy for that matter, won't be answered satisfactorily until either we go out there and find them or they open reveal themselves to us here, no more sneaking around cutting deals with shady government officials or whatever they are supposedly doing just as the matter of the existence of whatever god or gods there might be won't be resolved until she/he/it/they decide enough of this ambivalence business and it's time that everyone paid them proper homage so out comes the fire and brimstone or whatever...And at that point faith would be irrelevant.

To which all I can say is that people are going to believe what they want to believe, for the most part.

Myself, I don't hold that the presence of microbial life on Mars, should we find it, or anywhere else in our solar system, Europa, Enceladus, Titan, or buried deep inside Uranus for that matter, would at all increase the probability or even the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere. But that was one of the opinions espoused by a couple of the scientists featured on the program.

[SpaceXFanMobius57]

Its a big universe out there? Are you ready?