Is There Life on Mars?

[Razgovory]

Jeez.  Take a blood pressure med and do some yoga.

Don't you try your Asiatic tricks on us!

[Razgovory]

I don't see it.  Water assumes liquid form in a very tiny temperature range.

Yeah, it's not really much of a solvent if it's ice.  There has been speculation that you use something like Florine or ammonia or liquid methane to have life live in, but water seems to work best.  We do have places in the solar system where liquid methane is common, but there doesn't seem to be life in it.


I find it rather absurd that Tim thinks it likely there is life in the solar system.

[Tonitrus]

The big test will be if we're ever able to determine what is under the ice on Europa.

[Neil]

Can life forms exist without water?  That seems to be the big limiter.

Other solvents are possible, but the fact that water is one of the most common molecules in the universe makes it a very good candidate.

Our blood is red because of the iron content.  The horseshoe crab?  It's blue because of the copper content.  All sorts of nifty biological diversions are possible.

Indeed.  And Mr. Spock's blood was green because of the copper.

It would have been interesting to be able to go back into those Vendian seas and see what kinds of blood chemistries existed in animals.

[Razgovory]

The big test will be if we're ever able to determine what is under the ice on Europa.

Honestly it's a long shot.  I hope we don't find shit.

[Jacob]

Honestly it's a long shot.  I hope we don't find shit.

Why do you hope that?

[Ideologue]

Raz fears all aquatic life.

[Siege]

Actually, I expect to find some form of life in any planet in the Sonar system.

[PDH]

I voted number 13:

I am 48 years old and I don't give a fuck.

[Razgovory]

Honestly it's a long shot.  I hope we don't find shit.

Why do you hope that?

Great filter.  Despite it's age and size the galaxy is not buzzing with spaceships.  There is a step between lifeless planet to interstellar empire that is really hard or rare.  It may not even be possible.  We don't know what that step is.  We have covered all the steps between lifeless rock to semi-intelligent beings using the internet to bicker.  If the step is in our past it means we have overcome this bottle neck already and should be in the clear.  If the step is in our future, well then we are pretty screwed.  The appearance of life is one such step.  If life is common and has independently arisen in other places in the solar system then obviously life is not the really hard step and the chances the hard step is in our future has risen.  If we find nothing then the possibly that appearance (I want to say evolution of life but don't think that's correct) of life is perhaps the bottleneck which increases our chance of interstellar travel.

[Valmy]

I anticipate soon this world will be covered with the red glow of an Ur-Quan slave shield.

[CountDeMoney]

I would like to think it would be WH40K Orks.  They seem like a colorful bunch.

[Siege]

Honestly it's a long shot.  I hope we don't find shit.

Why do you hope that?

Great filter.  Despite it's age and size the galaxy is not buzzing with spaceships.  There is a step between lifeless planet to interstellar empire that is really hard or rare.  It may not even be possible. 

Dude, you are just dense. We talked about this before.
You are asking the Fermi paradox again.

It goes like this:

1- Information Technologies (IT) develop exponentially faster than space exploration tech, because of the far higher return per investment due to the practical applications of IT.

2- Because of this, the Technological Singularity is reached before FTL.

3- A post-singularity civ, in which humans have increasily merged with their technology, there is no socio-economical preasure to expand across space. Space exploration for such a civ is about scientific discovery, not colony building, trade, or resource collection, since a post-human/post-singularity civ with nanoconstruction/printing, atomic recycling,  and molecular manipulation have all the resources they can possibly need in their own star system.

4- Having the ability to build FTL starships in the nanoscale, with strong AIs or mixed BioAIs, the starships of such a civ would be invisible to our eyes and to any detection method we currently possess.

5- Given enough time, every intelligent life will either reach the Technological Singularity or self-destruct before reaching that stage of development. But in either case, Information Technologies will develop into the Singularity before space exploration can develop into FTL.

6- Because of 4 and 5, aliens have either passed through here already, invisible in their nanoscale construction level, or they have never been here. Undetectable in both cases, therefore Fermi's Paradox cannot be answered.

[The Brain]

I remember reading about this. An interstellar invasion armada got eaten by a little dog.

[Siege]

I remember reading about this. An interstellar invasion armada got eaten by a little dog.

Post singularity civs have no reason to invade anybody.