Reappraisal of the Viking Mars Mission and the possibility of life

Started by jimmy olsen, April 14, 2012, 11:57:40 PM

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Tamas

Quote from: Tyr on April 16, 2012, 08:11:11 AM
Quote from: Tamas on April 16, 2012, 08:08:21 AM
We keep savagly killing each other and exploiting everything there is to exploit, while constantly growing in population, level of advance, and energy reserves to tap from the planet. Granted, with a few dark ages here and there, but there is no sign pointing to our dissappearance as a species.
We've came bloody close even despite being a peaceful species.
Imagine the typical aliens from alien invasion sillyness where Hitler would be counted as a hippy and...the outlook is not good.
Also, fighting over resources in space is just insane. Even if we're in the star trek universe with sentient species in every other system there's still a lot of space out there

We came close to setting us back several hundred years, yes, MAYBE, in 1962.

Otherwise, we are anything but a peaceful species. We are chimpanzees in pants.

Josquius

QuoteWe came close to setting us back several hundred years, yes, MAYBE, in 1962.

Otherwise, we are anything but a peaceful species. We are chimpanzees in pants.
Of course we're a peaceful species.
That isn't to say we're entirely peaceful of course, we are still animals. As South Africa passes for a rich African country however humanity is a peaceful animal.
Still a lot of core animalistic behaviour in there but hell, one use of the very word humanity is about not behaving according to base urges.
I'm so sick of the hippy crap about humans being especially violent and nasty when its the animals that are the bad ones.

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on April 16, 2012, 08:39:21 AM
Quote from: Tyr on April 16, 2012, 08:11:11 AM
We've came bloody close even despite being a peaceful species.

When was this?
The cold war.
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The Brain

Women want me. Men want to be with me.


Razgovory

Quote from: Tyr on April 16, 2012, 09:43:50 AM

The cold war.

That's not close.  We didn't even kill a hundred million people during that.  It would take a lot to kill off humanity.  We don't really have the technology to do so now.
I've given it serious thought. I must scorn the ways of my family, and seek a Japanese woman to yield me my progeny. He shall live in the lands of the east, and be well tutored in his sacred trust to weave the best traditions of Japan and the Sacred South together, until such time as he (or, indeed his house, which will periodically require infusion of both Southern and Japanese bloodlines of note) can deliver to the South it's independence, either in this world or in space.  -Lettow April of 2011

Raz is right. -MadImmortalMan March of 2017

Eddie Teach

Yeah, plus even if the US and Russia nuked each other several times over there'd be little damage done to South America or Africa.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

crazy canuck

Quote from: Tyr on April 16, 2012, 04:21:45 AM
If humanity today with all of our problems and conflicts were to somehow get out into space and discover aliens we wouldn't invade.

You are not basing this on past experience of humans encountering other humans who were technologically less advanced so I wonder what is it that draws you to this conclusion?

Malthus

Quote from: crazy canuck on April 17, 2012, 02:18:22 PM
Quote from: Tyr on April 16, 2012, 04:21:45 AM
If humanity today with all of our problems and conflicts were to somehow get out into space and discover aliens we wouldn't invade.

You are not basing this on past experience of humans encountering other humans who were technologically less advanced so I wonder what is it that draws you to this conclusion?

We wouldn't invade, exactly - we'd get those aliens hooked on booze or drugs, "buy" bits of alien real estate for beads and trinkets, and on those patches set up the alien equivalent of McDonalds franchises while flooding their airwaves with crappy soap operas and Japanese game shows.

Before long, the alien planet would hum with human commerce while the original aliens begged in the gutters, or get hearded onto slummy reservations.

In short, we would not engage in a bloody orgy orgy of genocide ... we'd think of something worse.  :D
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane—Marcus Aurelius

Eddie Teach

The real test would be how we respond when they kill off the first wave of settlers.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?


Neil

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on April 16, 2012, 08:56:39 AM
Quote from: Neil on April 16, 2012, 08:46:07 AM
Besides, once a high technology species falls back to pre- or early industrial technology, they can't recover on their own.  How would they get energy?

From their star. :contract:

There's no reason the second industrial revolution has to take place as quickly as the first one.
Unfortunately, the radiant energy of the star generally proves too difficult to capture and use.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.