Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!hwcs!adrian
From: adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk (Adrian Hurt)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: Seti
Summary: I'm not so optimistic
Message-ID: <1944@brahma.cs.hw.ac.uk>
Date: 26 Aug 88 16:22:41 GMT
References: <587138396.iaeh@ISL1.RI.CMU.EDU> <443@csed-1.IDA.ORG> <1988Aug19.212031.24023@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: Computer Science, Heriot-Watt U., Scotland
Lines: 40

In article <1988Aug19.212031.24023@utzoo.uucp>, henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
> A poor assumption; our own lifespan is likely to increase dramatically within
> the next century or so.

During a series of TV programmes last Christmas, it was demonstrated that life
expectancy has been levelling off. I can't remember exactly why; something to
do with the cells making up the body. I think it may have been that they can
only be replaced a certain number of times, but I' not sure there. Anyway, the
conclusion was that lifespan would probably not exceed 100 by much. Diseases
can be beaten, but old age is much more difficult.
 
> >3) Advanced societies have limited budgets and would expect a return on investment
>
> Again, check out the pattern in our immediate past.  Emigrating to North
> America -- just the passage and the necessary startup supplies -- took
> every cent the Plymouth Rock colonists had, and drove them so deep into
> debt that it was 20 years before they were in the black again.

But did anyone launch a multi-year enquiry when a ship was lost? People were
much more willing to risk their lives then.

Having challenged this optimism about the human species, I should also say that
these examples do not necessarily indicate what an alien culture might see in
space exploration and/or colonisation. Science fiction provides such options as
exterminating life, assisting fledgeling races, escape from a doomed world, and
more.

Finally, to try to open a few minds, who says we haven't been visited? Would
you believe anyone who said we have? Would you believe anyone who claimed to
have seen or met the visitors? In other words, how do you react to people who
believe in UFO's? Simply saying "They're nuts" or "They were fooled by
something" isn't open-minded. As Henry said somewhere else, I don't believe and
I don't disbelieve. Can anyone conclusively prove whether we have been visited
or not?

-- 
 "Keyboard? How quaint!" - M. Scott

 Adrian Hurt			     |	JANET:  adrian@uk.ac.hw.cs
 UUCP: ..!ukc!cs.hw.ac.uk!adrian     |  ARPA:   adrian@cs.hw.ac.uk