Do you believe in other life in the Universe?

[T.Lex]

 

[Route 45]

Evolution has never supported expending resources on the weak, sick, and defective... yet here we are expending a huge amount of resources on just that.

Why not embrace reality and fire up the furnaces and showers?

There are animal species that care for their sick and elderly, and show behavior that looks an awful lot like empathy. Not sure who their god is, or whether they would build furnaces if they had just a little more smarts. And, in some cases, opposable thumbs.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

There are animal species that care for their sick and elderly, and show behavior that looks an awful lot like empathy. Not sure who their god is, or whether they would build furnaces if they had just a little more smarts. And, in some cases, opposable thumbs.

There are others that kill their young.

Which ones have the better evolution path? In a pitiless, indifferent universe, who's to say?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Which brings to mind a question:

Why is Hitler hated for trying to create the master race?

If evolution is about survival of the fittest, and evolution got us here, then why try and stop it? Why not try and accelerate it and kill of the weak and inferior? Why not let us evolve to so we can be those spacemen flying around and sticking our glowing fingers into other species bungholes?

Evolution has never supported expending resources on the weak, sick, and defective... yet here we are expending a huge amount of resources on just that.

Why not embrace reality and fire up the furnaces and showers?

There's a lot wrong in that post, but I'll hit the high lights. If you're really interested, I can recommend you a few books on anthropology and evolution that will dive into greater detail.

1) When resources are low, many cultures HAVE abandoned the weak, elderly, etc. When resources support keeping them, they do. The elderly often have knowledge youth lacks (such as what food sources survive the rare occurrence of a hurricane, and absent a written language the elders are the sole source of that 'map').

2) "Fittest" isn't strongest, smartest, etc. It's best adapted to the environment. Dogs aren't stronger or smarter than wolves, cows aren't stronger or smarter than buffalo, and corn isn't stronger or smarter than many types of now extinct wheat. But they buddy'd up to humans and flourished, they adapted to the human controlled environment.

3) Artificial manipulation for human desire isn't evolution toward "fittest" as you're applying it. Witness breeding of teacup poodles, notably weaker than wild dogs. It's manipulating for a desired outcome. What evidence would you present that humanity is more 'fit' without Jews?

 

[Route 45]

There are others that kill their young.

Which ones have the better evolution path? In a pitiless, indifferent universe, who's to say?

I'd say those that have evolved to not fret and whine about the universe not caring about them probably have a pretty good path.

 

[indiucky]

1) When resources are low, many cultures HAVE abandoned the weak, elderly, etc. When resources support keeping them, they do. The elderly often have knowledge youth lacks (such as what food sources survive the rare occurrence of a hurricane, and absent a written language the elders are the sole source of that 'map').

Many an adopted white into a native tribe was for that reason...Usually adopted by older women who had lost their sons and no one left to provide for them...They would often be sent off to die...Many white captives when awaiting their fate would search the crowd for an elderly native woman and try to make eye contact....

"I'm pretty strong...A good hunter...Might even give you a roll in the wickiup...What's up my little wise dusky darling..."

 

[JettaKnight]

There's a lot wrong in that post, but I'll hit the high lights. If you're really interested, I can recommend you a few books on anthropology and evolution that will dive into greater detail.

1) When resources are low, many cultures HAVE abandoned the weak, elderly, etc. When resources support keeping them, they do. The elderly often have knowledge youth lacks (such as what food sources survive the rare occurrence of a hurricane, and absent a written language the elders are the sole source of that 'map').

2) "Fittest" isn't strongest, smartest, etc. It's best adapted to the environment. Dogs aren't stronger or smarter than wolves, cows aren't stronger or smarter than buffalo, and corn isn't stronger or smarter than many types of now extinct wheat. But they buddy'd up to humans and flourished, they adapted to the human controlled environment.

3) Artificial manipulation for human desire isn't evolution toward "fittest" as you're applying it. Witness breeding of teacup poodles, notably weaker than wild dogs. It's manipulating for a desired outcome. What evidence would you present that humanity is more 'fit' without Jews?

Our pets and livestock was bred by us for us. Evolution has been halted in favor of breeding traits that benefit their captors.

If humans choose which humans survive, how can that be artificial? It's one species, driven by it's own instinct. Our instinct has led us to a point where killing off humans is OK before birth, but why have we determined that is the line? If we evolved to that point, why can't we evolve some more...

Also, strength and intelligence could be argued as the best determination of what's "fit" - at least in the past. You'd have to make an argument that compassion and caring have surpassed, or at least equaled - which could mean that liberals are more evolved.

 

[Birds Away]

Our pets and livestock was bred by us for us. Evolution has been halted in favor of breeding traits that benefit their captors.

If humans choose which humans survive, how can that be artificial? It's one species, driven by it's own instinct.

Also, strength and intelligence could be argued as the best determination of what's "fit" - at least in the past. You'd have to make an argument that compassion and caring have surpassed, or at least equaled - which could mean that liberals are more evolved.

You infer that liberals are the only ones with compassion and empathy. What they actually have is a strong sense of political expediency but I can see how you could be misled by that.

 

[JettaKnight]

You infer that liberals are the only ones with compassion and empathy. What they actually have is a strong sense of political expediency but I can see how you could be misled by that.

I don't infer - I imply, you infer.

And it was purple.

 

[jamil]

Which brings to mind a question:

Why is Hitler hated for trying to create the master race?

If evolution is about survival of the fittest, and evolution got us here, then why try and stop it? Why not try and accelerate it and kill of the weak and inferior? Why not let us evolve to so we can be those spacemen flying around and sticking our glowing fingers into other species bungholes?

Evolution has never supported expending resources on the weak, sick, and defective... yet here we are expending a huge amount of resources on just that.

Why not embrace reality and fire up the furnaces and showers?

Evolution is not the survival of the fittest. It’s that those who survive pass on the traits that helped them to survive. Maybe in some environments it’s being stronger. Maybe in other environments it’s being smarter. Maybe ultimate survival strategy is wisdom.

 

[T.Lex]

So then this happened.

https://gizmodo.com/the-discovery-of-complex-organic-molecules-on-saturn-s-1827173141

New research published today in Nature suggests Enceladus’ ocean also contains complex organic molecules—yet another sign that this moon contains the basic conditions and chemical ingredients to support life. Now, this isn’t proof that life exists on this icy moon, but it does show that Enceladus’ warm, soupy ocean is capable of producing complex and dynamic molecules, and the kinds of chemical reactions required to produce and sustain microbial life.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Our pets and livestock was bred by us for us. Evolution has been halted in favor of breeding traits that benefit their captors.

Now you're getting it. Our modern pets are bred by and for us. Their ancestors just happened to have the traits that enabled them to thrive in the human controlled environment, so now their offspring is plentiful and saber tooth tigers are extinct. They were the most fit for that new environment.

Evolution isn't a straight line series of improvements. There's a lot of dead ends. It's not a continual process, and the more stable an environment the less you see. Sharks and crocodiles are pretty same-same through the fossil records. They don't just keep "leveling up".

So Hitler was the species and the instincts of the species is eliminating other races? That seems unlikely. Again are you arguing that there's evidence that mankind is more fit without Jews? That elimination of a race makes humanity stronger? He wasn't eliminating anyone who couldn't bench their body weight or pass Algebra 101, he was simply assigning certain groups of people the label "inferior". That's not evolution or Darwinism.

 

[JettaKnight]

[video=youtube;FSOHO3GwEPg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSOHO3GwEPg[/video]

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

What real value is it? It’s just virtue signaling bull****. When people apply “humans” in these generalized self depricating group generalizations, what they mean is other humans. Do you walk around the planet like you own it? If you do, and you think that’s a bad thing, then stop it. Don’t tell me your evolved instinct to walk around the earth like you own it is so strong that you just helplessly, instinctively, walk around the earth like you own it. What you mean is that OTHER people do that, but you’ve overcome the territorial instinct, and you wish other people could be like you. You’re blaming the group you while slyly claiming your own individuality because you recognize it. (Rhetorical “you” of course)

To the extent that many people do walk around the earth like they own it, it’s fine to criticize that. That has value. Saying, “Hey. This territorial thing we have going on here ain’t so great in the grand scheme of things.” Maybe burning all this styrofoam and plastic that the kids’ Christmas came in while the wind blows the smoke right at my neighbors isn’t a good idea. Maybe our neighbors wouldn’t like that. See? No grandstanding necessary. You just figure out your contribution to someone else’s misery, and you stop it.

Maybe pointing out to myself, in the introspective privacy of my own mind, the ways I contribute to other's misery, is more productive than standing on the rooftops, cape fluttering in the wind, signaling my great virtue in recognizing the folly of humans.

I think I lifted the "Walking around like we own the place" line from one of the Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" novels. I believe the context that Adams used the line, and the way I take it has nothing to do with territoriality. It's a statement meaning that people (collectively) put themselves as being apart from nature, or maybe more like above it. I could get in my car in the garage, drive to my office, take the tunnel to the building, and get there totally dry even though it's raining buckets outside. Then I can sit there all day in comfort while it's insanely hot outside. Our ability to build infrastructure and to compound our knowledge over generations I'm sure helps to give that illusion. Some will say that religion also instills a belief that we're "special" compared to the lesser animals.

Adam's statement, that I freely rip off, is just his clever way of poking fun at that particular folly of humans. So, when he says that we walk around like we own the place, it's more like we walk around like we're the bosses of everything and we make all the rules. In the Hitchhiker novels, Adams takes a lot of shots at us Earth people, and those books were some of the funniest books I've ever read. And here I'm just now realizing what a self-righteous virtue signaler he was.

P.S. if we ever meet, that funny look on my face is me picturing you in tights and a cape.

 

[T.Lex]

So, there's interesting new experimentally-based information that informs the Drake equation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180801172056.htm

"I'm not sure how contingent life is, but given that we only have one example so far, it makes sense to look for places that are most like us," said Rimmer. "There's an important distinction between what is necessary and what is sufficient. The building blocks are necessary, but they may not be sufficient: it's possible you could mix them for billions of years and nothing happens. But you want to at least look at the places where the necessary things exist."

Basically, there's a certain kind of UV light, generated by certain kinds of stars, that maximize abiogenesis, even within the Goldilocks zone. This either adds a new criteria, or informs an existing one in the Drake equation, that reduces the odds of life evolving.

 

[Alpo]

Reminds me of the guy mopping the floor underneath the flourescent light in the sanitarium. Doc asks him why he's mopping over there when the floor isn't dirty in that area. The guy says 'because the light is better over here'.

Our selection bias along with our lack of real understanding of the size and age of "The Universe" allows us to mop in what could be only a small bubble of a timeless, endless volume.

 

[ArcadiaGP]

Mysterious observatory evacuation stirs alien conspiracy theories

The FBI showed up and evacuated the remote Sunspot solar observatory in southern New Mexico. Almost a week later, no one knows why.

 

[JettaKnight]

Believe? Heck this congressional candidate's met them!
https://uproxx.com/viral/bettina-rodriguez-aguilera-alien-spaceship-congress/

#FloridaWoman

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Believe? Heck this congressional candidate's met them!
https://uproxx.com/viral/bettina-rodriguez-aguilera-alien-spaceship-congress/

#FloridaWoman

"She claimed that her first encounter occurred at age 7"

Rodriguez said she didn't remember where the encounter took place, or how she got there, but the aliens were extremely drunk and tried to remove her one piece bathing suit from under her clothes. They covered her mouth and she thought 'they might literally kill me'".

 

[Route 45]

Mysterious observatory evacuation stirs alien conspiracy theories

Nope. Pedophiles.

https://www.ktsm.com/news/local/el-...osure-according-to-court-documents/1460386237