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- From: Alan_S._Mackenzie@paradigm.co.jp (Alan S. Mackenzie)
- Newsgroups: alt.ufo.reports
- Subject: Re: 'UFOs do not exist' - additional thoughts
- Date: Thu, 20 Jun 96 03:07:51 -0900
- Organization: Paradigm Online
- Lines: 76
- Message-ID: <2747920.ensmtp@paradigm.co.jp>
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-
- On 6/17/96 g.s.davies@kingston.ac.uk said :
-
- > Assuming an infinite Universe (but bounded!)
-
- Eh what? Missed this elsewhere. How can something be infinite but bounded?
-
- plus an infinity of
- > alternative Universes which may or may not observe identical physical
- laws, we can
- > be certain of an infinite number (in fact, an imaginary number) of
- > Sentient Beings who share (or exceed) a human level of Intelligence.
-
- Hasn't this become a rather large assumption?
-
- There
- > are, of course, some major factors to consider: a) Very few would be
- within
- > sub-light commuting distance of us within reasonable time-scales
-
- Hey, well why not just assume infinite resources and that technological
- development is infinite in variety and somehow comes up with the goods?
-
- ; b)
- > Intelligence is subjective: we may not reccognise nor be able to measure an
- > alien sentience as such;
-
- very true but can't we also assume that the human brain is infinately
- adaptable albeit
- (bounded! )<sic>.
-
- c) Exotic terrestial examples aside,
- > chemically-based self-reproducing life is only possible under a very narrow
- remit,
- > although that remit could include extreme conditions. Some
- extra-terrestial
- > life may not have a chemical basis at all - in which case we would not
- > neccessarily reccognise it as life:
-
- Since this is assuming that everything *is* infinite and we have an infinite
- variety of sentiemt creatures, then can't we *assume* (in this great thought
- experiment), an infinite number of creation events (oops sorry "evolutionary"
- events), through an infinite variety of mediums?
-
- d) Assuming that curiosity
-
- Now why is contentment never cited as the fudamental axiom of sentience? You
- would think that anyone with any brains would rather be happy wiht sitting in
- the sun contemplating life;-)
-
- is a
- > fundamental sentience axiom, life forms will both investigate and attempt
- to
- > understand their environment. Thus, given the means and species
- > survivability, trans-spacial travel is an inevitability for all sentient
- lifeforms:
- > e) It cannot be assumed that a high-technology is a pre-requisite for
- > space-travel. A happy accident or unexpected discovery may produce an FTL
- > (or transdimensional) space-drive but the alien culture may be ignorant of
- > (or incapable of utilising), for example, basic electronics: These are
- > just a few imediate thoughts; you will observe that I neither advocate nor
- > deny the existence of visiting aliens, I just attempt to place the
- > possibility in perspective.
-
-
-
-
- Alan Mackenzie
-
-
-
- --
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