[Rob Instigator]

http://www.technologyreview.com/view...all-fragments/

aLGAE-LIKE FOSSILS FOUND IN METORITE!!!!

awesome

[ALIEN ANAL]

Not so fast earthling!

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astro...meteorite.html

[Rob Instigator]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.1845

[!@#$%!]

oh, damn damn damn!

--

that;s still "the journal of cosmology" in that cornell database

[Rob Instigator]

http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1303/1303.1845.pdf that is the full paper. awesome.

[tesla69]

C'mon, Rob, its just a glacial erratic

[!@#$%!]

yes i saw but i'm withholding judgment until it gets reviewed and published in "nature" or some such journal. i'm not saying "no", i'm just saying "hmmmm, interesting..."

[Rob Instigator]

pretty cool though.

[evollove]

I don't get it. As a lay person, I always assumed shit like this was floating around anyway.

Is the generally accepted theory that there is not and never was anything remotely alive ever in the universe?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

I don't get it. As a lay person, I always assumed shit like this was floating around anyway.

Is the generally accepted theory that there is not and never was anything remotely alive ever in the universe?

the question is not whether life may or may not arise in other planets.

panspermia is the notion that there's some sort of common universal DNA out there flying around in comets and meteorites, "seeding" planets, and that the origin of life on earth isn't from the primordial soup but from extraterrestrial origins.

[Rob Instigator]

Panspermia is an idea that was proposed around 30 years ago, that the seeds of life were placed on the early Earth by space debris, comets, meteors, etc.

There is no "generally accepted theory" currently about how life began, only various propositions. The evidence for panspermia needed to be found in well-defined and verified meteor impacts. that is what the paper is about, a meteor from 2012.

what was found in the meteor was not just amino acids, or other such pre-life chemicals (which are found, as we now know, all throughout the solar system,) but actual microfossils and organic material, some of which look like very basic life forms that are long extinct on planet Earth.

[evollove]

Gotcha.
Sort of. Must be some fucking tough seeds, I gather.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by evollove

Gotcha.
Sort of. Must be some fucking tough seeds, I gather.

yeah, interstellar travel is a tough mother

[Rob Instigator]

Tardigrades can survive outer space, radiation, heat, cold, everything!!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade

 

[evollove]

This is all very interesting.

But let's say we finally discover some cosmic-seed-distributing species. Where did they come from? Whether or not there is a God will forever be an open question, even if we happen to discover damn-near everything about the physical universe.

Yes? If so, does this depress you, elate you, or change nothing?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Tardigrades can survive outer space, radiation, heat, cold, everything!!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade

 

still, the closest star is 4 light-years away. don't know anything that travels at light speed except for radiation. a comet (if it could go between solar systems) is what, 1km/sec when it's farthest from the sun, so it could go what, 1.2 million years to go from here to alpha centauri... but even if that tardigrade survived, it wouldn't leave the solar system.

life going from one planet to another-- sure, may be possible-- otherwise, abiogenesis is the most likely explanation for the origin of life on earth.

Originally Posted by evollove

This is all very interesting.

But let's say we finally discover some cosmic-seed-distributing species. Where did they come from? Whether or not there is a God will forever be an open question, even if we happen to discover damn-near everything about the physical universe.

Yes? If so, does this depress you, elate you, or change nothing?

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Ancient_humanoid

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Tardigrades can survive outer space, radiation, heat, cold, everything!!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Waterbear.jpg

Terrence McKenna was always a proponent of the idea that the spores of mushrooms can resist hard radiation and may have arrived here from space.

As a theory, it is certainly as viable as the 'oceans full of amino acids' theory. Of course, the difference is who has tenure.

None of these theories answer what I believe is the more important question, how did awareness/consciousness form.

[tesla69]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

still, the closest star is 4 light-years away. don't know anything that travels at light speed except for radiation. a comet (if it could go between solar systems) is what, 1km/sec when it's farthest from the sun, so it could go what, 1.2 million years to go from here to alpha centauri... but even if that tardigrade survived, it wouldn't leave the solar system.d

You're thinking in human time, you have to get past even geological time. We're talking about billions and billions of years. Cosmic time. And who knows what kind of rules actually apply outside the gravity wells.

[Rob Instigator]

Originally Posted by evollove

This is all very interesting.

But let's say we finally discover some cosmic-seed-distributing species. Where did they come from? Whether or not there is a God will forever be an open question, even if we happen to discover damn-near everything about the physical universe.

Yes? If so, does this depress you, elate you, or change nothing?

as far as "gawd" goes, it is irrelevant. If we are to think of the Universe as a totality, and the Earth one microcosm of that totality, then we should be led to assume that life is an inherent trait of the Universe. The problem was that we have not found hard evidence of any sort of life outside of our little microcosm Earth. This is the first step.

[Rob Instigator]

consciousness is, I feel, a byproduct of existence. Trees with no nervous systems and no brains gather information about their environment, and use the information to improve their lot in this life. That, to me, is a form of consciousness.
I think the reason we humans seem so different in consciousness from other life we see is that we have somehow managed to embody two brains in opne body, each co-existing with it's mate. Our right lobes and our left lobes are two separate brains. They are connected by a thick band of neurons, which allows them to communicate. This I think, creates the ability of humans to internally communicate with theemslves, giving us the understanding of the "Other" that most animals do not seem to possess.

am I becoming a deist? I'd be in good company!