Friday, July 24, 2015
We are not alone in this universe
"Discovered by the Kepler Telescope, NASA says it's the first small, rocky planet discovered in the habitable zone of a G star similar to our sun."_ NBC
This planet is much bigger than earth.
I understand that there are billions of earth-like planets in the known universe according to scientists. It is possible that there is intelligent life on these planets. Big problem is that they are so far away. This particular planet is 1400 light years away from earth.
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Other civilizations will not only be far away, most will be millions of years more advanced than us due to cosmological time scales. For instance, if we had a sister star system that formed from the same stellar nursery 4.5-billion years ago, and it had an Earth-like planet that developed 1% faster than our planet, its civilization would be 45 million years old.
ReplyDeleteThis brings up the Fermi Paradox. According to his calculations, a civilization should be able to colonize the galaxy within a few tens of millions of years. So "where are the aliens?" Why wasn't the Earth turned into a beach resort millions of years before the first hominin species appeared about 7 million years ago?
The answer to this question says a lot about our predicament. The kinds of civilizations that would conquer and colonize the galaxy will destroy themselves before they can do any damage. The kinds of civilizations that can survive for millions of years will be environmentally responsible. They will adopt an interstellar green ethic that would forbid them from interfering with life on other planets.
One of the biggest problems with our dying proto-civilization founded on European colonialism is that we don't even think in terms of civilization. We are just a collection of nations in the form of a primitive dominance hierarchy at war with one another. Rich white nations exploit people of color around the globe and call it an "economic miracle."
But we aren't dead yet. If the people exert their democratic authority, we can have a just civilization that is equitable and sustainable. First step: ditch the plutocrats' self-serving economic ideology that is morally reprehensible and intellectually bankrupt.
Ron Waller, thank you for your comment. You raise very interesting issues. My knowledge of the space and other planets and intelligent beings living there is limited. However, it would look there is life out there.
ReplyDeleteDo we have democratic system? I agree with you that it is illusion than reality.
Also right from the childhood I have thought about the meaning of life and as time goes by my understanding is very little to none. Do you have any comments on that?
Religions want us to believe that life on the planet earth started 8000 years ago. That does not make much sense as skeletons of humans have been found which are assessed to be 70,000 to 100,000 years old. And skeletons of other species are millions of years old. On the other hand big bang theory is just a theory. A theory means that all the facts are not there to prove it to be reality. Your thoughts on this subject matter will be appreciated including the theory of evolution.