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The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (otherwise known as SETI) is the topic of
conversation over at sci.astro.seti newsgroup. But don’t worry. This newsgroup involves
discussions of the serious scientific, far range radio wave listening sort, not the
conspiracy theory/ abduction sort.
A recent discussion on Communicating with Dolphins stirred up much discussion about the
nature of intelligence, why our brains are the way they are, and the likelihood of some
other place in the galaxy being blessed (cursed?) with similar capacities.
Nebulous wrote, “Life may be common, perhaps even endemic, in the cosmos, but human style
intelligence will most probably be vanishingly rare."
Richard Kennaway responded with some very intriguing thoughts, “It depends how narrowly
you define "human-style" intelligence. One cannot expect to find rice pudding and income
tax on other planets. (Editorial comment: Thank heavens for small blessings.) What of --
taking a list off the top of my head -- awareness of oneself and others, language, and the
ability to form and carry out very long-term plans, supported by physical dexterity and a
desire to do so? Are these as accidental as a bridge hand, or merely as accidental as a
straight flush, something which is bound to happen in one form or another within the
available timescale?"
Paul Bramscher considered the variables which resulted in life on this planet and suggests
the odds were not in our favor or anyone else’s either, so cash in your chips at the cage
before your lose it all kids.
Paul explains, “… human style intelligence is no accident, but the logical result of
having all the necessary ingredients. I'm only suggesting that the number of correct
ingredients to be a very uncommon permutation, but when you find them you'll probably find
something very similar to ourselves. It depends on how many variables were essential to
the recipe, and how many were incidental (or even detrimental)."
“Even if there are only 100 variables, each with only 100 possibilities (degree of
temperature, pressure, radiation, chemical composition, seasonal variation, effect of
tides, etc.), the number of permutations pretty much suggests we're the only intelligent
life in the entire universe."
Jonathan Day agrees with Paul and points out the pitfalls of our engineering, “This (the
human brain) is a very complex architecture, which is frankly not very impressive. There's
no obvious redundancy, and hardware glitches are very common. (ADD, ADHD, Bipolar,
OCD, the entire Autism spectrum, etc, are experienced by a very large percentage of the human
population. I don't know the "real" figure, but I've heard numbers in the order of 30-50%,
with at least one of the disorders I listed.) That it functions -at all- is nothing short
of an engineering miracle."
Jonathan may be right. Finding life that’s “intelligent" like us might not be the best
thing after all. Human intelligence could be the development of some badly dosed
interstellar radiation. Perhaps we’re walking mutations after all.
Anyway, spend the day musing about something greater than our selves. Join the
mind-tickling conversations at sci.astro.seti.
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"Aliens Like Us"
