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September 13, 2004
Is ET out there ?
According to the Astronomer Royal, the answer is yes. This is qualified of course, by his adding the rider that they may not be bipedal, or even pedal at all - they could be huge ballon-like creatures floating in atmospheres as wild and alien as Jupiter's, or even as multi-individual as a swarm of ants or bees.
No, this isn't a venture by the eminent Professor into the realms of science fiction or fantasy, he is responding to the widening of our knowledge of the cosmos as Hubble and other instruments probe ever deeper into the universe and more and more planets and planetary systems are found. The fact that we have not received the equivalent of a radio message from them saying "we're here, where are you?" simply means that we may not even be on the same mental wavelength. In the Professor's words, we not be able to communicate or for that matter to even begin to understand how another life form reasons or communicates. Who knows; on some soggy water filled planet there could be super-intelligent dolphins as a top life form whose environment, and lifestyle is so perfectly matched that they have no need of a technology that would allow them to communicate with any but their own species, anyway!
In a neat twist to my posted comment the other day regarding the fact that the Church had welcomed the "elevation" of our small lump of rock to the status of "planet", as it moved us up the pile, the Professor comments that if we were to prove to be the only "intelligent" (I sometimes wonder about that when I contemplate the actions of terrorists!) life in the universe, then we are even higher up the tree than we thought. Frightening, really; think what some of our funny-bunny brigade would make of the news that we are it. This little lump of rock hurtling round our small star is the only one with sentient life!
Doesn't bear thinking about.
Posted by The Gray Monk at September 13, 2004 10:09 AM