Sterling,
Nobody knows what life is, plain and simple. The wisest, most wizened
theologians and the brightest scientists in the latest techno-labs
don't have a clue. Nobody knows what the ghost in the machine is. Or
how it arose from matter.
What I said was life seems to arisen by chance on our planet, and
therefore it could possibly happen again elsewhere.
You said: "Is our planet special?" Yes, our planet is incredibly
special, it's the most perfect goldylocksy place ever!
Yes, 2500 yrs ago all they had were atoms. Nowadays we have quantum
particles and a stringy, vibrating web of particle waves that can be
two places at once. Matter may not be solid after all. An entirely new
parallel universe may be created ever time we make a decision. There
may be near infinite copies of each and every one of us. Physics is
turning into metaphysics. Materialism as we know it may be fading
away. There might be massless forces lacking a Boson that we know
nothing about. (The Force.) Particles may have a simple consciousness.
For all we know meteorites may be intentionally aiming for the
Sahara's soft sands. (Comic relief and steering the thread back the
physical world of meteorites.)
Phil Whitmer
Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
----- Original Message -----
From: Sterling K. Webb <[email protected]>
To: JoshuaTreeMuseum <[email protected]>,
[email protected]
Sent: Fri, 15 Mar 2013 16:27:38 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any
Exobiology Stuff
Phil, List
You said:
Science cannot define life using current materialist, reductionism,
physicalist methods. They think life, along with consciousness and
intelligence are just chance random byproducts of chance random
arrangements of organic molecules.
That is EXACTLY how science defines life.
All science is materialist, reductionism, and
physicalist. If you believe something else,
then whatever that thing is, it is NOT science.
Yet:
I'm not ruling out life elsewhere in the Universe, because according
to the laws of probability...
So, life can't arise by chance on OUR planet but
it CAN on some other planet. Would you explain
the logic of that to me? Or is our planet special?
2500 years of having the structure (and eventually
the workings) of matter explained by Leucippus,
Democritus, Epicurus, through Galileo, to Dalton,
Bohr, Heisenberg, Einstein, and hundreds of others,
and you still don't get it.
I'll give you a 2500-year-old quote that you can
repeat quietly to yourself until you DO get it:
"There are atoms and the void and nothing else."
Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "JoshuaTreeMuseum" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2013 1:50 PM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Don't Find Any Exobiology
Stuff
Mark,
I agree. It's becoming painfully obvious Mars has always been
lifeless. If it didn't happen there, where conditions were similar to
Earth, with all the right ingredients and parameters, then I wouldn't
hold my breath while looking for life in the rest of the Solar
System.
Abiogenisis is an extremely rare thing, maybe even a singularity.
Science cannot define life using current materialist, reductionist,
physicalist methods. They think life, along with consciousness and
intelligence are just chance random byproducts of chance random
arrangements of organic molecules.
Trying to understand life by studying the physical properties of the
building blocks, where they came from, whether or not the early Earth
had a reducing atmosphere, etc., etc, is like trying to explain a Van
Gogh by microprobing his paints.
I'm not ruling out life elsewhere in the Universe, because according
to the laws of probablility, if something happened once, no matter
how
weird, bizarre and unexplainable it was, there's a chance it will
happen again.
We'll know more in a million years.
Phil Whitmer
Joshua Tree Earth & Space Museum
Look deep underground (tough to do from Earth)> - That's fine if
your looking for Earth style microbes, but until we even formally
define life (and not just some grey area about self reproducing
molecules) would we know 'it' if we saw it?
Seems to me if you chart the historical progress of the hunt for life
on Mars it's getting a bit thin and desperate, in 100 years we have
gone from theories of there being colonies of Martians with canals or
forests to a small chance there may still be a few microbes hanging
on
deep underground near the equator, Nothing wrong with looking and we
should, but at some point in the near future we should probably give
up and start face to reality, and think about sending some resources
elsewhere - where frankly the chances are a looking little bit
higher,
e.g Europa.
Mark
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Michael Mulgrew
Sent: 14 March 2013 19:04
To: Sterling K. Webb; Meteorite List
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Astrobiologists Find Stuff
Sterling,
Look deep underground (tough to do from Earth), any life remaining on
Mars will likely be found there.
Michael in so. Cal.
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