"String theory sucks, and it isn't Science"

String theory is a hypothesis under scrutiny and testing. How much more "science" can you get than that?!

Electricity is a theory. But that's turned out pretty well for us so far.

Ohh and Skyhook - you should read "The Untethered Soul" by Michael Singer. Some of your ideas on free will and the "self" are very well discussed in that book. I'll admit I didn't agree to it and my soul remains tethered, but I like exploring both sides of the argument.

I really didn't mean offense above - I can be open minded about a lot of things, but I draw the line at self-deprecating delusions that are clearly false. You might say, "How do you know they are false?" and I will say, "You know they are, too, you're just not willing to admit it."

This woman doesn't need open-minded friends justifying her delusions. She needs a doctor because she's borderline schizophrenic.

And stop bringing free will into every discussion. It's not even related to the discussion on energy.

You make this lady sound like a saint. I can say with 100% certainty that, in our experienced reality here on Earth, that tree is not talking to that woman. I would bet my life on it. If she says (and even if she truly believes) that the tree is speaking with her, then she is malfunctioning. And if you believe her, you might be too.

(no offense! )

Was I asleep when we proved string theory? Thought it was still a pretty poor candidate for M-theory.

Anyway, I don't agree with that article's author's comment that a majority of Americans believe in a floating blob of "energy" that can be tapped. I've only ever heard people who believe that referred to as "kooks" or "crazies," so it's definitely not a widely-accepted and normal belief.

Also - that movie was speculative and silly, completely full of pseudoscience. The article's author needs to buy his friend a book on quantum theory.

That's all I've ever wanted! The quest for immortality takes on an interesting new tone...

(Oh, and yes I did come up with that theory when I was high. So it's obviously 100% accurate)

Maybe the singularity of a black hole is a single point of contact between another universe expanding out through new dimensions. Maybe our universe began as a black hole of sufficient mass in a bigger universe that had infinitely more mass than this universe, and it follows a nice fractal pattern of universes expanding from each other forever.

Imagine a balloon filled with air. Twist off a small section of it and you get a new tiny balloon with a single point of contact with the original balloon. If the rubber were unbreakable, you could continue twisting off smaller balloons practically forever - each one having air inside.

Once a collection of mass gets enough mass to become a black hole, it bends the fabric of space-time enough to explode into the big bang of a new universe, only touching the existing one at the tiny singularity where that big bang takes place. Of course from our universe, they act like a collection of mass because all that mass exists in just one single point.

What happens to the mass that enters a black hole later? Who knows - maybe someday we'll see the location of the big bang and realize that mass seems to be created there - when really it's just leaking in from a much bigger universe on the other side.

Obviously I have no evidence or training to support this. I just think it's a cool way to imagine the structure of the universe (or would that be a multiverse?).

I am using my free will to get this thread back on topic! (Or was I predestined to always make this decision? Hmmm.)

I don't think the impact on normal factory workers will be that rough - those factories won't just close, they're full of automated equipment and skilled workers. Savvy business like Honda and Nissan will buy them up quickly and put them back to work. (Well that's my opinion at least.)

Haha three mentions of "testosterone" in a thread about alien life?? Have a lot of hang ups, do you? Long, long ago, "dude" became an interjection, not a masculine pronoun. The Oxford English Dictionary tracks these things - get with the game.

How awesome would it be if we found fossilized microbes in the Martian soil?! They're pretty sure Mars had liquid water a billion years ago. And they're pretty sure that when Earth is finished cooling, we'll lose our magnetic fields and soon Earth will look just about like Mars. Good thing we still have a few billion years before that happens. Maybe the sun will explode first.

Bingo! I think this is right on... and it's unfortunate because I think it would be awesome to meet aliens. I feel like if they arrived on Earth, we'd get an awesome technology boost and they'd cure all of our problems.

Of course the most likely scenario is that they show up in peace, we freak out, and blow them out of the sky.

Haha from me?! I, sir, don't even know the word.

I do - basic philosophy is an awesome course. My high school never offered it, but I wish they had.

But I guess "being awesome" isn't a good enough benefit to warrant a new high school course. We'd better think of some real, tangible benefits to the class other than just "critical thinking skills".

Dude you quoted the Christian bible. I didn't tell you what you believed, you advertised it.

But back to the matter at hand: aliens! Belief in god doesn't make belief in aliens impossible. Maybe he has a whole zoo of a universe to entertain himself. Maybe aliens put us here in the first place. Maybe we technically are aliens if you consider that some of the advanced ingredients of abiogenesis most likely came from asteroids hitting the Earth.

The point of my argument, though, is where are all these other beings that most likely exist?! Why aren't they here chilling with us, enjoying some Earth beer with us??

I love me some falsehoods.

But meh - we're both making a leap of faith in one direction or another. You believe some omnipotent being willed things into creation, I believe everything came from nothing for no good cause. We both have evidence on our side that we claim is reliable.

Who's crazier?

But does the bible say God didn't populate other planets with life? If he truly is omnipotent and omniscient (which in itself is a logical fallacy), and if he loves life as much as he says, why not fill the dark void with flowers and birds?

Awesome. Actually I do believe in "free will" from our standpoint because we exist inside the universe. But I also believe that an outside observer (impossible as that may be) would be able to calculate our decisions.

Maybe I just like thinking that no matter what I do, I was born with actions set in motion to make me do exactly that. It makes every choice you make suddenly the "right" choice.

My friend and I talked about this in our original discussion, too. It's possible. But not very probable.

Anyone read Ender's Game? The buggers and the humans couldn't communicate because they had evolved completely different methods of communication - so any attempt to talk to each other would be completely unrecognized and ignored by the other party. Maybe aliens are trying to contact us - just not through channels we can understand.

I definitely considered that, too. Self-obliteration of intelligent species is unfortunate but maybe inevitable.

And I definitely agree that life exists all over the universe - maybe not intelligent life everywhere, but I bet life, how we define it, exists. And I bet other planet's organisms that evolved similarly to ours would be amazingly similar.

Alone in the universe?! The probability that one and only one planet would evolve intelligent life in the entire universe is tiny. Our existence alone should imply that the universe is teeming with life.

Maybe you believe in a higher being who set Earth as the center of his master plan? If that's the case - why bother with building billions of other stars in our galaxy and billions of other galaxies outside of that?? If we're the end-all of importance in the universe, why does the rest of the universe even exist?

I read a really cool article about how the "estimated" number of civilizations as advanced or more advanced as the human race existing in the Milky Way Galaxy is ~32,000.

Obviously that number is painfully arbitrary - we don't know nearly enough about life here or conditions elsewhere to make a good guess. But we have to start somewhere! The number is at least 1 (us!) but could be as high as 503,050,313,987. (I made up that number.)

So where are all these civilizations?! Why isn't the solar system teeming with mining crews at the asteroid field, solar panels harvesting energy, radio waves, or something of that nature??

My friend and I had a long discussion on why we don't see other civilizations around. Only once has a radio wave of questionable origin reached Earth and been measured (look up the Wow! signal), and even that is some pretty poor evidence.

His conclusion: in order to progress far enough technologically to conquer interstellar travel, a species would accidentally obliterate itself through advanced physics experiments. (Like the Hadron Collider.)

My conclusion: civilizations advance far enough to the point that they can transfer their brains to computers and they live and exist in simulated paradise worlds. Basically, they cause the extinction of their own species but continue to live in cyber paradise. (Related: would you give up your human body to exist in a computer where you could define the world around you?)

What are your thoughts? Why don't we see intelligent life from all over the galaxy hanging around? Is it that there's just no more life out there? The distances are unconquerable? Humans are protected as part of an intergalactic nature reserve? :)