Intellegence beyond our solar system. (a response from Neil Tyson)

[mikeofaustin]

I myself think that he skirted the very question (avoided it). But let me get your thoughts. Let's chat after the video. (admins, this is not a video post, it's an everything else post).

[FarmerChick]

I enjoyed watching that.

I don't think he 'avoided' giving his personal view on whether ET exists or not, I think he ran off in another direction to explain about UFO sightings and that an eyewitness is not enough evidence for any true scientist to evaluate. A scientist wants something in his hand to test...hard evidence. (like stealing the ashtray from the spaceship--haha)

so no we don't know his view, but he said if we were visited and someone has concrete evidence, bring it to the scientists for proof and testing.


maybe I should mail him the scalpel I snatched from my last abduction...it is only sitting on my shelf gathering dust....

[Tuberale]

Apparently he hasn't read Walter O. Sullivan's book "We Are Not Alone."

Even after all this time, Sullivan predicted after finding suspected crash site material from Roswell, that the US would not admit to anything until after that material could be replicated on earth with existing technology. Took until 2008 as I recall, before the world's metallurgy skills matched the fragments discovered and sent to Sullivan, which were then analyzed by Battelle Laboratories.

Odd. We're surrounded by "billions and billions" of stars (thanks, Carl Sagan!) but insisted until the mid 1990's the only planets in the Universe were our own Solar System's. Yeah, I recognize the necessity of science to have proof. But, D-U-H!

Keep in mind, as well, that in matters astronomical, humans still having trouble with Thomas Jefferson's quote from over 200 years ago: ""I would more easily believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven." - Supposedly said by Thomas Jefferson after hearing of meteorite exploding over Weston, Connecticut on December 14, 1807." - from http://www.unmuseum.org/rocksky.htm

[bigscoop]

I think he's telling it just like it is...."no evidence what-so-ever"......."people have a need to believe, so they believe."
To think the Gov could keep something so big a complete secret, for so long.......well.....just not even possible. I think that's the truth he's explaining. At least, that's what I got from it.

[rockhound]

If you think a scientist or any other professional is going to put his reputation on the line,you are barking up the wrong tree. They don't work that way.Even airplane pilots have to be debriefed after a sighting so they can't tell their story to the press or media. Almost all airlines have a policy of non disclosure.Scientists work form materials and matter to try and determine its structure and then try to replicate it.Also scientists are a closed knit group and don't want to be reviewed by their peers for leaking information or stating their beliefs.Like politicans,they can dance around a subject for hours and not say anything you can take as a concrete statement. As an astronomer,I often look up into the sky daily and nightly.I have seen many unidentified phenomena in the skies,but you will never hear him say that. rockhound

[FarmerChick]

remember too that the words 'unidentified flying object' now mean flying saucer with aliens when someone says that term.

it is just what it is.....unidentified flying object.

it could be anything. it just means it is unidentified.
it is an object most likely
it is flying supposedly since it is in the air


so truly a "UFO" now just defaults to mean flying alien saucer type
when in reality it is just what it means yet man blow right past the true meaning of the term and right away think space aliens

[Tuberale]

Apparently you can't believe what I say either (see my earlier post). It was Walter S. Sullivan, not Walter O. Sullivan. The book "We Are Not Alone" was written in 1966, which was still quite a few years after the reported Roswell, NM crash in 1947. According to Sullivan and others, the incident was shut-up based on Ike's worry that the US could not deal with "advanced visitors" who could go wherever they wanted at speeds unknown to humans of the time, with impunity. What can I say? It's been a few years, so I get confused. (WMAD? What WMAD? Nothing over here, nothing under here. Oopsie. So just an honest mistake, right?)

Regarding the video, if I could interject some humor here, "What would Copernicus say?"

[Tuberale]

remember too that the words 'unidentified flying object' now mean flying saucer with aliens when someone says that term.

it is just what it is.....unidentified flying object.

it could be anything. it just means it is unidentified.
it is an object most likely
it is flying supposedly since it is in the air


so truly a "UFO" now just defaults to mean flying alien saucer type
when in reality it is just what it means yet man blow right past the true meaning of the term and right away think space aliens

Neil Tyson just arguing semantics, here. S.I. Hayakowa would be so happy. (If you don't know Hayakowa, look him up.)

Semantics would argue left is right, and up is down. (And they are if you think about a 3-dimensional object.) Problem is most people are 2-dimensional creatures.

The shortest distance between two points is align(ment).

[Treasure_Hunter]

Billions and billions of stars, who knows how many millions of planets, to think out of all of them there is only one single planet that can support life is harder for me to believe than to believe in alien life.

Then again at one time most minds of the day believed the world was flat, and if you sailed to far, you would sail off the edge of the world...

[Tuberale]

... you would sail off the edge of the world...

Odd that gravity still works after you fall off the world, huh?<G> No one thought of that while standing on the Earth, though. Even on top of a mountain looking out to sea. Boggles the Euclidean and Pythagorean mind, doesn't it? Maybe the 12-step programs are all wrong: denial really IS a long river in Egypt! Perspective is the only thing.

[bigscoop]

I myself think that he skirted the very question (avoided it). But let me get your thoughts.

No. I don't think he avoided the question.

[FarmerChick]

UFO means unidentified flying object

only

so everything else is added by people's minds after that...oh it has to be a spacecraft from outerspace wtih aliens aboard....or 'since I don't know what it is' --it has to be ET driving thru our airspace




eyewitness accounts, just like the telephone game he mentioned, are useless to 'most' degrees.

[rockhound]

They think the general populace couldn't come to grips with another civilization in the universe,heck,we can't even come to grips with other nationalities here on earth.So many cultures and so many different religions to cope with,it is not surprising many people want to escape reality.The latestpoll I saw said that 52% of the people believed in extraterrestrials and of that number almost all believed we are being visited on a regular basis or have been visited sometime in the past. Seems they have let some of their top level military people dislose some bits of information as time goes along so it won't be a shock when they make a full disclosure.When they operated the bluebook from the airforce(still do but not in public),there were many sighting they could not explain away as anything but an aircraft of some type. Some even left physical evidence of their landing,which is hard to deny,even for the air force. rockhound

[Tuberale]

I myself think that he skirted the very question (avoided it). But let me get your thoughts. Let's chat after the video. (admins, this is not a video post, it's an everything else post).

After ... slowly ... listening ... to it all ... I never ... heard ... a definate ... answer ... yes ... or ... no. I'd guess no.

I don't think Tyson has kids of his own. Another guess, but I do have a BA in education. All that was needed was a yes or no, not a lecture on psychology or telephone line game similes.

[FarmerChick]

not many public figures EVER lock into a 'side' on a subject

this is the norm

so if he keeps his personal views as a scientist and 'person' to himself I don't see a problem.


I think the answer he gave did in fact show something of his beliefs. the 'show me' some 'real evidence' and I could make up my own mind at that point.

[The Beep Goes On]

Many of his arguments sidestep anything definitive in favor of portraying the fallibilities of an individual observer in a single instance. I don't find fault with his viewpoints; it was common sense and it was entertaining. The problem with generalities like this, however, is that they don't do reality justice, they disregard exceptions and sublimely disrespect any real pursuit of the subject. He fails to mention the crazy stuff him and other scientists dream up on a daily basis...imagination is more important than intelligence, as one of them said. Exploration of the possibilities is all it is, but many of the beliefs out there hinge on the details, not the generalities.

[mikeofaustin]

So, what he said was "There is no proof". That could be interpretted as 'no', but he didn't outright say it. Instead, he went on about other things. I feel that he lost an opportunity for a very knowledgeable approach to if there 'could' be life out there.

Consider the drake equation. A scientist came up with this. Also consider the age of the human, versus the age of the universe. We are only a spec on that time line. Given the idea that if we ever had the ability to traverse space, would we interfere or make ourselves known to other worlds? No, of course not. Now, do you think that, again, given that we only invented the transistor only 60 years ago, do you think the we are able to technologically 'find' these aliens in space, let alone our own solar system? With transistors? The answer is that we are very, very, very young in our science and have a lot to learn.

We, as humans, have this idea that we are all smart. But, we are actually very dumb compared to what we are able to learn given time. Consider if we were 2 million years more advance to what we are today. We, as humans, are tadpoles in a pond on a planet, compared to other species in other worlds. Heck, we use 'RF' energy to communicate. That could easily be see as a form of basic vocal grunts, or, the equivalence of 'scratching in the dirt' (as cows and horses do), given their intelligence.

Perhaps he didn't downright avoid the question, but, he could have expanded a little bit and used his 'ability' to wow us with the possibility of it existing.

[The Beep Goes On]

I would think that, statistically, there is absolutely no way for there not to be intelligent life out there.

[Kentucky Kache]

What does it matter if the guy says there is/could be life on other planets or not? Does it make it true or false, because he believes it? He's just a man, with a human brain, just like the rest of us.

[mikeofaustin]

What does it matter if the guy says there is/could be life on other planets or not? Does it make it true or false, because he believes it? He's just a man, with a human brain, just like the rest of us.

To some people, it matters because a lot of people look up to this guy.... and what ever he says is pretty much intriguing to most people that follow him.

However, you are correct, this man puts on his pants in the morning just like everyone else in this world. But, because he is in the spotlight.... we'll there you go.