[meteorite-list] Alien Contact Predicted

[Phil Whitmer]

Steve,
I'm old enough to have seen "To Serve Man" when it first came out.  One of 
my favorite episodes of the "Zone"! I always prefered it to the "Outer 
Limits".  Rod Serling was an early role model of what it meant to be "cool".

Unfortunately, we are the heirs to the Roman Empire and not the ancient 
Greeks. Not that the Romans didn't make lots of contributions, the Greeks 
just had a different approach to art, literature and science. I think it was 
the idealism that was lost,  the way the spirit of JFK in his determination 
to go to the moon has been lost today.

Speaking of going to the moon, if you read ancient Chinese literature, you 
will find several references about them going to the moon. In 2309 BC the 
Emperor Yao claims to have sent his chief engineer to the moon and back. 
There are several other accounts of moon and space travel. Many of them 
describe the moon's surface as glassy, or made of glass. The ancient Greek 
Empedocles also concluded that the moon was made of a glassy substance. The 
Apollo astronauts confirmed these observations that the moon is covered with 
a glass like soil.  Deductive reasoning or just coincidence?  I don't know.

About life out there, I've already indicated I don't accept the argument of 
scale. It doesn't matter to me if the size of the Universe turns out to be 
Infinity +1, it doesn't logically follow that therefore life arose from non 
living matter.  I believe abiogenesis only happened once. My evidence for 
this belief, however slim, is that life is impossible to produce in the 
laboratory, and Mars is devoid of life. It's not that I don't believe in 
improbable, highly unlikely things, I just need evidence.  I'll believe in 
the God Particle as soon as the Large Hadron Collider produces evidence of 
its existence. (The stupidest thing Americans have ever done: bulldoze and 
abandon our own particle accelerator! No, we don't want to be on the cutting 
edge of discovering the Ultimate Basis of reality. We do however have a 
trillion to spend on a war against Waziristanis who claim their penis is 
larger than ours!)

I never claimed that life does not exist elsewhere, I'm just saying I don't 
believe it without any supporting evidence. I'm not that arrogant, unlike 
others who claim with absolute certainy that little green men from advanced 
civilizations exist. For all I know, the little greens and the tall grays 
are rockin' out to Johnny B. Goode right now, courtesy of Carl Sagan and the 
Voyager Gold Record.

Phil Whitmer


Phil,

Right pure brain power in the 5th century B.C. Had the Greeks not fallen to 
the forces of that day, and progressed, I think Mankind would have gone to 
the moon a thousand years ago. Our species had to have a few hard knocks 
before we here in America did it.

Brain power though, look at Einstein? In his early 20's without any 
scientific equipment at his disposal he tied together the observations of 
those that did and came up with the theories of Relativity, and also 
electromagnetism.

Studying his life-- It just blows me away, and demonstrates the power of the 
human intellect.

But the subject at hand... I cannot accept that this Universe in all its 
vastness has only us here on earth as the only intelligent species. 
Considering what certain meteorites reveal regarding the universal 
proliferation of biologic prerequisite compounds, we being the only ones 
would be nothing less than miraculous. Then again, alien beings might very 
well be aware of us, and might just eradicate us as a universal nuisance.

Did not Steven Hawking give a warning about our desire to contact alien 
beings? He pointed out that our own history shows what happens when an 
advanced civilization meets one less advanced. In this regard, how many of 
you remember that old Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man"-- Could very well 
be the truth.

I f you have not seen "To Serve Man", it can be viewed on the Internet.

Steve Schoner
IMCA #4470