Are We Alone?

People like to talk definitively.  Wikipedia has empowered us.  We earthlings can speak on practically any subject and even spew valid facts after just a spot of research.  Library?  Pshaw!  Where am I going with this you ask?  If you read the title, you may have guessed that I’m going to tell you that aliens exist.   Your guess would be semi-accurate.  I’m going to tell you that aliens could exist, and we couldn’t know for certain if they didn’t. 

Image courtesy of Victor Habbick at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When we look up into the night sky, we are only seeing 0.000003% of our own galaxy.  Our galaxy (the Milky Way for those of you just joining us) is one of an estimated 500 billion galaxies in the universe.  Add to that the human eye sees less than 1% of the visible spectrum of light.  Visible light is only 2.3% of the whole electromagnetic spectrum, or 0.0035% on a linear scale.  That’s fancy science talk for ‘humans can’t see very much of what can be seen’.  See?

The technologies we’ve discovered and developed to help us see what's invisible to the naked eye are relatively new in the grand scheme of it all.  The median age of terrestrial planets in our galaxy is about one billion years older than the age of the Earth.  Earthlings are infantile compared to what’s out there.  How could we recognize aliens if we don’t understand their technology?  You don't expect me to get the jokes in a foreign film without subtitles do you?

Image courtesy of Comfreak at Pixabay.com

Thirdly, how do we know aliens want to be seen?  Perhaps Kathleen Madigan was accurate when she joked about Earth being 'the Alabama of the universe'.  Maybe they don’t want to be contacted by us. I mean, look at us!  If aliens are more advanced, wouldn’t it be pretty easy for them to ‘hide’ from us?  We on earth hide all the time.  We have camouflage, stealth technology, cloaking devices, whatever Predator does in those movies...

Finally, Dr. Frank Drake, the founder of SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence), says that digital technology is ‘hiding’ us from aliens.  We were once surrounded by a huge shell of radiation from analog TV, radio, and radar transmissions.  These signals are vanishing in the wake of digital technology.  We are turning ourselves into white noise in space.  If we ever did knock on an alien’s door, we are now hiding behind the bushes in their front yard.  We are silly stupid juveniles who don't even know what 90% of the universe is made up of. We just named it 'Dark Matter' and moved on.  So, are we alone?  I'm asking...

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2007-08/1188407794.Ph.r.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2523058/Camouflage-suits-make-wearers-impossible-see.html

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/02/invisible-extraterrestrials-one-of-worlds-leading-physicist-says-they-could-exist-in-forms-we-cant-c.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/7077464/Earth-becoming-invisible-to-aliens.html

What Don't You Know?

Image from page 317 of "The brain as an organ of mind" (1896) Identifier: brainasorganofmi00bast
 Title: The brain as an organ of mind Year: 1896 (1890s) Authors: Bastian, H. Charlton

Knowing something means nothing.  Sharing something means everything.  It takes two people to truly know something. This is because one person obtaining new knowledge changes nothing.  The magic happens when the carrier of the new knowledge or idea passes it on to another person.  

Every week I strive to post a new blog entry.  I do this in the hopes that one person laughs or two people learn.  Two heads are better than one, unless of course they share a body. Seriously though, how futile would a secret single person mission to Mars be?  How evil to cure yourself alone of an incurable disease?  Would we love Ben's ice cream if there was no Jerry?  

The one exception to this rule of course would be invisibility.  If one person discovered how to make themselves invisible, they could singularly affect the world.  However, if the discovery died with them, the impact would be significantly reduced. So you see, sharing is caring.

Image Courtesy of FreeMediaGoo.com

Invisibility aside, science, medicine, arts, and the humanities all require a second mind to be validated or even fully experienced.  If someone reinvents the wheel, they'd better share it with the rest of us or it means nothing.  We need each other - as a species.  That's my latest discovery.  Pass it on.